ETL Azure Analysis Services in Oracle Data Integrator



This article shows how to transfer Azure Analysis Services data into a data warehouse using Oracle Data Integrator.

Leverage existing skills by using the JDBC standard to connect to Azure Analysis Services: Through drop-in integration into ETL tools like Oracle Data Integrator (ODI), the CData JDBC Driver for Azure Analysis Services connects real-time Azure Analysis Services data to your data warehouse, business intelligence, and Big Data technologies.

JDBC connectivity enables you to work with Azure Analysis Services just as you would any other database in ODI. As with an RDBMS, you can use the driver to connect directly to the Azure Analysis Services APIs in real time instead of working with flat files.

This article walks through a JDBC-based ETL -- Azure Analysis Services to Oracle. After reverse engineering a data model of Azure Analysis Services entities, you will create a mapping and select a data loading strategy -- since the driver supports SQL-92, this last step can easily be accomplished by selecting the built-in SQL to SQL Loading Knowledge Module.

Install the Driver

To install the driver, copy the driver JAR (cdata.jdbc.aas.jar) and .lic file (cdata.jdbc.aas.lic), located in the installation folder, into the ODI appropriate directory:

  • UNIX/Linux without Agent: ~/.odi/oracledi/userlib
  • UNIX/Linux with Agent: ~/.odi/oracledi/userlib and $ODI_HOME/odi/agent/lib
  • Windows without Agent: %APPDATA%\Roaming\odi\oracledi\userlib
  • Windows with Agent: %APPDATA%\odi\oracledi\userlib and %APPDATA%\odi\agent\lib

Restart ODI to complete the installation.

Reverse Engineer a Model

Reverse engineering the model retrieves metadata about the driver's relational view of Azure Analysis Services data. After reverse engineering, you can query real-time Azure Analysis Services data and create mappings based on Azure Analysis Services tables.

  1. In ODI, connect to your repository and click New -> Model and Topology Objects.
  2. On the Model screen of the resulting dialog, enter the following information:
    • Name: Enter AAS.
    • Technology: Select Generic SQL (for ODI Version 12.2+, select Microsoft SQL Server).
    • Logical Schema: Enter AAS.
    • Context: Select Global.
  3. On the Data Server screen of the resulting dialog, enter the following information:
    • Name: Enter AAS.
    • Driver List: Select Oracle JDBC Driver.
    • Driver: Enter cdata.jdbc.aas.AASDriver
    • URL: Enter the JDBC URL containing the connection string.

      To connect to Azure Analysis Services, set the Url property to a valid server, for instance, asazure://southcentralus.asazure.windows.net/server, in addition to authenticating. Optionally, set Database to distinguish which Azure database on the server to connect to.

      Azure Analysis Services uses the OAuth authentication standard. OAuth requires the authenticating user to interact with Azure Analysis Services using the browser. You can connect without setting any connection properties for your user credentials. See the Help documentation for more information.

      Built-in Connection String Designer

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

      java -jar cdata.jdbc.aas.jar

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

      Below is a typical connection string:

      jdbc:aas:URL=asazure://REGION.asazure.windows.net/server;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
  4. On the Physical Schema screen, enter the following information:
    • Name: Select from the Drop Down menu.
    • Database (Catalog): Enter CData.
    • Owner (Schema): If you select a Schema for Azure Analysis Services, enter the Schema selected, otherwise enter AAS.
    • Database (Work Catalog): Enter CData.
    • Owner (Work Schema): If you select a Schema for Azure Analysis Services, enter the Schema selected, otherwise enter AAS.
  5. In the opened model click Reverse Engineer to retrieve the metadata for Azure Analysis Services tables.

Edit and Save Azure Analysis Services Data

After reverse engineering you can now work with Azure Analysis Services data in ODI. To view Azure Analysis Services data, expand the Models accordion in the Designer navigator, right-click a table, and click View data.

Create an ETL Project

Follow the steps below to create an ETL from Azure Analysis Services. You will load Customer entities into the sample data warehouse included in the ODI Getting Started VM.

  1. Open SQL Developer and connect to your Oracle database. Right-click the node for your database in the Connections pane and click new SQL Worksheet.

    Alternatively you can use SQLPlus. From a command prompt enter the following:

    sqlplus / as sysdba
  2. Enter the following query to create a new target table in the sample data warehouse, which is in the ODI_DEMO schema. The following query defines a few columns that match the Customer table in Azure Analysis Services: CREATE TABLE ODI_DEMO.TRG_CUSTOMER (EDUCATION NUMBER(20,0),Country VARCHAR2(255));
  3. In ODI expand the Models accordion in the Designer navigator and double-click the Sales Administration node in the ODI_DEMO folder. The model is opened in the Model Editor.
  4. Click Reverse Engineer. The TRG_CUSTOMER table is added to the model.
  5. Right-click the Mappings node in your project and click New Mapping. Enter a name for the mapping and clear the Create Empty Dataset option. The Mapping Editor is displayed.
  6. Drag the TRG_CUSTOMER table from the Sales Administration model onto the mapping.
  7. Drag the Customer table from the Azure Analysis Services model onto the mapping.
  8. Click the source connector point and drag to the target connector point. The Attribute Matching dialog is displayed. For this example, use the default options. The target expressions are then displayed in the properties for the target columns.
  9. Open the Physical tab of the Mapping Editor and click CUSTOMER_AP in TARGET_GROUP.
  10. In the CUSTOMER_AP properties, select LKM SQL to SQL (Built-In) on the Loading Knowledge Module tab.

You can then run the mapping to load Azure Analysis Services data into Oracle.

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the Azure Analysis Services Driver to get started:

 Download Now

Learn more:

Azure Analysis Services Icon Azure Analysis Services JDBC Driver

Rapidly create and deploy powerful Java applications that integrate with Azure Analysis Services.