Integrate Azure Data Lake Storage Data in the Pentaho Report Designer

The CData JDBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage data enables access to live data from dashboards and reports. This article shows how to connect to Azure Data Lake Storage data as a JDBC data source and publish reports based on Azure Data Lake Storage data in Pentaho.

Connect and Create a Report

1. Copy the JAR file of the driver, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory, to the \Report-Designer\lib\jdbc\ folder in the Pentaho directory.
2. Run the report-designer.bat file in the \Report-Designer\ folder to open the Report-Designer UI.

3. Create a new data source with the driver by clicking Data -> Add Data Source -> Advanced -> JDBC (Custom) and then creating a new Azure Data Lake Storage connection. In the resulting dialog, configure the connection properties as shown below.

   • Custom Connection URL property: Enter the JDBC URL. This starts with jdbc:adls: and is followed by a semicolon-separated list of connection properties.

     Authenticating to a Gen 1 DataLakeStore Account

     Gen 1 uses OAuth 2.0 in Azure AD for authentication.

     For this, an Active Directory web application is required. You can create one as follows:

     1. Sign in to your Azure Account through the .
     2. Select "Azure Active Directory".
     3. Select "App registrations".
     4. Select "New application registration".
     5. Provide a name and URL for the application. Select Web app for the type of application you want to create.
     6. Select "Required permissions" and change the required permissions for this app. At a minimum, "Azure Data Lake" and "Windows Azure Service Management API" are required.
     7. Select "Key" and generate a new key. Add a description, a duration, and take note of the generated key. You won't be able to see it again.

     To authenticate against a Gen 1 DataLakeStore account, the following properties are required:

     • Schema: Set this to ADLSGen1.
     • Account: Set this to the name of the account.
     • OAuthClientId: Set this to the application Id of the app you created.
     • OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the key generated for the app you created.
     • TenantId: Set this to the tenant Id. See the property for more information on how to acquire this.
     • Directory: Set this to the path which will be used to store the replicated file. If not specified, the root directory will be used.

     Authenticating to a Gen 2 DataLakeStore Account

     To authenticate against a Gen 2 DataLakeStore account, the following properties are required:

     • Schema: Set this to ADLSGen2.
     • Account: Set this to the name of the account.
     • FileSystem: Set this to the file system which will be used for this account.
     • AccessKey: Set this to the access key which will be used to authenticate the calls to the API. See the property for more information on how to acquire this.
     • Directory: Set this to the path which will be used to store the replicated file. If not specified, the root directory will be used.

     Built-in Connection String Designer

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

     java -jar cdata.jdbc.adls.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.

     Below is a typical JDBC URL:

     jdbc:adls:Schema=ADLSGen2;Account=myAccount;FileSystem=myFileSystem;AccessKey=myAccessKey;InitiateOAuth=GETANDREFRESH
   • Custom Driver Class Name: Enter cdata.jdbc.adls.ADLSDriver.
   • User Name: The username to authenticate with.
   • Password: The password to authenticate with.

Add Azure Data Lake Storage Data to a Report

You are now ready to create a report with Azure Data Lake Storage data.

1. Add the Azure Data Lake Storage source to your report: Click Data -> Add Data Source -> JDBC and select the data source.

2. Configure the query. This article uses the one below:

   SELECT FullPath, Permission FROM Resources WHERE Type = 'FILE'
3. Drag a chart onto your report and double-click it to edit the chart. Run the report to display the chart. You can use the results of this query to create a simple chart for the Resources table.
4. Finally, run the report to see the chart.