How to connect to Azure Data Lake Storage Data from MS Excel on Mac OS X

Microsoft Excel features calculations, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language that allows users to work with data in many of the ways that suit their needs, whether on a Windows machine or a Macintosh machine. This article walks through creating a DSN for Azure Data Lake Storage data in iODBC and accessing Azure Data Lake Storage data in Microsoft Excel, all on a machine running Mac OS X.

Installing the CData ODBC Drivers on Mac OS X

The CData ODBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage is preconfigured for the iODBC driver manager, as are many other products like Microsoft Excel. This makes the driver easy to use with these tools.

Licensing the Driver

In a terminal run the following commands to license the driver. To activate a trial license, omit the key input.

cd "/Applications/CData ODBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage/bin"
sudo ./install-license <key>

Defining a DSN for iODBC with odbc.ini

You can define ODBC data sources in sections in the odbc.ini file. User data sources can only be accessed by the user account whose home folder the odbc.ini is located in. System data sources can be accessed by all users. You can find the correct odbc.ini in the following paths:

Modifying iODBC's system-wide settings requires elevated permissions; to do so, you can use following to open a text editor from the terminal:

sudo nano /Library/ODBC/odbc.ini

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.

When you configure the DSN, 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.

In addition to the connection properties required to connect to Azure Data Lake Storage, the Driver property specifies either a driver definition in the odbcinst.ini file or the path to the driver library. Place your connection properties at the beginning of odbc.ini:

[CData Azure Data Lake Storage Sources]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage
Schema = ADLSGen2
Account = myAccount
FileSystem = myFileSystem
AccessKey = myAccessKey

If you wish to authenticate using OAuth, you will need to add an additional connection property to ensure that the OAuth flow can execute properly:

Other = CheckPromptMode=False

Mac OS validates our drivers separately so you need to copy the license file to the appropriate path as well. After you have configured odbc.ini, run the following command.

sudo cp /Applications/CData ODBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage/lib/CData.ODBC.ADLS.lic /Users/<YOUR_USER>/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/.cdata/

Additionally, in the ODBC Data Sources section, the DSN must be set to a driver defined in the odbcinst.ini file. For example, below is the entry for the DSN created during the driver install:

[ODBC Data Sources]
CData Azure Data Lake Storage Source = CData ODBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage

Registering a DSN for iODBC with odbcinst.ini

You may need to modify the installed driver definition if you change the path to the driver library. To register an ODBC driver, modify the odbcinst.ini file. With iODBC, drivers can be available to only one user account or drivers can be available system wide. You can find the correct odbcinst.ini in the following paths:

Drivers are defined in sections in the odbcinst.ini file. The section name specifies the name of the driver. In this section, the Driver property specifies the path to the driver library. The driver library is the .dylib file located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory, by default in /Applications/CData ODBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage.

[CData ODBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage]
Driver = /Applications/CData ODBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage/lib/libadls.odbc.dylib

The ODBC Drivers section must also contain a property with the driver name, set to "Installed".

[ODBC Drivers]
CData ODBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage = Installed

Testing the Connection

You can test your connection using the iODBC administrator.

1. Open a terminal and enter the following command to start the iODBC Administrator with the necessary permissions:

   sudo /Applications/iODBC/iODBC\ Administrator64.app/Contents/MacOS/iODBC\ Administrator64
   

2. On the Users tab, select CData Azure Data Lake Storage Source.
3. Click the Test button.

Accessing Azure Data Lake Storage Data from Microsoft Excel

You can use the DSN configured above to access Azure Data Lake Storage data from Microsoft Excel.

1. Open Microsoft Excel and open a spreadsheet (new or existing).
2. Navigate to the data ribbon and select New Database Query From Database
3. Select the User or System DSN that you previously configured and click OK.
4. Build your SQL query in the Microsoft Query wizard:
5. Click Return Data to execute the query and pull data into Excel.

Using the CData ODBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage, you can easily pull your Azure Data Lake Storage data directly into Excel. Once there, you can leverage all of the powerful features native to Excel to analyze, report, transform your Azure Data Lake Storage data, and more!