After creating a linked server on a 64bit SQL Server 2005 instance, I then needed to create a view which referenced the linked server. The linked server is a SQL Server 2000 32bit instance. However, when I tried to create the view, I got this error:  Cannot obtain the schema rowset “DBSCHEMA_TABLES_INFO” for OLE DB provider “SQLNCLI”.

This really proved to be a conundrum because I had just recently created the same linked server and view on another SQL 2005 instance. However, I had not yet connected the fact the 2005 instance was 32bit as opposed to the one I was now working on, which is 64bit.

I wrestled with it being a permissions issue for a while but ruled that out when I could not create the view even while using a domain admin account having authority of all the instances. A search on Google, using the above mentioned error message, turned up Joel’s blog. His specific problem was relative to SQL Server 7 but the answer applied to SQL Server 2000 also. He had found the original post of the ultimate solution and was good enough to include it in his blog which I have an excerpt here.

I found an extremely helpful post by Marek Adamczuk at http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=62887&SiteID=1. Marek  explains the 32-bit editions are missing a stored procedure on the master database called sp_tables_info_rowset_64.

Marek’s solution is to create a wrapper on the master database as follows (his code not mine):

create procedure sp_tables_info_rowset_64
    @table_name sysname,
    @table_schema sysname = null,
    @table_type nvarchar(255) = null
as
declare @Result int set @Result = 0
exec @Result = sp_tables_info_rowset
    @table_name,
    @table_schema,
    @table_type

It would appear the existing sproc does the same thing but just needs to be referenced using the 64bit name. Kudos to both Joel and to Marek for making this solution available!