Analyze Live IBM Cloud Object Storage Data in SAS Viya

SAS Viya is an analytics platform that enhances data management, machine learning, and analytics, fostering efficient decision-making and insights. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to IBM Cloud Object Storage data for building predictive models, crafting stunning insights to make data-driven decisions, and more. This article shows how to connect to Connect AI from the SAS Viya cloud platform and integrate live IBM Cloud Object Storage data into your self-service AI and analytics deployments.

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

Configure IBM Cloud Object Storage Connectivity for SAS Viya

Connectivity to IBM Cloud Object Storage from SAS Viya is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with IBM Cloud Object Storage data from SAS Viya, we start by creating and configuring a IBM Cloud Object Storage connection.

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

2. Select "IBM Cloud Object Storage" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to IBM Cloud Object Storage.

   Register a New Instance of Cloud Object Storage

   If you do not already have Cloud Object Storage in your IBM Cloud account, follow the procedure below to install an instance of SQL Query in your account:

   1. Log in to your IBM Cloud account.
   2. Navigate to the page, choose a name for your instance and click Create. You will be redirected to the instance of Cloud Object Storage you just created.

   Connecting using OAuth Authentication

   There are certain connection properties you need to set before you can connect. You can obtain these as follows:

   API Key

   To connect with IBM Cloud Object Storage, you need an API Key. You can obtain this as follows:

   1. Log in to your IBM Cloud account.
   2. Navigate to the Platform API Keys page.
   3. On the middle-right corner click "Create an IBM Cloud API Key" to create a new API Key.
   4. In the pop-up window, specify the API Key name and click "Create". Note the API Key as you can never access it again from the dashboard.

   Cloud Object Storage CRN

   If you have multiple accounts, specify the CloudObjectStorageCRN explicitly. To find the appropriate value, you can:

   • Query the Services view. This will list your IBM Cloud Object Storage instances along with the CRN for each.
   • Locate the CRN directly in IBM Cloud. To do so, navigate to your IBM Cloud Dashboard. In the Resource List, Under Storage, select your Cloud Object Storage resource to get its CRN.

   Connecting to Data

   You can now set the following to connect to data:

   • InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
   • ApiKey: Set this to your API key which was noted during setup.
   • CloudObjectStorageCRN (Optional): Set this to the cloud object storage CRN you want to work with. While the connector attempts to retrieve this automatically, specifying this explicitly is recommended if you have more than Cloud Object Storage account.

   When you connect, the connector completes the OAuth process.

   1. Extracts the access token and authenticates requests.
   2. Saves OAuth values in OAuthSettingsLocation to be persisted across connections.
   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add IBM Cloud Object Storage 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 IBM Cloud Object Storage data from SAS Viya.

Connecting to CData Connect AI from SAS Viya

The following steps detail the process of loading data from IBM Cloud Object Storage into SAS Viya using the established connection in CData Connect AI.

1. Download and install the CData Connect AI JDBC driver.
   • Open the Integrations page of CData Connect AI.
   • Search for and select JDBC.
   • Download and run the setup file.
   • When the installation is complete, the JAR file can be found in the installation directory (inside the lib folder).
2. Now, log in to SAS Viya and navigate to the Applications Menu at the top-left corner.
3. Select Develop Code and Flows from the Analytics Life Cycle topic.
4. Navigate to the Explorer tab and click on SAS Server on the left panel.
5. Follow the steps to upload the JAR file of the CData Connect JDBC driver:
   • Right-click on the "Home" directory.
   • Click on Upload files.
   • Place the JAR file in the specified location and note its file path.
6. Once done, navigate to the Libraries tab and click on Create a new library connection (on the top left corner as shown below) for the CData Connect JDBC.
7. Enter the library connection settings:
   • Connection name: enter a name for your connection
   • Library name (libref): enter a reference for your library
   • Library type: choose "SAS/ACCESS to JDBC"
8. Click on the Properties tab and set Library attributes to READONLY.
9. Click the Connection Options tab and enter the following details:
   • Hive JDBC driver's class name: cdata.jdbc.connect.ConnectDriver
   • Java CLASSPATH: enter the file path to the JAR driver file (Refer to Step 5)
10. Click on Test connection. If it succeeds, click on Save and connect.
11. Click on to add a new tab and select SAS program.
12. Fill in the code block below with your setup parameters:
    • Libref: enter the library reference you defined in Step 9.
    • ClassPath: enter the file path to the JAR driver file.
    • Username: enter your CData Connect username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect interface. For example, [email protected].
    • DefaultCatalog: enter the connection configured in CData Connect AI that you want to query.
    • Password: enter the PAT you generated in the "Add a Personal Access Token" section.

    libname [Libref] JDBC   
    classpath=[ClassPath]  
    class="cdata.jdbc.connect.ConnectDriver"     
    URL="jdbc:Connect:AuthScheme=Basic;User=[Username];DefaultCatalog=[DefaultCatalog];DefaultSchema=dbo;Password=[PAT]"; 
     
    proc sql; 
    
    SELECT * FROM [Libref].MyTable; 
    
    quit; 
    

13. Click on Run. You can see the data load from CData Connect AI into SAS Viya.

Live Access to IBM Cloud Object Storage Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to IBM Cloud Object Storage data from SAS Viya. You can build predictive models, craft insights to make data-driven decisions, and more — all without replicating IBM Cloud Object Storage data.

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