Reverse Engineering for Database Diagramming in Visio with SQL Server 2008

Question

I need to reverse engineer a Microsoft SQL Server 2008 in order to create a Microsoft Visio 2007 Database Model Diagram. So I choose "Reverse Engineer" from the Database menu to connect to the DB.

I configured the Microsoft SQL Server Visio driver so that is uses SQL Server Native Client 10.0 as the ODBC driver. Afterwards I created a User DSN which connects to my DB. This DSN works (at least the provided test is successful). After clicking next in the Reverse Engineer Wizard, Visio kindly asks for my credentials which I properly provide, but after clicking OK I receive the following message:

The currently selected Visio driver is not compatible with the data source.

I tried using the old SQL Server ODBC driver, by also reconfiguring the Visio driver of course. It does not work too.

Admin · Answer

To connect Visio 2007 to a SQL Server 2008 database run the Reverse Engineer Wizard (Database/Reverse Engineer. . . ) in Visio 2007 select the ODBC Generic driver from the "Installed Visio drivers" drop-down. Then create a new data source using the SQL Native Client (2005.90.4035, 2005 SP3). You'll get a warning stating that some information retrieved may be incomplete. Click OK and continue. It's not the most intuitive solution (but not difficult), but at least this will allow you to use Visio 2007 to connect to SQL 2008.

Chip Lambert, Slalom Consulting

Paul_Hargreaves_5330 · Answer

From Microsoft support via the Microsoft forums:

Further investigation reveals that this is expected behavior for Visio 2007. When Visio opens a connection using the Visio SQL Server Driver it checks the server version and since SQL Server 2008 shipped after Visio 2007 it doesn't recognise SQL Server 2008 as a supported version and closes the connection. You can wait for a future version of Visio to ship which does recognise SQL Server 2008 or use the Visio Generic ODBC driver which can successfully open connections to SQL Server 2008. A third option is to use a copy of SQL Server 2005 for initial reverse engineering. The Visio team is aware of this issue.

Marlon_70530 · Answer

You could create a User DSN in the ODBC Data Source Administrator utility and then connect to your instance of MSSQL 2008 through Visio 2007 by using the selecting the ODBC Generic Driver instead of the Microsoft SQL Server driver.

You could also try the SQL Server 2008 Data Mining Addins for Office 2007.

Grab them here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=896A493A-2502-4795-94AE-E00632BA6DE7&displaylang=en

I hope this helps!

Cheers

user_115352 · Answer

I ended up using the Generic OLE Db Provider instead of the ODBC Generic driver to connect to SQL Server 2008 - datatypes seemed to come through OK.

Reverse Engineering for Database Diagramming in Visio with SQL Server 2008

6 Answers