Connect to Redshift Data in RapidMiner

This article shows how you can easily integrate the CData JDBC driver for Redshift into your processes in RapidMiner. This article uses the CData JDBC Driver for Redshift to transfer Redshift data to a process in RapidMiner.

Connect to Redshift in RapidMiner as a JDBC Data Source

You can follow the procedure below to establish a JDBC connection to Redshift:

1. Add a new database driver for Redshift: Click Connections -> Manage Database Drivers.
2. In the resulting wizard, click the Add button and enter a name for the connection.
3. Enter the prefix for the JDBC URL: jdbc:redshift:
4. Enter the path to the cdata.jdbc.redshift.jar file, located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.
5. Enter the driver class: cdata.jdbc.redshift.RedshiftDriver
6. Create a new Redshift connection: Click Connections -> Manage Database Connections.
7. Enter a name for your connection.
8. For Database System, select the Redshift driver you configured previously.
9. Enter your connection string in the Host box.

   To connect to Redshift, set the following:

   • Server: Set this to the host name or IP address of the cluster hosting the Database you want to connect to.
   • Port: Set this to the port of the cluster.
   • Database: Set this to the name of the database. Or, leave this blank to use the default database of the authenticated user.
   • User: Set this to the username you want to use to authenticate to the Server.
   • Password: Set this to the password you want to use to authenticate to the Server.

   You can obtain the Server and Port values in the AWS Management Console:

   1. Open the Amazon Redshift console (http://console.aws.amazon.com/redshift).
   2. On the Clusters page, click the name of the cluster.
   3. On the Configuration tab for the cluster, copy the cluster URL from the connection strings displayed.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

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

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.redshift.jar

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

   A typical connection string is below:

   User=admin;Password=admin;Database=dev;Server=examplecluster.my.us-west-2.redshift.amazonaws.com;Port=5439;
10. Enter your username and password if necessary.

You can now use your Redshift connection with the various RapidMiner operators in your process. To retrieve Redshift data, drag the Retrieve operator from the Operators view. With the Retrieve operator selected, you can then define which table to retrieve in the Parameters view by clicking the folder icon next to the "repository entry." In the resulting Repository Browser, you can expand your connection node to select the desired example set.

Finally, wire the output to the Retrieve process to a result, and run the process to see the Redshift data.