How to connect PolyBase to SharePoint Excel Services

PolyBase for SQL Server allows you to query external data by using the same Transact-SQL syntax used to query a database table. When paired with the CData ODBC Driver for SharePoint Excel Services, you get access to your SharePoint Excel Services data directly alongside your SQL Server data. This article describes creating an external data source and external tables to grant access to live SharePoint Excel Services data using T-SQL queries.

NOTE: PolyBase is only available on SQL Server 19 and above, and only for Standard SQL Server.

The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live SharePoint Excel Services data using PolyBase due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SQL Server to SharePoint Excel Services, the driver pushes down supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to SharePoint Excel Services and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. And with PolyBase, you can also join SQL Server data with SharePoint Excel Services data, using a single query to pull data from distributed sources.

Connect to SharePoint Excel Services

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 create an external data source in SQL Server using PolyBase, configure a System DSN (CData SharePoint Excel Services Sys is created automatically).

The URL, User, and Password properties, under the Authentication section, must be set to valid credentials for SharePoint Online, SharePoint 2010, or SharePoint 2013. Additionally, the Library property must be set to a valid SharePoint Document Library and the File property must be set to a valid .xlsx file in the indicated Library.

Click "Test Connection" to ensure that the DSN is connected to SharePoint Excel Services properly. Navigate to the Tables tab to review the table definitions for SharePoint Excel Services.

Create an External Data Source for SharePoint Excel Services Data

After configuring the connection, you need to create a master encryption key and a credential database for the external data source.

Creating a Master Encryption Key

Execute the following SQL command to create a new master key, 'ENCRYPTION,' to encrypt the credentials for the external data source.

CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'password';

Creating a Credential Database

Execute the following SQL command to create credentials for the external data source connected to SharePoint Excel Services data.

NOTE: IDENTITY and SECRET correspond with the User and Password properties for SharePoint Excel Services.

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL excelservices_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'excelservices_username', SECRET = 'excelservices_password';

Create an External Data Source for SharePoint Excel Services

Execute a CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE SQL command to create an external data source for SharePoint Excel Services with PolyBase:

• Set the LOCATION parameter , using the DSN and credentials configured earlier.

For SharePoint Excel Services, set SERVERNAME to the URL or address for your server (e.g. 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1' for local servers; the remote URL for remote servers). Leave PORT empty. PUSHDOWN is set to ON by default, meaning the ODBC Driver can leverage server-side processing for complex queries.

CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE cdata_excelservices_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData SharePoint Excel Services Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = excelservices_creds
);

Create External Tables for SharePoint Excel Services

After creating the external data source, use CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statements to link to SharePoint Excel Services data from your SQL Server instance. The table column definitions must match those exposed by the CData ODBC Driver for SharePoint Excel Services. You can refer to the Tables tab of the DSN Configuration Wizard to see the table definition.

Sample CREATE TABLE Statement

The statement to create an external table based on a SharePoint Excel Services Account would look similar to the following:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Account(
  Name [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  AnnualRevenue [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='Account',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_excelservices_source
);

Having created external tables for SharePoint Excel Services in your SQL Server instance, you are now able to query local and remote data simultaneously. Thanks to built-in query processing in the CData ODBC Driver, you know that as much query processing as possible is being pushed to SharePoint Excel Services, freeing up local resources and computing power. Download a free, 30-day trial of the ODBC Driver for SharePoint Excel Services and start working with live SharePoint Excel Services data alongside your SQL Server data today.