How to get DSN list from remote servers using Powershell

Powershell comes with the SQL Server Drivers packed , so you can connect to SQL Server without setting up an ODBC DSN. This makes it easy to connect to remote SQL Servers. What if you needed to connect to other database server platforms through Powershell ? A typical method used is to set up a DSN through ODBC - utilising the drivers installed for the remote database server.     As part of setting up DSNs , you may need to access remote servers and identify the current DSNs. Powershell offers a method to get the DSN list from the remote server. 

As a starting point these are some Powershell cmdlets to gather some ODBC DSN details

--To list the ODBC drivers on a local Windows server 

Get-OdbcDriver

--Gets the ODBC data source names from the local server

Get-ODBCDSN 

--Limit the list to 32-bit platform or 64 -bit platform 

Get-ODBCDSN -Platform 32-bit 

Get-OdbcDSN -Platform "64-bit"

--list all obcs , but show only name 

Get-OdbcDSN | select name 

--list all odbc - on a remote server

Get-OdbcDSN  -Cimsession "my_remote_server_name"

So far these examples are to access local details. What if you needed to access a remote server? - it could be for various reasons, such as reporting or as part of an installation script. 

To access the remote server you can utilise the -Cimsession switch . The -Cimsession switch 

A Common Information Model (CIM) session is a client-side object representing a  connection to a local or remote. CimSessions are alternatives to Powershell sessions , both methods have pros and cons

Gets the ODBC data source names from a remote server

Get-ODBCDSN -Cimsession my_remote_server

What methods do you use to gather DSN details from remote servers?