Getting Started

June 12, 2026 · View on GitHub

Minimum Requirements

Before using the AWS Advanced ODBC Wrapper, you must install:

The AWS Advanced ODBC Wrapper
UnixODBC and ICU4C if using the pre-compiled artifacts on Mac (via Homebrew) or Linux (via APT)
and an underlying ODBC Driver of your choice
- To use the wrapper with Aurora or RDS with PostgreSQL compatibility, install the psqlodbc PostgreSQL ODBC Driver.
- To use the wrapper with Aurora or RDS with MySQL compatibility, install either MySQL Connector/ODBC or MariaDB Connector/ODBC. See the underlying driver compatibility notes - if you need IAM authentication with Aurora MySQL, use MariaDB Connector/ODBC, as MySQL Connector/ODBC has a connection string length limitation that prevents it from carrying an IAM token.

Obtaining the AWS Advanced ODBC Wrapper

You can use pre-compiled packages that can be downloaded directly from GitHub Releases.

Download the .msi Windows installer; execute the installer and follow the onscreen instructions. The default target installation location for the wrapper files is C:\Program Files\AWS Advanced ODBC Wrapper. Two wrappers will be installed:

AWS Advanced ODBC Wrapper Ansi
AWS Advanced ODBC Wrapper Unicode

To uninstall the AWS Advanced ODBC Wrapper, open the same installer file, select the option to uninstall the wrapper and follow the onscreen instructions to successfully uninstall the wrapper.

MacOS

Warning

This wrapper currently only supports MacOS with Silicon chips.

Download the releases aws-advanced-odbc-wrapper-<Version>-macos-arm64.zip and extract the artifacts to a location of your choice.

For pre-built binaries, users must allow both the Wrapper and the dependencies to be used through Gatekeeper. The following command can be used to bypass this for the downloaded files:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /path/to/the/wrapper/

Once extracted, you can optionally perform a checksum to ensure match from GitHub build by running

shasum -a 256 aws-advanced-odbc-wrapper-a.dylib
shasum -a 256 aws-advanced-odbc-wrapper-w.dylib

Linux

Download the releases aws-advanced-odbc-wrapper-<Version>-linux-x64.tar.gz and extract the artifacts to a location of your choice.

Once extracted, you can optionally perform a checksum to ensure match from GitHub build by running

sha256sum aws-advanced-odbc-wrapper-a.so
sha256sum aws-advanced-odbc-wrapper-w.so

Configuring the Driver and DSN Entries

To configure the driver on Windows, use the ODBC Data Source Administrator tool to add or configure a DSN for either the AWS Advanced ODBC Wrapper Ansi or AWS Advanced ODBC Wrapper Unicode. With this DSN you can specify the options for the desired connection.

To use the driver on Linux and MacOS systems, you need to create or modify two files: odbc.ini and odbcinst.ini, that will contain the configuration for the driver and the Data Source Name (DSN), see the following examples:

odbc.ini

[ODBC Data Sources]
aws-odbc-wrapper-a = AWS Advanced ODBC Wrapper Ansi
aws-odbc-wrapper-w = AWS Advanced ODBC Wrapper Unicode

[aws-odbc-wrapper-a]
Driver          = AWS Advanced ODBC Wrapper Ansi
SERVER          = database-cluster-name.cluster-XYZ.us-west-1.rds.amazonaws.com
DATABASE        = my-database-name
BASE_DRIVER     = path-to\psqlodbca.dylib

[aws-odbc-wrapper-w]
Driver          = AWS Advanced ODBC Wrapper Unicode
SERVER          = database-cluster-name.cluster-XYZ.us-west-1.rds.amazonaws.com
DATABASE        = my-database-name
BASE_DRIVER     = path-to\psqlodbcw.dylib

odbcinst.ini

[ODBC Drivers]
AWS Advanced ODBC Wrapper Ansi      = Installed
AWS Advanced ODBC Wrapper Unicode   = Installed

[AWS Advanced ODBC Wrapper Ansi]
# For MacOS
Driver = aws-advanced-odbc-wrapper-a.dylib # or `aws-advanced-odbc-wrapper-a.so` for Linux

[AWS Advanced ODBC Wrapper Unicode]
# For MacOS
Driver = aws-advanced-odbc-wrapper-w.dylib # or `aws-advanced-odbc-wrapper-w.so` for Linux

Using the Wrapper

For more information on how to use and configure, visit Using the AWS Advanced ODBC Wrapper page