Integrating SQL Analysis Services Data in Talend Cloud Data Management Platform

Qlik's Talend Cloud Data Management Platform supports various data environments, enabling analytics for smarter decisions, operational data sharing, data and application modernization, and establishing data excellence for risk reduction. When paired with the CData JDBC Driver for SQL Analysis Services, you can improve data integration, quality, and governance for your SQL Analysis Services Data. This article shows how you can easily integrate to SQL Analysis Services using a CData JDBC Driver in Talend Cloud Data Management, and then view the data for simultaneous use in your workflow.

Prerequisites

Before connecting the CData JDBC Driver to view and work with your data in Talend Cloud Data Management Platform, make sure to download and install the latest version of Talend Studio on your system. Also, ensure that you have the required prerequisites.

1. A Talend Cloud Data Management account with appropriate permissions.
2. The CData JDBC Driver for SQL Analysis Services, which can be downloaded from the CData website.

Connect to SQL Analysis Services in Talend as a JDBC data source

Access Talend Data Management Cloud

1. Run the Talend Cloud Data Management Platform installed on your local system and click on Other Login Mode.
2. Click on Manage Connections. Set Repository to "Local" and enter the Name, Description and User E-mail in the respective spaces. Set the Workspace path and click on OK.
3. Now, select the Create a new project radio button to add a new project name and click on Create.
4. The new project should appear under the Select an existing project section. Click on Open. The Talend Cloud Data Management Platform workspace opens up.

Create a new connection

1. In the navigation pane, locate and expand the Metadata dropdown. Right-click on Db Connections and select Create Connection.
2. Search for and select 'JDBC' in the Find section of the Database Connection window. Then, click on Finish.
3. Enter the Name, Purpose and Description of the new database in Talend where you need to load the SQL Analysis Services data. Click on Next.

4. Generate a JDBC URL for connecting to SQL Analysis Services, beginning with jdbc:ssas: followed by a series of semicolon-separated connection string properties.

   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.

   Built-in Connection String Designer

   For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the SQL Analysis Services JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

   java -jar cdata.jdbc.ssas.jar

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

   A typical JDBC URL is below:

   jdbc:ssas:User=myuseraccount;Password=mypassword;URL=http://localhost/OLAP/msmdpump.dll;

5. Enter the JDBC URL copied from CData JDBC Driver for SQL Analysis Services in Edit new database.

6. Click on the "(+) Add" button under Drivers. A 'newLine' will appear in the Drivers board. Click on (...) at the end of the new line, select the Install a new module radio button, and click on (...) to add the path to the JAR file, located in the 'lib' subfolder of the installation directory. Click on OK.
7. Select the Driver Class as cdata.jdbc.ssas (JAR file obtained from your installation directory given in the previous step).

Test the new connection

1. Click on Check Connection. If the entered details are correct, a "Connection successful" confirmation prompt will appear. Click on "OK" and "Finish".
2. Once the connection is established, right-click on the newly created connection and select Retrieve Schema. You can use the filters as well to retrieve the data as per your requirements. Click on Next.
3. Expand the "CData" catalog in the Schema window and select the tables you want to import from the SQL Analysis Services schema. Click on Next.
4. In the next step, select the columns you want to view from the table and click on Finish.
5. All the selected tables from the SQL Analysis Services schema are now populated under the Table Schemas section of the JDBC connection.
6. Right-click on any of the selected tables and click on Data Viewer to preview the data from the data source.

Get Started Today

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for SQL Analysis Services and integrate SQL Analysis Services data into Talend Cloud Data Management Platform. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.