Okta Reporting in OBIEE with the Okta JDBC Driver



Deploy the Okta JDBC driver on OBIEE to provide real-time reporting across the enterprise.

The CData JDBC Driver for Okta is a standard database driver that can integrate real-time access to Okta data into your Java-based reporting server. This article shows how to deploy the driver to Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) and create reports on Okta data that reflect any changes.

Deploy the JDBC Driver

Follow the steps below to add the JDBC driver to WebLogic's classpath.

For WebLogic 12.2.1, simply place the driver JAR and .lic file into DOMAIN_HOME\lib; for example, ORACLE_HOME\user_projects\domains\MY_DOMAIN\lib. These files will be added to the server classpath at startup.

You can also manually add the driver to the classpath: This is required for earlier versions. Prepend the following to PRE_CLASSPATH in setDomainEnv.cmd (Windows) or setDomainEnv.sh (Unix). This script is located in the bin subfolder of the folder for that domain. For example: ORACLE_HOME\user_projects\domains\MY_DOMAIN\bin.

set PRE_CLASSPATH=your-installation-directory\lib\cdata.jdbc.okta.jar;%PRE_CLASSPATH%

Restart all servers; for example, run the stop and start commands in DOMAIN_HOME\bitools\bin.

Create a JDBC Data Source for Okta

After deploying the JDBC driver, you can create a JDBC data source from BI Publisher.

  1. Log into BI Publisher, at the URL http://localhost:9502/analytics, for example, and click Administration -> Manage BI Publisher.
  2. Click JDBC Connection -> Add Data Source.
  3. Enter the following information:
    • Data Source Name: Enter the name that users will create connections to in their reports.
    • Driver Type: Select Other.
    • Database DriverClass: Enter the driver class, cdata.jdbc.okta.OktaDriver.
    • Connection String: Enter the JDBC URL.

      To connect to Okta, set the Domain connection string property to your Okta domain.

      You will use OAuth to authenticate with Okta, so you need to create a custom OAuth application.

      Creating a Custom OAuth Application

      From your Okta account:

      1. Sign in to your Okta developer edition organization with your administrator account.
      2. In the Admin Console, go to Applications > Applications.
      3. Click Create App Integration.
      4. For the Sign-in method, select OIDC - OpenID Connect.
      5. For Application type, choose Web Application.
      6. Enter a name for your custom application.
      7. Set the Grant Type to Authorization Code. If you want the token to be automatically refreshed, also check Refresh Token.
      8. Set the callback URL:
        • For desktop applications and headless machines, use http://localhost:33333 or another port number of your choice. The URI you set here becomes the CallbackURL property.
        • For web applications, set the callback URL to a trusted redirect URL. This URL is the web location the user returns to with the token that verifies that your application has been granted access.
      9. In the Assignments section, either select Limit access to selected groups and add a group, or skip group assignment for now.
      10. Save the OAuth application.
      11. The application's Client Id and Client Secret are displayed on the application's General tab. Record these for future use. You will use the Client Id to set the OAuthClientId and the Client Secret to set the OAuthClientSecret.
      12. Check the Assignments tab to confirm that all users who must access the application are assigned to the application.
      13. On the Okta API Scopes tab, select the scopes you wish to grant to the OAuth application. These scopes determine the data that the app has permission to read, so a scope for a particular view must be granted for the driver to have permission to query that view. To confirm the scopes required for each view, see the view-specific pages in Data Model < Views in the Help documentation.

      Built-in Connection String Designer

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

      java -jar cdata.jdbc.okta.jar

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

      When you configure the JDBC URL, 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.

      A typical JDBC URL is below:

      jdbc:okta:Domain=dev-44876464.okta.com;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
    • Username: Enter the username.
    • Password: Enter the password.
  4. In the Security section, select the allowed user roles.

Create Real-Time Okta Reports

You can now create reports and analyses based on real-time Okta data. Follow the steps below to use the standard report wizard to create an interactive report that reflects any changes to Okta data.

  1. On the global header, click New -> Data Model.
  2. On the Diagram tab, select SQL query in the menu.
  3. Enter a name for the query and in the Data Source menu select the Okta JDBC data source you created.
  4. Select standard SQL and enter a query like the following: SELECT Id, ProfileFirstName FROM Users WHERE Status = 'Active'
  5. Click View Data to generate the sample data to be used as you build your report.
  6. Select the number of rows to include in the sample data, click View, and then click Save As Sample Data.
  7. Click Create Report -> Use Data Model.
  8. Select Guide Me and on the Select Layout page select the report objects you want to include. In this example we select Chart and Table.
  9. Drop a numeric column like ProfileFirstName onto the Drop Value Here box on the y-axis. Drop a dimension column like Id onto the Drop Label Here box on the x-axis.
  10. Click Refresh to pick up any changes to the Okta data.

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the Okta Driver to get started:

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