Azure Synapse Reporting and Star Schemas in OBIEE

The CData ODBC Driver for Azure Synapse is a standard database driver that can integrate real-time access to Azure Synapse data into your data warehouse or directly into your reporting tool. This article shows how to bypass the data warehouse and import operational Azure Synapse data into Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE).

See the knowledge base for ODBC integrations with ETL tools like Informatica PowerCenter. For an ETL solution into Oracle Warehouse Builder, use the driver with the Oracle ODBC Gateway to Access Azure Synapse Data as a Remote Oracle Database.

Connect to Azure Synapse as an ODBC Data Source

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.

Connecting to Azure Synapse

In addition to providing authentication (see below), set the following properties to connect to a Azure Synapse database:

• Server: The server running Azure. You can find this by logging into the Azure portal and navigating to Azure Synapse Analytics -> Select your database -> Overview -> Server name.
• Database: The name of the database, as seen in the Azure portal on the Azure Synapse Analytics page.

Authenticating to Azure Synapse

Connect to Azure Synapse using the following properties:

• User: The username provided for authentication with Azure.
• Password: The password associated with the authenticating user.

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.

Import Azure Synapse Metadata

Follow the steps below to use the OBIEE Client Tools to import Azure Synapse metadata into an OBIEE repository. You can then integrate Azure Synapse data into your business models.

1. Open the Administration Tool and click File -> New Repository.

2. In the Connection Type menu, select ODBC 3.5 and select the CData DSN.
3. Select the metadata types you want to import under the Relational Sources option and then select Azure Synapse tables. 👁 Tables to be imported into the repository. (Salesforce is shown.)
   

You can now create star schemas based on Azure Synapse tables: 👁 Fact and dimension tables. (Salesforce is shown.)