Build IBM Cloud Data Engine-Connected Dashboards in Redash

Redash lets you connect and query your data sources, build dashboards to visualize data and share them with your company. When paired with CData Connect Server, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to IBM Cloud Data Engine data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for IBM Cloud Data Engine and build visualizations from IBM Cloud Data Engine data in Redash.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for IBM Cloud Data Engine, allowing you to easily build reports from live IBM Cloud Data Engine data in Redash — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. As you build visualizations, Redash generates SQL queries to gather data. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect Server pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc) directly to IBM Cloud Data Engine, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested IBM Cloud Data Engine data.

Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for IBM Cloud Data Engine Data

CData Connect Server uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources and generate APIs.

1. Login to Connect Server and click Connections.
2. Select "IBM Cloud Data Engine" from Available Data Sources.
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to IBM Cloud Data Engine.

   IBM Cloud Data Engine uses the OAuth and HMAC authentication standards. See the "Getting Started" chapter of the help documentation for a guide to using OAuth.

4. Click Save Changes
5. Click Privileges -> Add and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions.

With the virtual database created, you are ready to connect to IBM Cloud Data Engine data from Redash.

Visualize IBM Cloud Data Engine Data in Redash

The steps below outline creating a new data source in Redash based on the virtual IBM Cloud Data Engine database in Connect Server and building a simple visualization from the data.

Create a New Data Source

1. Log into Redash, click on your profile and click "Data Sources"
2. Click the " New Data Source" button
3. Select "Microsoft SQL Server" as the Data Source Type
4. On the configuration tab, set the following properties:
   • Name: Name the data source (e.g. IBM Cloud Data Engine (CData Connect))
   • Host: The full URL to your CData Connect instance (e.g. https://connect_server_url)
   • Port: The port of the CData Connect SQL Server endpoint (e.g. 1433)
   • User: A CData Connect user
   • Password: The password for the above user
   • Database name: The name of the virtual database for IBM Cloud Data Engine (e.g. IBMCloudDataEngine1)
   • Click the checkbox to Use SSQL
5. Click Create
6. Click the "Test Connection" button to ensure you have configured the connection properly

With the new Data Source created, we are ready to visualize our IBM Cloud Data Engine data.

Create a IBM Cloud Data Engine Data Visualization

1. Click Create -> New Query
2. Select the newly created Data Source (you can explore the data structure in the New Query wizard)
3. Write a SQL statement to retrieve the data, for example:
   SELECT Id, Status FROM Jobs WHERE UserId = user@domain.com
4. Click the "Execute" button to load IBM Cloud Data Engine data into Redash via CData Connect
5. Use the Visualization Editor to create and analyze graphs from IBM Cloud Data Engine data
6. You can schedule the query to refresh and update the visualization periodically

SQL Access to IBM Cloud Data Engine Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to IBM Cloud Data Engine data from Redash. You can create new visualizations, build dashboards, and more. For more information on gaining SQL access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources from cloud applications like Redash, refer to our Connect Server page.