How to connect PolyBase to HCL Domino

PolyBase for SQL Server allows you to query external data by using the same Transact-SQL syntax used to query a database table. When paired with the CData ODBC Driver for HCL Domino, you get access to your HCL Domino data directly alongside your SQL Server data. This article describes creating an external data source and external tables to grant access to live HCL Domino data using T-SQL queries.

NOTE: PolyBase is only available on SQL Server 19 and above, and only for Standard SQL Server.

The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live HCL Domino data using PolyBase due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SQL Server to HCL Domino, the driver pushes down supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to HCL Domino and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. And with PolyBase, you can also join SQL Server data with HCL Domino data, using a single query to pull data from distributed sources.

Connect to HCL Domino

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. To create an external data source in SQL Server using PolyBase, configure a System DSN (CData HCL Domino Sys is created automatically).

Prerequisites

The connector requires the Proton component to be installed. Normally, Proton is distributed as part of the AppDev pack. See the HCL documentation for instructions on acquiring and installing Proton or the AppDev pack.

Once the Proton service is installed and running, you will also need to create a user account and download its Internet certificate. This certificate can be used to set the connector certificate connection properties.

Authenticating to Domino

• Server: The name or IP address of the server running Domino with the Proton service.
• Port: The port number that the Proton service is listening on.
• Database: The name of the database file, including the .nsf extension.
• SSLClientCertType: This must match the format of the certificate file. Typically this will be either PEMKEY_FILE for .pem certificates or PFXFILE for .pfx certificates.
• SSLClientCert: The path to the certificate file.
• SSLServerCert: This can be set to (*) if you trust the server. This is usually the case, but if you want to perform SSL validation, you may provide a certificate or thumbprint instead. See the documentation for SSLServerCert for details.

Additional Server Configuration

The connector supports querying Domino views if any are defined. Before views can be queried by the connector they must be registered with the design catalog.

Please refer to the Catalog Administration section of the AppDev pack documentation for details on how to do this.

Click "Test Connection" to ensure that the DSN is connected to HCL Domino properly. Navigate to the Tables tab to review the table definitions for HCL Domino.

Create an External Data Source for HCL Domino Data

After configuring the connection, you need to create a master encryption key and a credential database for the external data source.

Creating a Master Encryption Key

Execute the following SQL command to create a new master key, 'ENCRYPTION,' to encrypt the credentials for the external data source.

CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'password';

Creating a Credential Database

Execute the following SQL command to create credentials for the external data source connected to HCL Domino data.

NOTE: Since HCL Domino does not require a User or Password to authenticate, you may use whatever values you wish for IDENTITY and SECRET.

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL domino_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'username', SECRET = 'password';

Create an External Data Source for HCL Domino

Execute a CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE SQL command to create an external data source for HCL Domino with PolyBase:

• Set the LOCATION parameter , using the DSN and credentials configured earlier.

NOTE: SERVERNAME and PORT corresponds to the Server and Port connection properties for HCL Domino. PUSHDOWN is set to ON by default, meaning the ODBC Driver can leverage server-side processing for complex queries.

CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE cdata_domino_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVERNAME[:PORT]',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData HCL Domino Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = domino_creds
);

Create External Tables for HCL Domino

After creating the external data source, use CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statements to link to HCL Domino data from your SQL Server instance. The table column definitions must match those exposed by the CData ODBC Driver for HCL Domino. You can refer to the Tables tab of the DSN Configuration Wizard to see the table definition.

Sample CREATE TABLE Statement

The statement to create an external table based on a HCL Domino ByName would look similar to the following:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE ByName(
  Name [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  Address [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='ByName',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_domino_source
);

Having created external tables for HCL Domino in your SQL Server instance, you are now able to query local and remote data simultaneously. Thanks to built-in query processing in the CData ODBC Driver, you know that as much query processing as possible is being pushed to HCL Domino, freeing up local resources and computing power. Download a free, 30-day trial of the ODBC Driver for HCL Domino and start working with live HCL Domino data alongside your SQL Server data today.