Using Linked Servers in SMO

A linked server represents an OLE DB data source on a remote server. Remote OLE DB data sources are linked to the instance of SQL Server by using the LinkedServer object.

Remote database servers can be linked to the current instance of Microsoft SQL Server by using an OLE DB Provider. In SMO, linked servers are represented by the LinkedServer object. The LinkedServerLogins property references a collection of LinkedServerLogin objects. These store the logon credentials that are required to establish a connection with the linked server.

OLE-DB Providers

In SMO, installed OLE-DB providers are represented by a collection of OleDbProviderSettings objects.

Example

For the following code example, you will have to select the programming environment, programming template and the programming language to create your application. For more information, see Create a Visual Basic SMO Project in Visual Studio .NET and Create a Visual C# SMO Project in Visual Studio .NET.

Creating a link to an OLE-DB Provider Server in Visual Basic

The code example shows how to create a link to a SQL Server OLE DB, heterogeneous data source by using the LinkedServer object. By specifying SQL Server as the product name, data is accessed on the linked server by using the Microsoft SQL Server Client OLE DB Provider, which is the official OLE DB provider for SQL Server.

'Connect to the local, default instance of SQL Server.
Dim srv As Server
srv = New Server
'Create a linked server.
Dim lsrv As LinkedServer
lsrv = New LinkedServer(srv, "OLEDBSRV")
'When the product name is SQL Server the remaining properties are not required to be set.
lsrv.ProductName = "SQL Server"
lsrv.Create()

Creating a link to an OLE-DB Provider Server in Visual C#

The code example shows how to create a link to a SQL Server OLE DB, heterogeneous data source by using the LinkedServer object. By specifying SQL Server as the product name, data is accessed on the linked server by using the SQL Server Client OLE DB Provider, which is the official OLE DB provider for SQL Server.

//Connect to the local, default instance of SQL Server. 
{ 
   Server srv = new Server(); 
   //Create a linked server. 
   LinkedServer lsrv = default(LinkedServer); 
   lsrv = new LinkedServer(srv, "OLEDBSRV"); 
   //When the product name is SQL Server the remaining properties are 
   //not required to be set. 
   lsrv.ProductName = "SQL Server"; 
   lsrv.Create(); 
} 

Creating a link to an OLE-DB Provider Server in PowerShell

The code example shows how to create a link to a SQL Server OLE DB, heterogeneous data source by using the LinkedServer object. By specifying SQL Server as the product name, data is accessed on the linked server by using the SQL Server Client OLE DB Provider, which is the official OLE DB provider for SQL Server.

#Get a server object which corresponds to the default instance
$svr = New-Object -TypeName Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.SMO.Server

#Create a linked server object which corresponds to an OLEDB type of SQL server product
$lsvr = New-Object -TypeName Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.SMO.LinkedServer -argumentlist $svr,"OLEDBSRV"

#When the product name is SQL Server the remaining properties are not required to be set. 
$lsvr.ProductName = "SQL Server"

#Create the Database Object
$lsvr.Create()