Microsoft Drivers 3.0 for PHP for SQL Server

Question

I have installed on my Microsoft Windows Server 2012 x64 the Microsoft Drivers 3.0 for PHP for SQL Server

I have configured PHP 5.4 to load the driver, I need it to use PDO with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, installed on a different machine.

When I try to perform a connection to my SQL server using PDO on PHP I get this error:

This extension requires the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Native Client ODBC Driver to communicate with SQL Server. Access the following URL to download the Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Native Client ODBC driver for x86: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=163712

Looking in the system requirements of Microsoft Drivers 3.0 for PHP for SQL Server I read:

• Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Native Client available in the SQL Server 2012 Feature Pack.
• Any edition of SQL Server 2005 or later.

Does it mean that I need to install the entire MSQL server on my machine even if I use a different machine to run the MSQL Server?

Answer 1

It requires just the SQL Server 2012 Native Client, not the SQL Server 2005 or later.

Thanks Microsoft for the crappy documentation.