I used FreeTDS to connect to an MSSQL database. The documentation is available here.

The configuration file I use (slightly sanitized for obvious reasons) is here:

#   $Id: freetds.conf,v 1.12 2007/12/25 06:02:36 jklowden Exp $
#
# This file is installed by FreeTDS if no file by the same 
# name is found in the installation directory.  
#
# For information about the layout of this file and its settings, 
# see the freetds.conf manpage "man freetds.conf".  

# Global settings are overridden by those in a database
# server specific section
[global]
        # TDS protocol version
;       tds version = 4.2

        # Whether to write a TDSDUMP file for diagnostic purposes
        # (setting this to /tmp is insecure on a multi-user system)
        dump file = /tmp/freetds.log
        debug flags = 0xffff

        # Command and connection timeouts
;       timeout = 10
;       connect timeout = 10

        # If you get out-of-memory errors, it may mean that your clien
+t
        # is trying to allocate a huge buffer for a TEXT field.  
        # Try setting 'text size' to a more reasonable limit 
        text size = 64512

# A typical Microsoft server
[SqlServer]
        database = ABCDAT
        host = 192.0.0.1
        port = 1433
        tds version = 7.4
        client charset = UTF-8

        dump file = /tmp/foo.log
        debug flags = 0x001e
[download]

There is a Microsoft driver, but this one worked for me (although it doesn't allow multiple active statement handles). I set this up about three years ago, so I may not be able to explain how I got it working.

If I had time, I'd love to try the Microsoft driver .. but for now, this works.

Do read DBI connecting to MS SQL Server TLS 1.2 and all the replies. It comes very close to your situation.

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Right -- and I didn't tell you everything about how I set this client up. I used a module for credentials and the DSN information like this:

package ABCDB;

our $DSN      = 'Driver=FreeTDS;ServerName=SqlServer;Database=ABCDAT';
our $User     = 'User';
our $Password = 'Password';

our $Attributes =
  { LongReadLen => 65535, LongTruncOk => 1, odbc_query_timeout => 30 }
+;
[download]

Then, in each of the scripts I wrote, a connection just uses the boilerplate

my $dbh = DBI->connect ( "dbi:ODBC:$ABCDB::DSN", $ABCDB::User,
  $ABCDB::Password, $ABCDB::Attributes );
[download]

And a final note .. this module is in a separate directory specifically so that it's *not* included in the repository. Never include any authentication in a repository, even if it's a private one.

Alex / talexb / Toronto

Thanks PJ. We owe you so much. Groklaw -- RIP -- 2003 to 2013.