OpenAccess™ and Oracle Generic Connectivity

Oracle's Generic connectivity is intended for data integration solutions requiring the ad hoc query capability to connect from Oracle to non-Oracle database systems. Generic connectivity is enabled by Oracle Heterogeneous Services, allowing you to connect to non-Oracle systems with improved performance and throughput.

Generic connectivity is implemented as either a Heterogeneous Services ODBC agent or a Heterogeneous Services OLE DB agent. An ODBC agent and OLE DB agent are included as part of your Oracle system. Be sure to use the agents shipped with your particular Oracle system and installed in the same $ORACLE_HOME.

Any data source that has been made ODBC/OLE DB compatible by using OpenAccess SDK can be accessed using a generic connectivity agent.

Types of Agents
Generic connectivity is implemented as one of the following types of HS agents:

• ODBC agent for accessing ODBC data providers
  
  
• OLE DB agent for accessing OLE DB data providers that support SQL processing--sometimes referred to as OLE DB (SQL)
  
  
• OLE DB agent for accessing OLE DB data providers without SQL processing support--sometimes referred to as OLE DB (FS)

Each user session receives its own dedicated agent process spawned by the first use in that user session of the database link to the non-Oracle system. The agent process ends when the user session ends.

Generic Connectivity Architecture
To access the non-Oracle data store using generic connectivity, the agents work with the OpenAccess ODBC or OLE DB driver. Oracle provides support for the ODBC or OLE DB driver interface. The driver that you use must be on the same platform as the agent. The non-Oracle data stores can reside on the same machine as Oracle or a different machine.

Oracle and Non-Oracle Systems on Separate Machines
Figure shows an example of one configuration in which an Oracle and non-Oracle database are on separate machines, communicating through an HS ODBC agent which in turn makes use of the OpenAccess middleware to communicate with the target database.

Figure 1: Using Client/Server OpenAccess to Integrate into Oracle
In this configuration, a client connects to Oracle through Net8. The HS part of the Oracle database server then connects through Net8 to the Heterogeneous Services ODBC agent. This agent communicates with the following non-Oracle components:

• An ODBC driver manager
  
  
• OpenAccess Client/Server Components - OpenRDA ODBC Driver and OpenRDA Server
  
  
• A non-Oracle client application

Oracle and Non-Oracle Systems on Same Machine
Figure shows an example of a different configuration in which an Oracle and non-Oracle database are on the same machine, again communicating through an HS ODBC agent:

In this configuration, a client connects to Oracle through Net8. The HS part of the Oracle database server then connects through Net8 to the Heterogeneous Services ODBC agent. This agent communicates with the following non-Oracle components:

• An ODBC driver manager
  
  
• An ODBC driver

The driver then allows access to the non-Oracle data store.

System Requirements
OpenAccess can be used with the Oracle Generic Connectivity on Windows , Solaris, HP-UX, AIX and many other platforms.

To Learn More
Please refer to Oracle's documentation ….for detailed description of this functionality.

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