Back to Basics- ODBC connections and third party products

We had an oddity a couple of months ago with a relatively well known third party product.  Here were the symptoms...

1. User could run a billing generation process when logged in on the server
2. User could not run process when logged in to their local install
3. SA could not run process when logged in to their local install
4. Set up new user, still could not run process
5. Happened from multiple workstations
6. Spent hours and hours on phone with third party product, as it was perceived to be a code issue

It seemed like we were just going to have reinstall the workstation.  But even that didn't make a lot of sense because we had tried copying over dictionaries, and reinstalling the third party product to no avail.  So, duh, what could it be?  The ODBC connection.  We did not do the installation of the workstations, and it appeared that the ODBC was most likely set up manually and there were settings marked that are not recommended.  Once we corrected the ODBC connection, all was good and right with the world.  So another reminder that the weirdest issues normally have the simplest explanations.

Here's a blog post on how to set up an ODBC connection properly for GP (or let the installation automatically create the ODBC connection to avoid issues):
https://community.dynamics.com/gp/b/azurecurve/archive/2012/09/25/how-to-create-an-odbc-for-microsoft-dynamics-gp-2010.aspx

Christina Phillips is a Microsoft Certified Trainer and Dynamics GP Certified Professional. She is a senior managing consultant with BKD Technologies, providing training, support, and project management services to new and existing Microsoft Dynamics customers. This blog represents her views only, not those of her employer.