How to connect PolyBase to Sybase

PolyBase for SQL Server allows you to query external data by using the same Transact-SQL syntax used to query a database table. When paired with the CData ODBC Driver for Sybase, you get access to your Sybase data directly alongside your SQL Server data. This article describes creating an external data source and external tables to grant access to live Sybase data using T-SQL queries.

NOTE: PolyBase is only available on SQL Server 19 and above, and only for Standard SQL Server.

The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live Sybase data using PolyBase due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SQL Server to Sybase, the driver pushes down supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Sybase and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. And with PolyBase, you can also join SQL Server data with Sybase data, using a single query to pull data from distributed sources.

Connect to Sybase

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs. To create an external data source in SQL Server using PolyBase, configure a System DSN (CData Sybase Sys is created automatically).

To connect to Sybase, specify the following connection properties:

• Server: Set this to the name or network address of the Sybase database instance.
• Database: Set this to the name of the Sybase database running on the specified Server.

Optionally, you can also secure your connections with TLS/SSL by setting UseSSL to true.

Sybase supports several methods for authentication including Password and Kerberos.

Connect Using Password Authentication

Set the AuthScheme to Password and set the following connection properties to use Sybase authentication.

• User: Set this to the username of the authenticating Sybase user.
• Password: Set this to the username of the authenticating Sybase user.

Connect using LDAP Authentication

To connect with LDAP authentication, you will need to configure Sybase server-side to use the LDAP authentication mechanism.

After configuring Sybase for LDAP, you can connect using the same credentials as Password authentication.

Connect Using Kerberos Authentication

To leverage Kerberos authentication, begin by enabling it setting AuthScheme to Kerberos. See the Using Kerberos section in the Help documentation for more information on using Kerberos authentication.

You can find an example connection string below: Server=MyServer;Port=MyPort;User=SampleUser;Password=SamplePassword;Database=MyDB;Kerberos=true;KerberosKDC=MyKDC;KerberosRealm=MYREALM.COM;KerberosSPN=server-name

Click "Test Connection" to ensure that the DSN is connected to Sybase properly. Navigate to the Tables tab to review the table definitions for Sybase.

Create an External Data Source for Sybase Data

After configuring the connection, you need to create a master encryption key and a credential database for the external data source.

Creating a Master Encryption Key

Execute the following SQL command to create a new master key, 'ENCRYPTION,' to encrypt the credentials for the external data source.

CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'password';

Creating a Credential Database

Execute the following SQL command to create credentials for the external data source connected to Sybase data.

NOTE: IDENTITY and SECRET correspond with the User and Password properties for Sybase.

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL sybase_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'sybase_username', SECRET = 'sybase_password';

Create an External Data Source for Sybase

Execute a CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE SQL command to create an external data source for Sybase with PolyBase:

• Set the LOCATION parameter , using the DSN and credentials configured earlier.

PUSHDOWN is set to ON by default, meaning the ODBC Driver can leverage server-side processing for complex queries.

CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE cdata_sybase_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData Sybase Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = sybase_creds
);

Create External Tables for Sybase

After creating the external data source, use CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statements to link to Sybase data from your SQL Server instance. The table column definitions must match those exposed by the CData ODBC Driver for Sybase. You can refer to the Tables tab of the DSN Configuration Wizard to see the table definition.

Sample CREATE TABLE Statement

The statement to create an external table based on a Sybase Products would look similar to the following:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Products(
  Id [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ProductName [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='Products',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_sybase_source
);

Having created external tables for Sybase in your SQL Server instance, you are now able to query local and remote data simultaneously. Thanks to built-in query processing in the CData ODBC Driver, you know that as much query processing as possible is being pushed to Sybase, freeing up local resources and computing power. Download a free, 30-day trial of the ODBC Driver for Sybase and start working with live Sybase data alongside your SQL Server data today.