TestStand ODBC Oracle (Question/Request/Wishful Thought)

[icastillejos]

My team manages a use base of a couple hundred stations and we are starting to plan our move to Windows 7, this means we have to create an automated installer for our LV/TS production and development system which has become less of a challenge because of the software packaging changes introduced in LV2009 (thanks NI!).

Anyway, part of our installing process will need to address installing ODBC drivers for our Oracle 10g DB. For those of you familiar with this installer you know that this is not necessarily the most friendly interface and I was wondering if anyone has dealt with this before (yes I'm posting this question in the Oracle Forums too!).

My question/request/thought is that it'd be great if TestStand had the ability to use other type of DB drivers not only ODBC, don't have a clear idea how that would be possible without rebuilding the whole DB Options architecture (for example we also develop .NET applications that use the Oracle Data Provider for .NET and there is no need for this install, we just package everything wee need in ClickOnce app and we are good to go). That would make a better world for future generations of TestStand Non-MS based DB users

Thanks!

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[John_M.]

Hi -

I don't have much experience installing the Oracle ODBC drivers... perhaps someone else can comment more on that.

As far as your suggestion, please take a look at the NI TestStand Idea Exchange and consider submitting it there. The Idea Exchange for all of our products is a great resource for sharing ideas and is regularly reviewed by R&D as they consider and choose features to go into future versions.

Best Regards,

John M

[icastillejos]

Hi John,

I was mistaken, we actually need the Oracle OLE DB provider, not the ODBC data provider. TestStand uses OLE DB connection strings to connect and log data to DBs..NET data providers are part of a newer generation used by, well, .NET applications that TestStand could connect to in the future (This is the request part, TS is a MFC app)

I found that Oracle finally made changes to way it had been creating client installers and now they can actually be installed in batch operations. I got the Oracle Data Access Components (ODAC) 11.2.0.1.2 and installed only the OLE DB part that I need and it ran beautifully. Now I can just put it in a network share and run it from there, there are a couple of gotchas that need to be worked on but they are all documented and 'batchable'.

Hope this info helps others in the Oracle + TS realm!

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