Build Interactive Dashboards from Phoenix Data in Amazon QuickSight

Amazon QuickSight allows users to build interactive dashboards in the cloud. When paired with CData Connect Server, you get direct access to Phoenix data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Phoenix in Connect Server and build dashboards in Amazon QuickSight with access to Phoenix data.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for Phoenix, allowing you to easily build reports from live Phoenix data in Quicksight — without replicating the data to a natively supported database. As you build visualizations, Quicksight 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 Phoenix, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested Phoenix data.

Create a Virtual SQL Server Database for Phoenix 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 "Phoenix" from Available Data Sources.
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Phoenix.

   Connect to Apache Phoenix via the Phoenix Query Server. Set the Server and Port (if different from the default port) properties to connect to Apache Phoenix. The Server property will typically be the host name or IP address of the server hosting Apache Phoenix.

   Authenticating to Apache Phoenix

   By default, no authentication will be used (plain). If authentication is configured for your server, set AuthScheme to NEGOTIATE and set the User and Password properties (if necessary) to authenticate through Kerberos.

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 Phoenix data from Quicksight.

Import Phoenix Data into SPICE and Create Interactive Dashboards

The steps below outline creating a new data set based on the virtual Phoenix database in Connect Server, importing the dataset into SPICE, and building a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into Amazon QuickSight and on the left panel click "Datasets"
2. Click "New dataset," select SQL Server as the data source, configure the connection to your Connect Server instance, and click "Create data source"
3. Select a table to visualize (or submit a custom SQL query for your data) and click Select.
4. Select "Import to SPICE for quicker analytics" and click "Visualize."
5. Select fields to visualize as well as a visual type.

Schedule Refreshes for SPICE Data Sets

QuickSight users can schedule refreshes for data sets that are imported into SPICE, ensuring that data being analyzed is only as old as the most recent refresh.

1. Navigate to the QuickSight home page.
2. Click "Manage data."
3. Select the data set you wish to refresh.
4. Click "Schedule refresh."
5. Click Create, configure the refresh settings (time zone, repeat frequency, and starting datetime), and click Create.

SQL Access to Phoenix Data from Applications

At this point, you have a direct connection to Phoenix data from your Amazon QuickSight dashboard. You can create new visualizations, build interactive dashboards, and more. For more information on gaining SQL access to data from more than 250 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources from applications like Amazon QuickSight, refer to our Connect Server page.