Connect to NASA Data as an External Source in Dremio

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

The CData JDBC Driver enables high-speed access to live NASA data in Dremio. Once you install the driver, authenticate with NASA and gain immediate access to NASA data within your data lake. By surfacing NASA data using native data types and handling complex filters, aggregations, & other operations automatically, the CData JDBC Driver grants seamless access to NASA data.

Prerequisites

This article assumes you are utilizing Docker to run Dremio. You can create a Docker container with the Dremio service using a command similar to the follow:

docker run -d --name dremio -p 9047:9047 -p 31010:31010 dremio/dremio-oss

Where dremio is the name of the container, 9047 is the container's port for the Dremio web interface and 31010 is the port that maps to the Dremio query service. dremio/dremio-oss specifies the image to use.

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

NOTE: The CData ARP Connectors are build to be compiled with Java 11. Be sure to install Java 11 and use the correct version. You can update your Java version using a command similar to the following:

sudo update-alternatives --config java

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 NASA to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/3rdparty. You can use commands similar to the following:

ARP Connector

docker cp PATH\TO\dremio-api-plugin-{DREMIO_VERSION}.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/

JDBC Driver for NASA

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

Connecting to NASA

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

java -jar cdata.jdbc.api.jar

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

Using API Key Authentication

Most NASA API endpoints (APOD, NeoWS, DONKI, TechTransfer) require a NASA API key. Register for a free key at https://api.nasa.gov. The default DEMO_KEY provides limited access (30 requests/hour, 50 requests/day); a registered key allows 1,000 requests/hour.

The following endpoints do not require an API key and work without authentication: EONET (Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker), EPIC (Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera), NASA Image and Video Library, and TechPort.

After obtaining your API key, set the following connection properties:

• AuthScheme: Set this to APIKey.
• APIKey: Set this to your NASA API key. Use DEMO_KEY for limited testing.

Example Connection String

Profile=C:\profiles\NASA.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;APIKey=YOUR_NASA_API_KEY

Connecting to NASA

Once the authentication is configured, you can connect to NASA and query data from any of the available tables such as AstronomyPictureOfDay, NearEarthObjectFeed, EonetEvents, and NasaImageLibrary.

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:api:RTK=5246...;Profile=C:\profiles\NASA.apip;AuthScheme=APIKey;APIKey=YOUR_NASA_API_KEY

Access NASA as an External Source

To add NASA as an External Source, click to add a new source and select API. Copy the JDBC URL and paste it into the New API Source wizard.

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

More Information & Free Trial

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