Access HCL Domino Data as a Remote Oracle Database

The Oracle Database Gateway for ODBC and Heterogeneous Services technology enable you to connect to ODBC data sources as remote Oracle databases. This article shows how to use the CData ODBC Driver for HCL Domino to create a database link from HCL Domino to Oracle and to query HCL Domino data through the SQL*Plus tool. You can also create the database link and execute queries from SQL Developer.

Connect to HCL Domino as an ODBC Data Source

Information for connecting to HCL Domino follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments.

Connecting to Domino

To connect to Domino data, set the following properties:

• URL: The host name or IP of the server hosting the Domino database. Include the port of the server hosting the Domino database. For example: http://sampleserver:1234/
• DatabaseScope: The name of a scope in the Domino Web UI. The driver exposes forms and views for the schema governed by the specified scope. In the Domino Admin UI, select the Scopes menu in the sidebar. Set this property to the name of an existing scope.

Authenticating with Domino

Domino supports authenticating via login credentials or an Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) OAuth application:

Login Credentials

To authenticate with login credentials, set the following properties:

• AuthScheme: Set this to "OAuthPassword"
• User: The username of the authenticating Domino user
• Password: The password associated with the authenticating Domino user

The driver uses the login credentials to automatically perform an OAuth token exchange.

EntraID (formerly AzureAD)

This authentication method uses Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) as an IdP to obtain a JWT token. You need to create a custom OAuth application in Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) and configure it as an IdP. To do so, follow the instructions in the Help documentation. Then set the following properties:

• AuthScheme: Set this to "EntraID (formerly AzureAD)"
• InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
• OAuthClientId: The Client ID obtained when setting up the custom OAuth application.
• OAuthClientSecret: The Client secret obtained when setting up the custom OAuth application.
• CallbackURL: The redirect URI defined when you registered your app. For example: https://localhost:33333
• AzureTenant: The Microsoft Online tenant being used to access data. Supply either a value in the form companyname.microsoft.com or the tenant ID.

  The tenant ID is the same as the directory ID shown in the Azure Portal's Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) > Properties page.

Windows

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Note: If you need to modify the DSN or create other HCL Domino DSNs, you must use a system DSN and the bitness of the DSN must match your Oracle system. You can access and create 32-bit DSNs on a 64-bit system by opening the 32-bit ODBC Data Source Administrator from C:\Windows\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe.

Linux

If you are installing the CData ODBC Driver for HCL Domino in a Linux environment, the driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties.

/etc/odbc.ini

[CData Domino Source]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for HCL Domino
Description = My Description
Server = https://domino.corp.com
AuthScheme = OAuthPassword
User = my_domino_user
Password = my_domino_password

For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).

Set Connection Properties for Compatibility with Oracle

The driver provides several connection properties that streamline accessing HCL Domino data just as you would an Oracle database. Set the following properties when working with HCL Domino data in SQL*Plus and SQL Developer. For compatibility with Oracle, you will need to set the following connection properties, in addition to authentication and other required connection properties.

• MapToWVarchar=False

  Set this property to map string data types to SQL_VARCHAR instead of SQL_WVARCHAR. By default, the driver uses SQL_WVARCHAR to accommodate various international character sets. You can use this property to avoid the ORA-28528 Heterogeneous Services data type conversion error when the Unicode type is returned.

• MaximumColumnSize=4000

  Set this property to restrict the maximum column size to 4000 characters.

• IncludeDualTable=True

  Set this property to mock the Oracle DUAL table. SQL Developer uses this table to test the connection.

Linux Configuration

In Linux environments, Oracle uses UTF-8 to communicate with the unixODBC Driver manager, whereas the default driver encoding is UTF-16. To resolve this, open the file /opt/cdata/cdata-driver-for-domino/lib/cdata.odbc.domino.ini in a text editor and set the encoding.

cdata.odbc.domino.ini

[Driver]
DriverManagerEncoding = UTF-8

Configure the ODBC Gateway, Oracle Net, and Oracle Database

Follow the procedure below to set up an ODBC gateway to HCL Domino data that enables you to query live HCL Domino data as an Oracle database.

1. Create the file initmydominodb.ora in the folder oracle-home-directory/hs/admin and add the following setting:

   initmydominodb.ora

   HS_FDS_CONNECT_INFO = "CData Domino Sys"

2. Add an entry to the listener.ora file. This file is located in oracle-home-directory/NETWORK/admin.

   If you are using the Database Gateway for ODBC, your listener.ora needs to have a SID_LIST_LISTENER entry that resembles the following:

   listener.ora

   SID_LIST_LISTENER =
    (SID_LIST =
    (SID_DESC =
    (SID_NAME = mydominodb)
    (ORACLE_HOME = your-oracle-home)
    (PROGRAM = dg4odbc)
    )
    )
   

   If you are using Heterogeneous Services, your listener.ora needs to have a SID_LIST_LISTENER entry that resembles the following:

   listener.ora

   SID_LIST_LISTENER =
    (SID_LIST =
    (SID_DESC =
    (SID_NAME = mydominodb)
    (ORACLE_HOME = your-oracle-home)
    (PROGRAM = hsodbc)
    )
    )
   

3. Add the connect descriptor below in tnsnames.ora, located in oracle-home-directory/NETWORK/admin:

   tnsnames.ora

   mydominodb =
    (DESCRIPTION=
    (ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=localhost)(PORT=1521))
    (CONNECT_DATA=(SID=mydominodb))
    (HS=OK)
    ) 
   

4. Restart the listener.

5. Test the configuration with the following command:

   tnsping mydominodb

6. Open SQL*Plus and create the database link with the command below:

   CREATE DATABASE LINK mydominodb CONNECT TO "user" IDENTIFIED BY "password" USING 'mydominodb';

You can now execute queries in SQL*Plus like the one below (note the double quotation marks around the table name):

SELECT * from "ByName"@mydominodb WHERE City = 'Miami';