Automated Continuous Avalara AvaTax Replication to Apache Cassandra

Always-on applications rely on automatic failover capabilities and real-time data access. CData Sync integrates live Avalara AvaTax data into your Apache Cassandra instance, allowing you to consolidate all of your data into a single location for archiving, reporting, analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence and more.

Configure Cassandra as a Replication Destination

Using CData Sync, you can replicate Avalara AvaTax data to Apache Cassandra. To add a replication destination, navigate to the Connections tab.

1. Click Add Connection.
2. Select Apache Cassandra as a destination.

3. Enter the necessary connection properties. CData Sync supports Basic authentication with login credentials and the additional authentication features of DataStax Enterprise (DSE) Cassandra. The following sections detail connection properties your authentication method may require.

   You need to set AuthScheme to the value corresponding to the authenticator configured for your system. You specify the authenticator in the authenticator property in the cassandra.yaml file. This file is typically found in /etc/dse/cassandra or through the DSE Unified Authenticator on DSE Cassandra.

   Basic Authentication

   Basic authentication is supported through Cassandra's built-in default PasswordAuthenticator.

   • Set the AuthScheme property to 'BASIC' and set the User and Password properties.
   • In the cassandra.yaml file, set the authenticator property to 'PasswordAuthenticator.'

   Kerberos Authentication

   Kerberos authentication is supported through DataStax Enterprise Unified Authentication.

   • Set the AuthScheme property to 'KERBEROS' and set the User and Password properties.
   • Set the KerberosKDC, KerberosRealm, and KerberosSPN properties.
   • In the cassandra.yaml file, set the authenticator property to "com.datastax.bdp.cassandra.auth.DseAuthenticator."
   • Modify the authentication_options section in the dse.yaml file, specifying the default_schema and other_schemas properties as 'kerberos.'
   • Modify the kerberos_options section in the dse.yaml file, specifying the keytab, service_principle, http_principle and qop properties.

   LDAP Authentication

   LDAP authentication is supported through DataStax Enterprise Unified Authentication.

   • Set the AuthScheme property to 'LDAP' and set the User and Password properties.
   • In the cassandra.yaml file, set the authenticator property to "com.datastax.bdp.cassandra.auth.DseAuthenticator."
   • Modify the authentication_options section in the dse.yaml file, specifying the default_schema and other_schemas properties as 'ldap.'
   • Modify the ldap_options section in the dse.yaml file, specifying the server_host, server_port, search_dn, search_password, user_search_base, and user_search_filter properties.

   Using PKI

   You can specify a client certificate to authenticate CData Sync with SSLClientCert, SSLClientCertType, SSLClientCertSubject, and SSLClientCertPassword.

4. Click Test Connection to ensure that the connection is configured properly.
5. Click Save Changes.

Configure the Avalara AvaTax Connection

You can configure a connection to Avalara AvaTax from the Connections tab. To add a connection to your Avalara AvaTax account, navigate to the Connections tab.

1. Click Add Connection.
2. Select a source (Avalara AvaTax).
3. Configure the connection properties.
   
   

   The primary method for performing basic authentication is to provide your login credentials, as follows:

   • User: Set this to your username.
   • Password: Set this to your password.

   Optionally, if you are making use of a sandbox environment, set the following:

   • UseSandbox: Set this to true if you are authenticating with a sandbox account.

   Authenticating Using Account Number and License Key

   Alternatively, you can authenticate using your account number and license key. Connect to data using the following:

   • AccountId: Set this to your Account Id. The Account Id is listed in the upper right hand corner of the admin console.
   • LicenseKey: Set this to your Avalara Avatax license key. You can generate a license key by logging into Avalara Avatax as an account administrator and navigating to Settings -> Reset License Key.
4. Click Connect to ensure that the connection is configured properly.
5. Click Save Changes.

Configure Replication Queries

CData Sync enables you to control replication with a point-and-click interface and with SQL queries. For each replication you wish to configure, navigate to the Jobs tab and click Add Job. Select the Source and Destination for your replication.

Replicate Entire Tables

To replicate an entire table, click Add Tables in the Tables section, choose the table(s) you wish to replicate, and click Add Selected Tables.

Customize Your Replication

You can use the Columns and Query tabs of a task to customize your replication. The Columns tab allows you to specify which columns to replicate, rename the columns at the destination, and even perform operations on the source data before replicating. The Query tab allows you to add filters, grouping, and sorting to the replication.

Schedule Your Replication

In the Schedule section, you can schedule a job to run automatically, configuring the job to run after specified intervals ranging from once every 10 minutes to once every month.

Once you have configured the replication job, click Save Changes. You can configure any number of jobs to manage the replication of your Avalara AvaTax data to Apache Cassandra.