Connect to IBM Cloud Object Storage Data in as an External Source in Dremio

The CData JDBC Driver for IBM Cloud Object Storage implements JDBC Standards and allows various applications, including Dremio, to work with live IBM Cloud Object Storage 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 IBM Cloud Object Storage data as a part of your enterprise data lake. This article describes how to connect to IBM Cloud Object Storage data from Dremio as an External Source.

The CData JDBC Driver enables high-speed access to live IBM Cloud Object Storage data in Dremio. Once you install the driver, authenticate with IBM Cloud Object Storage and gain immediate access to IBM Cloud Object Storage data within your data lake. By surfacing IBM Cloud Object Storage data using native data types and handling complex filters, aggregations, & other operations automatically, the CData JDBC Driver grants seamless access to IBM Cloud Object Storage 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 IBM Cloud Object Storage to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/3rdparty. You can use commands similar to the following:

ARP Connector

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

JDBC Driver for IBM Cloud Object Storage

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

Connecting to IBM Cloud Object Storage

IBM Cloud Object Storage will now appear as an External Source option in Dremio. The ARP Connector built uses a JDBC URL to connect to IBM Cloud Object Storage 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 IBM Cloud Object Storage JDBC Driver. Double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command line.

java -jar cdata.jdbc.ibmcloudobjectstorage.jar

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

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 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:ibmcloudobjectstorage:RTK=5246...;ApiKey=myApiKey;CloudObjectStorageCRN=MyInstanceCRN;Region=myRegion;OAuthClientId=MyOAuthClientId;OAuthClientSecret=myOAuthClientSecret;

Access IBM Cloud Object Storage as an External Source

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

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

More Information & Free Trial

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