Drivers

Someone in the class was told that drivers for other db's than SQL Server (i.e. Oracle, DB2) would not be supported at RTM.  Someone in the class form MSFT said this is not true.  Do you know the answer off-hand?

[Stacia Misner] It depends on the context, I think. For example, in Reporting Services, there are certain data sources supported out of the box – SQL Server, Oracle, ODBC, and Analysis Services. Report Builder though will only support SQL Server and Analysis Services. That leaves Integration Services – I remember thinking each build since Beta 2 had a different collection of adapters so I didn’t bother memorizing what – wanted to see it stabilize first. Traditionally, DTS supported Oracle natively – don’t recall if it tries to in SSIS. At the very least – you can use OLE DB or ODBC or write your own.

 

[Reed Jacobson] Oracle can be used as a data source from virtually anywhere. (I don't know anything about Report Builder, so if it will only access SQL Server, that's news to me--it would still be easy to create an AS UDM that models the ORACLE source--even as pure ROLAP--and then Report Builder should be able to get to it. The only place I know you can't use ORACLE is as the metadata databases for Reporting Services--those have to be stored in a SQL Server database.