Use ChatGPT to Talk to Your Sybase Data via CData Connect AI

Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Leverage the CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server to enable ChatGPT to securely answer questions and take actions on your Sybase data for you.

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot developed by OpenAI, launched in November 2022. Based on large language models (LLMs), it enables users to refine and steer conversations through natural language processing. ChatGPT's developer mode, available to Plus and Pro subscribers, provides full Model Context Protocol (MCP) support for connecting to external data sources and tools.

CData Connect AI offers a dedicated cloud-to-cloud interface for connecting to Sybase data. The CData Connect AI Remote MCP Server enables secure communication between ChatGPT and Sybase. This allows you to ask questions and take actions on your Sybase data using ChatGPT, all without the need for data replication to a natively supported database. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect AI efficiently channels all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, directly to Sybase. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly deliver the requested Sybase data.

Step 1: Configure Sybase Connectivity for ChatGPT

Connectivity to Sybase from ChatGPT is made possible through CData Connect AI Remote MCP. To interact with Sybase data from ChatGPT, we start by creating and configuring a Sybase connection in CData Connect AI.

  1. Log into your Connect AI account, click Sources, and then click Add Connection.
  2. Adding a Connection
  3. Select "Sybase" from the Add Connection panel.
  4. Selecting a data source
  5. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Sybase.

    To connect to Sybase, specify the following connection properties:

    • Server: Set this to the name or network address of the Sybase database instance.
    • Database: Set this to the name of the Sybase database running on the specified Server.

    Optionally, you can also secure your connections with TLS/SSL by setting UseSSL to true.

    Sybase supports several methods for authentication including Password and Kerberos.

    Connect Using Password Authentication

    Set the AuthScheme to Password and set the following connection properties to use Sybase authentication.

    • User: Set this to the username of the authenticating Sybase user.
    • Password: Set this to the username of the authenticating Sybase user.

    Connect using LDAP Authentication

    To connect with LDAP authentication, configure Sybase server-side to use the LDAP authentication mechanism.

    After configuring Sybase for LDAP, you can connect using the same credentials as Password authentication.

    Connect Using Kerberos Authentication

    To leverage Kerberos authentication, begin by enabling it setting AuthScheme to Kerberos. See the Using Kerberos section in the Help documentation for more information on using Kerberos authentication.

    You can find an example connection string below:

    Server=MyServer;Port=MyPort;User=SampleUser;Password=SamplePassword;Database=MyDB;Kerberos=true;KerberosKDC=MyKDC;KerberosRealm=MYREALM.COM;KerberosSPN=server-name
    Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  6. Click Save & Test

With the connection configured, we are ready to connect to Sybase data from ChatGPT.

Step 2: Connect ChatGPT to CData Connect AI

Follow these steps to add a CData Connect AI connection in ChatGPT:

  1. Sign in to ChatGPT with a Plus or Pro subscription.
  2. Navigate to Apps from the left panel.
  3. Select the CData Connect AI app from the list.
  4. . Search for CData Connect AI
  5. Click Connect to authenticate to your Connect AI account.
  6. Click Connect to authenticate
  7. Click Sign in with CData Connect AI to add Connect AI to your ChatGPT account.
  8. Sign in with CData Connect AI
  9. After successful authorization, you will be redirected back to ChatGPT.
  10. Click Start Chat to start a new conversation in ChatGPT with Connect AI connected at the background.
  11. Start Chat

Step 3: Explore Live Sybase Data with ChatGPT

  1. Start a new conversation in ChatGPT.
  2. Connect AI should ideally be automatically enabled in the chat. If not, navigate to -> More -> CData Connect AI, under the chatbox, to enable the connector from the dropdown
  3. Enable CData Connect AI in the chat
  4. You can now start exploring your data with natural language prompts. ChatGPT will use the Connect AI MCP server to query your live Sybase data. Example prompts:
    • "Show me all customers from the last 30 days"
    • "What are my top performing products?"
    • "Analyze sales trends for this quarter"
    • "List all active projects and their current status"
    Refer to CData prompt library for more prompt ideas.
  5. Using natural language to explore your Sybase data (Salesforce used here).
  6. Permit ChatGPT to access your Sybase data. Click Query Data to continue, or Deny to refuse.
  7. Give permissions to ChatGPT.
  8. ChatGPT translates your natural language queries into SQL and execute them against your Sybase data through the Connect AI MCP server.
  9. ChatGPT shows the desired results from your Sybase data based on the prompts

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