Integrate Live DB2 Data into Amazon SageMaker Canvas with RDS

Amazon SageMaker Canvas is a no-code machine learning platform that lets you generate predictions, prepare data, and build models without writing code. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to DB2 data for building custom machine-learning models, predicting customer churn, generating texts, building chatbots, and more. This article shows how to connect to Connect AI from Amazon SageMaker Canvas using the RDS connector and integrate live DB2 data into your ML model deployments.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL, cloud-to-cloud interface for DB2, allowing you to easily integrate with live DB2 data in Amazon SageMaker Canvas — without replicating the data. CData Connect AI looks exactly like a SQL Server database to Amazon SageMaker Canvas and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to DB2, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return DB2 data.

Configure DB2 Connectivity for Amazon SageMaker Canvas

Connectivity to DB2 from Amazon SageMaker Canvas is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with DB2 data from Amazon SageMaker Canvas, we start by creating and configuring a DB2 connection.

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

2. Select "DB2" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to DB2.

   Set the following properties to connect to DB2:

   • Server: Set this to the name of the server running DB2.
   • Port: Set this to the port the DB2 server is listening on.
   • Database: Set this to the name of the DB2 database.
   • User: Set this to the username of a user allowed to access the database.
   • Password: Set this to the password of a user allowed to access the database.

   You will also need to install the corresponding DB2 driver:

   • Windows: Install the IBM Data Server Provider for .NET.

     On Windows, installing the IBM Data Server Provider is sufficient, as the installation registers it in the machine.config.

   • Java: Install the IBM Data Server Driver for JDBC.

     In the Java version, place the IBM Data Server Driver JAR in the www\WEB-INF\lib\ folder for this application.

   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add DB2 Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI 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 AI. 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 AI 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 DB2 data from Amazon SageMaker Canvas.

Connecting to CData Connect AI from Amazon SageMaker Canvas

With the connection in CData Connect AI configured, you are ready to integrate live DB2 data into Amazon SageMaker Canvas using its RDS connector.

1. Select a domain and user profile in Amazon SageMaker Canvas and click on "Open Canvas".
2. Once the Canvas application opens, navigate to the left panel, and select "My models".
3. Click on "Create new model" in the My models screen.
4. Specify a Model name in Create new model window and select a Problem type. Click on "Create".
5. Once the model version gets created, click on "Create dataset" in the Select dataset tab.
6. In the Create a tabular dataset window, add a "Dataset name" and click on "Create".
7. Click on the "Data Source" drop-down and search for or navigate to the RDS connector and click on " Add Connection".
8. In the Add a new RDS connection window, set the following properties:
   
   
   • Connection Name: a relevant connection name
   • Set Engine type to sqlserver-web
   • Set Port to 14333
   • Set Address as tds.cdata.com
   • Set Username to a Connect AI user (e.g. [email protected])
   • Set Password to the PAT for the above user
   • Set Database name the DB2 connection (e.g., DB21)
9. Click on "Create connection".

Integrating DB2 Data into Amazon SageMaker Canvas

With the connection to Connect AI configured in the RDS, you are ready to integrate live DB2 data into your Amazon SageMaker Canvas dataset.

1. In the tabular dataset created in RDS with DB2 data, search for the DB2 connection configured on Connect AI in the search bar or from the list of connections.
2. Select the table of your choice from DB2, drag and drop it into the canvas on the right.
3. You can create workflows by joining any number of tables from the DB2 connection (as shown below). Click on "Create dataset".
4. Once the dataset is created, click on "Select dataset" to build your model.
5. Perform analysis, generate prediction, and deploy the model.

At this point, you have access to live DB2 data in Amazon SageMaker that you can utilize to build custom ML models to generate predictive business insights and grow your organization.

SQL Access to DB2 Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct connection to live DB2 data from Amazon SageMaker Canvas. You can create more connections, datasets, and predictive models to drive business — all without replicating DB2 data.

To get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, see the CData Connect AI.