Connect to Cosmos DB Data in as an External Source in Dremio

The CData JDBC Driver for Cosmos DB implements JDBC Standards and allows various applications, including Dremio, to work with live Cosmos DB data. Dremio is a data lakehouse platform designed to empower self-service, interactive analytics on the data lake. With the CData JDBC Driver, you can include live Cosmos DB data as a part of your enterprise data lake. This article describes how to connect to Cosmos DB data from Dremio as an External Source.

The CData JDBC Driver enables high-speed access to live Cosmos DB data in Dremio. Once you install the driver, authenticate with Cosmos DB and gain immediate access to Cosmos DB data within your data lake. By surfacing Cosmos DB data using native data types and handling complex filters, aggregations, & other operations automatically, the CData JDBC Driver grants seamless access to Cosmos DB data.

Build the ARP Connector

To use the CData JDBC Driver in Dremio, you need to build an Advanced Relation Pushdown (ARP) Connector. You can view the source code for the Connector on GitHub or download the ZIP file (GitHub.com) directly. Once you copy or extract the files, run the following command from the root directory of the connector (the directory containing the pom.xml file) to build the connector.

mvn clean install

Once the JAR file for the connector is built (in the target directory), you are ready to copy the ARP connector and JDBC Driver to your Dremio instance.

Installing the Connector and JDBC Driver

Install the ARP Connector to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/ and the JDBC Driver for Cosmos DB to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/3rdparty. You can use commands similar to the following:

ARP Connector

docker cp PATH\TO\dremio-cosmosdb-plugin-20.0.0.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/

JDBC Driver for Cosmos DB

docker cp PATH\TO\cdata.jdbc.cosmosdb.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/3rdparty/

Connecting to Cosmos DB

Cosmos DB will now appear as an External Source option in Dremio. The ARP Connector built uses a JDBC URL to connect to Cosmos DB data. The JDBC Driver has a built-in connection string designer that you can use (see below).

Built-in Connection String Designer

For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the Cosmos DB JDBC Driver. Double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command line.

java -jar cdata.jdbc.cosmosdb.jar

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

To obtain the connection string needed to connect to a Cosmos DB account using the SQL API, log in to the Azure Portal, select Azure Cosmos DB, and select your account. In the Settings section, click Connection String and set the following values:

• AccountEndpoint: The Cosmos DB account URL from the Keys blade of the Cosmos DB account
• AccountKey: In the Azure portal, navigate to the Cosmos DB service and select your Azure Cosmos DB account. From the resource menu, go to the Keys page. Find the PRIMARY KEY value and set AccountKey to this value.

NOTE: To use the JDBC Driver in Dremio, you will need a license (full or trial) and a Runtime Key (RTK). For more information on obtaining this license (or a trial), contact our sales team.

Add the Runtime Key (RTK) to the JDBC URL. You will end up with a JDBC URL similar to the following:

jdbc:cosmosdb:RTK=5246...;AccountEndpoint=myAccountEndpoint;AccountKey=myAccountKey;

Access Cosmos DB as an External Source

To add Cosmos DB as an External Source, click to add a new source and select CosmosDB. Copy the JDBC URL and paste it into the New CosmosDB Source wizard.

Save the connection and you are ready to query live Cosmos DB data in Dremio, easily incorporating Cosmos DB data into your data lake.

More Information & Free Trial

Using the CData JDBC Driver for Cosmos DB in Dremio, you can incorporate live Cosmos DB data into your data lake. Check out our CData JDBC Driver for Cosmos DB page for more information about connecting to Cosmos DB. Download a free, 30 day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Cosmos DB and get started today.