Automate vCenter 4.1 64-bit DSN Creation

Back in the days of vCenter 4.0 it required a 32-bit DSN to connect to your SQL database. Now that vCenter 4.1 and ESX 4.1 are out, it now requires the use of a 64-bit DSN. This makes sense as vCenter now requires a 64-bit server. The PowerShell script I wrote last year automated the configuration of a 32-bit DSN. So I needed to do a couple of minor tweaks to make it create a 64-bit DSN.

If you are using Windows Server 2008/R2, make sure you run the PowerShell script as Administrator or it will fail with lots of error messages. The script is compatible with both SQL 2008 and SQL 2008 R2.

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## Creates a 64-bit System DSN for vCenter Server.
## Version 1.0, 21 August 2010

$DSNName = "vCenter Server"
$DBName = "vCenter Server"

If($args[0] -eq $NULL) { echo "Must specify FQDN of SQL server."; Exit}

$HKLMPath1 = "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBC.INI\" + $DSNName
$HKLMPath2 = "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBC.INI\ODBC Data Sources"

md $HKLMPath1 -ErrorAction silentlycontinue
set-itemproperty -path $HKLMPath1 -name Driver -value "C:\WINDOWS\system32\sqlncli10.dll"
set-itemproperty -path $HKLMPath1 -name Description -value $DSNName
set-itemproperty -path $HKLMPath1 -name Server -value $args[0]
set-itemproperty -path $HKLMPath1 -name LastUser -value "Administrator"
set-itemproperty -path $HKLMPath1 -name Trusted_Connection -value "Yes"
set-itemproperty -path $HKLMPath1 -name Database -value $DBName

## This is required to allow the ODBC connection to show up in the ODBC Administrator application.

md $HKLMPath2 -ErrorAction silentlycontinue
set-itemproperty -path $HKLMPath2 -name "$DSNName" -value "SQL Server Native Client 10.0"
--

Just save the file on your vCenter server, open an elevated PowerShell command window and execute the script with an argument of the FQDN of your SQL server. For example:

DSN-vCenter64.ps1 SQL01.contoso.net

Be sure to change the database name variable to match what you configured in SQL.