Question Does Access need to be installed for ODBC connection?

[PencilEd]

If I have an .accdb or .mdb Access DB file do I have to have Access installed to perform queries using ODBC?

Everything is local (MS Windows Server 2003), but we might move the DB files to another server - would Access need to be installed at all and if so, on the machine with the DB files or the machine making the query?

Thanks.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Yes. A large part of what Access does involves the registry, including such things as your references. ODBC libraries will DEFINITELY be part of those references. Access would not run even locally unless the registry knows about it.

 

[PencilEd]

Thank you for your reply.

Just to clarify...

We don't need to load Access at all. We don't need to view forms, tables or anything else.

We have a custom application that needs to make an ODBC connection to query an .accdb or .mdb file which was created by Access.

Do we need to have Access installed for that to work?

Thanks

 

[Banana]

ODBC itself is a Windows components, so you don't have to have Access to do any kind of ODBC.

BUT!

You do need to have the appropriate drivers to perform the connection. So, if you had a custom application that queries Access via ODBC, you have to have Access database engine installed. This also includes the required ODBC drivers as well.

Note that "Access database engine" is not same thing as "Access runtime" - the former contains only the components whereas latter also includes the minimum GUI to run an Access application but you don't need Access runtime if you're not using Access to run your application, just Access database engine.

Further note that Jet (Access' database engine prior to 2007) is included as a part of Windows installation. If you want to use .accdb files (e.g. Access 2007 or later), you need ACE instead.

HTH.