Advanced Features

The driver supports the following advanced features:

■

Failover

■

Security

■	Connection Pooling

■	DataDirect Bulk Load

Failover

The driver supports failover and its related connection options. Failover connection options are located on the Failover tab of the driver Setup dialog box. See “Using Failover” for a general description of failover and its implementation.

Security

The driver supports authentication and encryption. Security connection options are located on the Security tab of the driver Setup dialog box. See “Using Security” for a general description of security and its implementation. The following security information is specific to the Sybase Wire Protocol Driver.

Authentication

If you are using Kerberos, verify that your environment meets the requirements listed in Table 12-3 before you configure the driver for Kerberos authentication.

Table 12-3. Kerberos Authentication Requirements for the Sybase Wire Protocol Driver 

Component	Requirements
Database server	The database server must be administered by the same domain controller that administers the client and must be running Sybase 12.0 or higher. In addition, the Sybase Security and directory services package, ASE_SECDIR, is required.
Kerberos server	The Kerberos server is the machine where the user IDs for authentication are administered. The Kerberos server is also the location of the Kerberos KDC. Network authentication must be provided by one of the following methods: ■ Windows Active Directory on one of the following operating systems: Windows Server 2003 or Windows 2000 Server Service Pack 3 or higher ■ MIT Kerberos 1.4.2 or higher
Client	The client must be administered by the same domain controller that administers the database server.

Connection Pooling

The driver supports connection pooling and its related connection options. Connection pooling connection options are located on the Pooling tab of the driver Setup dialog box. See “Using DataDirect Connection Pooling” for a general description of connection pooling and its implementation.

DataDirect Bulk Load

The driver supports DataDirect bulk load and its related connection options. Bulk load connection options are located on the Bulk tab of the driver Setup dialog box. See “Using DataDirect Bulk Load” for a general description of DataDirect bulk load and its implementation.

For Sybase, some additional database configuration is required when the destination table for a bulk load operation does not have an index defined. If you are using a destination table that does not have an index defined, you can ask the database operator to execute the following commands:

use master

sp_dboption test, "select into/bulkcopy/pllsort", true

This option is required to perform operations that do not keep a complete record of the transaction in the log. For more information, refer to the Sybase documentation.

Alternatively, you can define an index on the destination table.

Failure to properly configure the database results in errors such as the following:

"You cannot run the non-logged version of bulk copy in this database. Please check with the DBO."

Bulk Copy Operations and Transactions

Sybase does not support a bulk insert within a transaction, and returns an error if a bulk copy operation is attempted in the scope of an existing transaction.

The Sybase server treats each batch of the bulk copy operation as a single transaction. If any rows in the batch are rejected, the entire transaction is rolled back.

Performance Considerations

Sybase defines two bulk copy modes, described in Table 12-4. Sybase automatically selects the appropriate mode at run time. For more information, refer to your Sybase documentation.

 

Table 12-4. Summary of Fast and Slow Bulk Copy Mode Characteristics 

Characteristic	Fast Bulk Copy Mode	Slow Bulk Copy Mode
Destination Table Characteristics	No indexes or triggers on destination table	One or more indexes or triggers
Database Configuration Required	The into/bulkcopy/pllsort dboption must be set to true.	None
Logging Performed	Page allocations are logged, but row inserts are not	Row inserts are logged
Transaction Log Handling	You must dump the database before backing up (dumping) the transaction log.	The transaction log can become very large. After the bulk copy completes, back up your database with dump database, then truncate the log with dump transaction.