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⇱ Create Reports from Databricks Data in Looker Studio

Create Reports from Databricks Data in Looker Studio

👁 Jerod Johnson
Jerod Johnson
Director, Technology Evangelism
Use CData Connect AI to gain access to live Databricks data and create custom reports in Looker Studio.

Looker Studio, formerly known as Google Data Studio, empowers users to craft customized reports featuring data visualizations that can be shared with clients while reflecting your brand identity. When combined with CData Connect AI, you gain immediate cloud-to-cloud access to Databricks data to create visualizations, dashboards, and more. This article provides step-by-step instructions on establishing a virtual database for Databricks and generating reports from Databricks data within Looker Studio.

CData Connect AI offers a seamless cloud-to-cloud interface tailored for Databricks, making it straightforward to construct reports directly from live Databricks data within Looker Studio without the need for data replication. As you create visualizations, Looker Studio generates queries to retrieve data. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect AI efficiently channels all supported query operations, including filters, JOINs, and more, directly to Databricks. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly provide the requested Databricks data.

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


This article requires a CData Connect AI instance and the CData Connect AI Connector for Looker Studio. Get more information on the CData Connect AI and sign up for a free trial at https://www.cdata.com/cloud.


Configure Databricks Connectivity for Looker Studio

Connectivity to Databricks from Looker Studio is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Databricks data from Looker Studio, we start by creating and configuring a Databricks connection.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. 👁 Adding a Connection
  2. Select "Databricks" from the Add Connection panel
    3. 👁 Selecting a data source
  3. 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).
    👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
  4. Click Save & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Databricks Connection page and update the User-based permissions. 👁 Updating permissions

With the connection configured, you are ready to connect to Databricks data from Looker Studio.

Visualize Live Databricks Data from Looker Studio

The steps below outline connecting to CData Connect AI from Looker Studio to create a new Databricks data source and build a simple visualization from the data.

  1. Log into Looker Studio, click data sources, create a new data source, and choose CData Connect AI Connector.
    2. 👁 Create a new connection in Looker Studio
  2. Click Authorize and allow access to your Google account. 👁 Granting permissions to the Connector
  3. Click Authorize to authenticate with your CData Connect AI instance 👁 Authenticating with CData Connect AI
  4. In the CData Connect AI Connector in Looker Studio select Connections to import from the dropdown and click Next
    5. 👁 Importing from Connections
  5. Now select a Connection (e.g. Databricks1) and click Next 👁 Selecting a Connection
  6. Select a Table (e.g. Customers) or use a Custom Query and click Connect to continue 👁 Selecting a Table
  7. If needed, modify columns, click Create Report, and add the data source to the report.
    8. 👁 Configuring column definitions
  8. Select a visualization style and add it to the report.
  9. Select Dimensions and Measures to customize your visualization.
    10. 👁 Visualizing Databricks data in Looker Studio

Live Access to Databricks Data from Cloud Applications

Now you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to live Databricks data from your Looker Studio workbook. You can create more data sources and new visualizations, build reports, and more — all without replicating Databricks data.

Try CData Connect AI and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.

Ready to get started?

Learn more about CData Connect AI or sign up for free trial access:

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