ODBC access to Microsoft Access Databases from UNIX and Linux
We provide ODBC access to Microsoft Access databases (MDB or ACCDB) from non-Windows platforms with:
- The Easysoft Access ODBC driver, a file-based ODBC driver that communicates directly with the Access database file. The database file must be visible through the local file system on the machine where you install the driver.
- The Easysoft ODBC-ODBC Bridge, a client/server product that uses the Microsoft Access ODBC driver to communicate with the Access database file.
| Advantages of using the Access ODBC driver |
Advantages of using the ODBC-ODBC Bridge |
- The Access ODBC driver costs less than the ODBC-ODBC Bridge.
- You don't need to install a service on the Windows machine where your Microsoft Access database file is located.
- If the Microsoft Access database file is located on the Access ODBC driver machine, performance will be superior to the ODBC-ODBC Bridge. Accessing a database file locally is faster than accessing a database file over the network.
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- You are using the Microsoft Access ODBC driver to access the database file. Using the database vendor's driver to communicate with the database file may be required to comply with IT company policy at your site.
- You don't need to move the Microsoft Access database file or share the folder it resides in.
- You don't need to install any other software (for example, a Samba server or client) on your UNIX or Linux machine to facilitate shared access to the database file.
- You can access an Microsoft Access database file through a firewall without opening the SMB protocol up in the firewall. With the ODBC-ODBC Bridge, you only need to open up one port (8888, by default, although this can be changed) to one machine.
- The ODBC-ODBC Bridge can bind Unicode data in SQL parameters and retrieve Unicode data.
- The ODBC-ODBC Bridge is available on more platforms than our Access ODBC driver.
- The ODBC-ODBC Bridge can connect to any database for which an ODBC driver is available, you're not restricted to Microsoft Access.
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If I choose your Access ODBC driver, how can my Windows and non-Windows users connect to the same database file?
You can use a Samba server to expose a Microsoft Access database file on the Access ODBC driver machine to Windows users. On Linux, you can also mount a Windows share in which a Microsoft Access database file is located by using the Samba client tool smbmount. For read-write access to the database file, the version of smbmount on your Linux machine needs to support the directio configuration option, which turns off local file caching.
