Build Presto-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 Presto data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to create a virtual database for Presto and build visualizations from Presto data in Redash.

CData Connect Server provides a pure SQL Server interface for Presto, allowing you to easily build reports from live Presto 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 Presto, leveraging server-side processing to quickly return the requested Presto data.

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

   Set the Server and Port connection properties to connect, in addition to any authentication properties that may be required.

   To enable TLS/SSL, set UseSSL to true.

   Authenticating with LDAP

   In order to authenticate with LDAP, set the following connection properties:

   • AuthScheme: Set this to LDAP.
   • User: The username being authenticated with in LDAP.
   • Password: The password associated with the User you are authenticating against LDAP with.

   Authenticating with Kerberos

   In order to authenticate with KERBEROS, set the following connection properties:

   • AuthScheme: Set this to KERBEROS.
   • KerberosKDC: The Kerberos Key Distribution Center (KDC) service used to authenticate the user.
   • KerberosRealm: The Kerberos Realm used to authenticate the user with.
   • KerberosSPN: The Service Principal Name for the Kerberos Domain Controller.
   • KerberosKeytabFile: The Keytab file containing your pairs of Kerberos principals and encrypted keys.
   • User: The user who is authenticating to Kerberos.
   • Password: The password used to authenticate to 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 Presto data from Redash.

Visualize Presto Data in Redash

The steps below outline creating a new data source in Redash based on the virtual Presto 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. Presto (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 Presto (e.g. Presto1)
   • 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 Presto data.

Create a Presto 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 FirstName, LastName FROM Customer WHERE Id = '123456789'
4. Click the "Execute" button to load Presto data into Redash via CData Connect
5. Use the Visualization Editor to create and analyze graphs from Presto data
6. You can schedule the query to refresh and update the visualization periodically

SQL Access to Presto Data from Cloud Applications

At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to Presto 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.