Installation guide

4. Accessing Popular Databases
Supports SQL Server 2005, 2008, 2008R2, 2012. This version no longer
supports SQL Server 2000.
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 Feature Pack
Supports SQL Server 2000, 2005, 2008, 2008R2.
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Service Pack 2 Feature Pack
Supports SQL Server 2000, 2005, 2008.
• Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Feature Pack Downloads
Supports SQL Server 2000 and 2005.
Use mxODBC direct execution methods for better performance
Python applications using the SQL Server Native Client should try to make use of
the available direct execution interfaces in mxODBC, e.g.
• cursor.executedirect()
• cursor.executemany(…, direct=1)
• cursor.execute(…, direct=1)
Our tests have shown that these interface can give a 2-5x better performance
with SQL Server than the normal APIs (e.g. cursor.execute() without
direct=1)
Optimizing SQL Server Native Client Access Method
When installing the SQL Server Native Client, please make sure that you choose
the most efficient database access method. If the ODBC driver resides on the
same server as the database, shared memory is the most efficient protocol
available. For most other purposes, TCP/IP is the best option. See
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187892.aspx
for details.
Configuring the SQL Server Native Client Network Protocol
When configuring an ODBC data source using the SQL Server Native Client you
can choose the protocol by providing a server address with protocol prefix:
tcp:db.example.com,1434 - connect to the server db.example.com using
TCP/IP over port 1434 (the default SQL Server post is 1433)
lpc:LOCALHOST\SQLEXPRESS - connect to the instance SQLEXPRESS running on
the local host via shared memory
np:\\EXAMPLE\pipe\MSSQL$SQLEXPRESS\sql\query - connect to the instance
SQLEXPRESS running on the computer EXAMPLE via named pipe
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