Connect to Sybase Data in as an External Source in Dremio

The CData JDBC Driver for Sybase implements JDBC Standards and allows various applications, including Dremio, to work with live Sybase data. Dremio is a data lakehouse platform designed to empower self-service, interactive analytics on the data lake. With the CData JDBC Driver, you can include live Sybase data as a part of your enterprise data lake. This article describes how to connect to Sybase data from Dremio as an External Source.

The CData JDBC Driver enables high-speed access to live Sybase data in Dremio. Once you install the driver, authenticate with Sybase and gain immediate access to Sybase data within your data lake. By surfacing Sybase data using native data types and handling complex filters, aggregations, & other operations automatically, the CData JDBC Driver grants seamless access to Sybase data.

Build the ARP Connector

To use the CData JDBC Driver in Dremio, you need to build an Advanced Relation Pushdown (ARP) Connector. You can view the source code for the Connector on GitHub or download the ZIP file (GitHub.com) directly. Once you copy or extract the files, run the following command from the root directory of the connector (the directory containing the pom.xml file) to build the connector.

mvn clean install

Once the JAR file for the connector is built (in the target directory), you are ready to copy the ARP connector and JDBC Driver to your Dremio instance.

Installing the Connector and JDBC Driver

Install the ARP Connector to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/ and the JDBC Driver for Sybase to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/3rdparty. You can use commands similar to the following:

ARP Connector

docker cp PATH\TO\dremio-sybase-plugin-20.0.0.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/

JDBC Driver for Sybase

docker cp PATH\TO\cdata.jdbc.sybase.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/3rdparty/

Connecting to Sybase

Sybase will now appear as an External Source option in Dremio. The ARP Connector built uses a JDBC URL to connect to Sybase data. The JDBC Driver has a built-in connection string designer that you can use (see below).

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

java -jar cdata.jdbc.sybase.jar

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

To connect to Sybase, specify the following connection properties:

• Server: Set this to the name or network address of the Sybase database instance.
• Database: Set this to the name of the Sybase database running on the specified Server.

Optionally, you can also secure your connections with TLS/SSL by setting UseSSL to true.

Sybase supports several methods for authentication including Password and Kerberos.

Connect Using Password Authentication

Set the AuthScheme to Password and set the following connection properties to use Sybase authentication.

• User: Set this to the username of the authenticating Sybase user.
• Password: Set this to the username of the authenticating Sybase user.

Connect using LDAP Authentication

To connect with LDAP authentication, you will need to configure Sybase server-side to use the LDAP authentication mechanism.

After configuring Sybase for LDAP, you can connect using the same credentials as Password authentication.

Connect Using Kerberos Authentication

To leverage Kerberos authentication, begin by enabling it setting AuthScheme to Kerberos. See the Using Kerberos section in the Help documentation for more information on using Kerberos authentication.

You can find an example connection string below: Server=MyServer;Port=MyPort;User=SampleUser;Password=SamplePassword;Database=MyDB;Kerberos=true;KerberosKDC=MyKDC;KerberosRealm=MYREALM.COM;KerberosSPN=server-name

NOTE: To use the JDBC Driver in Dremio, you will need a license (full or trial) and a Runtime Key (RTK). For more information on obtaining this license (or a trial), contact our sales team.

Add the Runtime Key (RTK) to the JDBC URL. You will end up with a JDBC URL similar to the following:

jdbc:sybase:RTK=5246...;User=myuser;Password=mypassword;Server=localhost;Database=mydatabase;Charset=iso_1;

Access Sybase as an External Source

To add Sybase as an External Source, click to add a new source and select Sybase. Copy the JDBC URL and paste it into the New Sybase Source wizard.

Save the connection and you are ready to query live Sybase data in Dremio, easily incorporating Sybase data into your data lake.

More Information & Free Trial

Using the CData JDBC Driver for Sybase in Dremio, you can incorporate live Sybase data into your data lake. Check out our CData JDBC Driver for Sybase page for more information about connecting to Sybase. Download a free, 30 day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for Sybase and get started today.