How to connect PolyBase to Salesforce Pardot

PolyBase for SQL Server allows you to query external data by using the same Transact-SQL syntax used to query a database table. When paired with the CData ODBC Driver for Salesforce Pardot, you get access to your Salesforce Pardot data directly alongside your SQL Server data. This article describes creating an external data source and external tables to grant access to live Salesforce Pardot data using T-SQL queries.

NOTE: PolyBase is only available on SQL Server 19 and above.

The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live Salesforce Pardot data using PolyBase due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SQL Server to Salesforce Pardot, the driver pushes down supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Salesforce Pardot and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. And with PolyBase, you can also join SQL Server data with Salesforce Pardot data, using a single query to pull data from distributed sources.

Connect to Salesforce Pardot

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs. To create an external data source in SQL Server using PolyBase, configure a System DSN (CData Salesforce Pardot Sys is created automatically).

Salesforce Pardot supports connecting through API Version, Username, Password and User Key.

• ApiVersion: The Salesforce Pardot API version which the provided account can access. Defaults to 4.
• User: The Username of the Salesforce Pardot account.
• Password: The Password of the Salesforce Pardot account.
• UserKey: The unique User Key for the Salesforce Pardot account. This key does not expire.
• IsDemoAccount (optional): Set to TRUE to connect to a demo account.

Accessing the Pardot User Key

The User Key of the current account may be accessed by going to Settings -> My Profile, under the API User Key row.

Click "Test Connection" to ensure that the DSN is connected to Salesforce Pardot properly. Navigate to the Tables tab to review the table definitions for Salesforce Pardot.

Create an External Data Source for Salesforce Pardot Data

After configuring the connection, you need to create a master encryption key and a credential database for the external data source.

Creating a Master Encryption Key

Execute the following SQL command to create a new master key, 'ENCRYPTION,' to encrypt the credentials for the external data source.

CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'password';

Creating a Credential Database

Execute the following SQL command to create credentials for the external data source connected to Salesforce Pardot data.

NOTE: IDENTITY and SECRET correspond with the User and Password properties for Salesforce Pardot.

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL salesforcepardot_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'salesforcepardot_username', SECRET = 'salesforcepardot_password';

Create an External Data Source for Salesforce Pardot

Execute a CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE SQL command to create an external data source for Salesforce Pardot with PolyBase:

• Set the LOCATION parameter , using the DSN and credentials configured earlier.

For Salesforce Pardot, set SERVERNAME to the URL or address for your server (e.g. 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1' for local servers; the remote URL for remote servers). Leave PORT empty. PUSHDOWN is set to ON by default, meaning the ODBC Driver can leverage server-side processing for complex queries.

CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE cdata_salesforcepardot_source
WITH ( 
 LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
 CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData Salesforce Pardot Sys',
 -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
 CREDENTIAL = salesforcepardot_creds
);

Create External Tables for Salesforce Pardot

After creating the external data source, use CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statements to link to Salesforce Pardot data from your SQL Server instance. The table column definitions must match those exposed by the CData ODBC Driver for Salesforce Pardot. You can refer to the Tables tab of the DSN Configuration Wizard to see the table definition.

👁 Table definition in the DSN Configuration Wizard (Salesforce is shown)

Sample CREATE TABLE Statement

The statement to create an external table based on a Salesforce Pardot Prospects would look similar to the following:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Prospects(
 Id [nvarchar](255) NULL,
 Email [nvarchar](255) NULL,
 ...
) WITH ( 
 LOCATION='Prospects',
 DATA_SOURCE=cdata_salesforcepardot_source
);

Having created external tables for Salesforce Pardot in your SQL Server instance, you are now able to query local and remote data simultaneously. Thanks to built-in query processing in the CData ODBC Driver, you know that as much query processing as possible is being pushed to Salesforce Pardot, freeing up local resources and computing power. Download a free, 30-day trial of the ODBC Driver for Salesforce Pardot and start working with live Salesforce Pardot data alongside your SQL Server data today.