# SQL Server 2005 connection problems in XP **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [February 22, 2007, 12:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sql-server-2005-connection-problems-in-xp/86399 "2007-02-22T00:05:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gissell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@gissell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gissell)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 12:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sql-server-2005-connection-problems-in-xp/86399/1 "2007-02-22T00:05:01Z")
Hello everyone, I have been looking all over to see if I can get my problem resolved and alas, I have not been successful. Could someone help? I am trying to connect to a database in XP that resides on a SQL Server 2005. I downloaded and installed the Ruby-One-Time-Installer, so that gives me the odbc package. The question is, how do I specify the datasource address if the database is residing on a server not on my local machine? Here is a snip of my code: require ‘DBI’ conn = DBI.connect(‘DBI:ODBC:fooServer\fooDevServer\Databases\db’,username,password) Is this correct? I have changed to forward slashes, to colons, but to no avail. I keep getting the following error: C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8/DBD/ODBC/ODBC.rb:95:in `connect': IM002 (0) [Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found and no default driver specified (DBI::DatabaseError) from C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/site_ruby/1.8/dbi/dbi.rb:584:in`connect’ from C:/INSTAN~1/ruby/lib/ruby/site\_ruby/1.8/dbi/dbi.rb:384:in `connect’ from Database\_test.rb:18 Can someone let me know what I am missing? Thanks, Ana ---
**Author:** ![gissell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@gissell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gissell)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 2:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sql-server-2005-connection-problems-in-xp/86399/2 "2007-02-22T02:50:20Z")
On Feb 21, 5:05 pm, Ana L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > is residing on a server not on my local machine? > > Thanks, > > Ana > > – > Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/. So this “server” is a SQLExpress database file? You probably need an ODBC style connection string. This is my favest site in the world for connection strings: [http://connectionstrings.com/?carrier=sqlserver](http://connectionstrings.com/?carrier=sqlserver) I don’t even bother to remember 'em anymore. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![gissell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@gissell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gissell)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 4:09am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sql-server-2005-connection-problems-in-xp/86399/3 "2007-02-22T04:09:46Z")
Sam S. wrote: > On Feb 21, 5:05 pm, Ana L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > is residing on a server not on my local machine? > > > > Thanks, > > > > Ana > > > > – > > Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/. > > So this “server” is a SQLExpress database file? You probably need an > ODBC style connection string. This is my favest site in the world for > connection strings: [http://connectionstrings.com/?carrier=sqlserver](http://connectionstrings.com/?carrier=sqlserver) I > don’t even bother to remember 'em anymore. 🙂 Hello, Great! This certainly helped! Ana ---
**Author:** ![gissell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@gissell](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/gissell)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 3:33pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/sql-server-2005-connection-problems-in-xp/86399/4 "2007-02-22T15:33:21Z")
Ana L. wrote: > Sam S. wrote: > > > On Feb 21, 5:05 pm, Ana L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > > > is residing on a server not on my local machine? > > > > > > Thanks, > > > > > > Ana > > > > > > – > > > Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/. > > > > So this “server” is a SQLExpress database file? You probably need an > > ODBC style connection string. This is my favest site in the world for > > connection strings: [http://connectionstrings.com/?carrier=sqlserver](http://connectionstrings.com/?carrier=sqlserver) I > > don’t even bother to remember 'em anymore. 🙂 As an added note, an ODBC connection needs to be created in Windows, seperate from your Ruby script. You can create an ODBC connection by going to the Control Panel-\>Administrative Tools-\>ODBC Data Source-\>User DSN-\>Add This is what I really needed to figure out. Now I just use the name that I gave to my newly created datasource into my code and it works. Here is an example: Data source was created with the name “fooDB” require ‘DBI’ conn = DBI.connect(‘DBI:ODBC:fooDB’,username,password)