How to create Azure Table federated tables in MySQL

You can use the SQL Gateway to configure a MySQL remoting service and set up federated tables for Azure Table data. The service is a daemon process that provides a MySQL interface to the CData ODBC Driver for Azure Table: After you have started the service, you can create a server and tables using the FEDERATED Storage Engine in MySQL. You can then work with Azure Table data just as you would local MySQL tables.

Connect to Azure Table Data

If you have not already done so, provide values for the required connection properties in the data source name (DSN). You can use the built-in Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to configure the DSN. This is also the last step of the driver installation. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for a guide to using the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure a DSN.

Specify your AccessKey and your Account to connect. Set the Account property to the Storage Account Name and set AccessKey to one of the Access Keys. Either the Primary or Secondary Access Keys can be used. To obtain these values, navigate to the Storage Accounts blade in the Azure portal. You can obtain the access key by selecting your account and clicking Access Keys in the Settings section.

Configure the SQL Gateway

See the SQL Gateway Overview to set up connectivity to Azure Table data as a virtual MySQL database. You will configure a MySQL remoting service that listens for MySQL requests from clients. The service can be configured in the SQL Gateway UI.

Create a FEDERATED Server and Tables for Azure Table Data

After you have configured and started the service, create a FEDERATED server to simplify the process of creating FEDERATED tables:

Create a FEDERATED Server

The following statement will create a FEDERATED server based on the ODBC Driver for Azure Table. Note that the username and password of the FEDERATED server must match a user account you defined on the Users tab of the SQL Gateway.

CREATE SERVER fedAzureTables
FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER mysql
OPTIONS (USER 'sql_gateway_user', PASSWORD 'sql_gateway_passwd', HOST 'sql_gateway_host', PORT ####, DATABASE 'CData AzureTables Sys');

Create a FEDERATED Table

To create a FEDERATED table using our newly created server, use the CONNECTION keyword and pass the name of the FEDERATED server and the remote table (NorthwindProducts). Refer to the following template for the statement to create a FEDERATED table:

CREATE TABLE fed_northwindproducts (
  ...,
  name  TYPE(LEN),
  price  TYPE(LEN),
  ...,
)
ENGINE=FEDERATED
DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1
CONNECTION='fedAzureTables/northwindproducts';

NOTE: The table schema for the FEDERATED table must match the remote table schema exactly. You can always connect directly to the MySQL remoting service using any MySQL client and run a SHOW CREATE TABLE query to get the table schema.

Execute Queries

You can now execute queries to the Azure Table FEDERATED tables from any tool that can connect to MySQL, which is particularly useful if you need to JOIN data from a local table with data from Azure Table. Refer to the following example:

SELECT 
  fed_northwindproducts.name, 
  local_table.custom_field 
FROM 
  local_table 
JOIN 
  fed_northwindproducts 
ON 
  local_table.foreign_name = fed_northwindproducts.name;