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I have tried to make use of linked servers in SQL Server 2008 by doing the following to access a Microsoft Access 2003 Table.

EXEC sp_addlinkedserver access1t, 'OLE DB Provider for Jet', 'Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0', 'C:\tester.mdb'
EXEC sp_addlinkedsrvlogin access1t, FALSE, Null, Admin, Null
GO
CREATE VIEW TI001APCE1265 AS SELECT * FROM access1t...Table1

However, I get the error:

OLE DB provider "Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0" for linked server "access1t" returned message "Unspecified error".
Msg 7303, Level 16, State 1, Procedure TI001APCE1265, Line 1
Cannot initialize the data source object of OLE DB provider "Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0" for linked server "access1t".

There is no password/username on my access database but looking at the documents I understood I had to use the sp_addlinkedsrvlogin like the above. I have tried it without a login either.

Bit I still get the same error - what is going?!

Thanks all

Debug Output

Array ( [0] => Array ( [0] => 42000 [SQLSTATE] => 42000 [1] => 7303 [code] => 7303 [2] => [Microsoft][SQL Server Native Client 10.0][SQL Server]Cannot initialize the data source object of OLE DB provider "Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0" for linked server "access1265293168". [message] => [Microsoft][SQL Server Native Client 10.0][SQL Server]Cannot initialize the data source object of OLE DB provider "Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0" for linked server "access1265293168". ) [1] => Array ( [0] => 01000 [SQLSTATE] => 01000 [1] => 7412 [code] => 7412 [2] => [Microsoft][SQL Server Native Client 10.0][SQL Server]OLE DB provider "Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0" for linked server "access1265293168" returned message "Unspecified error". [message] => [Microsoft][SQL Server Native Client 10.0][SQL Server]OLE DB provider "Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0" for linked server "access1265293168" returned message "Unspecified error". ) )

Abs
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  • I was having a look at this question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2065083/cant-query-sql-linked-server-ms-access-remotely-only-works-on-server - how would I pass in the NT login?? – Abs Feb 04 '10 at 15:01
  • NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM doesn't work either, if it is that. – Abs Feb 04 '10 at 15:04
  • Have you tried providing the Jet default username, "admin"? I don't know if it's required or not, but there is no such thing as opening a Jet data store without having a user involved. – David-W-Fenton Jan 15 '11 at 01:03

1 Answers1

4

Have you tried with named parameters?:

EXEC sp_addlinkedserver 
   @server = 'access1t', 
   @provider = 'Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0', 
   @srvproduct = 'OLE DB Provider for Jet',
   @datasrc =  'C:\tester.mdb'
GO

It may be you just need your server name in single quotes 'access1t'.

[ Does your logged in user have permission to access the root of C: drive? ]

Mitch Wheat
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  • I am logged in as Admin. I thought because I passed in false for @useself attribute of sp_addlinkedsrvlogin - it would only use the username and password I have supplied to access the Microsoft access database. I have also just tried your code and removed my first line and I still get the same error. I have added some debug output with sql server error codes, but I have no idea what they mean! – Abs Feb 04 '10 at 15:00
  • I played around with this a bit, and for me the error seems to have been due to permissions. When I logged in to SQL Server as the Admin user for this PC, I could connect to c:\docs\test.mdb as illustrated above, with other messing about, I could not. – Fionnuala Feb 04 '10 at 16:35
  • @Remou I think its a permissions/credentials problem. I am using this `EXEC sp_addlinkedsrvlogin acc465tghv, TRUE` and this seems to be working. I am just testing and playing around with now. – Abs Feb 04 '10 at 16:59
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    A Jet/ACE data store has to be writable to be used, so you need to store it in a location that is read/write for the Windows logon you're running with. By default, the root of C: is read-only for non-admin users (starting with Win2000, as a matter of fact), so it's very likely that the problem is NTFS permissions on the root of C: preventing the write access that is needed here. – David-W-Fenton Jan 15 '11 at 01:00