RODBC odbcDriverConnect() Connection Error

Question

I'm trying to use

odbcDriverConnect('driver={SQL Server};server=servername\instancename,port;database=testing;username=abc;password=123456') 

to connect remote database server (sql server 2008). But I got

[RODBC] ERROR: state 08001, code 17, message [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][DBNETLIB]SQL Server does not exist or access denied.

error. Any idea?

I can use

odbcDriverConnect('driver={SQL Server};server=localhost;database=testing;trusted_connection=true') 

to connect my local database server (sql server 2008).

Answer 1

The correct syntax should be:

odbcDriverConnect('driver={SQL Server};server=servername\\instancename,port;database=testing;uid=abc;pwd=123456')

If you use Windows Authentication method:

odbcDriverConnect('driver={SQL Server};server=servername\\\\instancename,port;database=testing;trusted_connection=true')

Slash seems like an escape character, escaping slash works.

Answer 2

For the Microsoft ODBC Driver 11 for SQL Server on Linux with RODBC version 1.3-7 in R version 3.0.1 none of the above answers worked. What did work however was the following:

dbconnection <- odbcDriverConnect("Driver=ODBC Driver 11 for SQL Server;
                Server=127.0.0.1; Database=MyDBName; 
                Uid=MyName; Pwd=XXXX")

(put in the relevant IP address, database name etc.).

In case of a trusted connection:

dbconnection <- odbcDriverConnect("Driver=ODBC Driver 11 for SQL Server;
                Server=127.0.0.1; Database=MyDBName; 
                Uid=MyName; Pwd=XXXX; trusted_connection=yes")

trusted_connection will only listen to "yes" or "no" and not to "true" and "false"