How to Work with IBM Cloud Object Storage Data in ETL Validator JDBC

ETL Validator provides data movement and transformation capabilities for integrating data platforms across your organization. CData's JDBC driver seamlessly integrates with ETL Validator and extends its native connectivity to include IBM Cloud Object Storage data.

This tutorial explains how to build a simple ETL validator data flow to extract data from IBM Cloud Object Storage data and load it into an example data storage solution: SQL Server.

Add a new ETL Validator data source via CData

CData extends ETL Validator's data connectivity capabilities by providing the ability to add data sources that connect via CData's JDBC drivers. Connecting to IBM Cloud Object Storage data simply requires creating a new data source in ETL Validator through CData's connectiviy suite as described below.

Login to ETL Validator

Begin by logging into ETL Validator to view the application dashboard.

👁 Access the ETL Validator dashboard

Click on Add a DataSource

CData extends the data source options within ETL Validator.

👁 Create a new DataSource

Click on CData

CData's connectivity is embedded within ETL Validator's data source options.

👁 CData data source

Configure the CData Driver Connection String

You will need a JDBC connection string to establish a connection to IBM Cloud Object Storage in ETL Validator.

👁 CData data source

Register a New Instance of Cloud Object Storage

If you do not already have Cloud Object Storage in your IBM Cloud account, follow the procedure below to install an instance of SQL Query in your account:

1. Log in to your IBM Cloud account.
2. Navigate to the

Connecting using OAuth Authentication

There are certain connection properties you need to set before you can connect. You can obtain these as follows:

API Key

To connect with IBM Cloud Object Storage, you need an API Key. You can obtain this as follows:

1. Log in to your IBM Cloud account.
2. Navigate to the Platform API Keys page.
3. On the middle-right corner click "Create an IBM Cloud API Key" to create a new API Key.
4. In the pop-up window, specify the API Key name and click "Create". Note the API Key as you can never access it again from the dashboard.

Cloud Object Storage CRN

If you have multiple accounts, specify the CloudObjectStorageCRN explicitly. To find the appropriate value, you can:

• Query the Services view. This will list your IBM Cloud Object Storage instances along with the CRN for each.
• Locate the CRN directly in IBM Cloud. To do so, navigate to your IBM Cloud Dashboard. In the Resource List, Under Storage, select your Cloud Object Storage resource to get its CRN.

Connecting to Data

You can now set the following to connect to data:

• InitiateOAuth: Set this to GETANDREFRESH. You can use InitiateOAuth to avoid repeating the OAuth exchange and manually setting the OAuthAccessToken.
• ApiKey: Set this to your API key which was noted during setup.
• CloudObjectStorageCRN (Optional): Set this to the cloud object storage CRN you want to work with. While the connector attempts to retrieve this automatically, specifying this explicitly is recommended if you have more than Cloud Object Storage account.

When you connect, the connector completes the OAuth process.

1. Extracts the access token and authenticates requests.
2. Saves OAuth values in OAuthSettingsLocation to be persisted across connections.

Built-in Connection String Designer

For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the IBM Cloud Object Storage JDBC Driver. Either double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command-line.

java -jar cdata.jdbc.ibmcloudobjectstorage.jar

👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (ibm cloud object storage is shown.)

A typical connection string looks like this:

jdbc:ibmcloudobjectstorage:ApiKey=myApiKey;CloudObjectStorageCRN=MyInstanceCRN;Region=myRegion;OAuthClientId=MyOAuthClientId;OAuthClientSecret=myOAuthClientSecret;

Licensing the Driver

To ensure the JDBC driver is licensed appropriately, copy the license file to the appropriate location:

Copy the JDBC Driver for IBM Cloud Object Storage and lic file from "C:\Program Files\CData[product_name]\lib" to "C:\Datagaps\ETLValidator\Server\apache-tomcat\bin".

 cdata.jdbc.ibmcloudobjectstorage.jar
 cdata.jdbc.ibmcloudobjectstorage.lic
 

Note: If you do not copy the .lic file with the jar, you will see a licensing error that indicates you do not have a valid license installed. This is true for both the trial and full versions.

Save the connection

Should you encounter any difficulties loading the CData JDBC driver class, please contact DataGap's team, and they will provide you instructions on how to load the jar file for the relevant driver.

Add SQL Server as a Target

This example will use SQL Server as a destination for IBM Cloud Object Storage data data, but any preferred destination can be used instead.

Go to DataSources and select MS_SQL_SERVER

This option is the default.

👁 Add SQL Server

Fill in the necessary connection details and test the connection

The details will depend on the specific target, but these details may include a URL, authentiation credentials, etc.

👁 Add SQL Server

Create a Dataflow in ETL Validator

Open the Dataflows tab

Configured data flows will appear in this window.

👁 Dataflows tab

Select Create Dataflow

Name your new dataflow and save it.

Open the Dataflow to view the Dataflow Diagram

The details of the data movement will be configured in this panel.

👁 Dataflow diagram

Drag & drop the JDBC as a source from the right side

Give the new source an appropriate name and save it.

👁 Jira example source

Fill in the Query section of the new source

Select the Table from the Schema option that reflects which data should be pulled from IBM Cloud Object Storage data.

View the expected results of your query

The anticipated outcome of the configured query is displayed in the Result tab.

👁 Query results

Add the destination to the Dataflow

Select Switch to Diagram, then drag & drop the DB Sink as a target from the right side (under Sink options). Give the sink an appropriate name and save it.

👁 Data sink

Set the appropriate Schema for the destination

Choose the Schema and table that matches the structure of the source table. For this example, the table on the target side was created to match the Source so that data flow seamlessly. More advanced schema transformation operations are beyond the scope of this article.

👁 Destination schema

Hit the RUN option to begin replication

Running the job will take some time.

👁 Destination schema

View the finished Dataflow

Return to the diagram to see the finished data replication job from IBM Cloud Object Storage data to SQL Server.

👁 Full dataflow

Get Started Today

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for IBM Cloud Object Storage and start building IBM Cloud Object Storage-connected applications with ETL Validator. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.