Connect to Amazon Athena Data in HULFT Integrate



Connect to Amazon Athena as a JDBC data source in HULFT Integrate

HULFT Integrate is a modern data integration platform that provides a drag-and-drop user interface to create cooperation flows, data conversion, and processing so that complex data connections are easier than ever to execute. When paired with the CData JDBC Driver for Amazon Athena, HULFT Integrate can work with live Amazon Athena data. This article walks through connecting to Amazon Athena and moving the data into a CSV file.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData JDBC driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Amazon Athena data. When you issue complex SQL queries to Amazon Athena, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Amazon Athena and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (often SQL functions and JOIN operations). Its built-in dynamic metadata querying allows you to work with and analyze Amazon Athena data using native data types.

About Amazon Athena Data Integration

CData provides the easiest way to access and integrate live data from Amazon Athena. Customers use CData connectivity to:

  • Authenticate securely using a variety of methods, including IAM credentials, access keys, and Instance Profiles, catering to diverse security needs and simplifying the authentication process.
  • Streamline their setup and quickly resolve issue with detailed error messaging.
  • Enhance performance and minimize strain on client resources with server-side query execution.

Users frequently integrate Athena with analytics tools like Tableau, Power BI, and Excel for in-depth analytics from their preferred tools.

To learn more about unique Amazon Athena use cases with CData, check out our blog post: https://www.cdata.com/blog/amazon-athena-use-cases.


Getting Started


Enable Access to Amazon Athena

To enable access to Amazon Athena data from HULFT Integrate projects:

  1. Copy the CData JDBC Driver JAR file (and license file if it exists), cdata.jdbc.amazonathena.jar (and cdata.jdbc.amazonathena.lic), to the jdbc_adapter subfolder for the Integrate Server
  2. Restart the HULFT Integrate Server and launch HULFT Integrate Studio

Build a Project with Access to Amazon Athena Data

Once you copy the JAR files, you can create a project with access to Amazon Athena data. Start by opening Integrate Studio and creating a new project.

  1. Name the project
  2. Ensure the "Create script" checkbox is checked
  3. Click Next
  4. Name the script (e.g.: AmazonAthenatoCSV)

Once you create the project, add components to the script to copy Amazon Athena data to a CSV file.

Configure an Execute Select SQL Component

Drag an "Execute Select SQL" component from the Tool Palette (Database -> JDBC) into the Script workspace.

  1. In the "Required settings" tab for the Destination, click "Add" to create a new connection for Amazon Athena. Set the following properties:
    • Name: Amazon Athena Connection Settings
    • Driver class name: cdata.jdbc.amazonathena.AmazonAthenaDriver
    • URL: jdbc:amazonathena:AWSAccessKey='a123';AWSSecretKey='s123';AWSRegion='IRELAND';Database='sampledb';S3StagingDirectory='s3://bucket/staging/';

      Built-in Connection String Designer

      For assistance constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Amazon Athena JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the JAR file from the command-line.

      java -jar cdata.jdbc.amazonathena.jar

      Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

      Authenticating to Amazon Athena

      To authorize Amazon Athena requests, provide the credentials for an administrator account or for an IAM user with custom permissions: Set AccessKey to the access key Id. Set SecretKey to the secret access key.

      Note: Though you can connect as the AWS account administrator, it is recommended to use IAM user credentials to access AWS services.

      Obtaining the Access Key

      To obtain the credentials for an IAM user, follow the steps below:

      1. Sign into the IAM console.
      2. In the navigation pane, select Users.
      3. To create or manage the access keys for a user, select the user and then select the Security Credentials tab.

      To obtain the credentials for your AWS root account, follow the steps below:

      1. Sign into the AWS Management console with the credentials for your root account.
      2. Select your account name or number and select My Security Credentials in the menu that is displayed.
      3. Click Continue to Security Credentials and expand the Access Keys section to manage or create root account access keys.

      Authenticating from an EC2 Instance

      If you are using the CData Data Provider for Amazon Athena 2018 from an EC2 Instance and have an IAM Role assigned to the instance, you can use the IAM Role to authenticate. To do so, set UseEC2Roles to true and leave AccessKey and SecretKey empty. The CData Data Provider for Amazon Athena 2018 will automatically obtain your IAM Role credentials and authenticate with them.

      Authenticating as an AWS Role

      In many situations it may be preferable to use an IAM role for authentication instead of the direct security credentials of an AWS root user. An AWS role may be used instead by specifying the RoleARN. This will cause the CData Data Provider for Amazon Athena 2018 to attempt to retrieve credentials for the specified role. If you are connecting to AWS (instead of already being connected such as on an EC2 instance), you must additionally specify the AccessKey and SecretKey of an IAM user to assume the role for. Roles may not be used when specifying the AccessKey and SecretKey of an AWS root user.

      Authenticating with MFA

      For users and roles that require Multi-factor Authentication, specify the MFASerialNumber and MFAToken connection properties. This will cause the CData Data Provider for Amazon Athena 2018 to submit the MFA credentials in a request to retrieve temporary authentication credentials. Note that the duration of the temporary credentials may be controlled via the TemporaryTokenDuration (default 3600 seconds).

      Connecting to Amazon Athena

      In addition to the AccessKey and SecretKey properties, specify Database, S3StagingDirectory and Region. Set Region to the region where your Amazon Athena data is hosted. Set S3StagingDirectory to a folder in S3 where you would like to store the results of queries.

      If Database is not set in the connection, the data provider connects to the default database set in Amazon Athena.

  2. Write your SQL statement. For example:
    SELECT Name, TotalDue FROM Customers
  3. Click "Extraction test" to ensure the connection and query are configured properly
  4. Click "Execute SQL statement and set output schema"
  5. Click "Finish"

Configure a Write CSV File Component

Drag a "Write CSV File" component from the Tool Palette (File -> CSV) onto the workspace.

  1. Set a file to write the query results to (e.g. Customers.csv)
  2. Set "Input data" to the "Select SQL" component
  3. Add columns for each field selected in the SQL query
  4. In the "Write settings" tab, check the checkbox to "Insert column names into first row"
  5. Click "Finish"

Map Amazon Athena Fields to the CSV Columns

Map each column from the "Select" component to the corresponding column for the "CSV" component.

Finish the Script

Drag the "Start" component onto the "Select" component and the "CSV" component onto the "End" component. Build the script and run the script to move Amazon Athena data into a CSV file.

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Amazon Athena and start working with your live Amazon Athena data in HULFT Integrate. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.

Ready to get started?

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