SAS Viya is an analytics platform that enhances data management, machine learning, and analytics, fostering efficient decision-making and insights. When paired with CData Connect AI, you get instant, cloud-to-cloud access to Microsoft Exchange data for building predictive models, crafting stunning insights to make data-driven decisions, and more. This article shows how to connect to Connect AI from the SAS Viya cloud platform and integrate live Microsoft Exchange data into your self-service AI and analytics deployments.
CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL, cloud-to-cloud interface for Microsoft Exchange, allowing you to easily integrate with live Microsoft Exchange data in SAS Viya — without replicating the data. CData Connect AI looks exactly like a SQL Server database to SAS Viya and uses optimized data processing out of the box to push all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to Microsoft Exchange, leveraging server-side processing to return Microsoft Exchange data quickly.
Configure Microsoft Exchange Connectivity for SAS Viya
Connectivity to Microsoft Exchange from SAS Viya is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with Microsoft Exchange data from SAS Viya, we start by creating and configuring a Microsoft Exchange connection.
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Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection
- Select "Microsoft Exchange" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source
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Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to Microsoft Exchange.
Specify the User and Password to connect to Exchange. Additionally, specify the address of the Exchange server you are connecting to and the Platform associated with the server.
👁 Configuring a connection (Salesforce is shown)
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Click Save & Test
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Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add Microsoft Exchange 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.
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Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
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On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
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Give the PAT a name and click Create.
👁 Creating a new PAT
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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 Microsoft Exchange data from SAS Viya.
Connecting to CData Connect AI from SAS Viya
The following steps detail the process of loading data from Microsoft Exchange into SAS Viya using the established connection in CData Connect AI.
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Download and install the CData Connect AI JDBC driver.
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Open the Integrations page of CData Connect AI.
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Search for and select JDBC.
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Download and run the setup file.
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When the installation is complete, the JAR file can be found in the installation directory (inside the lib folder).
- Now, log in to SAS Viya and navigate to the Applications Menu at the top-left corner.
- Select Develop Code and Flows from the Analytics Life Cycle topic.
👁 Select Develop Code and Flows
- Navigate to the Explorer tab and click on SAS Server on the left panel.
- Follow the steps to upload the JAR file of the CData Connect JDBC driver:
- Once done, navigate to the Libraries tab and click on Create a new library connection (on the top left corner as shown below) for the CData Connect JDBC.
👁 Navigate to the Libraries tab and click on Create a new library connection
- Enter the library connection settings:
- Connection name: enter a name for your connection
- Library name (libref): enter a reference for your library
- Library type: choose "SAS/ACCESS to JDBC"
- Click on the Properties tab and set Library attributes to READONLY.
👁 Click on the Properties tab and set Library attributes to READONLY
- Click the Connection Options tab and enter the following details:
- Click on Test connection. If it succeeds, click on Save and connect.
👁 Successful test connection
- Click on to add a new tab and select SAS program.
👁 Select SAS program to write SQL Queries
- Fill in the code block below with your setup parameters:
- Libref: enter the library reference you defined in Step 9.
- ClassPath: enter the file path to the JAR driver file.
- Username: enter your CData Connect username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect interface. For example, [email protected].
- DefaultCatalog: enter the connection configured in CData Connect AI that you want to query.
- Password: enter the PAT you generated in the "Add a Personal Access Token" section.
libname [Libref] JDBC
classpath=[ClassPath]
class="cdata.jdbc.connect.ConnectDriver"
URL="jdbc:Connect:AuthScheme=Basic;User=[Username];DefaultCatalog=[DefaultCatalog];DefaultSchema=dbo;Password=[PAT]";
proc sql;
SELECT * FROM [Libref].MyTable;
quit;
- Click on Run. You can see the data load from CData Connect AI into SAS Viya.
Live Access to Microsoft Exchange Data from Cloud Applications
At this point, you have a direct, cloud-to-cloud connection to Microsoft Exchange data from SAS Viya. You can build predictive models, craft insights to make data-driven decisions, and more — all without replicating Microsoft Exchange data.
Try Connect AI and get real-time data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications.
