Latest Vertica Driver Version 6.1 Caveat : LCOPY issue

newer versions of device drivers bring along some performance enhancements giving users better experience. seldom they would require any change in database queries / code that is already there.

but in this case 'LCOPY' command has been replaced with 'COPY LOCAL'. i can't understand the reason behind it, but if you are gonna upgrade your Vertica drivers to Version 6.1 please keep this in mind.

Now for the good part:
-improved performance of UNION and UNION ALL queries
-supports SQL WITH clause in a primary SELECT statement

etc.

MS Access Crash - shared database with multiple users

i am sure most of us Access users are familiar with Access crashing/going corrupt. especially it is the UI form or the VBA code that goes bad. though we can't entirely do away with this issue we can certainly minimize it to some extent.

-one solution that is suggested and also as i have experienced is to 'Split' the database. Splitting simply refers to maintain a separate database with all the tables required and in turn linking these tables [back-end] with other database having the required UI Forms and the VBA code [front-end].

-we can further have multiple copies of front-end database for each user too.

this helps in minimizing crashes as it avoids loading of every form and code in to the memory from same location for each user.

ODBC connection string for 64 bit Win OS [OS vs App and 64 Bit Vs 32 Bit]

with Windows 7 becoming standard across, naturally there are issues cropping up everywhere after migration. people are clueless as to what would be the effect of the new system update on their processes and systems- atleast i was.

we faced issues with ODBC drivers for the database connections [for MySql and Vertica databases]. i really had to struggly to 'find' out which was the right ODBC right ODBC connection string to use. this issue was compounded because the Office 2010 does not support Jet Database Engine .

to start with, there are couple of scenarios to consider:
1. a 64 bit Windows OS with 64 bit Application [MS Office]
2.a 64 bit Windows OS with 32 bit Application [MS Office]


right now we are using the scenario 2. after much of trial and error , and searching around online [inlcuding MS Knowledg Base] i could finally get the below combination of connection string working:

	Old	New
Vertica	Vertica ODBC Driver 4.1	Vertica ODBC Driver 4.0
MySql	MySQL ODBC 5.1 Driver	MySQL ODBC 5.2w Driver or MySQL ODBC 5.2a Driver [supposed to be 'newer']

 most of this confusion can be avoided, if the system admin makes efforts to inform all the stakeholders of the correct system updates and most importantly if Microsoft can udpate its Knowledge Base with the correct and un-ambigous information about the dropping support to old technologies and alternatives offered.