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Get the Report →Use the CData ODBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage in MicroStrategy
Connect to Azure Data Lake Storage data in MicroStrategy Developer using the CData ODBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage.
MicroStrategy is an analytics and mobility platform that enables data-driven innovation. When you pair MicroStrategy with the CData ODBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage, you gain database-like access to live Azure Data Lake Storage data from MicroStrategy, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. In this article, we walk through creating a database instance for Azure Data Lake Storage in MicroStrategy Developer and creating a Warehouse Catalog based on Azure Data Lake Storage data.
The CData ODBC driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Azure Data Lake Storage data in MicroStrategy due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from MicroStrategy to Azure Data Lake Storage, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Azure Data Lake Storage and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. With built-in dynamic metadata querying, you can visualize and analyze Azure Data Lake Storage data using native MicroStrategy data types.
Connect to Azure Data Lake Storage as an ODBC Data Source
Information for connecting to Azure Data Lake Storage follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments (the ODBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage must be installed on the machine hosting the connected MicroStrategy Intelligence Server).
Authenticating to a Gen 1 DataLakeStore Account
Gen 1 uses OAuth 2.0 in Azure AD for authentication.
For this, an Active Directory web application is required. You can create one as follows:
To authenticate against a Gen 1 DataLakeStore account, the following properties are required:
- Schema: Set this to ADLSGen1.
- Account: Set this to the name of the account.
- OAuthClientId: Set this to the application Id of the app you created.
- OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the key generated for the app you created.
- TenantId: Set this to the tenant Id. See the property for more information on how to acquire this.
- Directory: Set this to the path which will be used to store the replicated file. If not specified, the root directory will be used.
Authenticating to a Gen 2 DataLakeStore Account
To authenticate against a Gen 2 DataLakeStore account, the following properties are required:
- Schema: Set this to ADLSGen2.
- Account: Set this to the name of the account.
- FileSystem: Set this to the file system which will be used for this account.
- AccessKey: Set this to the access key which will be used to authenticate the calls to the API. See the property for more information on how to acquire this.
- Directory: Set this to the path which will be used to store the replicated file. If not specified, the root directory will be used.
When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.
Windows
If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.
Linux
If you are installing the CData ODBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage in a Linux environment, the driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties.
/etc/odbc.ini
[CData ADLS Sys]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage
Description = My Description
Schema = ADLSGen2
Account = myAccount
FileSystem = myFileSystem
AccessKey = myAccessKey
For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).
Create a Azure Data Lake Storage Database Instance in MicroStrategy Developer
You can connect to Azure Data Lake Storage in MicroStrategy Developer by adding a database instance based on the CData ODBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage.*
- Open MicroStrategy Developer and select a Project Source.
- Navigate to Administration -> Configuration Managers -> Database Instances and right-click to add a new instance.
- Name the instance, select Generic DBMS as the database connection type, and create a new database connection.
- In the database connection wizard, name the connection and create a new Database Login name, using filler values for the user and password.
- Select the DSN that you configured earlier as the ODBC data source (i.e., CData ADLS Sys).
- Select the newly created database connection.
- In the Project Source, right-click the project and open the Project configuration.
- Navigate to Database Instances and select the newly created database instance.
- Close MicroStrategy Developer and restart the connected MicroStrategy Intelligence Server to complete the database instance creation.
With the database instance configured, you will now be able to connect to Azure Data Lake Storage data from the Warehouse Catalog and Data Import.
Connect to Azure Data Lake Storage Data from the Warehouse Catalog
Once you have created a database instance based on the ODBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage, you can connect to data from the Warehouse Catalog.
- Select your project and click Schema -> Warehouse Catalog.
- In the Read Settings for the Catalog, click Settings and set the queries to retrieve the schema:
- To retrieve the list of tables, use the following query:
SELECT CatalogName NAME_SPACE, TableName TAB_NAME FROM SYS_TABLES
- To retrieve the list of columns for selected tables, use the following query:
SELECT DISTINCT CatalogName NAME_SPACE, TableName TAB_NAME, ColumnName COL_NAME, DataTypeName DATA_TYPE, Length DATA_LEN, NumericPrecision DATA_PREC, NumericScale DATA_SCALE FROM SYS_TABLECOLUMNS WHERE TableName IN (#TABLE_LIST#) ORDER BY 1,2,3
- To retrieve the list of tables, use the following query:
- Select tables to be used in the project.
If you are interested in connecting to Azure Data Lake Storage from other MicroStrategy products, you can read about connecting from MicroStrategy Web and connecting from MicroStrategy Desktop.
Note: connecting using a ODBC driver requires a 3- or 4-tier architecture.