[R-SIG-Mac] Query MS SQL Server DB using RODBC from OS X

[David Marra]

Marc,

I just downloaded the actual ODBC driver and will contact the  
Parallels people.
Thanks for the good advice.

David

On Jun 4, 2009, at 10:24 PM, Marc Schwartz wrote:

> On Jun 4, 2009, at 7:40 AM, David Marra wrote:
>
>> Everyone,
>>
>> I would like to access from R running in OS X 10.5 a Microsoft SQL  
>> database that is running in Windows on a Parallels virtual machine.
>>
>> The Parallels VM and the OS X are on the same Mac. A DSN is set up  
>> on Windows. Running queries on the VM itself with the Windows  
>> version of R using the RODBC package commands odbcConnect and  
>> sqlQuery works just fine.
>>
>> Does anyone know how this can be done? How to make R in OS X aware  
>> of the Windows DSN? What ODBC driver works for OS X to get access  
>> to the Windows VM?
>>
>> Appreciate the help.
>>
>> Regards,
>> David
>
>
>
> I would urge you to contact Parallels and talk to their tech folks  
> on this.
>
> The challenge here is that the Windows VM essentially functions in a  
> 'sand box'. You can configure things like Coherence and shared  
> folders and applications for convenience, but a Windows application  
> is running in a logically separate Windows machine. With the  
> exception of the aforementioned sharing at the file level, you  
> really need to think of the scenario as being two separate computers.
>
> This means that you would likely need to configure the Parallels  
> networking configuration in such a fashion that the Windows VM is  
> effectively seen on the local network as a separate computer with a  
> separate IP address, on which MSSQL is running. I don't use  
> Parallels (or VMWare or VirtualBox), but from a brief review of the  
> Parallels documentation at:
>
>  http://download.parallels.com/desktop/v4/docs/en/Parallels_Desktop_Users_Guide.pdf
>
> there are options under Networking that would seem to perhaps  
> facilitate the above. So in effect, OSX would see the Windows VM as  
> a separate server on the network running MSSQL, to which you can  
> connect as if you were connecting to a physically separate server.
>
> If you can achieve that configuration, then you would need an ODBC  
> driver for MSSQL that runs on OSX. I don't know if MS offers that or  
> if you need to go to a third party. If the latter, Actual  
> Technologies offers an ODBC driver for MSSQL for OSX:
>
>  http://www.actualtechnologies.com/product_sqlserver.php
>
> I use their Oracle ODBC driver to connect R on my MacBook Pro using  
> RODBC, to our Oracle server and it works fine and was easy to  
> configure.
>
> Talk to the Parallels folks and they can give you more definitive  
> guidance.
>
> HTH,
>
> Marc Schwartz
>