Previously, Microsoft announced deprecation of the Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server, part of the SQL Server Native Client (SNAC). At the time, this decision was made to try to provide more simplicity for the developer story around Windows native software development as we moved into the cloud era with Azure SQL Database, and to try to leverage the similarities of JDBC and ODBC for developers. However, during subsequent reviews it was determined that deprecation was a mistake because substantial scenarios within SQL Server still depend on OLE DB and changing those would break some existing customer scenarios.
With this in mind, we have decided to undeprecate OLE DB and release a new version by the first quarter of calendar year 2018. This new Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server will support connectivity to SQL Server (versions 2012 to 2017), Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Data Warehouse from applications with the existing feature set of SQL Server Native Client 11. Following releases will incrementally provide updated functionality that was introduced to other drivers since SQL Server 2012, while maintaining backwards compatibility.
The new Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server, or msoledbsql, will also introduce multi-subnet failover capabilities in this first upcoming release, and keeps up with latest TLS 1.2 standards.
Also, this first upcoming release will be a stand-alone install package that is out-of-band with SQL Server lifecycle. This also means the driver will not be packaged in the SNAC library, nor coupled with any other driver.
Additional updates will be provided closer to a release date. In the meantime, learn about the current OLE DB Supportability Guidelines for existing applications, and refer to SNAC lifecycle explained for lifecycle clarifications on SNAC.
Pedro Lopes (@sqlpto) – Senior Program Manager