Automated Continuous Avalara AvaTax Replication to Databricks

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

Configure Databricks as a Replication Destination

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

1. Click Add Connection.
2. Select Databricks as a destination.
3. Enter the necessary connection properties. To connect to a Databricks cluster, set the properties as described below.

   Note: The needed values can be found in your Databricks instance by navigating to Clusters, and selecting the desired cluster, and selecting the JDBC/ODBC tab under Advanced Options.

   • Server: Set to the Server Hostname of your Databricks cluster.
   • HTTPPath: Set to the HTTP Path of your Databricks cluster.
   • Token: Set to your personal access token (this value can be obtained by navigating to the User Settings page of your Databricks instance and selecting the Access Tokens tab).
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 Databricks.