Use Visual KPI Server Manager to install and configure the ODBC interface. The ODBC Interface can be installed on Visual KPI Server or on any machine that is available to the Visual KPI Server via HTTP. If the interface is being installed on a machine other than Visual KPI Server, you need to first install Visual KPI Server Manager. See Prerequisites and Software Downloads.
Install an ODBC Interface
During the ODBC interface install, use the Back button to move to a previous page in the installation wizard, or use the Cancel button to cancel the installation process.
- Open Visual KPI Server Manager.
- Expand the Sites folder. If you have multiple Visual KPI sites defined on your system, they are displayed here. Expand the site in which you want to install the interface.
- Continue expanding the site’s hierarchy until Interfaces is selected.
- Right-click Interfaces and select Install New Visual KPI Interface/ODBC Interface. The Interface Setup Wizard opens.
- Click Next to continue. The License Agreement page displays.
- Select the I accept the terms of the license agreement option and click Next to continue. The ODBC Interface Name page displays.
- Accept the Visual KPI ODBC Interface Name, or change it to meet your requirements. The Visual KPI ODBC Interface Name is used to set the defaults for the Installation Path and Virtual Directory Name during this installation.
- Click Next to continue. The Installation Path page displays.
- Accept the default installation path, or change it to meet your requirements.
- Click Next to continue. The Connection String page displays.
- Update the Connect String to meet your requirements. You can use the drop-down list to select sample connect strings, which you can then modify. For example connect strings, see Using Connect Strings with the Interfaces. You can opt to verify the connection before proceeding.
- Click Next to continue. The Ready to Install page displays.
- Click Next to install the interface. The Finish page displays.
- Click Finish to close the Setup Wizard. The newly installed interface displays in the Interfaces folder.
The installation of the ODBC interface is now complete.
Configure ODBC Interface
If you need to change the configuration settings for your ODBC Interface after it has already been installed, use Visual KPI Server Manager.
- Expand the Sites folder. Expand the site that includes the interface to be configured.
- Under the Interfaces folder, select the ODBC interface to be configured. The detail pane displays the interface’s current configuration.
- Mouse over a setting to display a tooltip with the current configuration for that setting, if the value is not already displayed in its entirety.
Modify Settings
You can modify any of the configuration settings that are not grayed out. To learn more about the fields used in these queries, see Working with the ODBC Interface.
- To make changes to Get Current Data Query, Get Trend Data Query or Get Historical Value Query, click in the cell and enter the new query, or click the down arrow to open a larger text entry field. Press the Enter key to start a new line. Press Ctrl + Enter to close the field and accept the text you have entered.
- To make changes to Log Name and Connect String, double-click the setting name to select the setting’s value, or click in the setting’s cell, and enter the new value. For example connect strings, see Use Connect Strings with the Interfaces.
- To make changes to the Log Level, select an appropriate level from the list. You can select Errors Only, Moderate or Full. See Configure the Error Logging Level.
- To adjust for the database being a different time zone than the Web server, make changes to the Database Time Zone.
- To adjust for data using commas instead of decimals, make changes to the Database Locale.
- To make changes to the date time format that reflects your data, change the Date Time Format. 24-hour clock format is shown as uppercase YYYY-MM-DD; 12-hour format is in lowercase yyyy-mm-dd. Trend queries that do not display data often have a mismatched Date Time format when compared to the data format.
- After making any changes, click Apply to save the configurations.
Verify ODBC Interface Connection
Once you have installed and configured the ODBC interface, you should verify the interface is able to connect to the database. Use Visual KPI Server Manager to verify the connection.
- Right-click the ODBC interface and select Verify Connection. A message displays indicating the connection was successful, or if the connection failed, a message displays indicating the failure:
- Click OK in the message.
- If there were any errors, make the required changes to the Connect String and/or Queries and repeat the verification. See Use Connect Strings with the Interfaces.
Note: Verifying the connection does not ensure proper security has been implemented. To ensure you can access the data within the database, you should test the ODBC connection.
Test ODBC Interface Connection
You can test the ODBC interface connection to ensure you can access the data within the database. Use Visual KPI Server Manager to test the connection.
- Right-click the ODBC interface and select Browse. Your browser opens and displays the ODBC Interface’s Web Service page.
- Click any of the Test links.
- In the LookupValue field, enter a valid lookup name and click the Invoke button. A new instance of your browser opens.
- Look for the “<NewDataSet xmlns=””>” entry. The results of the test are within this entry. If the connection and security settings are valid, a value is returned. Otherwise, an error is displayed as the value.
- If there are any errors, make the required changes to the Connect String and/or Queries and repeat the test.
Learn more