Use the CData JDBC Driver for Databricks in MicroStrategy



Connect to Databricks data in MicroStrategy Developer using the CData JDBC Driver for Databricks.

MicroStrategy is an analytics and mobility platform that enables data-driven innovation. When you pair MicroStrategy with the CData JDBC Driver for Databricks, you gain database-like access to live Databricks data from MicroStrategy, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. In this article, we walk through creating a database instance for Databricks in MicroStrategy Developer and create a Warehouse Catalog for the Databricks data.

The CData JDBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Databricks data in MicroStrategy due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from MicroStrategy to Databricks, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Databricks and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. With built-in dynamic metadata querying, you can visualize and analyze Databricks data using native MicroStrategy data types.

About Databricks Data Integration

Accessing and integrating live data from Databricks has never been easier with CData. Customers rely on CData connectivity to:

  • Access all versions of Databricks from Runtime Versions 9.1 - 13.X to both the Pro and Classic Databricks SQL versions.
  • Leave Databricks in their preferred environment thanks to compatibility with any hosting solution.
  • Secure authenticate in a variety of ways, including personal access token, Azure Service Principal, and Azure AD.
  • Upload data to Databricks using Databricks File System, Azure Blog Storage, and AWS S3 Storage.

While many customers are using CData's solutions to migrate data from different systems into their Databricks data lakehouse, several customers use our live connectivity solutions to federate connectivity between their databases and Databricks. These customers are using SQL Server Linked Servers or Polybase to get live access to Databricks from within their existing RDBMs.

Read more about common Databricks use-cases and how CData's solutions help solve data problems in our blog: What is Databricks Used For? 6 Use Cases.


Getting Started


Connect to Databricks in MicroStrategy Developer

You can connect to Databricks in MicroStrategy Developer by adding a database instance based on the CData JDBC Driver for Databricks.* Before you begin, you will need to install the JDBC Driver for Databricks on the machine hosting the MicroStrategy Intelligence Server that your instance of MicroStrategy Developer is connected to.

  1. Open MicroStrategy Developer and select a Project Source.
  2. Navigate to Administration -> Configuration Managers -> Database Instances and right-click to add a new instance.
  3. Name the instance, select Generic DBMS as the database connection type, and create a new database connection.
  4. In the database connection wizard, name the connection and create a new Database Login name, setting the user and password for Databricks.
  5. On the Advanced tab for the connection wizard, set the additional connection string parameters as follows.
    • Add the JDBC keyword to the connection string.
    • Set MSTR_JDBC_JAR_FOLDER to the path of the directory containing the JAR file for the JDBC driver. (C:\Program Files\CData JDBC Driver for Databricks\lib\ on Windows.)
    • Set DRIVER to cdata.jdbc.databricks.DatabricksDriver, the driver class.
    • Set URL to the JDBC URL for the Databricks driver, which contains the necessary connection properties.

      To connect to a Databricks cluster, set the properties as described below.

      Note: The needed values can be found in your Databricks instance by navigating to Clusters, and selecting the desired cluster, and selecting the JDBC/ODBC tab under Advanced Options.

      • Server: Set to the Server Hostname of your Databricks cluster.
      • HTTPPath: Set to the HTTP Path of your Databricks cluster.
      • Token: Set to your personal access token (this value can be obtained by navigating to the User Settings page of your Databricks instance and selecting the Access Tokens tab).

      Built-in Connection String Designer

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

      java -jar cdata.jdbc.databricks.jar

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

      When you configure the JDBC URL, 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.

    Typical additional connection string properties follow:

    JDBC;MSTR_JDBC_JAR_FOLDER=PATH\TO\JAR\;DRIVER=cdata.jdbc.databricks.DatabricksDriver;URL={jdbc:databricks:Server=127.0.0.1;Port=443;TransportMode=HTTP;HTTPPath=MyHTTPPath;UseSSL=True;User=MyUser;Password=MyPassword;};
  6. Ensure that you have not selected an ODBC data source (this will trigger MicroStrategy to use the additional connection string parameters to build the database instance) and click OK.
  7. Click OK to close the database instance wizard.
  8. In the Project Source, right-click the project and open the Project configuration.
  9. Navigate to Database Instances, select the newly created database instance, and click OK.
  10. Close MicroStrategy Developer and restart the connected MicroStrategy Intelligence Server to complete the database instance creation.

With the database instance configured, you will now be able to connect to Databricks data from the Warehouse Catalog and Data Import.

Connect to Databricks Data from the Warehouse Catalog

Once you have created a database instance based on the JDBC Driver for Databricks, you can connect to data from the Warehouse Catalog.

  1. Select your project and click Schema -> Warehouse Catalog.
  2. In the Read Settings for the Catalog, click Settings and set the queries to retrieve the schema:
    • To retrieve the list of tables, use the following query: SELECT * FROM SYS_TABLES
    • To retrieve the list of columns for selected tables, use the following query: SELECT DISTINCT CatalogName NAME_SPACE, TableName TAB_NAME, ColumnName COL_NAME, DataTypeName DATA_TYPE, Length DATA_LEN, NumericPrecision DATA_PREC, NumericScale DATA_SCALE FROM SYS_TABLECOLUMNS WHERE TableName IN (#TABLE_LIST#) ORDER BY 1,2,3
  3. Select tables to be used in the project.

Using the CData JDBC Driver for Databricks in MicroStrategy, you can easily create robust visualizations and reports on Databricks data. Read our other articles on connecting to Databricks in MictroStrategy Web and connecting to Databricks in MicroStrategy Desktop for more information.


Note: Connecting using a JDBC Driver requires a 3- or 4-Tier Architecture.

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