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IBM Cloud Data Engine Icon IBM Cloud Data Engine ODBC Driver

The IBM Cloud Data Engine ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live data from IBM Cloud Data Engine, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access IBM Cloud Data Engine interactive query services data like you would a database, through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

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Use the CData ODBC Driver for IBM Cloud Data Engine in MicroStrategy Desktop


Connect to IBM Cloud Data Engine data in MicroStrategy Desktop using the CData ODBC Driver for IBM Cloud Data Engine.

MicroStrategy is an analytics and mobility platform that enables data-driven innovation. When paired with the CData ODBC Driver for IBM Cloud Data Engine, you gain database-like access to live IBM Cloud Data Engine data from MicroStrategy, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. In this article, we walk through adding IBM Cloud Data Engine as a data source in MicroStrategy Desktop and creating a simple visualization of IBM Cloud Data Engine data.

The CData ODBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live IBM Cloud Data Engine data in MicroStrategy due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from MicroStrategy to IBM Cloud Data Engine, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to IBM Cloud Data Engine and utilizes the embedded SQL Engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. With built-in dynamic metadata querying, you can visualize and analyze IBM Cloud Data Engine data using native MicroStrategy data types.

Connect to IBM Cloud Data Engine as an ODBC Data Source

Information for connecting to IBM Cloud Data Engine follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments.

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.

When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

Windows

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.

Linux

If you are installing the CData ODBC Driver for IBM Cloud Data Engine in a Linux environment, the driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties.

/etc/odbc.ini

[CData IBMCloudDataEngine Sys] Driver = CData ODBC Driver for IBM Cloud Data Engine Description = My Description Api Key = MyAPIKey Instance CRN = myInstanceCRN Region = myRegion Schema = mySchema OAuth Client Id = myOAuthClientId OAuth Client Secret = myOAuthClientSecret

For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).

Connect to and Visualize IBM Cloud Data Engine Data using MicroStrategy Desktop

In addition to connecting IBM Cloud Data Engine in MicroStrategy enterprise products, you can connect to IBM Cloud Data Engine in MicroStrategy Desktop. Follow the steps below to add IBM Cloud Data Engine data as a dataset and create visualizations and reports of IBM Cloud Data Engine data.

  1. Open MicroStrategy Desktop and create a new dossier.
  2. In the datasets panel, click New Data, select Databases, and select Type a Query as the Import Option.
  3. Add a new data source and choose DSN data sources.
  4. Choose the DSN you previously configured (likely CData IBMCloudDataEngine Sys) and select Generic DBMS in the Version menu.
  5. Set the User and Password properties for the DSN (or use placeholder values) and name the data source.
  6. Select the new database instance to view the tables. You may need to manually click the search icon in the Available Tables section to see the tables.
  7. Create a SQL query for the IBM Cloud Data Engine data (see below) and click Execute SQL to test the query. SELECT * FROM Jobs NOTE: Since we create a live connection, we can execute a SELECT * query and utilize the filtering and aggregation features native to the MicroStrategy products.
  8. Click Finish and choose to connect live.
  9. Choose a visualization, choose fields to display (data types are discovered automatically through dynamic metadata discovery) and apply any filters to create a new visualization of IBM Cloud Data Engine data. Where possible, the complex queries generated by the filters and aggregations will be pushed down to IBM Cloud Data Engine, while any unsupported operations (which can include SQL functions and JOIN operations) will be managed client-side by the CData SQL Engine embedded in the driver.
  10. Once you are finished configuring the dossier, click File -> Save.

Using the CData ODBC Driver for IBM Cloud Data Engine in MicroStrategy Desktop, you can easily create robust visualizations and reports on IBM Cloud Data Engine data. Read our other articles on connecting to IBM Cloud Data Engine in MicroStrategy and connecting to IBM Cloud Data Engine in MicroStrategy Web for more examples.