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URL: https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/sql-cloud-redash.rst

⇱ Query, Visualize, and Share live SQL Server Data in Redash

Query, Visualize, and Share live SQL Server Data in Redash

👁 Mohsin Turki
Mohsin Turki
Technical Marketing Engineer
Use CData Connect AI to connect to live SQL Server data in Redash for querying, visualizing, and sharing.

Redash is a collaboration tool that lets you query, visualize, and share your data. When paired with CData Connect AI, Redash gets access to live SQL Server data. This article demonstrates how to connect to SQL Server using Connect AI and work with live SQL Server data in Redash.

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL Server interface for SQL Server, allowing you to query data from SQL Server without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to SQL Server, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested SQL Server data quickly.

Configure SQL Server Connectivity for Redash

Connectivity to SQL Server from Redash is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with SQL Server data in Redash, we start by creating and configuring a SQL Server connection.

  1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection
    2. 👁 Adding a Connection
  2. Select "SQL Server" from the Add Connection panel
    3. 👁 Selecting a data source
  3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SQL Server.

    Connecting to Microsoft SQL Server

    Connect to Microsoft SQL Server using the following properties:

    • Server: The name of the server running SQL Server.
    • User: The username provided for authentication with SQL Server.
    • Password: The password associated with the authenticating user.
    • Database: The name of the SQL Server database.

    Connecting to Azure SQL Server and Azure Data Warehouse

    You can authenticate to Azure SQL Server or Azure Data Warehouse by setting the following connection properties:

    • Server: The server running Azure. You can find this by logging into the Azure portal and navigating to "SQL databases" (or "SQL data warehouses") -> "Select your database" -> "Overview" -> "Server name."
    • User: The name of the user authenticating to Azure.
    • Password: The password associated with the authenticating user.
    • Database: The name of the database, as seen in the Azure portal on the SQL databases (or SQL warehouses) page.

    SSH Connectivity for SQL Server

    You can use SSH (Secure Shell) to authenticate with SQL Server, 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 SQL Server in Password Auth Mode

    To connect to SQL Server via SSH in Password Auth mode, set the following connection properties:

    • User: SQL Server User name
    • Password: SQL Server Password
    • Database: SQL Server database name
    • Server: SQL Server Server name
    • Port: SQL Server 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 SQL Server in Public Key Auth Mode

    To connect to SQL Server via SSH in Password Auth mode, set the following connection properties:

    • User: SQL Server User name
    • Password: SQL Server Password
    • Database: SQL Server database name
    • Server: SQL Server Server name
    • Port: SQL Server 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)
  4. Click Save & Test
  5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SQL Server 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.

  1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
  2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
  3. Give the PAT a name and click Create. 👁 Creating a new PAT
  4. 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 SQL Server data from Redash.

Connect to SQL Server from Redash using Connect AI

To establish a connection from Redash to CData Connect AI using the Virtual SQL Server, follow these steps:

  1. Log into Redash.
  2. Click the settings widget on the top right.
  3. Click New Data Source.
  4. Select Microsoft SQL Server as the Data Source Type.
  5. On the configuration tab, set the following properties:
    • Database Name: enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect AI data source you want to connect to (for example, Salesforce1).
    • Server: enter the virtual SQL Server host name (tds.cdata.com)
    • User: enter your CData Connect AI username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect AI interface. For example, [email protected].
    • Password: enter the PAT you generated on the Settings page.
    • Port: enter 14333
    👁 Configuring the connection to Connect AI from Redash.
  6. Click Create.
  7. Click Test Connection to ensure that the connection is configured properly.

You can now work with live SQL Server data in Redash.

Get CData Connect AI

To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from Redash, try CData Connect AI today!