SQL Server Native Client

Applies to: SQL Server Azure SQL Database Azure SQL Managed Instance Azure Synapse Analytics Analytics Platform System (PDW)

SQL Server Native Client, also known as SNAC or SQLNCLI, refers to the ODBC and OLE DB drivers for SQL Server, prior to SQL Server 2022 (16.x).

Important

SQL Server Native Client (SNAC) isn't shipped with:

  • SQL Server 2022 (16.x) and later versions
  • SQL Server Management Studio 19 and later versions

The SQL Server Native Client (SQLNCLI or SQLNCLI11) and the legacy Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server (SQLOLEDB) aren't recommended for new application development.

For new projects, use one of the following drivers:

For SQLNCLI that ships as a component of SQL Server Database Engine (versions 2012 through 2019), see this Support Lifecycle exception.

Note

For more information and to download the SNAC or ODBC Drivers, see the SNAC lifecycle explained blog post. For more information on ODBC Driver for SQL Server, see Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server.

Information on the SQL Server Native Client features released with SQL Server 2012 (11.x), the last available version of SQL Server native Client:

ODBC in SQL Server Native Client supports three features that were added to standard ODBC in the Windows 7 SDK:

The following articles describe SQL Server Native Client behavior changes in SQL Server 2012 (11.x).