ODBC and PDO

ODBC is the strategically-preferred way to talk to DB2 from PHP, Python, Node, and basically anything that isn’t RPG. The driver ships with IBM i (the IBM i Access ODBC Driver), it works the same way from a PASE program on the partition as it does from Linux or Windows over TCP, and it’s the path IBM is consistently pointing toward for new development.

The full treatment — connection-string keywords, how to install unixODBC, all the PDO_ODBC and pyodbc and odbc.js examples — lives in the companion guide:

PHP / PDO / ODBC Toolkit Setup → Connecting to DB2

This chapter is the short version: enough to know what you’re installing, what it does, and where the long version is.

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What ships with IBM i, and what comes from yum

The IBM i Access ODBC Driver is part of IBM i Access Client Solutions and is shipped on the partition as part of standard IBM i. You don’t yum install it; it’s already there at /QOpenSys/usr/lib/libcwbodbc.so (or wherever your release puts it).

What you do yum install is the driver manager — the layer that PASE programs use to find and load the IBM driver:

yum install -y unixODBC unixODBC-devel

This gives you /QOpenSys/pkgs/bin/odbcinst, the configuration files at /QOpenSys/etc/odbcinst.ini and /QOpenSys/etc/odbc.ini, and the libodbc.so that PHP, Python, Node, and others link against.

Plus, depending on the language:

# PHP
yum install -y php-pdo php-pdo-odbc

# Python
yum install -y python3-pyodbc

# Node — npm install in your project:
# npm install odbc

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A canonical connection string

The form that works for almost everyone:

DRIVER={IBM i Access ODBC Driver};SYSTEM=localhost;UID=K3SAPP;PWD=...;NAM=1;DBQ=K3SDATA;CCSID=1208;UNICODESQL=1

The keywords that matter:

Keyword	Value	Meaning
DRIVER	{IBM i Access ODBC Driver}	The IBM-shipped driver. Note the curly braces and exact name.
SYSTEM	localhost (on-box) or hostname	The IBM i to connect to.
UID / PWD	Your credentials	Use a service user (K3SAPP), never QSECOFR.
NAM	1 for SQL naming, 0 for system naming	SQL naming (schema.table) is what most modern code expects.
DBQ	A library name	Default schema / library for unqualified references.
CCSID	1208	Connection-level character encoding negotiation. UTF-8.
UNICODESQL	1	Tells the driver that bound parameters and results are Unicode.

The other 50+ ODBC keywords are documented (and sometimes critical for performance) in the toolkit guide. Read Connecting to DB2 when you need them.

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ODBC in PHP, Python, Node — at a glance

PHP (PDO_ODBC):

$dsn = 'odbc:DRIVER={IBM i Access ODBC Driver};SYSTEM=localhost;UID=K3SAPP;PWD=...;NAM=1;DBQ=K3SDATA;CCSID=1208;UNICODESQL=1';
$pdo = new PDO($dsn);
$stmt = $pdo->query('SELECT custno, name FROM custmast FETCH FIRST 5 ROWS ONLY');
foreach ($stmt as $row) {
    echo $row['CUSTNO'] . ' ' . $row['NAME'] . "\n";
}

Python (pyodbc):

import pyodbc
conn = pyodbc.connect(
    'DRIVER={IBM i Access ODBC Driver};SYSTEM=localhost;UID=K3SAPP;PWD=...;'
    'NAM=1;DBQ=K3SDATA;CCSID=1208;UNICODESQL=1'
)
for row in conn.cursor().execute('SELECT custno, name FROM custmast FETCH FIRST 5 ROWS ONLY'):
    print(row.custno, row.name)

Node (odbc):

import odbc from 'odbc';
const conn = await odbc.connect(
  'DRIVER={IBM i Access ODBC Driver};SYSTEM=localhost;UID=K3SAPP;PWD=...;' +
  'NAM=1;DBQ=K3SDATA;CCSID=1208;UNICODESQL=1'
);
const result = await conn.query('SELECT custno, name FROM custmast FETCH FIRST 5 ROWS ONLY');
console.log(result);

All three call into the same IBM i Access driver, with the same connection string keywords, with the same CCSID and library-list semantics. That’s the ODBC promise.

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Where next

For everything beyond the basics — the full keyword list, calling RPG from PHP through the toolkit on top of an existing PDO connection, performance tuning, prestart jobs, exit programs, custom subsystems for ODBC isolation — go to PHP / PDO / ODBC Toolkit Setup.

Otherwise, What belongs in IBM i OSS is next.