topic Re: ODBC on Windows -- Where to specify Catalog name? in Data Engineering

ODBC on Windows -- Where to specify Catalog name?

John_Rotenstein — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 03:47:35 GMT

We are attempting to connect a Windows ODBC application to Unity Catalog.

The Configure the Databricks ODBC and JDBC drivers documentation has a section titled "ODBC configuration and connection parameters" that mentions a configuration parameter called Catalog that sets the Default Catalog.

However, we cannot figure out where to put this parameter in the Windows ODBC Data Sources interface.

Has anyone managed to configure a Windows DSN to point to a specific Databricks catalog?

Re: ODBC on Windows -- Where to specify Catalog name?

daniel_sahal — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 05:26:32 GMT

@John_Rotenstein You just need to build a connection string

Driver=<path-to-driver>;Host=<server-hostname>;Port=443;HTTPPath=<http-path>;ThriftTransport=2;SSL=1;AuthMech=3;UID=token;PWD=<personal-access-token>;Schema=<schema>;Catalog=<catalog>

Re: ODBC on Windows -- Where to specify Catalog name?

John_Rotenstein — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 06:04:51 GMT

Ah! So are you saying that I would need to configure the application with a Connection String instead of using the ODBC Data Source Administrator DSN UI?

Or can I put that Connection String somewhere in the DNS configuration?

Re: ODBC on Windows -- Where to specify Catalog name?

Krishnamatta — Mon, 23 Oct 2023 14:24:35 GMT

Hi John,

Catalog is optional, you don't need to provide in the DSN UI.

Re: ODBC on Windows -- Where to specify Catalog name?

milieere — Tue, 28 Nov 2023 17:15:57 GMT

But how is this possible to set directly in Windows? I need to set both catalog and schema else the default query to get tables is nonsense.

Thanks for any input.

BTW. I hate windows, doing this on Linux is soo much easier.

Re: ODBC on Windows -- Where to specify Catalog name?

ChrisFarmer — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 16:37:42 GMT

I got this working by adding an entry for catalog in this location in the registry

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\ODBC\ODBC.INI\Simba Spark

Re: ODBC on Windows -- Where to specify Catalog name?

Stefania003 — Sun, 01 Sep 2024 01:53:50 GMT

I think in ms access one can only connect using simba ui. Which is successful but I can only see.the hive meta_store. How can I get ms access to point to a different catalog? With the same dsn in excel i can see all the catslogs. Please help? Thanks so much.

Re: ODBC on Windows -- Where to specify Catalog name?

PiotrU — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 12:29:29 GMT

It's quite interesting - I am using Mac, Simba spark ODBC 2.8.2 - and, If I will not add "Catalog" parameter - in UI, I will only see default one (If I will have access to it) - that doesn't mean I cannot query other one, It's just not listed in the UI, If I will add Catalog - I will only see default in UI listing - but anyway I can query anything to what I have access

Re: ODBC on Windows -- Where to specify Catalog name?

MarkLandry — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 14:02:41 GMT

Open the ODBC DSN Setup, go to Advanced Options, and define databricks.catalog=<your_catalog_name> under Server Side Properties.