Grafana is an open-source platform that allows users to analyze, monitor, and visualize telemetry from various data sources. When combined with CData Connect AI, you gain immediate access to MySQL data for business dashboards. This article outlines the process of connecting to MySQL using Connect AI and creating a basic dashboard from MySQL data within Grafana.
CData Connect AI offers a pure SQL Server, cloud-to-cloud interface for MySQL, enabling the creation of dashboards directly from live MySQL data within Grafana, all without the need for data replication to a native database. As you build visualizations, Grafana generates SQL queries to gather data. With its inherent optimized data processing capabilities, CData Connect AI efficiently channels all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, directly to MySQL. This leverages server-side processing to swiftly deliver the requested MySQL data.
Configure MySQL Connectivity for Grafana
Connectivity to MySQL from Grafana is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with MySQL data from Grafana, we start by creating and configuring a MySQL connection.
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Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
👁 Adding a Connection
- Select "MySQL" from the Add Connection panel
👁 Selecting a data source
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Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to MySQL.
The CData Provider supports connecting to on-premises and cloud-hosted versions of MySQL such as Amazon RDS for MySQL, Google Cloud SQL for MySQL, Azure Database for MySQL, or Oracle MySQL HeatWave. The Server and Port properties must be set to a MySQL server. If IntegratedSecurity is set to false, then User and Password must be set to valid user credentials. Optionally, Database can be set to connect to a specific database. If not set, tables from all databases will be returned.
SSH Connectivity for MySQL
You can use SSH (Secure Shell) to authenticate with MySQL, whether the instance is hosted on-premises or in supported cloud environments. SSH authentication ensures that access is encrypted (as compared to direct network connections).
SSH Connections to MySQL in Password Auth Mode
To connect to MySQL via SSH in Password Auth mode, set the following connection properties:
- User: MySQL User name
- Password: MySQL Password
- Database: MySQL database name
- Server: MySQL Server name
- Port: MySQL port number like 3306
- UserSSH: "true"
- SSHAuthMode: "Password"
- SSHPort: SSH Port number
- SSHServer: SSH Server name
- SSHUser: SSH User name
- SSHPassword: SSH Password
SSH Connections to MySQL in Public Key Auth Mode
To connect to MySQL via SSH in Password Auth mode, set the following connection properties:
- User: MySQL User name
- Password: MySQL Password
- Database: MySQL database name
- Server: MySQL Server name
- Port: MySQL port number like 3306
- UserSSH: "true"
- SSHAuthMode: "Public_Key"
- SSHPort: SSH Port number
- SSHServer: SSH Server name
- SSHUser: SSH User name
- SSHClientCret: the path for the public key certificate file
👁 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 MySQL 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 MySQL data from Grafana.
Visualize Live MySQL Data in Grafana
To establish a connection from Grafana to the CData Connect AI Virtual SQL Server API, follow these steps.
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If you have not already done so, download and install Grafana for your operating system from the Grafana Website. Once installed, access Grafana at http://localhost:3000/.
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Log in to Grafana with your username and password for Grafana. If this is your first time logging in, the username is admin and the password is admin.
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On the navigation menu, click Sources > Add new connection. On this page, you can search for Microsoft SQL Server and select it as your data source.
👁 Adding a new Connection in Grafana
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Select Microsoft SQL Server and click Add new data source.
👁 Adding a new Connection in Grafana
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Enter a name for the new data source and then enter the following connection settings:
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Click Save & Test. A Database Connect OK message appears when you have a successful connection established.
Create a Dashboard
Once you create the data source for MySQL, you can start building dashboards on MySQL data. Start in the navigation menu and click Dashboards
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On the Dashboards page, click + Create dashboard, then click + Add visualization.
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This opens the Select data source window where you can select your created connection.
👁 Select your connection. (Salesforce shown)
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After selecting your connection, you can choose the tables and columns that you want to query for your visualization. Then press Run Query to run the generated query.
👁 Select the tables and columns you want to query. (Salesforce shown)
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After running your query, the resulting data is populated above the query editor. Here you can select the visualization that you want to use to present your data on the dashboard panel.
👁 Visualize your queried data. (Salesforce shown)
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When you have finished editing your panel, you can click Save dashboard to save the changes made to your Dashboard.
To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your cloud applications, try CData Connect AI today!
