What are the pitfalls and advantages of using different methods to distribute an ODBC database to different machines?

Question

Having an MS-ACCESS front-end and a MYSQL back-end, what methods are available to distribute your Access file to new machines lacking the MySQL ODBC drivers and a pre-configured DSN. Could respondents please specify their preferred method only, detailing the steps involved from "no DB" to "working DB", so as to have a list of different methods available.

Note: I am not asking for methods to create DSNs, but the entire distribution to new machines. Issues relating to OS version, system type (32-bit or 64-bit), installation of drivers and creation of DSNs, manual or automatic, can be addressed. Links to guides are also acceptable.

Thanks

Answer 1

This is always an issue to give careful thought to with Access, in the case you have mentioned I would try and avoid linking in my tables via ODBC at all, not only does it highlight the issue you have mentioned, it can also have a detrimental effect on the performance of your database.

Whenever working with dedicated database server's such as MySql, I would always advise using the ADO connection method rather than Access' native DAO. It's advantagious as ADO does not rely on a stored DSN and therefore should be good to go "straight out of the box" if you like (However the drivers will need to be installed on each machine). In terms of performance with dedicated server's, ADO allows you to run any queries/updates etc on the server side; whereas linking tables in Access forces these to run locally on the PC and therefore the performance will likely suffer.

This link shows both method's in good detail: http://webcheatsheet.com/asp/database_connection_to_MySQL.php