How To Install and Configure the ODBC Client (version 22)

The Canary ODBC Client is used for generating reports using SQL queries and populating data from the Canary Historian into SQL databases. It is a server/client based architecture in which the ODBC server component must be installed/licensed on the historian machine and the ODBC client installed on the SQL server wishing to query the Canary database.

Licensing is server based and can be managed through the Canary Admin>License Tile.

This article will take you through the basic steps of installing and licensing the ODBC client. If the server component is already installed and licensed, skip to Installing the ODBC Client.

Installing the ODBC Server

Using the CanaryInstaller, select 'ODBC' as a feature to install along with the Historian and any other services that are needed on the historian server.

Licensing the ODBC Server

1. Open the Canary Admin and select the License tile.
2. If the server has internet access, fill out the necessary information underneath 'ADD LICENSE THROUGH INTERNET'. Otherwise, you may license your product by visiting https://canarylabs.com/support/license.                                                                                                                                      
3. Check 'ODBC Connector' and click 'GET LICENSE'.

Installing the ODBC Client

The ODBC client will need to be installed on the SQL server wishing to query the historian. (The client can also be installed on client machines wishing to pull data into 3rd party applications, such as Power BI or Excel.) The client installs as a System DSN (Data Source Name).

1. Run the CanaryInstaller and select the 'ODBC Client' to install.
2. Open the ODBC Data Source Administrator (32 or 64-bit, depending on the application using the Canary ODBC client) and select the 'System DSN' tab. Click the 'Configure...' button.
   
3. Set the 'Server IP' to the IP address of the Canary Historian server or use the server name.
    
4. Click 'Test Connection' to verify the client can connect to the server.
5. Click 'OK'.

By default, the ODBC client makes an anonymous connection to the Views service. If security is enabled within Views a username and password will be needed to read data from the historian. The following steps are only required if needing to make a secure connection to the Views service.

1. Provide a user account which has permissions configured within the Views service (Views Security).
   
2. In order to secure the connection and ensure the traffic is encrypted, click the 'Options...' button and select 'Require SSL'.
    
3. On the Historian Server, the following registry settings are needed along with the corresponding certificate.