Query, Visualize, and Share live SQL Server Data in Redash

Redash is a collaboration tool that lets you query, visualize, and share your data. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, Redash gets access to live SQL Server data. This article demonstrates how to connect to SQL Server using Connect Cloud and work with live SQL Server data in Redash.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL Server interface for SQL Server, allowing you to query data from SQL Server without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to SQL Server, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested SQL Server data quickly.

Configure SQL Server Connectivity for Redash

Connectivity to SQL Server from Redash is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with SQL Server data in Redash, we start by creating and configuring a SQL Server connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Connections and click Add Connection
2. Select "SQL Server" from the Add Connection panel
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SQL Server.

   Connecting to Microsoft SQL Server

   Connect to Microsoft SQL Server using the following properties:

   • Server: The name of the server running SQL Server.
   • User: The username provided for authentication with SQL Server.
   • Password: The password associated with the authenticating user.
   • Database: The name of the SQL Server database.

   Connecting to Azure SQL Server and Azure Data Warehouse

   You can authenticate to Azure SQL Server or Azure Data Warehouse by setting the following connection properties:

   • Server: The server running Azure. You can find this by logging into the Azure portal and navigating to "SQL databases" (or "SQL data warehouses") -> "Select your database" -> "Overview" -> "Server name."
   • User: The name of the user authenticating to Azure.
   • Password: The password associated with the authenticating user.
   • Database: The name of the database, as seen in the Azure portal on the SQL databases (or SQL warehouses) page.
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SQL Server Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

If you are connecting from a service, application, platform, or framework that does not support OAuth authentication, you can create a Personal Access Token (PAT) to use for authentication. Best practices would dictate that you create a separate PAT for each service, to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on your username at the top right of the Connect Cloud app and click User Profile.
2. On the User Profile page, scroll down to the Personal Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give your PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

Connect to SQL Server from Redash using Connect Cloud

To establish a connection from Redash to CData Connect Cloud using the SQL Server API, follow these steps.

1. Log into Redash.
2. Click the settings widget on the top right.
3. Click New Data Source.
4. Select Microsoft SQL Server as the Data Source Type.
5. On the configuration tab, set the following properties:
   • Database Name: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect Cloud data source you want to connect to (for example, Salesforce1).
   • Server: enter the virtual SQL Server host name (tds.cdata.com)
   • User: enter your CData Connect Cloud username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect Cloud interface. For example, [email protected].
   • Password: enter the PAT you generated on the Settings page.
   • Port: enter 14333
6. Click Create.
7. Click Test Connection to ensure that the connection is configured properly.

You can now work with live SQL Server data in Redash.

Get CData Connect Cloud

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