Build Active Directory-Connected Visualizations in datapine

datapine is a browser-based business intelligence platform. When paired with the CData Connect Cloud, you get access to your Active Directory data directly from your datapine visualizations and dashboards. This article describes connecting to Active Directory in CData Connect Cloud and building a simple Active Directory-connected visualization in datapine.

CData Connect Cloud provides a pure SQL Server interface for Active Directory, allowing you to query data from Active Directory without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Cloud pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to Active Directory, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested Active Directory data quickly.

Configure Active Directory Connectivity for datapine

Connectivity to Active Directory from datapine is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Active Directory data from datapine, we start by creating and configuring a Active Directory connection.

1. Log into Connect Cloud, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

2. Select "Active Directory" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Active Directory.

   To establish a connection, set the following properties:

   • Valid User and Password credentials (e.g., Domain\BobF or cn=Bob F,ou=Employees,dc=Domain).
   • Server information, including the IP or host name of the Server, as well as the Port.

   • BaseDN: This will limit the scope of LDAP searches to the height of the distinguished name provided.

     Note: Specifying a narrow BaseDN may greatly increase performance; for example, cn=users,dc=domain will only return results contained within cn=users and its children.

   
4. Click Create & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Active Directory Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect Cloud through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect Cloud. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect Cloud app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Active Directory data from datapine.

Connecting to Active Directory from datapine

Once you configure your connection to Active Directory in Connect Cloud, you are ready to connect to Active Directory from datapine.

1. Log into datapine
2. Click Connect to navigate to the "Connect" page
3. Select MS SQL Server as the data source
4. In the Integration step, fill in the connection properties and click "Save and Proceed"
   • Set the Internal Name
   • Set Database Name to the name of the connection we just configured (e.g. ActiveDirectory1)
   • Set Host / IP to "tds.cdata.com"
   • Set Username to your Connect Cloud username (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to the corresponding PAT
   • Set Database Port to "14333"
   
5. In the Data Schema step, select the tables and fields to visualize and click "Save and Proceed"
6. In the References step, define any relationships between your selected tables and click "Save and Proceed"
7. In the Data Transfer step, click "Go to Analyzer"

Visualize Active Directory Data in datapine

After connecting to CData Connect Cloud, you are ready to visualize your Active Directory data in datapine. Simply select the dimensions and measures you wish to visualize!

Having connect to Active Directory from datapine, you are now able to visualize and analyze real-time Active Directory data no matter where you are. To get live data access to 100+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from datapine, try CData Connect Cloud today!