Create Reports from SQL Analysis Services Data in Looker Studio

Looker Studio, formerly known as Google Data Studio, empowers users to craft customized reports featuring data visualizations that can be shared with clients while reflecting your brand identity. When combined with CData Connect AI, you gain immediate cloud-to-cloud access to SQL Analysis Services data to create visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article provides step-by-step instructions on establishing a virtual database for SQL Analysis Services and generating reports from SQL Analysis Services data within Looker Studio.

CData Connect AI offers a seamless cloud-to-cloud interface tailored for SQL Analysis Services, making it straightforward to construct reports directly from live SQL Analysis Services data within Looker Studio without the need for data replication. As you create visualizations, Looker Studio generates queries to retrieve data. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect AI efficiently channels all supported query operations, including filters, JOINs, and more, directly to SQL Analysis Services. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly provide the requested SQL Analysis Services data.

Configure SQL Analysis Services Connectivity for Looker Studio

Connectivity to SQL Analysis Services from Looker Studio is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with SQL Analysis Services data from Looker Studio, we start by creating and configuring a SQL Analysis Services connection.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

2. Select "SQL Analysis Services" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SQL Analysis Services.

   To connect, provide authentication and set the Url property to a valid SQL Server Analysis Services endpoint. You can connect to SQL Server Analysis Services instances hosted over HTTP with XMLA access. See the Microsoft documentation to configure HTTP access to SQL Server Analysis Services.

   To secure connections and authenticate, set the corresponding connection properties, below. The data provider supports the major authentication schemes, including HTTP and Windows, as well as SSL/TLS.

   • HTTP Authentication

     Set AuthScheme to "Basic" or "Digest" and set User and Password. Specify other authentication values in CustomHeaders.

   • Windows (NTLM)

     Set the Windows User and Password and set AuthScheme to "NTLM".

   • Kerberos and Kerberos Delegation

     To authenticate with Kerberos, set AuthScheme to NEGOTIATE. To use Kerberos delegation, set AuthScheme to KERBEROSDELEGATION. If needed, provide the User, Password, and KerberosSPN. By default, the data provider attempts to communicate with the SPN at the specified Url.

   • SSL/TLS:

     By default, the data provider attempts to negotiate SSL/TLS by checking the server's certificate against the system's trusted certificate store. To specify another certificate, see the SSLServerCert property for the available formats.

   You can then access any cube as a relational table: When you connect the data provider retrieves SSAS metadata and dynamically updates the table schemas. Instead of retrieving metadata every connection, you can set the CacheLocation property to automatically cache to a simple file-based store.

   See the Getting Started section of the CData documentation, under Retrieving Analysis Services Data, to execute SQL-92 queries to the cubes.

   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SQL Analysis Services Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to SQL Analysis Services data from Looker Studio.

Visualize Live SQL Analysis Services Data from Looker Studio

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Looker Studio to create a new SQL Analysis Services data source and build a simple visualization from the data.

1. Log into Looker Studio, click data sources, create a new data source, and choose CData Connect AI Connector.

2. Click Authorize and allow access to your Google account.
3. Click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect AI instance
4. In the CData Connect AI Connector in Looker Studio select a Connection (e.g. SSAS1) and click Next
5. Select a Table (e.g. Adventure_Works) or use a Custom Query and click Connect to continue
6. If needed, modify columns, click Create Report, and add the data source to the report.

7. Select a visualization style and add it to the report.
8. Select Dimensions and Measures to customize your visualization.

Live Access to SQL Analysis Services Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live SQL Analysis Services data from your Looker Studio workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating SQL Analysis Services data.

Try CData Connect AI and get real-time data access to 300+ SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.