Connecting Oracle to Amazon Aurora

You can use an Easysoft ODBC driver to connect Oracle to MySQL or PostgreSQL running on Amazon Aurora. The steps in this guide are for MySQL and Oracle on Windows. The process is the same for PostgreSQL and other Oracle platforms.

Installing the MySQL ODBC driver

  1. Download the MySQL ODBC driver for Windows.
  2. Install and license the MySQL ODBC driver on the machine where Oracle is installed.

    To do this, execute the file distribution that you downloaded in the previous step, and follow the on-screen instructions.

    The install program starts the Easysoft License Manager, because you cannot use your Easysoft product until a license is obtained.

    The following types of license are available:

    • Free time-limited trial license, which gives you free and unrestricted use of the product for a limited period (usually 14 days).
    • Full license if you have purchased the product. On purchasing the product, you are given an authorization code, which you use to obtain a license.
  3. In Easysoft License Manager, enter your details.

    Complete the Name, E-Mail Address, and Company fields.

    The E-Mail Address must be the same as the address used to register and download from the Easysoft web site or you will be unable to obtain trial licenses.

  4. Choose Request License.

    You're asked for a license type.

  5. Do one of the following:
    • For a trial license, choose Time Limited Trial and then choose Next.

      The License Manager asks what software you are licensing. Select your product from the drop-down list and then choose Next.

    • If you have obtained an authorization code for a purchased license, select Non-expiring License and then choose Next.

      The License Manager requests your authorization code.

      Enter the authorization code and then choose Next.

  6. The License Manager displays a summary of the information you entered and allows you to choose the method of applying for your license.
  7. Do one of the following:
    • Choose On-line Request if your machine is connected to the internet and can make outgoing connections to port 8884.

      The License Manager then sends a request to the Easysoft license server to activate your license key automatically. This is the quickest method and results in your details being entered immediately into our support database.

    • The remaining three options (Email Request, Print Request, and View Request) are all ways to obtain a license if your machine is off-line (does not have a connection to the internet).

      Each of these methods involves providing Easysoft with information including your machine number (a number unique to your machine) and then waiting to receive your license key.

      Instead of emailing your details to Easysoft, you can enter them directly at the Easysoft web site and your license key will be emailed to you automatically.

      To use this method, choose View Request, and then visit:

      In the licensing page, enter your machine number (and authorization code for a purchased license), choose Submit and your license key will be emailed to you.

      When you receive the license key, you can activate it either by double-clicking the email attachment or by choosing Enter License on the License Manager main screen and pasting the license key into the dialog box.

  8. Choose Finish to exit the License Manager.

    The installation is complete.

Configuring an ODBC data source

Before you can use the MySQL ODBC driver to connect Oracle to MySQL, you need to configure an ODBC data source. An ODBC data source stores the connection details for the target database (in this case, MySQL) and the ODBC driver that is required to connect to it (in this case, the MySQL ODBC driver).

You configure ODBC data sources in ODBC Data Source Administrator, which is included with Windows.

The Oracle component that interacts with the MySQL ODBC driver is called DG4ODBC. There is both a 32-bit and a 64-bit version of DG4ODBC. To find out which version of DG4ODBC you have, start the Windows Task Manager and choose the Processes tab. In a Command Prompt window, enter dg4odbc --help. In the Windows Task Manager, look for the DG4ODBC process. If the Image Name is dg4odbc.exe *32 DG4ODBC is 32-bit. If the Image Name is dg4odbc.exe DG4ODBC is 64-bit. Press CTRL+C in the Command Prompt window, when you have used the Windows Task Manager to find out DG4ODBC's architecture.

If your version of DG4ODBC is 64-bit, you need to run 64-bit version of ODBC Data Source Administrator. To do this, open Administrative Tools in Control Panel, and then open Data Sources (ODBC). On Windows Server 2003 and earlier, the Control Panel applet that launches ODBC Data Source Administrator is labelled Data Sources. On Windows 8 and later, the Control Panel applet is labelled ODBC Data Sources (64-bit).

If your version of DG4ODBC is 32-bit, you need to run 32-bit version of ODBC Data Source Administrator. To do this, in the Windows Run dialog box, enter:

%windir%\syswow64\odbcad32.exe

Use ODBC Data Source Administrator to create a MySQL ODBC driver data source:

  1. Choose the System DSN tab, and then choose Add.
  2. In the Create New Data Source dialog box, choose Easysoft ODBC-MySQL Driver, and then choose Finish.
  3. Complete these fields Easysoft ODBC-MySQL Driver DSN Setup dialog box:
    Setting Value
    DSN MYSQL
    User Name The name of your MySQL user.
    Password The password for your MySQL user.
    Server The host name or IP address of the machine on which your MySQL server is running. For example: 
    mynode.eu-west-2.rds.amazonaws.com
    SSL Encryption Enabled
    Trust Cert Enabled
  4. Use the Test button to verify that you can successfully connect to your MySQL database.

Connecting Oracle to MySQL

The following instructions show you how to connect Oracle on Windows to MySQL on Aurora. For further information about DG4ODBC, refer to our DG4ODBC for Windows tutorial.

  1. Create a DG4ODBC init file. To do this, change to the %ORACLE_HOME%\hs\admin directory. Create a copy of the file initdg4odbc.ora. Name the new file initmysql.ora.

    Note In these instructions, replace %ORACLE_HOME% with the location of your Oracle HOME directory. For example, C:\oraclexe\app\oracle\product\11.2.0\server.

  2. Ensure these parameters and values are present in your init file: 
    HS_FDS_CONNECT_INFO = my_mysql_odbc_dsn

    Replace my_mysql_odbc_dsn with the name of a MySQL ODBC driver data source that connects to the target MySQL server. For example:

    HS_FDS_CONNECT_INFO = "32-bit MySQL System"

    If your MySQL server does not require you to supply a user name and a password, include IgnoreAuth=Yes in the HS_FDS_CONNECT_INFO parameter value. For example:

    HS_FDS_CONNECT_INFO = "32-bit MySQL System;IgnoreAuth=Yes"
  3. Add this line to increase Oracle to MySQL compatibility: 
    HS_FDS_QUOTE_IDENTIFIER = FALSE
  4. Comment out the line that enables DG4ODBC tracing. For example: 
    #HS_FDS_TRACE_LEVEL = <trace_level>
  5. Add an entry to %ORACLE_HOME%\network\admin\listener.ora that creates a SID_NAME for DG4ODBC. For example: 
    SID_LIST_LISTENER =
 (SID_LIST =
   (SID_DESC=
     (SID_NAME=mysql)
     (ORACLE_HOME=%ORACLE_HOME%)
     (PROGRAM=dg4odbc)
   )
 )
  6. Add a DG4ODBC entry to %ORACLE_HOME%\network\admin\tnsnames.ora that specifies the SID_NAME created in the previous step. For example: 
    MYSQL =
  (DESCRIPTION =
    (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = oracle_host)(PORT = 1521))
    (CONNECT_DATA =
      (SID = mysql)
    )
    (HS = OK)
  )

    Replace oracle_host with the host name of your Oracle machine.

  7. Start (or restart) the Oracle Listener: 
    cd %ORACLE_HOME%\bin
lsnrctl stop
lsnrctl start
  8. Connect to your Oracle database in SQL*Plus.
  9. In SQL*Plus, create a database link for the target MySQL server. For example: 
    CREATE PUBLIC DATABASE LINK mysqllink CONNECT TO
"my_mysql_user" IDENTIFIED by "my_mysql_password" USING 'mysql';

    Or, if your MySQL server does not require you to supply a user name and a password:

    CREATE PUBLIC DATABASE LINK mysqllink USING 'mysql';

Notes