ODBC on Windows -- Where to specify Catalog name?

[John_Rotenstein]

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?

[daniel_sahal]

@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>

[John_Rotenstein]

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?

[Stefania003]

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.

[Krishnamatta]

Hi John,

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

[milieere]

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.

[ChrisFarmer]

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

[PiotrU]

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