I have created a universe with connection to our access database.
I am using generic odbc3 for creating connection.
report based on this universe works well in deski but not in webi.
The access database is mapped to one of the network drives on the server.
When i try to create a webi report based on this universe, i am able to pull the objects to the query panel but when i try to run the query, i get an error:
Database error: [Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] ‘(unknown)’ is not a valid path. Make sure that the path name is spelled correctly and that you are connected to the server on which the file resides…
Putting the access database file on a shared folder and mapping it on the BO server doesnt work.
Try using UNC path (eg. \Access\Sales.mdb) while mapping.
If it doesn’t work then you need to copy the mdb file to server directly on C:\drive and point ODBC DSN to it.
Are you on unix or window based webi release ? if you have deski product intalled on your server, are you able to refresh the report(s) using this univers and connection ?
if you want an advice, avoid to use access as a database because i don’t think it is a secure and strong solution…
ours is wondows based BO. the report works fine in deski. but nt in webi. when i tried to refresh deski report from infoview, it didnt work either. but it works when i do it from deski.
I need to use access as we have good amt of data there.
A Universal/Uniform Naming Convention (UNC) path describes the location of a volume, directory, or file. The format for a UNC path for eg. \file_srvr\Shared1\WGroups\Network\Orders.mdb.
So in your case on the BO server, click on Start->Run and type the location of access mdb file as above.
Read this I had told
P.S. If possible migrate the access database to a more secured platform like Oracle or MS SQL.
Apologies if I’m repeating the solution already offered above, however I had a similar issue which was solved by the following;
Open the Windows “Data Sources (ODBC)” configuration tool.
Select the Microsoft Access DSN you would like to change, and open it for editing.
Under the “Database” section, press the “Select…” button.
In the “Database Name” text box in the upper left, type in the full UNC path to the Windows share (for example, “\servername.domainname.com\sharename”), and press Enter.
Ensure you have appropriate security permissions on the .mdb file, and select it from the share. Enterprise will now interpret the UNC path to the server, instead of the mapped drive path.
I am facing a similar issue and I believe this might actually be a problem with permissions to the Access database file itself.
The reason why the report works in deski is because you are propably running deski with your own user account and you have permissions to the shared net resource where the access file is located. But webi uses services running on BO server to make the connection and so the user is actually the user that is running the appropriate service (at least this is what I believe at this point). My belief is that this user account running the service needs to be granted rights for the access database file…
…however the guestion is what service it actually is that is trying to make the connection?? And since all my services are now running under “local system” it is impossible to give any rights to that user in remote server. Maybe I should change the account what is used to run the BO services to some AD account that I make admin on the BO server?? Is this the way to go and what things needs to be considered there when changing the account that is running the BO services?
I wouldn’t recommend running any of your BO services under the localadmin account for that very reason. All our BO services run under a Windows NT account which then has the neccessary permissions the servers/file locations etc.
If you are trying to run a report against this access db in webi then it will be the Web Intelligence Report server that will be trying to access the the file location.
Thanks… that is what I thought. Is there anything special to take into consideration if I change BO services to run under AD account instead of the localadmin that it is now using? For example what local security policies I need to add for the new user? Should I change all BO services to use this new AD account or only some of them?
I’d change all the services to run under the same account. I’m not aware of any security changes you’d need to make. Just make sure the account you use has rights to your db’s/file locations etc.