Databricks Reporting and Star Schemas in OBIEE



Create a star schema that shows perspectives on Databricks facts in real time.

The CData ODBC Driver for Databricks is a standard database driver that can integrate real-time access to Databricks data into your data warehouse or directly into your reporting tool. This article shows how to bypass the data warehouse and import operational Databricks data into Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE).

See the knowledge base for ODBC integrations with ETL tools like Informatica PowerCenter. For an ETL solution into Oracle Warehouse Builder, use the driver with the Oracle ODBC Gateway to Access Databricks Data as a Remote Oracle Database.

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 as an ODBC Data Source

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

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).

When you configure the DSN, 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.

Import Databricks Metadata

Follow the steps below to use the OBIEE Client Tools to import Databricks metadata into an OBIEE repository. You can then integrate Databricks data into your business models.

  1. Open the Administration Tool and click File -> New Repository.

  2. In the Connection Type menu, select ODBC 3.5 and select the CData DSN.
  3. Select the metadata types you want to import under the Relational Sources option and then select Databricks tables.
You can now create star schemas based on Databricks tables:

Ready to get started?

Download a free trial of the Databricks ODBC Driver to get started:

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Learn more:

Databricks Icon Databricks ODBC Driver

The Databricks ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from Databricks, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access Databricks data like you would a database - read, write, and update through a standard ODBC Driver interface.