ODBC sources

When you use IBM® InfoSphere® DataStage® to access the ODBC application programming interface (API), you can choose from a collection of connectivity options. For most new jobs, use the ODBC connector, which offers better functionality and performance.

A connector is a component that provides data connectivity and metadata integration for external data sources, such as relational databases or messaging software. A connector typically includes a stage that is specific to the external data source.

The ODBC connector is one of several different stages that access external data sources in database management systems (DBMS). In addition to the ODBC Connector stage, the following stages are available:

ODBC Enterprise stage, which is available only for parallel jobs
ODBC stage, which is available only for server jobs

If you have jobs that use the older stages and want to use the connector, use the Connector Migration Tool to migrate jobs to use connector.

The ODBC connector provides some ease-of-use benefits to you:

View data in a design-time environment.
Create job parameters directly from the connector without having to define the parameters first.
Save connection information that you specify in the stage as a data connection object, which means that you can reuse the object.
Configure rules for reconciling data types between the source and target schemas to avoid runtime errors.
Receive immediate feedback about any invalid values for properties on the Properties page.
Reset a property value to its default value.
View error messages that are generated when your jobs run.

The following table lists the scenarios where you might want to use one of the stages other than the ODBC Connector stage.

Table 1. Scenarios where you might use a stage other than the ODBC Connector stage
Goal	Stage to use instead of the ODBC Connector stage
Use stored procedures.	Stored Procedure (preferred) ODBC
In a lookup operation, return more than one result on the reference link for each input row.	ODBC (server jobs)