How to connect PolyBase to Okta

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 Okta, you get access to your Okta data directly alongside your SQL Server data. This article describes creating an external data source and external tables to grant access to live Okta 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 Okta data using PolyBase due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SQL Server to Okta, the driver pushes down supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Okta 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 Okta data, using a single query to pull data from distributed sources.

Connect to Okta

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 Okta Sys is created automatically).

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.

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

Create an External Data Source for Okta 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 Okta data.

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

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

Create an External Data Source for Okta

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

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

For Okta, set SERVERNAME to the URL or address for your server (e.g. 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1' for local servers; the remote URL for remote servers). Leave PORT empty. PUSHDOWN is set to ON by default, meaning the ODBC Driver can leverage server-side processing for complex queries.

CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE cdata_okta_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData Okta Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = okta_creds
);

Create External Tables for Okta

After creating the external data source, use CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statements to link to Okta data from your SQL Server instance. The table column definitions must match those exposed by the CData ODBC Driver for Okta. 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 Okta Users would look similar to the following:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Users(
  Id [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ProfileFirstName [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='Users',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_okta_source
);

Having created external tables for Okta 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 Okta, freeing up local resources and computing power. Download a free, 30-day trial of the ODBC Driver for Okta and start working with live Okta data alongside your SQL Server data today.