use DBI;                                                     
                                                              
my $data_source = "dbi:Sybase:database=SynergyOne;server=MSSQL";    
my $username = 'sa';                                                
my $auth = '';                                                        
+  
                                                                      
+  
my $dbh = DBI->connect($data_source, $username, $auth) 
or die "no connection: $DBI::errstr";
[download]

  
[tbone@MDB tbone]$ ~/bin/db-connect.pl 
DBI connect('database=SynergyOne;server=MSSQL','sa',...) failed:  at /
+home/tbone/bi\
n/db-connect.pl line 9 
no connection: OpenClient message: LAYER = (1) ORIGIN = (2) SEVERITY =
+ (6) NUMBER = (151) 
Message String: ct_connect(): user api layer: internal Client Library 
+error: A connection to the server must exist on the connection struct
+ure before this routine can
 be called. 
[tbone@MDB tbone]$
[download]

Carter's compass: I know I'm on the right track when by deleting something, I'm adding functionality

Are you using freetds? If you are, what is the content of your freetds.conf file? Where does it live? freetds has a good manual and, in it, it has a pretty large section on connecting to MS-SQL. I'd RTFM first.

For your reference, my .freetds.conf looks like:

[global]
   tds version = 4.2
   textsize = 10000
 
[MY_SERVER]
   host = 123.456.78.90
   port = 1433
[download]

------
We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement.

Please remember that I'm crufty and crochety. All opinions are purely mine and all code is untested, unless otherwise specified.

If you are attempting to connect to MS-SQL with Sybase's OpenClient libs then that's likely to fail (unless you have some specific version of MS-SQL 7 that supports the Sybase client libs).

If you are using FreeTDS - could you please run the same script with DBI->trace(3) and post or email me the output?

Thanks,

Michael