DSNGen – Another Tool For the Toolbox

This
free utility lets you build multiple DSN’s (system, user, or file) quickly. It’s not a tool you’ll use everyday, but when do use need it, it’s a real
timesaver. Let’s walk through how to use it and how it works.

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Step
#1 – Connect to Server and Get List of Databases

Here
I’m using SQL-DMO to retrieve a list of SQL Servers that are active on your
network. See my article More DMO for more information about how this works.
Once you
select a server, click the ‘Get List of Databases’  button to populate the
Available Databases list box. This step also uses DMO to retrieve the list of
databases. It requires that you be able to establish a trusted connection to the server. I
opted not to support SQL logins for  two reasons; one is that I think most DBA’s
will be using a trusted connection anyway, and two, I’m not big on  entering the
sa password into free utilities I’ve downloaded – bet you aren’t either!

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Step
#2 – Select Databases

Now
that you’ve got your list of databases, you can select the ones for which you
need DSN’s. You can select multiple databases at once, using
shift-click or control-click. The four buttons in the middle let you move either
the selected items or all items from one list to the other.

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Continue
Reading about DSNGen       Go
directly to the Download page