setting up odbc for excel queries

[tony2u]

I have some .sas7bdat files that i want to access via odbc on windows 7. i downloaded and installered the SAS ODBC drivers. While setting up the driver in the ODBC administrator the driver menu is asking for a server reference? Not sure what this needs to be. I suppose there is another configuration i need to make so i can select something and then have a reference to the .sas7bdat files. Please advise and thank u for responding.

[MikeMcKiernan]

In order to read the .sas7bdat files, Base SAS needs to be installed on the machine (so the driver can invoke PROC ODBCSERV) or files must be somewhere that a SAS/SHARE server can access them. 

Regarding the local access choice, see the information about the "Startup Parameters" at http://support.sas.com/documentation/cdl/en/odbcdref/63700/HTML/default/viewer.htm#n170ibo0gfz633n1x...