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Connect to Live AlloyDB Data in MicroStrategy through CData Connect Cloud



Create a live connection to AlloyDB Data in CData Connect Cloud and connect to your AlloyDB data from MicroStrategy.

MicroStrategy is an analytics and mobility platform that enables data-driven innovation. When you pair MicroStrategy with CData Connect Cloud, you gain database-like access to live AlloyDB data from MicroStrategy, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. In this article, we walk through connecting to AlloyDB in Connect Cloud and connecting to Connect Cloud in MicroStrategy to create a simple visualization of AlloyDB data.

As a cloud-based integration platform, Connect Cloud is ideal for working with cloud-based BI and analytics tools. With no servers to configure or data proxies to set up, you can simply use the web-based UI to create a live connection to AlloyDB and connect from MicroStrategy to start performing analytics based on live AlloyDB data.

Configure AlloyDB Connectivity for Microstrategy

Connectivity to AlloyDB from Microstrategy is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with AlloyDB data from Microstrategy, we start by creating and configuring a AlloyDB connection.

  1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
  2. Select "AlloyDB" from the Add Connection panel
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to AlloyDB.

    The following connection properties are usually required in order to connect to AlloyDB.

    • Server: The host name or IP of the server hosting the AlloyDB database.
    • User: The user which will be used to authenticate with the AlloyDB server.
    • Password: The password which will be used to authenticate with the AlloyDB server.

    You can also optionally set the following:

    • Database: The database to connect to when connecting to the AlloyDB Server. If this is not set, the user's default database will be used.
    • Port: The port of the server hosting the AlloyDB database. This property is set to 5432 by default.

    Authenticating with Standard Authentication

    Standard authentication (using the user/password combination supplied earlier) is the default form of authentication.

    No further action is required to leverage Standard Authentication to connect.

    Authenticating with pg_hba.conf Auth Schemes

    There are additional methods of authentication available which must be enabled in the pg_hba.conf file on the AlloyDB server.

    Find instructions about authentication setup on the AlloyDB Server here.

    Authenticating with MD5 Authentication

    This authentication method must be enabled by setting the auth-method in the pg_hba.conf file to md5.

    Authenticating with SASL Authentication

    This authentication method must be enabled by setting the auth-method in the pg_hba.conf file to scram-sha-256.

    Authenticating with Kerberos

    The authentication with Kerberos is initiated by AlloyDB Server when the ∏ is trying to connect to it. You should set up Kerberos on the AlloyDB Server to activate this authentication method. Once you have Kerberos authentication set up on the AlloyDB Server, see the Kerberos section of the help documentation for details on how to authenticate with Kerberos.

  4. Click Create & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add AlloyDB Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.

  1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
  2. Oa the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
  3. Give your PAT a name and click Create.
  4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to AlloyDB data from MicroStrategy.

Connect to and Visualize AlloyDB Data Using MicroStrategy

You can connect to AlloyDB in MicroStrategy by adding a data source based on the native SQL Server functionality. Once you have created a data source, you can build dynamic visualizations of AlloyDB data in MicroStrategy.

  1. Open MicroStrategy and select your account.
  2. Click Add External Data, select Databases, and use Select Tables as the Import Option.
  3. In the Import from Tables wizard, click to add a new Data Source.
  4. Select "SQL Server" in the Database menu and select "SQL Server 2017" in the Version menu.
  5. Sat the connection properties as follows:
    • Server Name: tds.cdata.com
    • Port Number: 14333
    • Database Name: the name of your AlloyDB connection (e.g. AlloyDB1)
    • User: a Connect Cloud user
    • Password: the PAT for your Connect Cloud user
    • Data Source Name: a name for the new external data source, like "CData Cloud AlloyDB"
  6. Expand the menu for the new data source and choose "Edit Catalog Options"
  7. Edit the "SQL statement retrieve columns ..." query to include TABLE_SCHEMA = '#?Schema_Name?#' in the WHERE clause, and click Apply and then OK (the complete query is below).

    SELECT DISTINCT 
      TABLE_SCHEMA NAME_SPACE, 
      TABLE_NAME TAB_NAME, 
      COLUMN_NAME COL_NAME, 
      (CASE 
        WHEN 
          (DATA_TYPE LIKE '%char' AND (CHARACTER_SET_NAME='utf8' OR CHARACTER_SET_NAME='usc2')) 
        THEN 
          CONCAT('a',DATA_TYPE) 
        ELSE 
          DATA_TYPE 
      END) DATA_TYPE, 
      CHARACTER_MAXIMUM_LENGTH DATA_LEN, 
      NUMERIC_PRECISION DATA_PREC, 
      NUMERIC_SCALE DATA_SCALE 
    FROM 
      INFORMATION_SCHEMA.COLUMNS 
    WHERE 
      TABLE_NAME 
    IN 
      (#TABLE_LIST#) AND TABLE_SCHEMA='#?Schema_Name?#' 
    ORDER BY 
      1,2,3
    
  8. Select the new data source and select the Namespace that corresponds to your virtual AlloyDB database (like AlloyDB1).
  9. Drag tables into the pane to insert then. Note: Since we create a live connection, we can insert whole tables and utilize the filtering and aggregation features native to the MicroStrategy products to customize our datasets.
  10. Click Finish, choose the option to connect live, save the query, and choose the option to create a new dossier. Live connections are possible and effective, thanks to high-performance data processing native to CData Connect Cloud.
  11. Choose a visualization, choose fields to display, and apply any filters to create a new visualization of AlloyDB data. Data types are discovered automatically through dynamic metadata discovery. Where possible, the complex queries generated by the filters and aggregations will be pushed down to AlloyDB, while any unsupported operations (which can include SQL functions and JOIN operations) will be managed by the CData SQL engine embedded in Connect Cloud.
  12. Once you have finished configuring the dossier, click File -> Save.

Using CData Connect Cloud with MicroStrategy, you can easily create robust visualizations and reports on AlloyDB data. For more information on connecting to AlloyDB (and more than 100 other data sources), visit the Connect Cloud page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live AlloyDB data in MicroStrategy.