Analyze Elasticsearch Data in R via ODBC

Create data visualizations and use high-performance statistical functions to analyze Elasticsearch data in Microsoft R Open.

Access Elasticsearch data with pure R script and standard SQL. You can use the CData ODBC Driver for Elasticsearch and the RODBC package to work with remote Elasticsearch data in R. By using the CData Driver, you are leveraging a driver written for industry-proven standards to access your data in the popular, open-source R language. This article shows how to use the driver to execute SQL queries to Elasticsearch data and visualize Elasticsearch data in R.

About Elasticsearch Data Integration

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

Access both the SQL endpoints and REST endpoints, optimizing connectivity and offering more options when it comes to reading and writing Elasticsearch data.
Connect to virtually every Elasticsearch instance starting with v2.2 and Open Source Elasticsearch subscriptions.
Always receive a relevance score for the query results without explicitly requiring the SCORE() function, simplifying access from 3rd party tools and easily seeing how the query results rank in text relevance.
Search through multiple indices, relying on Elasticsearch to manage and process the query and results instead of the client machine.

Users frequently integrate Elasticsearch data with analytics tools such as Crystal Reports, Power BI, and Excel, and leverage our tools to enable a single, federated access layer to all of their data sources, including Elasticsearch.

For more information on CData's Elasticsearch solutions, check out our Knowledge Base article: CData Elasticsearch Driver Features & Differentiators.

Getting Started

Install R

You can complement the driver's performance gains from multi-threading and managed code by running the multithreaded Microsoft R Open or by running R linked with the BLAS/LAPACK libraries. This article uses Microsoft R Open (MRO).

Connect to Elasticsearch as an ODBC Data Source

Information for connecting to Elasticsearch follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments.

Set the Server and Port connection properties to connect. To authenticate, set the User and Password properties, PKI (public key infrastructure) properties, or both. To use PKI, set the SSLClientCert, SSLClientCertType, SSLClientCertSubject, and SSLClientCertPassword properties.

The data provider uses X-Pack Security for TLS/SSL and authentication. To connect over TLS/SSL, prefix the Server value with 'https://'. Note: TLS/SSL and client authentication must be enabled on X-Pack to use PKI.

Once the data provider is connected, X-Pack will then perform user authentication and grant role permissions based on the realms you have configured.

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.

Windows

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.

Linux

If you are installing the CData ODBC Driver for Elasticsearch in a Linux environment, the driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties.

/etc/odbc.ini


[CData Elasticsearch Source]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Elasticsearch
Description = My Description
Server = 127.0.0.1
Port = 9200
User = admin
Password = 123456

For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).

Load the RODBC Package

To use the driver, download the RODBC package. In RStudio, click Tools -> Install Packages and enter RODBC in the Packages box.

After installing the RODBC package, the following line loads the package:


library(RODBC)

Note: This article uses RODBC version 1.3-12. Using Microsoft R Open, you can test with the same version, using the checkpoint capabilities of Microsoft's MRAN repository. The checkpoint command enables you to install packages from a snapshot of the CRAN repository, hosted on the MRAN repository. The snapshot taken Jan. 1, 2016 contains version 1.3-12.


library(checkpoint)
checkpoint("2016-01-01")

Connect to Elasticsearch Data as an ODBC Data Source

You can connect to a DSN in R with the following line:


conn <- odbcConnect("CData Elasticsearch Source")

Schema Discovery

The driver models Elasticsearch APIs as relational tables, views, and stored procedures. Use the following line to retrieve the list of tables:


sqlTables(conn)

Execute SQL Queries

Use the sqlQuery function to execute any SQL query supported by the Elasticsearch API.


orders <- sqlQuery(conn, "SELECT Orders.Freight, Customers.ContactName FROM Customers INNER JOIN Orders ON Customers.CustomerId=Orders.CustomerId", believeNRows=FALSE, rows_at_time=1)

You can view the results in a data viewer window with the following command:


View(orders)

Plot Elasticsearch Data

You can now analyze Elasticsearch data with any of the data visualization packages available in the CRAN repository. You can create simple bar plots with the built-in bar plot function:


par(las=2,ps=10,mar=c(5,15,4,2))
barplot(orders$Freight, main="Elasticsearch Orders", names.arg = orders$OrderName, horiz=TRUE)

A basic bar plot. (Salesforce is shown.)

Ready to get started?

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

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Learn more:

Elasticsearch ODBC Driver

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

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