When designing a new Crystal Report you have to create a new database connection. I have selected OLE DB (ADO) as the 'driver' as it made more sense than DAO,RDO or the other options for my requirements.

I need to execute an SQL Server 2005/2008 stored procedure on a remote server and show the results in Crystal Reports on a .NET client.

Selecting OLE DB, presents me with further options to select the correct provider, some of which are:

  • Microsoft OLEDB provider for ODBC drivers
  • Microsoft OLEDB provider for SQL Server
  • SQL Native Client
  • SQL Server Native Client 10.0

Which on is the best to use?

  • I don't want to use the ODBC drivers, for various disadvantages (setting up ODBC definitions and maybe slower).
  • Not sure how the OLEDB provider for SQL Server compares with the native client
  • The native client forced me to run the native client setup on each desktop. It also seems that there is different version for each version of SQL Server.

Initially I thought the native client is the logical choice for compatibility and performance but deployment seems to be an issue (unless I am doing something wrong)

What is the best connection driver/provider combination to use here?

sql-server crystal-reports
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