MySQL Connector/ODBC Developer Guide

5.4 Configuring a Connector/ODBC DSN on macOS

To configure a DSN on macOS, you can either use the command-line utility (myodbc-installer), edit the odbc.ini file within the Library/ODBC directory of the user, or use the ODBC Administrator GUI.

Note

The ODBC Administrator is included in OS X v10.5 and earlier; users of later versions of OS X and macOS need to download and install it manually.

To create a DSN using the myodbc-installer utility, you only need to specify the DSN type and the DSN connection string. For example: 

$> myodbc-installer -a -s -t"DSN=mydb;DRIVER=MySQL ODBC 8.4 Driver;SERVER=mysql;USER=username;PASSWORD=pass"

To use ODBC Administrator:

Warning

  • For correct operation of ODBC Administrator, ensure that the /Library/ODBC/odbc.ini file used to set up ODBC connectivity and DSNs are writable by the admin group. If this file is not writable by this group, then the ODBC Administrator may fail, or may appear to work but not generate the correct entry.

  • There are known issues with the macOS ODBC Administrator and Connector/ODBC that may prevent you from creating a DSN using this method. In that case, use the command line or edit the odbc.ini file directly. Existing DSNs or those that you created using the myodbc-installer tool can still be checked and edited using ODBC Administrator.

  1. Open the ODBC Administrator from the Utilities folder in the Applications folder.

    Figure 5.6 ODBC Administrator Dialog

    Shows an empty ODBC Administrator dialog with the "System DSN" tab open. This tab includes "Add", "Remove", and "Configure" options. Additional tabs are "User DSN", "Drivers", "Tracing", "Connection Pooling", and "About".

  2. From the ODBC Administrator dialog, choose either the User DSN or System DSN tab and click Add.

  3. Select the Connector/ODBC driver and click OK.

  4. You will be presented with the Data Source Name (DSN) dialog. Enter the Data Source Name and an optional Description for the DSN.

    Figure 5.7 ODBC Administrator Data Source Name Dialog

    Content is described in the surrounding text.


  5. Click Add to add a new keyword/value pair to the panel. Configure at least four pairs to specify the server, username, password and database connection parameters. See Section 5.2, “Connector/ODBC Connection Parameters”.

  6. Click OK to add the DSN to the list of configured data source names.

A completed DSN configuration may look like this:

Figure 5.8 ODBC Administrator Sample DSN Dialog

Shows an example Data Source Name dialog with "Data Source Name" set to WorldSample and "Description" set to "Connection to sample World database." Also shown are the following key=value pairs: server=mysql, user=sakila, password=Sample, and database=test_world.

You can configure other ODBC options in your DSN by adding further keyword/value pairs and setting the corresponding values. See Section 5.2, “Connector/ODBC Connection Parameters”.

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