Replicate Multiple IBM Cloud Object Storage Accounts

CData Sync is a stand-alone application that provides solutions for a variety of replication scenarios such as replicating sandbox and production instances into your database. CData Sync includes a web-based interface that makes it easy to manage multiple IBM Cloud Object Storage connections. In this article we show how to use the web app to replicate multiple IBM Cloud Object Storage accounts to a single database.

Configure the Replication Destination

Using CData Sync, you can replicate IBM Cloud Object Storage data to any number of databases, both cloud-based and on-premises. To add a replication destination, navigate to the Connections tab.

1. Click Add Connection.
2. Select a destination and enter the necessary connection properties. In this article, we use SQLite.
3. Enter the necessary connection properties. To replicate IBM Cloud Object Storage to a SQLite database, enter a file path in the Data Source box.
4. Click Test Connection to ensure that the connection is configured properly.
5. Click Save Changes.

Configure IBM Cloud Object Storage Connections

You can configure connections to IBM Cloud Object Storage from the Connections tab. To add a connection to one of your IBM Cloud Object Storage accounts, navigate to the Connections tab. For each IBM Cloud Object Storage account you wish to replicate, do the following:

1. Click Add Connection.
2. Select a source (IBM Cloud Object Storage).
3. Configure the connection properties.
   
   

   Register a New Instance of Cloud Object Storage

   If you do not already have Cloud Object Storage in your IBM Cloud account, follow the procedure below to install an instance of SQL Query in your account:

   1. Log in to your IBM Cloud account.
   2. Navigate to the page, choose a name for your instance and click Create. You will be redirected to the instance of Cloud Object Storage you just created.

   Connecting using OAuth Authentication

   There are certain connection properties you need to set before you can connect. You can obtain these as follows:

   API Key

   To connect with IBM Cloud Object Storage, you need an API Key. You can obtain this as follows:

   1. Log in to your IBM Cloud account.
   2. Navigate to the Platform API Keys page.
   3. On the middle-right corner click "Create an IBM Cloud API Key" to create a new API Key.
   4. In the pop-up window, specify the API Key name and click "Create". Note the API Key as you can never access it again from the dashboard.

   Cloud Object Storage CRN

   If you have multiple accounts, you will need to specify the CloudObjectStorageCRN explicitly. To find the appropriate value, you can:

   • Query the Services view. This will list your IBM Cloud Object Storage instances along with the CRN for each.
   • Locate the CRN directly in IBM Cloud. To do so, navigate to your IBM Cloud Dashboard. In the Resource List, Under Storage, select your Cloud Object Storage resource to get its CRN.

   Connecting to Data

   You can now set the following to connect to data:

   • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
   • ApiKey: Set this to your API key which was noted during setup.
   • CloudObjectStorageCRN (Optional): Set this to the cloud object storage CRN you want to work with. While the connector attempts to retrieve this automatically, specifying this explicitly is recommended if you have more than Cloud Object Storage account.

   When you connect, the connector completes the OAuth process.

   1. Extracts the access token and authenticates requests.
   2. Saves OAuth values in OAuthSettingsLocation to be persisted across connections.
4. Click Connect to ensure that the connection is configured properly.
5. Click Save Changes.

Configure Queries for Each IBM Cloud Object Storage Instance

CData Sync enables you to control replication with a point-and-click interface and with SQL queries. To configure a replication, 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 a SQL query to customize your replication. The REPLICATE statement is a high-level command that caches and maintains a table in your database. You can define any SELECT query supported by the IBM Cloud Object Storage API. To customize your replication, click Add Custom Query in the Tables section and define the Query Statement.

The statement below caches and incrementally updates a table of IBM Cloud Object Storage data:

REPLICATE Objects;

You can specify a file containing the replication queries you want to use to update a particular database. Separate replication statements with semicolons. The following options are useful if you are replicating multiple IBM Cloud Object Storage accounts into the same database:

• Use a different table prefix in the REPLICATE SELECT statement:

  REPLICATE PROD_Objects SELECT * FROM Objects;

• Alternatively, use a different schema:

  REPLICATE PROD.Objects SELECT * FROM Objects;

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 the data from your different IBM Cloud Object Storage accounts.