Model, Search, and Visualize Live AlloyDB Data in ThoughtSpot



Use CData Connect Cloud to connect to live AlloyDB data for modeling, searching, and visualizing.

ThoughtSpot is a cloud-based analytics platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to help users analyze data and make decisions. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to AlloyDB data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to AlloyDB and build visualizations from AlloyDB data in ThoughtSpot.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL Server, cloud-to-cloud interface for AlloyDB, allowing you to easily build models and visualizations from live AlloyDB data in ThoughtSpot. As you build visualizations, ThoughtSpot generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to AlloyDB, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return AlloyDB data.

Configure AlloyDB Connectivity for ThoughtSpot

Connectivity to AlloyDB from ThoughtSpot is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with AlloyDB data from ThoughtSpot, 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. On 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 ThoughtSpot.

Model, Search, and Visualize Live AlloyDB Data in ThoughtSpot

To establish a connection from ThoughtSpot to the CData Connect Cloud Virtual SQL Server API, follow these steps.

  1. Log into ThoughtSpot
  2. On the top navigation bar, click Data.
  3. Click Create new > Connection.
  4. Name the connection and click "SQL Server" as the data warehouse.
  5. Click Continue on the top right.
  6. Enter the connection settings:
    • Host: enter the Virtual SQL Server endpoint: tds.cdata.com
    • Port: : enter 14333
    • Username: enter your CData Connect Cloud username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect Cloud interface. For example, [email protected].
    • Password: enter the PAT you generated on the Settings page.
    • Database: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect Cloud data source you want to connect to (for example, AlloyDB1).
  7. Click Continue.
  8. After connecting successfully, you will be able to choose which tables to include.
  9. Click Create Connection.

After you successfully configure your connection, you can build models, search, and visualize your AlloyDB data.

Real-Time Access to AlloyDB Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live AlloyDB data from ThoughtSpot. You can model, search, and visualize your data from ThoughtSpot . For more information on gaining live access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources from cloud applications like ThoughtSpot, refer to our Connect Cloud page.

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