Accessing Remote MSSQL Server from hosted linux PHP - php

Question

I've seen a number of questions asking similar but these are usually answered by having access to the server to install extra packages such as FreeTDS. We don't have such access as out linux server is hosted with 1and1.
My code (from an earlier question by someone else on here) is:
try {
$hostname = "xx.xx.xx.xx";
$port = xxxxx;
$dbname = "ClientDatabase";
$username = "uuuu";
$pw = "pppp";
$dbh = new PDO ("dblib:host=$hostname:$port;dbname=$dbname","$username","$pw");
} catch (PDOException $e) {
echo "Failed to get DB handle: " . $e->getMessage() . "\n";
exit;
}
$stmt = $dbh->prepare("select name from master..sysdatabases where name = db_name()");
$stmt->execute();
while ($row = $stmt->fetch()) {
print_r($row);
}
unset($dbh); unset($stmt);
The error message I get is:
Failed to get DB handle: could not find driver
The MSSQL server is accessible so I can add features to that if necessary.
The MSSQL server is also running IIS7 but doesn't run PHP. I know very little about IIS7 but would it be easier to run the PHP scripts on there rather than the hosted linux box?
Could anyone advise if I can actually connect to the MSSQL server in anyway?
Thanks in advance,
Dave

Answer 1

Have you tried mssql_connect?
Here's the syntax:
mssql_connect ([ string $servername [, string $username [, string $password [, bool $new_link = false ]]]] )
In your case it would be:
$link = mssql_connect($hostname, $username, $pw);
mssql_select_db($dbname, $link);
Note that $hostname should contain MSSQL Instance Name. e.g. 'KALLESPC\SQLEXPRESS'

Answer 2

After much trial and error I'm in.
try {
$hostname = "localhost";
$port = 123456;
$dbname = "ClientDatabase";
$username = "uuuu";
$pw = "pppp";
$dbh = new PDO ("sqlsrv:Server=$hostname,$port;Database=$dbname","$username","$pw");
} catch (PDOException $e) {
echo "Failed to get DB handle: " . $e->getMessage() . "\n";
exit;
}
$stmt = $dbh->prepare("select name from master..sysdatabases where name = db_name()");
$stmt->execute();
while ($row = $stmt->fetch()) {
print_r($row);
}
unset($dbh); unset($stmt);
Thanks to those who answered and those who answered similar questions by others. Got there.... eventually.
Cheers
Dave