How to configure DataDirect SequelLink driver in Information Server ODBC stage on Unix to connect to Microsoft Excel.

Answer

Here are the steps to configure the third party odbc driver - Data Direct SequeLink:

1. Contact DataDirect and purchase SequeLink ODBC driver for Excel and SequeLink server for Windows.
2. Install Excel drivers and add the lib path to Library path in the dsenv. Also set the SQLNK_ODBC_HOME to same library path.
3. Create the Excel DSN in the odbc.ini. Here is an example:
   [Excel] Driver=/IBM/ODBCForExcel/ExcelDrivers/6_00_00/lib64/ivslk22.so
   Full path Description=DataDirect SequeLink 6.0
   Host=999.99.99.99 -- Modify to reflect IP address of SequeLink ODBC Socket Server on Windows
   Port=19997 -- Port number where SLSocket60 service is running on ServerDataSource=Default
   UseLDAP=0
   DistinguishedName=
   Encrypted=0
   LoadBalancing=0
   AlternateServers=
   ConnectionRetryCount=0
   ConnectionRetryDelay=3
   
   To support international code pages like UTF8 you can set the
   IANAAppCodePage=106 (this is for UTF-8)
   
   [ODBC]
   IANAAppCodePage=106 -- 106 is for UTF-8 encoding.
   InstallDir=/IBM/Infoserver/Server/branded_odbc
   Trace=0
   TraceDll=/IBM/Infoserver/Server/branded_odbc/lib/odbctrac.so
   TraceFile=/tmp/odbctrace.out
   UseCursorLib=0
   
4. Next, you need to install SequeLink Server on Windows - sl600socket.zip and select SequeLink 6.0 ODBC Socket servive (enhanced code page support) (for International code page support).
5. Once installed, you need to register the service and add Data Source Setting attribute DataSourceSOCODBCConnStr and set to the DSN=Excel (defined on Windows).
6. Start service.