A PostgreSQL Interface for Azure Analysis Services Data

There are a vast number of PostgreSQL clients available on the Internet. From standard Drivers to BI and Analytics tools, PostgreSQL is a popular interface for data access. Using our JDBC Drivers, you can now create PostgreSQL entry-points that you can connect to from any standard client.

To access Azure Analysis Services data as a PostgreSQL database, use the CData JDBC Driver for Azure Analysis Services and a JDBC foreign data wrapper (FDW). In this article, we compile the FDW, install it, and query Azure Analysis Services data from PostgreSQL Server.

Connect to Azure Analysis Services Data as a JDBC Data Source

To connect to Azure Analysis Services as a JDBC data source, you will need the following:

• Driver JAR path: The JAR is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.

• Driver class: cdata.jdbc.aas.AASDriver

• JDBC URL: The URL must start with "jdbc:aas:" and can include any of the connection properties in name-value pairs separated with semicolons.

  To connect to Azure Analysis Services, set the Url property to a valid server, for instance, asazure://southcentralus.asazure.windows.net/server, in addition to authenticating. Optionally, set Database to distinguish which Azure database on the server to connect to.

  Azure Analysis Services uses the OAuth authentication standard. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with Azure Analysis Services using the browser. You can connect without setting any connection properties for your user credentials. See the Help documentation for more information.

  Built-in Connection String Designer

  For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Azure Analysis Services JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

  java -jar cdata.jdbc.aas.jar

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

  A typical JDBC URL is below:

  jdbc:aas:URL=asazure://REGION.asazure.windows.net/server;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH

Build the JDBC Foreign Data Wrapper

The Foreign Data Wrapper can be installed as an extension to PostgreSQL, without recompiling PostgreSQL. The jdbc2_fdw extension is used as an example (downloadable here).

1. Add a symlink from the shared object for your version of the JRE to /usr/lib/libjvm.so. For example: ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server/libjvm.so /usr/lib/libjvm.so
2. Start the build: make install USE_PGXS=1

Query Azure Analysis Services Data as a PostgreSQL Database

After you have installed the extension, follow the steps below to start executing queries to Azure Analysis Services data:

1. Log into your database.
2. Load the extension for the database: CREATE EXTENSION jdbc2_fdw;
3. Create a server object for Azure Analysis Services: CREATE SERVER AAS FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER jdbc2_fdw OPTIONS ( drivername 'cdata.jdbc.aas.AASDriver', url 'jdbc:aas:URL=asazure://REGION.asazure.windows.net/server;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH', querytimeout '15', jarfile '/home/MyUser/CData/CData\ JDBC\ Driver\ for\ Salesforce MyDriverEdition/lib/cdata.jdbc.aas.jar');
4. Create a user mapping for the username and password of a user known to the MySQL daemon. CREATE USER MAPPING for postgres SERVER AAS OPTIONS ( username 'admin', password 'test');
5. Create a foreign table in your local database: postgres=# CREATE FOREIGN TABLE customer ( customer_id text, customer_Country text, customer_Education numeric) SERVER AAS OPTIONS ( table_name 'customer');