Use the CData ODBC Driver for Active Directory in MicroStrategy Desktop

MicroStrategy is an analytics and mobility platform that enables data-driven innovation. When paired with the CData ODBC Driver for Active Directory, you gain database-like access to live Active Directory data from MicroStrategy, expanding your reporting and analytics capabilities. In this article, we walk through adding Active Directory as a data source in MicroStrategy Desktop and creating a simple visualization of Active Directory data.

The CData ODBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live Active Directory data in MicroStrategy due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from MicroStrategy to Active Directory, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Active Directory and utilizes the embedded SQL Engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. With built-in dynamic metadata querying, you can visualize and analyze Active Directory data using native MicroStrategy data types.

Connect to Active Directory as an ODBC Data Source

Information for connecting to Active Directory follows, along with different instructions for configuring a DSN in Windows and Linux environments.

To establish a connection, set the following properties:

• Valid User and Password credentials (e.g., Domain\BobF or cn=Bob F,ou=Employees,dc=Domain).
• Server information, including the IP or host name of the Server, as well as the Port.

• BaseDN: This will limit the scope of LDAP searches to the height of the distinguished name provided.

  Note: Specifying a narrow BaseDN may greatly increase performance; for example, cn=users,dc=domain will only return results contained within cn=users and its children.

When you configure the DSN, you may also want to set the Max Rows connection property. This will limit the number of rows returned, which is especially helpful for improving performance when designing reports and visualizations.

Windows

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

Linux

If you are installing the CData ODBC Driver for Active Directory in a Linux environment, the driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties.

/etc/odbc.ini

[CData ActiveDirectory Sys]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Active Directory
Description = My Description
User = cn = Bob F,ou = Employees,dc = Domain
Password = bob123
Server = 10.0.1.2
Port = 389

For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).

Connect to and Visualize Active Directory Data using MicroStrategy Desktop

In addition to connecting Active Directory in MicroStrategy enterprise products, you can connect to Active Directory in MicroStrategy Desktop. Follow the steps below to add Active Directory data as a dataset and create visualizations and reports of Active Directory data.

1. Open MicroStrategy Desktop and create a new dossier.
2. In the datasets panel, click New Data, select Databases, and select Type a Query as the Import Option.
3. Add a new data source and choose DSN data sources.
4. Choose the DSN you previously configured (likely CData ActiveDirectory Sys) and select Generic DBMS in the Version menu.
5. Set the User and Password properties for the DSN (or use placeholder values) and name the data source.
👁 Creating a new data source for Active Directory.

6. Select the new database instance to view the tables. You may need to manually click the search icon in the Available Tables section to see the tables.
7. Create a SQL query for the Active Directory data (see below) and click Execute SQL to test the query.

   SELECT * FROM User
   

   👁 Querying Active Directory for data.
   NOTE: Since we create a live connection, we can execute a SELECT * query and utilize the filtering and aggregation features native to the MicroStrategy products.
8. Click Finish and choose to connect live.
9. Choose a visualization, choose fields to display (data types are discovered automatically through dynamic metadata discovery) and apply any filters to create a new visualization of Active Directory data. Where possible, the complex queries generated by the filters and aggregations will be pushed down to Active Directory, while any unsupported operations (which can include SQL functions and JOIN operations) will be managed client-side by the CData SQL Engine embedded in the driver. 👁 Visualize Active Directory data.
   
10. Once you are finished configuring the dossier, click File -> Save.

Using the CData ODBC Driver for Active Directory in MicroStrategy Desktop, you can easily create robust visualizations and reports on Active Directory data. Read our other articles on connecting to Active Directory in MicroStrategy and connecting to Active Directory in MicroStrategy Web for more examples.