Setting ODBC properties

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  • Updated July 31, 2025
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    Summary of Setting ODBC properties

    This document describes how to configure and optimize the ServiceNow ODBC driver connectivity and query behavior through various properties. These settings influence data fetching, query parsing, debugging, compression, timeout handling, schema caching, and JVM options to enhance performance and compatibility with different environments and reporting tools.

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    ODBC Administrator Properties

    These properties are set via the ODBC Data Source Administrator or the login dialog’s Custom Properties field. Key properties include:

    • BatchSize: Controls the number of records fetched per request, default is 2000. Adjust to balance memory usage and performance.
    • url: Specifies the target ServiceNow instance URL (default is https://demo.service-now.com).
    • EnablePassThrough: Enables optimized aggregate function processing via direct Aggregate Web Service calls; recommended to keep enabled.
    • debug and gzip: Enable debug to log HTTP network traffic (must disable gzip compression to read logs).
    • timeout and retries: Configure socket inactivity timeout and retry attempts for failed requests.
    • mode: Defines query parsing logic using AND (more efficient) or OR (more compatible) operators.
    • EnableDBSchema and ExtendedSchemaCache: Control retrieval and caching of database schema for improved performance, especially in large instances.
    • LegacyDurationTimeZone: Controls whether timer and duration fields return values in UTC (default) or display timezone for legacy compatibility.

    Multiple properties can be combined using semicolons in connection strings to tailor driver behavior.

    ODBC Management Console Properties

    Accessible via the Windows Start menu, these settings provide additional control over runtime parameters:

    • ServiceJVMOptions: JVM command-line options for the ODBC driver, such as heap size adjustments.
    • DataSourceIPProperties: Global default URL for all ODBC connections, supporting flexible DSN configurations.
    • ServiceSQLDiskCacheMaxSize: Maximum disk cache size to prevent cache limit errors.
    • Timeout: Socket inactivity timeout, adjustable to avoid socket timeout errors.
    • ServiceJVMLocation: Specifies the Java Runtime Environment location used by the driver, prompted during installation.

    Service JVM Options

    Additional JVM options can be specified to control ODBC driver logging:

    • -DLOGFILENAME: Path for ODBC log files.
    • -DLOGLEVEL: Logging verbosity level (e.g., TRACE, INFO, ERROR).

    Instance Properties

    Administrators can configure these properties within the ServiceNow instance to control data limits:

    • glide.db.max.aggregates: Maximum rows returned by aggregate functions (default 100,000).
    • glide.db.maxviewrecords: Maximum rows returned by database views (default 10,001).

    The following properties customize connectivity and optimize the query behavior of the ODBC driver.

    ODBC administrator properties

    These properties are specified in the ODBC Data Source Administrator for the DSN or in the Custom Properties field of the login dialog box.
    Table 1. ODBC administrator properties
    Property Name Description Default
    BatchSize During fetching of results from the instance, this batch size configures the number of records to fetch for every request. Typically, the default is an optimal number for normal sized rows. If an error occurs during fetching of records that indicates this value should be lowered, you can modify it to optimize memory usage versus performance. 2000
    url This is the ServiceNow instance URL or endpoint. It should indicate the URL to the ServiceNow instance you want to connect to. https://demo.service-now.com
    EnablePassThrough During processing of aggregate functions, enabling pass through mode allows directly calling Aggregate Web Service for optimized and speedy response. Whenever possible, this mode should be left enabled. true
    debug By default, debugging messages are not produced. Set debug to true when you operate the ODBC driver from the ISQL console window to write all HTTP-related network communication traffic to the console window. When using this option, set gzip to false so that data is not compressed. Otherwise, the data is unreadable. false
    gzip By default, data sent over the network is compressed. Set gzip to false when using the debug parameter to write network communication to the ISQL console so that data is not compressed. true
    timeout Specifies the socket inactivity timeout value in seconds. 175
    retries Number of times to retry the failing request in the event of a socket timeout error. 0
    mode The query mode used to parse complex where clauses. You can configure the ODBC driver query mode to use either AND or OR operators.

    While the OR operator provides the greatest compatibility with complex queries, the AND operator is usually more efficient and results in fewer database operations.

    		 or
    EnableDBSchema The ODBC driver issues a database schema request to retrieve table names from the instance. This functionality is enabled by default so reporting applications such as Microsoft Excel can display a list of tables to query from. Disabling this property may improve the performance of the first query sent from a reporting application, especially if the instance has a large number of tables. true
    ExtendedSchemaCache The ODBC driver caches the database schema for each connection. When a new connection is created, the driver clears the database cache and queries the database schema from the instance again. This behavior is beneficial when connecting to different data source, or when modifying the table schema. When querying a single data source with a consistent schema, enable this property to avoid sending unnecessary schema requests, including when EnableDBSchema is true. false
    LegacyDurationTimeZone The ODBC driver returns timer and duration field values in the UTC timezone by default, starting with the 1.0.10 version. When this property is true, the ODBC driver returns timer and duration field values using the display value, as shown in the UI. This property can be used to preserve compatibility with legacy integrations that depend on the display value. See KB0583982 for details about this behavior. false

    If you need to use more than one of these properties in your connection, concatenate the settings with a semicolon (;) delimiter. For example, the following string sets the URL to a specific instance and changes the batch size to 200 records.

    url=https://demo1234.service-now.com;BatchSize=200

    ODBC management console properties

    You can access these properties from the ODBC Management Console available in the Windows Start menu at ServiceNow ODBC > Management Console.
    Table 2. ODBC management console properties
    Property name Description Default
    ServiceJVMOptions

    (Services\Service Settings\IP Parameters)

    		 JVM command line properties and option. For example, to change the maximum Java heap size, modify the -Xmx150m parameter. -Xms64m -Xmx150m
    DataSourceIPProperties

    (OpenAccess SDK 6.0 Manager\<installation location>\Services\ServiceNow_ODBC\Data Source Settings\ServiceNow\IP Parameters)

    		 Global default of the instance URL for all ODBC connections. For more flexibility, you may also create new DSNs with default URL configurations. https://demo.service-now.com
    ServiceSQLDiskCacheMaxSize

    (Services\Service Settings\SQL Engine Parameters)

    		 Specifies the maximum size of the disk cache files. Increase this value when you see Disk Cache file size limit has reached errors. 200
    Timeout

    (Data Source Settings\ServiceNow\IP Parameters)

    		 Specifies the socket inactivity timeout value in seconds. Increase this to a value greater than glide.soap.request_processing_timeout.odbc when you see GetKeys failed (Socket timeout) errors. 175
    ServiceJVMLocation Contains the JRE location used by the ODBC driver. There is no default value for this property. You are prompted to enter the JRE location at the time of installation.

    Service JVM options

    You can specify these values within the ServiceJVMOptions parameter in addition to standard JVM arguments such as -Xmx.
    Table 3. Service JVM options
    Option Description Default
    -DLOG_FILE_NAME The location of the ODBC log file. This property is available starting with the ODBC driver 1.0.7.1 release. ${user.home}\AppData\Local\ServiceNow\odbc\logging\odbc.log
    -DLOG_LEVEL The logging level used when writing to the ODBC log file. You can specify the logging level using Logback levels, such as TRACE, INFO, or ERROR. This property is available starting with the ODBC driver 1.0.8 release. INFO

    Instance properties

    An administrator can configure these properties by adding a property or modifying an existing one in the ServiceNow instance.
    Table 4. Instance properties
    Property name Description Default
    glide.db.max.aggregates The maximum number of rows returned by aggregate functions. 100000
    glide.db.max_view_records The maximum number of rows returned by a database view. 10001