How to create Azure Data Lake Storage federated tables in MySQL

You can use the SQL Gateway to configure a MySQL remoting service and set up federated tables for Azure Data Lake Storage data. The service is a daemon process that provides a MySQL interface to the CData ODBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage: After you have started the service, you can create a server and tables using the FEDERATED Storage Engine in MySQL. You can then work with Azure Data Lake Storage data just as you would local MySQL tables.

Connect to Azure Data Lake Storage Data

If you have not already done so, provide values for the required connection properties in the data source name (DSN). You can use the built-in Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to configure the DSN. This is also the last step of the driver installation. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for a guide to using the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure a DSN.

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.

Configure the SQL Gateway

See the SQL Gateway Overview to set up connectivity to Azure Data Lake Storage data as a virtual MySQL database. You will configure a MySQL remoting service that listens for MySQL requests from clients. The service can be configured in the SQL Gateway UI.

👁 Creating a MySQL Remoting Service in SQL Gateway (Salesforce is shown)

Create a FEDERATED Server and Tables for Azure Data Lake Storage Data

After you have configured and started the service, create a FEDERATED server to simplify the process of creating FEDERATED tables:

Create a FEDERATED Server

The following statement will create a FEDERATED server based on the ODBC Driver for Azure Data Lake Storage. Note that the username and password of the FEDERATED server must match a user account you defined on the Users tab of the SQL Gateway.

CREATE SERVER fedADLS
FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER mysql
OPTIONS (USER 'sql_gateway_user', PASSWORD 'sql_gateway_passwd', HOST 'sql_gateway_host', PORT ####, DATABASE 'CData ADLS Sys');

Create a FEDERATED Table

To create a FEDERATED table using our newly created server, use the CONNECTION keyword and pass the name of the FEDERATED server and the remote table (Resources). Refer to the following template for the statement to create a FEDERATED table:

CREATE TABLE fed_resources (
 ...,
 fullpath TYPE(LEN),
 permission TYPE(LEN),
 ...,
)
ENGINE=FEDERATED
DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1
CONNECTION='fedADLS/resources';

NOTE: The table schema for the FEDERATED table must match the remote table schema exactly. You can always connect directly to the MySQL remoting service using any MySQL client and run a SHOW CREATE TABLE query to get the table schema.

Execute Queries

You can now execute queries to the Azure Data Lake Storage FEDERATED tables from any tool that can connect to MySQL, which is particularly useful if you need to JOIN data from a local table with data from Azure Data Lake Storage. Refer to the following example:

SELECT 
 fed_resources.fullpath, 
 local_table.custom_field 
FROM 
 local_table 
JOIN 
 fed_resources 
ON 
 local_table.foreign_fullpath = fed_resources.fullpath;