BDC Connection problem with IBM ISeries OLE DB Provider

Question

Hi everybody,

since 2 weeks I'm trying to use data from our legacy IBM ISeries server via BDC in Sharepoint and I already came quite far ... but now I'm facing the following problem.

After I sucessfully created my application definition file and imported to the Shared Services Provider I use a business data list webpart to display and when it's trying to connect I receive "Unable to connect to {MyInstance}".

In the log-file I find:

08/22/2009 23:06:40.66  w3wp.exe (0x0990), 0x04BC SharePoint Portal Server, Business Data, 0,

Critical Could not open connection using 'provider=IBMDA400.DataSource.1;data source=A2241AS2;password=****;user id=einfalts;initial catalog=A2241AS2;default collection=AASDTESP;integrated security=False;persist security info=false' in App Domain '/LM/W3SVC/1753196830/Root-1-128954486970287400'. The full exception text is: Fehler bei einem aus mehreren Schritten bestehenden OLE DB-Vorgang.  Prüfen Sie die einzelnen OLE DB-Statuswerte, falls vorhanden. Daten wurden nicht verarbeitet . (In English: Multiple-step OLE DB operation generated errors. Check each OLE DB status value, if available. No work was done.   ) 

So basically that is not too surprising because of the fact that the OLE DB Provider that I'm using DOESN'T support the parameters "Integrated Security" and "Persist Security Info" and I also do not have to use them when I'm creating my app-def-file with the MOSS BDC Design Studio.

So I googled the problem and found that this problem can relate to a missing registry key for the data provider. Here's microsofts suggestion:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/269495/EN-US/

I inserted the OLEDB_SERVICES registry keys .... but UNFORTUNATLY THIS DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING ...

I cannot find any other hints ... can someone help ?

Thanks, Stefan.

Answer 1

OK. I finally DID IT :-) ... not with the OLE DB driver but with the ISeries Access Driver for ODBC. In the meanwhile I also created a SQL-linked server. That way it was working as well ... but now I don't have to worry about the continuous actualization of the linked server and also this would mean redundant data storage ...

So thanks for reading ...

Regards, Stefan.

Answer 2

Hi Stefan,

Out of curiosity, why do you say that setting up the linked server means redundant data storage? I think maybe you're under the impression that setting up a linked server will copy data from the original data source (AS/400) to SQL Server but that isn't the case. The data remains in the original data source and isn't copied over. The queries and resultset are merely passed through: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188279.aspx.

Answer 3

Hi Stefan,

Did you use any tools to create the ADF, or are you already experienced with the code?  Also, are you finding the linked services useful, or is the native BDC connection adequate for what you are doing?

We are struggling to connect SharePoint to iSeries, probably more because of inexperience than any technical issues.  We have used Lightning Tools BDC MetaMan (free version) to create an ADF, but have struggled with the security/authentication portion of this...it seems we can make a connection, but it is not maintained.  From the SharePoint server, are you using the Client Access driver with credentials specified, or how do you handle this?

Any feedback would be great.  You have accomplished some things that we are striving for...

Thanks!

Troy Bruning