Setting Up a Default DSN in TimesTen

You can add an optional default data source definition in TimesTen.

At connect time, if an application specifies a DSN that is not in the odbc.ini file or if the application does not specify a DSN, the default DSN is used to configure the connection to the TimesTen database.

The default data source must be named default when defined. The default DSN can be defined with the same attributes as any other data source, which are described in DSN Specification.

When connecting, TimesTen uses the default DSN in any of the following scenarios:

  • When you specify the DSN=default keyword-value pair in the connection string.

  • When you specify an undefined value for the DSN connection attribute in the connection string.

  • When you do not specify any value for the DSN connection attribute in the connection string.

However, in general, it is best to connect with a specific data source.

When using a default DSN, provide default as the DSN name when performing TimesTen utility operations that require a DSN name, such as destroying the database with the ttDestroy utility.

The following example shows the user invoking ttIsql to connect using an undefined DSN. Since there is no definition for doesNotExist in the odbc.ini file, TimesTen uses the default DSN to create the database and initiate a connection to it. It also demonstrates the user invoking both the ttStatus and ttDestroy utilities with default specified as the DSN. In addition, it shows the error thrown if the user provides doesNotExist as the DSN, instead of default. 

% ttIsql doesNotExist;
 
Copyright (c) 1996, 2026 Oracle.  All rights reserved.
Type ? or "help" for help, type "exit" to quit ttIsql.
 
connect "DSN=doesNotExist";
Connection successful:
Command> exit
Disconnecting...
Done.
% ttStatus default
TimesTen status report as of Mon Oct 22 12:27:52 2021
 
Daemon pid 13623 port 16138 instance myhost
TimesTen Server pid 13632 started on port 16140
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Data store /timesten/install/sample_db/default
There are no connections to the data store
Replication policy  : Manual
Cache Agent policy  : Manual
PL/SQL enabled.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Accessible by group xyz
End of report
% ttDestroy doesNotExist;
Failed to destroy data store: Specified DSN is not found in user and system
odbc.ini files (or registry)
% ttDestroy default;

The following example shows how to configure connection attributes for a default DSN. While not necessary, you can configure connection attributes for a default DSN as you would configure any other DSN. Notice that it is not specified in the ODBC Data Sources section. Note that /disk1/timesten is the timesten_home. 

[ODBC Data Sources]
database1=TimesTen 26.1 Driver
 
[default]
Driver=/disk1/timesten/lib/libtten.so
DataStore=/disk1/timesten/sample_db/DemoDataStore/default
PermSize=128
TempSize=64
DatabaseCharacterSet=AL32UTF8
CacheAdminWallet=1

[database1]
Driver=/disk1/timesten/lib/libtten.so
DataStore=/disk1/timesten/sample_db/DemoDataStore/database1
PermSize=128
TempSize=64
DatabaseCharacterSet=AL32UTF8
CacheAdminWallet=1