Connect to DB2 Data in as an External Source in Dremio

The CData JDBC Driver for IBM DB2 implements JDBC Standards and allows various applications, including Dremio, to work with live DB2 data. Dremio is a data lakehouse platform designed to empower self-service, interactive analytics on the data lake. With the CData JDBC Driver, you can include live DB2 data as a part of your enterprise data lake. This article describes how to connect to DB2 data from Dremio as an External Source.

The CData JDBC Driver enables high-speed access to live DB2 data in Dremio. Once you install the driver, authenticate with DB2 and gain immediate access to DB2 data within your data lake. By surfacing DB2 data using native data types and handling complex filters, aggregations, & other operations automatically, the CData JDBC Driver grants seamless access to DB2 data.

Build the ARP Connector

To use the CData JDBC Driver in Dremio, you need to build an Advanced Relation Pushdown (ARP) Connector. You can view the source code for the Connector on GitHub or download the ZIP file (GitHub.com) directly. Once you copy or extract the files, run the following command from the root directory of the connector (the directory containing the pom.xml file) to build the connector.

mvn clean install

Once the JAR file for the connector is built (in the target directory), you are ready to copy the ARP connector and JDBC Driver to your Dremio instance.

Installing the Connector and JDBC Driver

Install the ARP Connector to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/ and the JDBC Driver for DB2 to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/3rdparty. You can use commands similar to the following:

ARP Connector

docker cp PATH\TO\dremio-db2-plugin-20.0.0.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/

JDBC Driver for DB2

docker cp PATH\TO\cdata.jdbc.db2.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/3rdparty/

Connecting to DB2

DB2 will now appear as an External Source option in Dremio. The ARP Connector built uses a JDBC URL to connect to DB2 data. The JDBC Driver has a built-in connection string designer that you can use (see below).

Built-in Connection String Designer

For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the DB2 JDBC Driver. Double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command line.

java -jar cdata.jdbc.db2.jar

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

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.

NOTE: To use the JDBC Driver in Dremio, you will need a license (full or trial) and a Runtime Key (RTK). For more information on obtaining this license (or a trial), contact our sales team.

Add the Runtime Key (RTK) to the JDBC URL. You will end up with a JDBC URL similar to the following:

jdbc:db2:RTK=5246...;Server=10.0.1.2;Port=50000;User=admin;Password=admin;Database=test;

Access DB2 as an External Source

To add DB2 as an External Source, click to add a new source and select DB2. Copy the JDBC URL and paste it into the New DB2 Source wizard.

Save the connection and you are ready to query live DB2 data in Dremio, easily incorporating DB2 data into your data lake.

More Information & Free Trial

Using the CData JDBC Driver for IBM DB2 in Dremio, you can incorporate live DB2 data into your data lake. Check out our CData JDBC Driver for IBM DB2 page for more information about connecting to DB2. Download a free, 30 day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for IBM DB2 and get started today.