Question

We are about to flip the switch and upgrade from SQL Anyhwere 5.5 to 11. Our clients connect through ODBC to the database server, so I need to roll out SQL Anywhere ODBC client drivers so I can set up system DSNs in ODBC. My problem is that I can't find the client anywhere.

I can install the complete software on a machine, and I have actually done that for testing, but I don't want to roll out DB management tools to every user in our organization.

Where can I download "just the client" for SQL Anywhere 11?

Answer 1

In your development machine, run the Deployment Wizard (Start > Programs > SQL Anywhere 11 > Deploy SQL Anywhere for Windows). That will launch the wizard where you can select only to deploy the ODBC interface (uncheck everything else). When the wizard ends, you'll get an MSI file that you can use to install the client.

José

Answer 2

The dbclient.exe executable ceased to exist in Version 6, replaced with a "compatibility utility" dbcli6.exe which, in turn, ceased to exist in Version 7, not replaced.

Soooo, that answers your first question, "where is it?" Other folks have answered your next question, "what do I do now?".

Sadly, with Version 10, someone made the incorrect (IMO) decision to remove the following section from the Help. If you think any of this material might help you, I can post it; note that it was written for the leap from 5.5 to 9, and there are other sections in the V11 Help that talk about upgrading (everything changed in V10).

===== From the V9 Help...

What's New in SQL Anywhere Studio 

   Upgrading Version 5 Applications

About this chapter

The client/server communication protocol changed between SQL Anywhere version 5 and Adaptive Server Anywhere Version 9. This chapter provides upgrade instructions for those users upgrading from Version 5 to a newer release of the software.

This chapter describes upgrade procedures that apply to the change in communication protocol for users of SQL Anywhere Versions 5.0 and 5.5, and users of Watcom SQL 4.0. In particular, it addresses the problem of stepwise upgrades of client/server installations.

• Understanding version 5 upgrades
• Review of SQL Anywhere Version 5 architecture
• Upgrading embedded SQL applications
• Upgrading ODBC applications
• Using the compatibility library
• Capturing dbclient command information
• Upgrading databases
• Upgrading version 5 SQL Remote installations

Answer 3

You can also grab 4 DLLs from one of your installations: (C:\Program Files\SQL Anywhere 11\win32)

1. dbodbc11.dll
2. dblib11.dll
3. dbcon11.dll
4. dblgen11.dll

Then on each client machine, register (regsvr32) dbodbc11.dll

I do it this way because I package this into our own application's install packages.

Works well for us...

Answer 4

In addition to what others have said, I am very glad that the dbclient.exe ceased after V 5.5. We have a legacy system (3rd party software) still running on V 5.5.05, and when connecting to the server from a client machine, dbclient.exe is often enough shutting down the connection when it isn't supposed to do so.

So, for me, the decision to put the client communication stuff in the DB interface DLLs in V 6 and above (and to support ODBC as an native interface) is undoubtly a really good one:)

When running on 32-bit Windows, I second José's recommendation to use the Deployment Wizard. Besides the ease to extract only the necessary client files (which will result in a small MSI file of only a few MB), it's really easy to redo the setup in case you want to switch to a newer build – so keeping several clients on a current build level is not much afford.