Build a lot of DSN's in a hurry!

This free utility lets you build multiple DSN's (system, user, or file) quickly. It's not a tool you'll use everyday, but when do use need it, it's a real timesaver. Let's walk through how to use it and how it works.  

Step #1 - Connect to Server and Get List of Databases

Here I'm using SQL-DMO to retrieve a list of SQL Servers that are active on your network. See my article More DMO for more information about how this works. Once you select a server, click the 'Get List of Databases'  button to populate the Available Databases list box. This step also uses DMO to retrieve the list of databases. It requires that you be able to establish a trusted connection to the server. I opted not to support SQL logins for  two reasons; one is that I think most DBA's will be using a trusted connection anyway, and two, I'm not big on  entering the sa password into free utilities I've downloaded - bet you aren't either!

Step #2 - Select Databases

Now that you've got your list of databases, you can select the ones for which you need DSN's. You can select multiple databases at once, using shift-click or control-click. The four buttons in the middle let you move either the selected items or all items from one list to the other.

Select #3 - Select Type of DSN to Create

The default setting is to create a system DSN, the one most commonly used in my experience. Both system and user DSN's are registry based, while a File DSN is stored in the file system. Take a look at my article DSN's - What are they? for details about how DSN's work and the differences between them.

Step #4 - Options

There are two options here. The first is 'ServerName as Prefix'. Check this to give your DSN's more descriptive names. If the server name is SQLTest and the database name is Pubs, checking this box will create a DSN called SQLTest_Pubs. This is very handy if you have databases on different servers with the same names. It also makes picking the DSN easier later on as all the DSN's from each server will be grouped together.

The second option, 'Trusted Connection', is checked by default and indicates that the DSN will use NT security to connect. Uncheck this box if your users (or your application) uses SQL logins.

Step #5 - Generate the DSN's!

If you selected System or User as the DSN type, a file called DSN.REG will be created in the folder where DSNGen.exe is installed. It is NOT entered into the registry yet. If you chose to create a File DSN, then you will one *.DSN file per database in the DSNGen folder. Again, these are not copied to your default File DSN folder at this time. This allows you to review them before deploying, reducing concerns about changes made to your machine. Another good read for this is that in many cases you may be creating them on your machine for use n a different machine.

Step #6 - Deploy the DSN's

If you don't want to deploy the DSN's on your machine, just click 'I'll Deploy the DSN's Later'. You can then review the files before deploying.

If you selected System or User as the DSN type, clicking on 'Deploy DSN's Now' will use RegEdit to merge the DSN.REG file into the registry. If you created file DSN's, they will be copied to your system DSN folder (which is usually C:\Program Files\Common Files\ODBC\Data Sources).

Licensing

None required. I retain the copyright. 

Download it!

Click here to download just the DSNGen.exe (17kb)

Click here to download a complete setup package (2.6M)

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