UNIX and Linux Applications

I need some help with a project I am working on.

I am writing a database application to manage some access lists. While this is for internal use only, the IT infrastructure is US Army managed. This severely limits which software I am allowed to use. I have a RHEL v5.2 server which uses some commercial software to push our access-lists to our routers/switches. Unfortunately our access lists are huge and this commercial app is unsuitable for the management part of the project. My plan is to write the management part in Microsoft Access and share the data with the linux app via a common SQL database. My original choice was to use MySQL and have Access use link-tables. This works fine, except that each PC that runs the Access interface needs to install the MySQL ODBC driver, which is not approved by the Army. So my next thought is to keep the database internal to the Access app and have all users load it from a shared location. I would then have the server that hosts the .mdb file share it out via the ODBC functionality built into windows (I think I only need Read-Only access from the linux side). I've shared out .mdb's like this before and it's worked fine, but never to a linux box. Linux ODBC support seems like a black art (and what I do see doesnt look free). Most forum posts have the .mdb file on the linux box, but that will not be possible here since everything is controlled via Active Directory and I dont think they would allow a linux file server. If I can just find some good info on Linux ODBC setup, I think I can make this work despite all of the artificial limitations.

I guess I should also point out that on the linux side I am currently using Perl with a test database I setup on the linux server (MySQL). If I can get the ODBC in Perl to work, then I believe that will solve my problem.

This is just my current "bright idea" I am open to suggestions if anyone has one. Except, don't bother with any PHP/Java/CGI interface on the RHEL box... The additional hoops to get that approved are beyond my abilities.

I can't help much with the Access part, I'm Linux mascot, but here's what I've found, I hope it will be useful.