"Database logon failed" when generating Crystal Report from ViewX using ODBC connection to SQL Server Database.

[AutoGui20]

Hi,

I have already submitted a request to support for this issue but I thought I would see if anyone else had any thoughts on this or had run into this issue before and got it resolved.

I built a crystal report that pulls in data from a SQL table using an ODBC connection. The report is pointed to the table and is not using a command to pull in the data. I know that the connection, specifically the credentials, is working because I can preview the report in the Crystal Reports editor which successfully pulls in the data.

The problem is that when I try to generate the report through ViewX, I am seeing in the events and the crystal report logs that the report failed to generate the report because the database logon failed.

This seems to be a ClearSCADA issue because Crystal Reports is able to connect and retrieve data from SQL Server using the ODBC connection.

I also checked SQL Profiler to see if there was any error on the SQL side but I did not seen messages. I was able to see through the query that Crystal Reports used to retrieve the data when previewing the report in the editor. I even verified that the query would execute successfully in SQL directly. So its not an issue with the report, its contents, or the connection information.

This is a local setup and I am an administrator on my machine and in SQL. The user I provided in the ODBC connection is also an admin.

Any help would be appreciated.

[BevanWeiss]

To run through a few things...

The DSN that you have here is correct? and configured as you expect it to be (i.e. 64-bit / 32-bit as appropriate)?

And then you have the Location and User configured correctly here?

And the user has the right security permissions?

I'm not sure entirely if this tick box needs to be ticked for ODBC access in new versions, but I'd probably give it a try if it's not already in your system

Let us know how you go with confirming those.

[sbeadle]

Some additions/changes:

The 'can edit SQL' setting does not affect Crystal, so is not needed.

The Crystal Report setting Location = 'Local Database' means that whatever database connection settings and credentials the report might have, they will all be replaced by the Geo SCADA connection DSN configured in the top image, with the user specified under the Location setting. So if you are accessing a different database then it will not work. Choose the other remote database option and all of the connection and credential information you save after editing them in the report will be used during report generation.

[AutoGui20]

I did not have have the correct the DSN in the location of the first image you sent (Server configuration ->Global Parameters ->Crystal Reports). So I tried both the 32 bit and 64 bit DSN for SQL with the local database setting for "Location" and I set a user with the permission to edit/access everything (including the edit SQL option). However, I still received the same error.

A bit more information on what I had tried before your suggestion: I originally was using local database for the "Location" setting with no user defined. However, that was giving me an error that the SQL table couldn't be found. After speaking with a colleague, he suggested using the remote database and that's when I started to get the Database logon error and I have stuck with using the Remote Database option since then.

[BevanWeiss]

Screen shots or it didn't happen... 😉

Show us the DSN settings as you configured them from the Server Configuration window.

I have a suspicion that you still don't have the DSN settings right.

I'd recommend that you go with Local for the Report Location, and enter an appropriate user here (unless you are indeed trying to access a different System / different SQL entirely).

If you didn't specify a User, then it would make some sense that it complained it couldn't find the tables you referenced... the Everyone account possibly doesn't have Read / Browse permissions.

Go back to Local.  Put in an appropriate user account for Crystal Reports to use.

If that doesn't work, then show us what you have for the DSN settings.

[AndrewScott]

As your report is querying a Microsoft SQL Server database, and not the ClearSCADA database, you must set the report location to remote and not local. The DSN specified in the "Server Configuration \ Global Parameters \ Crystal Reports" section only applies to reports where the report location is local, so it is not applicable in this case. If the report location is set to local then only the local ClearSCADA database can be queried by the report as all of the DSN's specified in the report will be replaced with the one specified in the server configuration tool.

For a report using the remote report location to work you must create a 64-bit System DSN on the ClearSCADA server(s) which has the exact same name as the DSN used when designing the report. Also, the credentials required to access the database must be saved in either the report or the DSN itself. If generating the report prompts you to enter credentials (e.g. a password) then the report will not work with ClearSCADA.

Bear in mind that the report will be generated using the Windows user account specified in the "Server Configuration \ System Configuration \ Printing" section, which may affect the logon, depending on what type of authentication is being used.

The online help has more information, see "Driver Reference > Crystal Reports Driver > Creating a Report and Defining the Report Properties > Specify the Data Source".

[AutoGui20]

Here is a screenshot of the Crystal Reports DSN setup in the Server Configuration:

and here are the ODBC connections on my machine:

I am currently using the 32 bit ODBC connection but I have also tried the 64 bit version. One thing that was weird was that I had to type in the DSN into the server configuration because when I would click on the setup button and then selected the DSN it would not change on the server configuration. However, after some testing, it does seem to take it properly because I entered a DSN that didn't exist and when I tried to generate the report, it gave an error that it could not create a connection.

Here is the current setup for the location of my report:

and here is the settings for my user:

One thing that I wasn't sure about was what the ClearSCADA user, assigned under the "Location" setting, was for because the DSN and the report have the username and password that would be used to log into SQL Server. What ever the case may be, I put in the windows user I would like to use to generate the reports under printing in the server configuration since it had been mentioned above. Here is a screenshot of those settings:

[AutoGui20]

I did have the report location set as Remote. I recently changed it and have been trying Local since it had been suggested. In my previous response I mentioned that I setup the DSN for Crystal Reports in the server configuration but I still got the same results.

I created both a 32 and 64 bit system DSN on my machine (everything is setup locally). What I noticed is that in the report, it can only locate the 32 bit version DSN. Here is a screenshot of that:

The username and password were entered into the DSN and the report. However, I have noticed that the report asks for the credentials after I've restarted the ClearSCADA server. So I'm not sure if the report actually saves the credentials. It might just hold it in memory but the report still fails to generate even after I've entered the credentials and I save it.

Could there be an issue if the report is using the 32 bit DSN version while ClearSCADA uses the 64 bit version?

Lastly, in my previous reply, I mentioned that I setup the windows user that I want to generate the reports with in the server configuration under printing. This user had admin permissions in SQL but it is a different user that what I specified in the DSN and the report. That user is not a windows users, it's only an SQL user with admin permissions in SQL.

[AndrewScott]

The Server Configuration DSN setting in the first screenshot above is not valid. This DSN must be a 64-bit ClearSCADA DSN for the local ClearSCADA database, but you've specified a 32-bit SQL Server DSN. The correct DSN for this setting is "ClearSCADA" based on the ODBC connections screenshot, however this isn't relevant to this particularly report as it isn't querying the ClearSCADA database.

The third screenshot shows the database source location as "Local Database", but this report isn't querying the local ClearSCADA database, but an SQL Server database and therefore the location must be set to "Remote Database(s)".

The second screenshot shows two SQL Server data sources called "SQLServer32" and "SQLServer64". What is the name of the data source used in the report definition? You must create a 64-bit SQL Server data source with the exact same name to be able to generate the report in ClearSCADA. Given that Crystal Reports is a 32-bit application and ClearSCADA is a 64-bit application you will need two different SQL Server data sources with the same name.

[AutoGui20]

Right, the DSN configuration was originally "ClearSCADA", before I changed it. I have set it back to "ClearSCADA".

I have gone ahead and updated the SQL DSN for the 32 and 64 bit to match:

I have also changed the report from using Local to using Remote for "Location":

Lastly, I updated the report to use the new "SQLServer" DSN name and could get it to generate a preview with data:

However, when I tried to generate it through ViewX again, it failed with the same database logon failed:

[AndrewScott]

All of these settings now appear to be correct.

What kind of authentication are you using in the SQL server DSN's?

I've been unable to get reports to work with Integrated Windows authentication (formally Windows NT authentication). It appears that something about user impersonation (for the printing Windows user) isn't compatible with this form of authentication.

If its possible, it may be worth trying SQL Server authentication. I've not been able to try this myself.

[AutoGui20 · Accepted solution]

I wanted to provide an update to this issue as I was actually able to get around the issue. I should have provided the update when the workaround was still fresh in my mind. However, I got caught up with some other work and didn't get to updating this issue.

Anyways, I was able to get the report working by setting up the SQL table as a linked ODBC table in the server configuration. This allowed me to query the SQL table as if it was a table in ClearSCADA. Therefore, I pointed the report to ClearSCADA using an ODBC connection and I was able to query the table I needed. It worked and got me the data I needed into the report so that was good enough me. Unfortunately, I was unable to get the report working with an ODBC connection directly to SQL.

I hope this at least provides a workaround for other that might be having a similar issue.

[BevanWeiss]

It should be noted that there are performance impacts on referencing ODBC data sources via the Linked ODBC Table feature.

Recommendations were:

• Configure Data Source Location to be 'Remote' on Crystal Reports Geo SCADA Expert object
• Ensure correct DSN was referenced in Crystal Report (and save username/password details within Report).  This means that the 64bit System DSN created (for Geo SCADA Expert Crystal Report driver) should have had the same name as the 32bit System DSN you created (for Crystal Reports Designer)
• SQL Server configured to not use Windows Integrated Security if possible (or further investigation performed into whether this will work correctly with the Impersonation configuration of the Crystal Reports driver)