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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/azuredatalake-cloud-alteryx.rst

⇱ Prepare, Blend, and Analyze Azure Data Lake Storage Data in Alteryx Designer (Connect AI)

Prepare, Blend, and Analyze Azure Data Lake Storage Data in Alteryx Designer (Connect AI)

👁 Dibyendu Datta
Dibyendu Datta
Lead Technology Evangelist
Build workflows to access live Azure Data Lake Storage data for self-service data analytics.

Alteryx is a software platform that allows people to work with data more easily. When paired with CData Connect AI, Alteryx provides instant access to Azure Data Lake Storage data from your data automation processes. This article demonstrates how to connect to Azure Data Lake Storage using Connect AI and work with Azure Data Lake Storage data in Alteryx.

CData Connect AI offers a dedicated SQL Server interface for Azure Data Lake Storage, facilitating data querying without the need for data replication to a native database. With built-in optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect AI efficiently directs all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, straight to Azure Data Lake Storage. This harnesses server-side processing to rapidly retrieve the desired Azure Data Lake Storage data.

Configure Azure Data Lake Storage Connectivity for Alteryx

Connectivity to Azure Data Lake Storage from Alteryx is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Azure Data Lake Storage data from Alteryx, we start by creating and configuring a Azure Data Lake Storage connection.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. 👁 Adding a Connection
  2. Select "Azure Data Lake Storage" from the Add Connection panel
    3. 👁 Selecting a data source
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Azure Data Lake Storage.

    Authenticating to a Gen 1 DataLakeStore Account

    Gen 1 uses OAuth 2.0 in Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) for authentication.

    For this, an Active Directory web application is required. You can create one as follows:

    1. Sign in to your Azure Account through the
    2. Select "Entra ID" (formerly Azure AD).
    3. Select "App registrations".
    4. Select "New application registration".
    5. Provide a name and URL for the application. Select Web app for the type of application you want to create.
    6. Select "Required permissions" and change the required permissions for this app. At a minimum, "Azure Data Lake" and "Windows Azure Service Management API" are required.
    7. Select "Key" and generate a new key. Add a description, a duration, and take note of the generated key. You won't be able to see it again.

    To authenticate against a Gen 1 DataLakeStore account, the following properties are required:

    • Schema: Set this to ADLSGen1.
    • Account: Set this to the name of the account.
    • OAuthClientId: Set this to the application Id of the app you created.
    • OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the key generated for the app you created.
    • TenantId: Set this to the tenant Id. See the property for more information on how to acquire this.
    • Directory: Set this to the path which will be used to store the replicated file. If not specified, the root directory will be used.

    Authenticating to a Gen 2 DataLakeStore Account

    To authenticate against a Gen 2 DataLakeStore account, the following properties are required:

    • Schema: Set this to ADLSGen2.
    • Account: Set this to the name of the account.
    • FileSystem: Set this to the file system which will be used for this account.
    • AccessKey: Set this to the access key which will be used to authenticate the calls to the API. See the property for more information on how to acquire this.
    • Directory: Set this to the path which will be used to store the replicated file. If not specified, the root directory will be used.
    👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  4. Click Save & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Azure Data Lake Storage Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI 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 AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

  1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
  2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
  3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
  4. 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 Azure Data Lake Storage data from Alteryx.

Connect to Azure Data Lake Storage from Alteryx

To establish a connection from Alteryx Desktop to the CData Connect AI Virtual SQL Server, follow these steps:

  1. Set up an account in Alteryx.
  2. Drag and drop a new Input Data tool onto the workflow. 👁 Image
  3. While the Input Data tool is selected, click Set Up a Connection in the navigation panel. A Data connections dialog appears.
  4. Click Data sources. Select Microsoft SQL Server > **Quick connect. 👁 Image
  5. In the Connection Manager dialog, click New.
  6. In the New Data Source dialog, enter the following information:
    • Data Source Name: Microsoft SQL Server ODBC DSN-less.
    • Driver: select ODBC Driver 18 for SQL Server from the drop-down list.
    • Server: tds.cdata.com,14333
    • Database: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect AI data source you want to connect to (for example, ADLS1).
    👁 Image
  7. Click Save. Then click Connect Credential.
  8. In Connections, enter the following:
    • Authentication Method: select Username and password.
    • Credential: select Create New Credential.
    • Credential Name: enter a name to identify the credential.
    • Username: enter your CData Connect AI username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect AI interface. For example, [email protected].
    • Password: enter the PAT you generated on the Settings page.
  9. Click Test Connection. If successful, click Create and link.
  10. Connect with your credentials.
  11. In the wizard that opens, drag and drop the table to be queried in the Query Builder box. Select the fields by checking the boxes that you want to include in your query. Where possible, the complex queries generated by the filters and aggregations will be pushed down to your data source, 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 connector. 👁 Image
  12. To further customize the dataset, you can open the SQL Editor and modify the query manually, adding clauses, aggregations, and other operations to ensure that you are retrieving exactly the data desired. 👁 Image
  13. With the query defined, you are ready to work with your data in Alteryx Designer. 👁 Image

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