Why do I get error "Initialization function SQLAllocConnect not found" when using Oracle Heterogenous Services (HSODBC) on AIX?

Assumptions:

• You're using the unixODBC Driver Manager. (It does not matter if you built it yourself or are using the one that's included in the Easysoft ODBC driver distribution.)
• You've set your LIBPATH correctly to include the Driver Manager library paths. (For example, /usr/local/easysoft/unixODBC/lib and /usr/local/easysoft/lib).
• You're getting an error similar to the one below when attempting to use your database link in SQL*Plus:

  ERROR at line 1:
  ORA-28500: connection from ORACLE to a non-Oracle system returned this
  message:
  [Generic Connectivity Using ODBC]DRV_InitTdp: DB_ODBC_INTERFACE(6);
  Initialization function SQLAllocConnect not found
  DB_ODBC_INTERFACE(7); Cannot connect to shareable
  /usr/local/easysoft/unixODBC/lib/libodbc.a. Using dummy functions
  ORA-02063: preceding 3 lines from OCI1

On AIX, this problem occurs because Oracle's ODBC agent (HSODBC) is linked against libodbc.so, but the unixODBC Driver Manager you're using contains libodbc.so.1 in the libodbc.a archive . To check this:

1. cd /usr/local/easysoft/unixODBC/lib

   –Or–

   cd /lib

   –Or–

   cd unixODBC_install_dir

2. ar -X32_64 -tv libodbc.a

If this shows the archive contains libodbc.so.1, this is your problem. The solution is:

1. Become root or whoever you need to be to create files in the unixODBC lib subdirectory.

2. cd /usr/local/easysoft/unixODBC/lib

   –Or–

   cd /lib

   –Or–

   cd unixODBC_install_dir

3. ar -X32_64 -xv libodbc.a

   This should extract the file libodbc.so.1 to the current directory.

4. Rename libodbc.so.1:

   mv libodbc.so.1 libodbc.so

5. Point HSODBC at it directly by changing the HS_FDS_SHAREABLE_NAME parameter in your initname.ora file to be:

   HS_FDS_SHAREABLE_NAME = /usr/local/easysoft/unixODBC/lib/libodbc.so

Restart your Oracle listener. Your link should now work.