Nowadays, most servers come with a 64-bit operating system, however you can still find applications that run in a 32-bit environment. Sometimes your 32-bit application needs to use an Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) to communicate with your Structured Query Language (SQL) server or any other database server. In some cases your application may not be able to connect and retrieve the data you requested. In this case, you will be prompted with the error below:
[Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] the specified DSN contains an architecture mismatch between the Driver and Application
By default when you have a 64-bit operating system (Windows) the ODBC loaded is also a 64-bit version. Any added application that runs strictly in a 32-bit mode will need a 32-bit version of ODBC.
To get the correct ODBC, navigate to C:WindowsSysWOW64odbc32.exe, select the file and create a shortcut on your desktop.
After this you need to delete the old ODBC (the 64-bit that already exists) then create a new one using the 32-bit ODBC.
From the ODBC administrator choose from the following options: File DSN, System DSN or User DSN. To help you differentiate and choose accordingly, I will briefly explain each option below.
File DSN: This option is created in a file with no restrictions, and can be used by everyone.
System DSN: This option will work for anyone who has access to the system.
User DSN: Choosing this option will make the ODBC exclusive to the user(s) defined on the specified machine and will only be displayed to that user.
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