Using pyodbc from Azure function - do I need to install some sort of driver on the cloud?

Question

When developing my Python Azure Function locally, I have the ODBC driver installed, so pyodbc works. My function also works when hosted on Azure, but I'd like some clarification on how it's doing that. Is an ODBC driver installed on the cloud already? Forgive my generic terms like "cloud".

Answer 1

Clay Casper Thanks for posting your question in Microsoft Q&A. To answer your question, yes ODBC drivers are shipped as part of azure functions image (also Preinstalled libraries for python runtime) and runtime system libraries in Python docker images are described here for each python runtime. Check out different docker images at https://github.com/Azure/azure-functions-docker/tree/4.27.4?tab=readme-ov-file#python and its releases.

I hope this helps and feel free to reach out for any questions :).

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Answer 2

Hello @Clay Casper

When you’re developing a Python Azure Function locally, you indeed need to have the ODBC driver installed on your local machine for pyodbc to work. However, when you deploy your function to Azure, it runs in an environment that already has the necessary ODBC drivers installed.

Azure provides a managed environment for running your Azure Functions, and this environment includes a pre-installed ODBC driver. This is why your function continues to work when hosted on Azure, even though you haven’t manually installed an ODBC driver there.

In your connection string, you might see something like Driver={ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server}.

This specifies the driver that pyodbc should use to connect to your database. In this case, it’s using the pre-installed “ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server” that’s available in the Azure environment.

So, to answer your question, yes, an ODBC driver is already installed in the Azure cloud environment, and pyodbc is able to use this driver to connect to your database.

You don’t need to install it yourself.

This is part of what makes cloud platforms like Azure so convenient - they manage a lot of the infrastructure and setup for you, so you can focus on writing your application code. I hope this clarifies your question. If this information provided here helps solve your issue, please tag this as answered, so it helps further community readers, who may have similar questions.