Connect to IBM Informix Data as an External Source in Dremio

The CData JDBC Driver for IBM Informix implements JDBC Standards and allows various applications, including Dremio, to work with live IBM Informix data. Dremio is a data lakehouse platform designed to empower self-service, interactive analytics on the data lake. With the CData JDBC driver, you can include live IBM Informix data as a part of your enterprise data lake. This article describes how to connect to IBM Informix data from Dremio as an External Source.

The CData JDBC Driver enables high-speed access to live IBM Informix data in Dremio. Once you install the driver, authenticate with IBM Informix and gain immediate access to IBM Informix data within your data lake. By surfacing IBM Informix data using native data types and handling complex filters, aggregations, & other operations automatically, the CData JDBC Driver grants seamless access to IBM Informix data.

Prerequisites

This article assumes you are utilizing Docker to run Dremio. You can create a Docker container with the Dremio service using a command similar to the follow:

docker run -d --name dremio -p 9047:9047 -p 31010:31010 dremio/dremio-oss

Where dremio is the name of the container, 9047 is the container's port for the Dremio web interface and 31010 is the port that maps to the Dremio query service. dremio/dremio-oss specifies the image to use.

Build the ARP Connector

To use the CData JDBC Driver in Dremio, you need to build an Advanced Relation Pushdown (ARP) Connector. You can view the source code for the Connector on GitHub or download the ZIP file (GitHub.com) directly. Once you copy or extract the files, run the following command from the root directory of the connector (the directory containing the pom.xml file) to build the connector.

mvn clean install

NOTE: The CData ARP Connectors are build to be compiled with Java 11. Be sure to install Java 11 and use the correct version. You can update your Java version using a command similar to the following:

sudo update-alternatives --config java

Once the JAR file for the connector is built (in the target directory), you are ready to copy the ARP connector and JDBC Driver to your Dremio instance.

Installing the Connector and JDBC Driver

Install the ARP Connector to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/ and the JDBC Driver for IBM Informix to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/3rdparty. You can use commands similar to the following:

ARP Connector

docker cp PATH\TO\dremio-informix-plugin-{DREMIO_VERSION}.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/

JDBC Driver for IBM Informix

docker cp PATH\TO\cdata.jdbc.informix.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/3rdparty/

Connecting to IBM Informix

IBM Informix will now appear as an External Source option in Dremio. The ARP Connector built uses a JDBC URL to connect to IBM Informix data. The JDBC Driver has a built-in connection string designer that you can use (see below).

👁 External Sources via CData JDBC Drivers (Amazon DynamoDB & Couchbase are shown)

Built-in Connection String Designer

For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the IBM Informix JDBC Driver. Double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command line.

java -jar cdata.jdbc.informix.jar

Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

Set the following properties to connect to IBM Informix

• Server: Set this to the name of the server running IBM Informix.
• Port: Set this to the port the IBM Informix server is listening on.
• Database: Set this to the name of the IBM Informix database.
• User: Set this to the username of a user allowed to access the database.
• Password: Set this to the password of a user allowed to access the database.

👁 Using the built-in connection string designer to generate a JDBC URL (Salesforce is shown.)

NOTE: To use the JDBC Driver in Dremio, you will need a license (full or trial) and a Runtime Key (RTK). For more information on obtaining this license (or a trial), contact our sales team.

Add the Runtime Key (RTK) to the JDBC URL. You will end up with a JDBC URL similar to the following:

jdbc:informix:RTK=5246...;Server=10.0.1.2;Port=50000;User=admin;Password=admin;Database=test;

Access IBM Informix as an External Source

To add IBM Informix as an External Source, click to add a new source and select Informix. Copy the JDBC URL and paste it into the New Informix Source wizard.

👁 Entering the JDBC URL (Amazon DynamoDB is shown)

Save the connection and you are ready to query live IBM Informix data in Dremio, easily incorporating IBM Informix data into your data lake.

👁 Live data in Dremio (Amazon DynamoDB is shown)

More Information & Free Trial

Using the CData JDBC Driver for IBM Informix in Dremio, you can incorporate live IBM Informix data into your data lake. Check out our CData JDBC Driver for IBM Informix page for more information about connecting to IBM Informix. Download a free, 30 day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for IBM Informix and get started today.