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How to connect Amazon QuickSight to Databricks Data
Create a connection to Databricks data in CData Connect Cloud and insert Databricks data into Amazon QuickSight SPICE to build interactive dashboards.
Amazon QuickSight allows users to build interactive dashboards in the cloud. When paired with CData Connect Cloud, you get cloud-to-cloud access to Databricks data for visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article shows how to connect to Databricks in Connect Cloud and build dashboards in Amazon QuickSight with access to Databricks data.
CData Connect Cloud provides a pure cloud-to-cloud interface for Databricks, allowing you to allowing build visualizations from Databricks data in Amazon QuickSight. By importing your Databricks data into the Amazon QuickSight "Super-fast, Parallel, In-memory Calculation Engine" (SPICE), you can leverage the powerful data processing features of the Amazon ecosystem to build responsive dashboards. And with the ability to schedule refreshes of the data stored in SPICE, you control how up-to-date your dashboards are.
About Databricks Data Integration
Accessing and integrating live data from Databricks has never been easier with CData. Customers rely on CData connectivity to:
- Access all versions of Databricks from Runtime Versions 9.1 - 13.X to both the Pro and Classic Databricks SQL versions.
- Leave Databricks in their preferred environment thanks to compatibility with any hosting solution.
- Secure authenticate in a variety of ways, including personal access token, Azure Service Principal, and Azure AD.
- Upload data to Databricks using Databricks File System, Azure Blog Storage, and AWS S3 Storage.
While many customers are using CData's solutions to migrate data from different systems into their Databricks data lakehouse, several customers use our live connectivity solutions to federate connectivity between their databases and Databricks. These customers are using SQL Server Linked Servers or Polybase to get live access to Databricks from within their existing RDBMs.
Read more about common Databricks use-cases and how CData's solutions help solve data problems in our blog: What is Databricks Used For? 6 Use Cases.
Getting Started
Configure Databricks Connectivity for Amazon QuickSight
Connectivity to Databricks from Amazon QuickSight is made possible through CData Connect Cloud. To work with Databricks data from Amazon QuickSight, we start by creating and configuring a Databricks connection.
- Log into Connect Cloud, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
- Select "Databricks" from the Add Connection panel
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Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Databricks.
To connect to a Databricks cluster, set the properties as described below.
Note: The needed values can be found in your Databricks instance by navigating to Clusters, and selecting the desired cluster, and selecting the JDBC/ODBC tab under Advanced Options.
- Server: Set to the Server Hostname of your Databricks cluster.
- HTTPPath: Set to the HTTP Path of your Databricks cluster.
- Token: Set to your personal access token (this value can be obtained by navigating to the User Settings page of your Databricks instance and selecting the Access Tokens tab).
- Click Create & Test
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Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Databricks Connection page and update the User-based permissions.
Add a Personal Access Token
When connecting to Connect Cloud through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect Cloud. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.
- Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect Cloud app to open the settings page.
- On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
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Give the PAT a name and click Create.
- The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.
With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to Databricks data from Amazon QuickSight.
Import Databricks Data into SPICE and Create Interactive Dashboards
The steps below outline creating a new data set based on the connection to Databricks in Connect Cloud, importing the dataset into SPICE, and building a simple visualization from the data.
- Log into Amazon QuickSight and click "Manage data."
- Click "Now data set," select SQL Server as the data source, configure the connection to your Connect Cloud instance, and click "Create data source."
- Select a table to visualize (or subait a custom SQL query for your data).
- Click "Edit/Preview data" to customize the data set.
- Select "Import to SPICE for quicker analytics" and click "Visualize."
- Select fields to visualize and 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.
- Navigate to the QuickSight home page.
- Click "Manage data."
- Select the data set you wish to refresh.
- Click "Schedule refresh."
- Click Create, configure the refresh settings (time zone, repeat frequency, and starting datetime), and click Create.
Live Access to Databricks Data from Cloud Applications
At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to Databricks data from your Amazon QuickSight dashboard. You can create new visualizations, build interactive dashboards, and more. For more information on gaining live access to data from more than 100 SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources from cloud applications like Amazon QuickSight, refer to our Connect Cloud page.
