MSSQL SUPPORT FOR CPANEL SERVER (freetds / odbc)

This post will help you in configuring your cPanel server to support remote MS-SQL servers.

First step – Install freetdns / odbc

yum install  unixODBC unixODBC-devel
cd /usr/local/src
wget http://ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/ALPHA/freetds/stable/freetds-stable.tgz
tar zfvx freetds-stable.tgz
cd freetds-*
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/freetds --with-tdsver=8.0 --enable-msdblib --enable-dbmfix --with-gnu-ld
make
make install
touch /usr/local/freetds/lib/libtds.a
touch /usr/local/freetds/include/tds.h
ln -s /usr/local/freetds/lib/  /usr/local/freetds/lib64

Next, edit the file: /var/cpanel/easy/apache/rawopts/all_php5

Add the following code –

--with-mssql=/usr/local/freetds
--with-unixODBC=/usr

Now we will need to re-build EasyApache, so it will implement the changes –

/scripts/easyapache

You can verify it is now supported using php –

php --info |grep  "mssql"
php -i | grep odbc

Edit the file “/usr/local/lib/php.ini” , and make sure odbc.so is listed like this:

extension=odbc.so

and not

extension = odbc.so

Restart your httpd service – /scripts/restartsrv_httpd

The remote MSSQL server you would like to connect to, should be listed in the “/usr/local/freetds/etc/freetds.conf” file, and whiltelisted in your cPanel server firewall.

Here is an example for the freetds.conf file –

[192.168.1.110]
        host = 192.168.1.110
        port = 1433
        tds version = 7.0
 
[192.168.1.111]
        host = 192.168.1.111
        port = 1433
        tds version = 7.0

(You can try tds version 8 if that doesn’t work)