Data Link Connection

In Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000, Data Transformation Services (DTS) packages can use Microsoft Data Link (.udl) files to create OLE DB connections and resolve the connections at run time. This feature lets you encapsulate the connection properties from a DTS package into a separate file. In situations where connection information such as the server name, login, or even the OLE DB provider may change, you can edit the connection string in a data link file instead of the connection properties in a DTS package.

In Microsoft SQL Server version 7.0, you can use a data link file, but the connections are not resolved at run time and can be modified only by editing the DTS package. This choice is useful in situations where an OLE DB provider has special connection requirements that can be addressed only through the data link dialog boxes.

If you are specifying a data link connection, you first must specify whether to load an existing data link file or create a data link to save with DTS Designer.

If you want to use a data link file rather than saving the data link with DTS Designer, you can create one either from Windows Explorer or during the data link configuration process in DTS Designer.

To create a data link file with run-time resolution