Question

Scenary:

• SQL Server 2005 x64 (default instance)
• Data on Fox Pro .dbf. Only 32 bit driver available (no x64 driver)

I need to access the FoxPro data from the default SQL Server instance. I used to do it with linked servers created on SQL Server, but this is no longer possible on the x64 instance (driver compatibility).

So, I installed a new SQL Server instance of 32 bits (SS32 for short) and created the linked servers on this new instance to acces the .dbf data using the existing driver.

In this server I can query the .dfb data like this:

• select * from LinkedServerName...DbfTableName and it works fine

But I still need to access it from the default instance.

So, this is what I have

• SQL Server x64 default instance
• SQL Server 32 (SS32) instance with linked servers to acces the foxpro data

Is there any way to query the linked servers in SS32 from the default instance? Do you know of any possible alternative?

Answer 1

From the x64 instance you can use OPENQUERY to run a query on a linked server:

SELECT *
  FROM OPENQUERY(x86LinkedServer, 'select *
                                     from LinkedServerName...DbfTableName')

There is also this blog post regarding a workaround for what is (basically) your problem: querying a 32-bit datasource from a 64-bit instance.