Access Live IBM Cloud Object Storage Data in AWS Lambda

AWS Lambda is a compute service that lets you build applications that respond quickly to new information and events. AWS Lambda functions can work with live IBM Cloud Object Storage data when paired with the CData JDBC Driver for IBM Cloud Object Storage. This article describes how to connect to and query IBM Cloud Object Storage data from an AWS Lambda function built in Eclipse.

At the time this article was written (June 2022), Eclipse version 2019-12 and Java 8 were the highest versions supported by the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData JDBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live IBM Cloud Object Storage data. When you issue complex SQL queries to IBM Cloud Object Storage, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to IBM Cloud Object Storage and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (often SQL functions and JOIN operations). In addition, its built-in dynamic metadata querying allows you to work with and analyze IBM Cloud Object Storage data using native data types.

Gather Connection Properties and Build a Connection String

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, you will need to 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.

NOTE: To use the JDBC driver in an AWS Lambda function, 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.

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

Fill in the connection properties (including the RTK) and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

Create an AWS Lambda Function

1. Download the CData JDBC Driver for IBM Cloud Object Storage installer, unzip the package, and run the JAR file to install the driver.

2. Create a new AWS Lambda Java Project in Eclipse using the AWS Toolkit for Eclipse. You can follow the tutorial from AWS (amazon.com).

   For this article, set the Input Type for the project to "Custom" so we can enter a table name as the input.

3. Add the CData JDBC Driver for IBM Cloud Object Storage JAR file (cdata.jdbc.ibmcloudobjectstorage.jar) to the build path. The file is found in INSTALL_PATH\lib\.
4. Add the following import statements to the Java class: import java.sql.Connection; import java.sql.DriverManager; import java.sql.ResultSet; import java.sql.ResultSetMetaData; import java.sql.SQLException; import java.sql.Statement;

5. Replace the body of the handleRequest method with the code below. Be sure to fill in the connection string in the DriverManager.getConnection method call.

   String query = "SELECT * FROM " + input; try { Class.forName("cdata.jdbc.ibmcloudobjectstorage.IBMCloudObjectStorageDriver"); } catch (ClassNotFoundException ex) { context.getLogger().log("Error: class not found"); } Connection connection = null; try { connection = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:cdata:ibmcloudobjectstorage:RTK=52465...;ApiKey=myApiKey;CloudObjectStorageCRN=MyInstanceCRN;Region=myRegion;OAuthClientId=MyOAuthClientId;OAuthClientSecret=myOAuthClientSecret;"); } catch (SQLException ex) { context.getLogger().log("Error getting connection: " + ex.getMessage()); } catch (Exception ex) { context.getLogger().log("Error: " + ex.getMessage()); } if(connection != null) { context.getLogger().log("Connected Successfully!\n"); } ResultSet resultSet = null; try { //executing query Statement stmt = connection.createStatement(); resultSet = stmt.executeQuery(query); ResultSetMetaData metaData = resultSet.getMetaData(); int numCols = metaData.getColumnCount(); //printing the results while(resultSet.next()) { for(int i = 1; i <= numCols; i++) { System.out.printf("%-25s", (resultSet.getObject(i) != null) ? resultSet.getObject(i).toString().replaceAll("\n", "") : null ); } System.out.print("\n"); } } catch (SQLException ex) { System.out.println("SQL Exception: " + ex.getMessage()); } catch (Exception ex) { System.out.println("General exception: " + ex.getMessage()); } String output = "query: " + query + " complete"; return output;

Deploy and Run the Lambda Function

Once you build the function in Eclipse, you are ready to upload and run the function. In this article, the output is written to the AWS logs, but you can use this is a template to implement you own custom business logic to work with IBM Cloud Object Storage data in AWS Lambda functions.

1. Right-click the Package and select Amazon Web Services -> Upload function to AWS Lamba.
2. Name the function, select an IAM role, and set the timeout value to a high enough value to ensure the function completes (depending on the result size of your query).
3. Right-click the Package and select Amazon Web Services -> Run function on AWS Lambda and set the input to the name of the IBM Cloud Object Storage object you wish to query (i.e. "Objects").
4. After the job runs, you can view the output in the CloudWatch logs.

Free Trial & More Information

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for IBM Cloud Object Storage and start working with your live IBM Cloud Object Storage data in AWS Lambda. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.