Target Servers and the Physical Model › Generic Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)

Generic Open Database Connectivity (ODBC)

You can use generic open database connectivity (ODBC) for your target server. If your database runs on a target server that supports a generic ODBC driver, you can select ODBC/Generic as your target server. When you use generic ODBC to connect to a database, CA ERwin Data Modeler queries the database to determine the physical properties it supports such as standard datatypes, user-defined datatypes, and physical storage objects.

When you choose ODBC/Generic as your target server, you are prompted to connect to the database. Points to remember when using ODBC/Generic target server:

• If you connect to the database, CA ERwin Data Modeler queries the database to determine the datatypes and physical properties it supports and displays them in the appropriate dialogs. By using generic ODBC to connect to your database, you can replace any generic datatypes with the datatypes supported by your database. Therefore, you may avoid related schema generation errors for invalid datatypes when you forward engineer your data model.
• If you do not connect to the database, the CA ERwin Data Modeler dialogs include generic lists of datatypes and physical properties that you can assign to your data model objects. If you use the generic properties instead of those supported by your database, you may receive schema generation errors for invalid datatypes when you forward engineer your data model.

The generic ODBC driver that you use may have limitations that determine the type of information that can be queried from the database. For example, if your ODBC driver cannot query a particular datatype, even when the datatype is supported by the database, the CA ERwin Data Modeler dialogs may include only the physical properties the ODBC supports, not those physical properties the database supports. Similarly, when you reverse engineer a database using generic ODBC, you may be able to import only the objects from the database that the ODBC supports.

More information:

Select Generic ODBC