Changing ODBC Sign-On Pop Up Values

Published: March 21, 2007

Hey, Joe:

I have a new user starting, and I need to change the default user ID sign-on information that ODBC uses to connect her machine to our i5 partition. This computer was previously assigned to another user, and that user ID keeps appearing in the Signon to iSeries box whenever the computer starts an ODBC connection. How do I change the default user ID that ODBC uses for an i5 connection?

--Bruce

ODBC connection values are defined in the Connection Options screen inside their ODBC driver. It's fairly simple to view and change these values for an i5, iSeries, or AS/400 connection. You can do it from within the user's ODBC Data Source Name (DSN) entry. Here's how to check and change this setting by using the ODBC driver that come with iSeries Access for Windows V5R3M0.

Open the user's ODBC DSN for configuration (by clicking on the Configure button on the ODBC Data Source Administrator screen) and click on the General tab in the iSeries Access for Windows Setup screen that appears. The screen will show you the ODBC DSN name that is assigned to this driver, a description for that DSN, and the Domain Name System (DNS) name or IP address of the i5/OS or OS/400 partition that the driver communicates with. This screen also contains a button called Connection Options. When you click on Connection Options, it brings up a setup screen where you can define the Default user ID value that the DSN uses when it is connecting to your i5/OS or OS/400 partition.

For i5 ODBC connections, you have five different radio button choices for your Default user ID, but my guess is that your connection is set up to select either the Use the user ID specified below or the Use iSeries Navigator default options. Either of these options could be causing your program to insert the wrong default user name into your ODBC Signon to iSeries box.

If the Use the user ID specified below radio button is turned on, you may also notice that a hard-coded user ID name is also specified on the ODBC Connection options screen. When this button is selected, that hard-coded user ID will always be displayed when the Signon to iSeries popup box appears as the user tries to make an ODBC connection. This could be the user name that is always appearing when your new user tries to make an ODBC connection.

You can easily change this setting to one of the other ODBC connection options on that screen. This change will affect which user ID name will show up in the signon box the next time this user tries to make an ODBC connection.

If you set the user's Default user ID value to the Use Windows user name radio button, the ODCB driver will always attempt to use the user's Windows user name and password to automatically sign on to the target i5/OS box without any prompting. This technique works well if your i5/OS or OS/400 user IDs and passwords are synchronized with your user's Windows password. The connection will be made automatically and the user will be able to manipulate data through ODBC without signing on. If the Windows user name and password don't match their i5/OS or OS/400 counterparts, the user will be presented with the signon box again so that she can enter a valid user ID and password.

If you change the Default user ID radio button to None, your ODBC connection will always display the Signon to iSeries input box without any default user ID or password. The user will always have to enter their user ID signon information in order to start a session. This is a good option for computers that are shared by more than one user.

You can also select the Use Kerberos principal radio button if your system is set up to use IBM's Single Sign-On technology to automatically authenticate and authorize users to sign on and use i5 applications without entering a user ID and password. When this option is selected, the ODBC connection will attempt to use a Windows Key Distribution Center server (KDC), the partition's Enterprise Identity Mapping (EIM) table, and a Kerberos server to automatically sign on and start the user's ODBC connection. This button will only appear if your i5 or iSeries partition is set up to use Kerberos.

The final option for specifying ODBC sign-on information is to click on the Use iSeries Navigator default radio button for designating the Default user ID. When you click on this button, ODBC will use the default user ID settings that are configured for this partition in the user's iSeries Navigator (OpsNav) connection properties. The OpsNav software contains a separate set of Signon information values that can automatically be used by different iSeries Access applications (including ODBC) to make connections with a partition without having to separately configure signon information for each application.

So if the Default user ID for your ODBC connection is set to Use iSeries Navigator default and you want to change that setting, you can either change the setting inside your ODBC DSN's Connection Options screen or you can go into OpsNav and change the Signon Information specified for the partition that you are trying to start an ODBC connection with.

To change your OpsNav default user settings, enter OpsNav and right click on the node that represents the partition that you want to change the user's default settings for. Select Properties from the pop-up menu that appears and this will display the partition's Properties panel for this desktop. On this panel, click on the Connection tab and in the Signon information area that appears on your screen, you will see the exact same default user settings that are available in the Default user ID radio button for your ODBC connection. If you change the Signon Information radio button here and your ODBC Default user ID is set to Use iSeries Navigator default, your ODBC DSN will use the new settings the next time the user tries to make an ODBC connection to that i5 partition.

So in a nutshell, that's how you determine where ODBC gets its default user ID settings and the different places where you can change those settings.

Hope this helps.

-- Joe

RELATED STORIES

Getting Ready for Single Sign-On

Configuring i5/OS and a Windows Network Server for SSO

Configuring i5/OS-based EIM Table for Single Sign-On

Configuring Windows Desktops to Use Single SSO

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