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Dynamics 365 Community / Forums / Finance | Project Operations, Human Resources, ... / MR and Microsoft Acces...
Finance | Project Operations, Human Resources, ...
Answered

MR and Microsoft Access Driver

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Posted on by Sherry Whitten 329

We are trying to link to an excel spreadsheet in an MR report.  We are getting the error that the Microsoft Access Driver is not registered.  On the 64 bit server where MR is running, we have 32 bit Excel and the 32 bit Microsoft Excel Driver.  (The 64 bit SQL Server has 64 bit excel, 64 bit ACE driver.)

I think I need the 64 bit Microsoft Excel Driver on the server where MR is running, but I read about some concerns/issues with installing it alongside the 32 bit driver, using the 'passive' install option.  From one of the articles I read:

"Microsoft Office Support team has notified MR Support that installing the Access Database Engine using the /passive option is not recommended and may not be supported in a production environment,"

Any advice?  Thanks!

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Microsoft Dynamics GP
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  • Sherry Whitten Profile Picture
    Sherry Whitten 329 on at
    RE: MR and Microsoft Access Driver

    Darian,

    Thank you for the feedback.  I opted for the second option - moving the Configuration Console (and services with it) to the SQL server - 64 bit with 64 bit excel drivers.  I uninstalled it from the server where I have 32 bit excel and excel drivers.

    Everything is working great now.

    I was afraid to try the passive option :(  Thanks again!

  • Verified answer
    Darian Profile Picture
    Darian on at
    RE: MR and Microsoft Access Driver

    Hi Sherry,  

    MR uses the Excel drivers that are where the Configuration Console is installed, and it uses the user you have running the MR services on that server as the user who needs access to those linked Excel files.  It sounds like having MR on the server where SC will not work due to the 32 bit requirements there.  

    At this point, it is up to you if you want to do the Passive install, but there are the risks that were mentioned.  All though we have not seen any issues from a MR perspective doing this, but if you have dependencies of other products then that maybe the case.

    The other option is to move the Configuration Console piece.  To do this, the following would be done.  It is a little simpler since you are not moving the SQL database in this case.

    1) Make a backup of your MR database(s)

    2) Launch Configuration Console on the old server, Remove your integration, and then remove your Process Service, then Application Service.

    3) Uninstall the MR Server components

    4) Install the Server Components (same version as old server) (Configuration Console) on the new server

    5) Install the services, when you do this, you will want to check the box to connect to an existing MR database.  Then you can point to that and it will install the services.  

    6) Now setup the integration again either Legacy or Data Mart (*If the data mart, you can create a new DM database or remove your old one and replace it with the same name ManagementReporterDM is typically the database name for this.

    Thanks,

    Darian

  • Sherry Whitten Profile Picture
    Sherry Whitten 329 on at
    RE: MR and Microsoft Access Driver

    Darian,

    Thank you for your reply.  We have to have 32 bit on the servers where SmartConnect is installed and running; it requires 32 bit for integrations from excel.  I can't break those.

    Right now I have SmartConnect and MR Configuration Console and report designer installed on a server that users do not access.  MR Report Designer and SC are also installed on two RDP servers; this is where users actually work/run integrations and MR reports.  SQL is on a separate 64 bit server, and it currently does not have any SC or MR components installed (except the databases, of course).  If I want to declare the SQL server 64 bit all the way, what MR components need to be there?  Can I just put the Configuration Console there?  Or does it need other parts of MR?  When the users run an MR report that links out to Excel from one of the RDP servers, where does it get the Excel Drivers that it uses - from the RDP server or from where MR Configuration Console is installed or somewhere else?  

    If installing MR Config Console on the SQL box is the answer, do you have a TK that guides me through moving that from one server to another?  

    Thanks again!

  • Darian Profile Picture
    Darian on at
    RE: MR and Microsoft Access Driver

    Hi Sherry,

    The most likely reason for this is that you have a 64-bit operating system with a 32-bit version of Office installed as you mentioned.
    Management Reporter will only allow you to install the version that matches your operating system (64-bit version on a 64-bit operating system, 32-bit version on a 32-bit operating system)

    Note that you can only have one version of the Access database engine installed at one time

    As you mentioned the passive install is an option to have both.  Our best recommendation would be to just have the 64 bit version installed in your case, so you would need to uninstall the 32 bit version to install that, but if absolutely needed then the passive option that may be an alternative, but it is at your own risk like mentioned by the Office team.  We have not seen any issues with it at this point, but it is an alternative. 

    **Otherwise, if you can not install the 64 bit Access components on that server, you could move your MR Server components to the SQL server or another server that could have all the 64 bit components.  MR needs this on the MR server as it is the MR service user that does all the processing with Excel when linking to an Excel file.

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