Configuring a Linked Microsoft Access Server on SQL 2005 Server
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There are certain situations in which you might have to access data that is stored in various locations. In this case, you might want to use a linked server on SQL 2005 to access data from a Microsoft Access database. This article explains how to set that up.
Introduction
When enterprise data gets scattered geographically, there is a need to access data stored in different locations to make business decisions. As a consequence of the evolutionary growth of databases, and driven by business practices, the enterprise data may reside on different kinds of databases. You might even have to deal with file based storage of legacy data.
MS SQL servers always provided remote access to servers through RPC mechanisms, but they had the limitation of being confined to invoking procedures on remote locations. A linked server (a virtual server) may be considered a more flexible way of achieving the same thing, with the added benefits of remote table access and distributed queries.
This article is about configuring a linked server on SQL 2005 to access data on a Microsoft Access database. The article describes in detail how to set up and use such a linked server on Microsoft's latest database product, the MS SQL 2005 Server. The linked server appears in the Server Objects folder in the SQL Server 2005 Management Studio.
Linked servers can be established on an MS Access database application where you use the ODBC interface to access external data. Usage of such data are only limited by the limitations of the Access database. In MS SQL 2005 server, however, the external data is accessed through the OLEDB interface, and the limitations are those imposed by this provider.
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