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Why do I get an empty ODBC Driver Manager trace file when using a SQL Server Linked Server?

Article:
01054
Last Reviewed:
4th January 2024
Revision:
3

This is because the account that SQL Server is running under does not have permission to write to files in the location specified in the Log File Path box in the ODBC Data Source Administrator.

The Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers, which enables a linked server to connect to a database by using an ODBC driver, uses OLE DB to communicate with SQL Server and ODBC to communicate with the database. The Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers is linked against the ODBC Driver Manager and can therefore generate an ODBC Driver Manager trace.

If you attempt to generate an ODBC Driver Manager trace file in a location where SQL Server does not have permission to write to, you will notice that your SQL statements take longer to complete (in keeping with having tracing enabled; the ODBC Driver Manager is logging your ODBC API calls even though you are not seeing any output), but you are getting an empty ODBC trace file in the specified location.

To work around this, do one of the following:

Applies To

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