Build a PostgreSQL Interface for Sybase Data using the CData JDBC Driver

There are a vast number of PostgreSQL clients available on the Internet. From standard Drivers to BI and Analytics tools, PostgreSQL is a popular interface for data access. Using our JDBC Drivers, you can now create PostgreSQL entry-points that you can connect to from any standard client.

To access Sybase data as a PostgreSQL database, use the CData JDBC Driver for Sybase and a JDBC foreign data wrapper (FDW). In this article, we compile the FDW, install it, and query Sybase data from PostgreSQL Server.

Connect to Sybase Data as a JDBC Data Source

To connect to Sybase as a JDBC data source, you will need the following:

• Driver JAR path: The JAR is located in the lib subfolder of the installation directory.

• Driver class:

  cdata.jdbc.sybase.SybaseDriver
  

• JDBC URL: The URL must start with "jdbc:sybase:" and can include any of the connection properties in name-value pairs separated with semicolons.

  To connect to Sybase, specify the following connection properties:

  • Server: Set this to the name or network address of the Sybase database instance.
  • Database: Set this to the name of the Sybase database running on the specified Server.

  Optionally, you can also secure your connections with TLS/SSL by setting UseSSL to true.

  Sybase supports several methods for authentication including Password and Kerberos.

  Connect Using Password Authentication

  Set the AuthScheme to Password and set the following connection properties to use Sybase authentication.

  • User: Set this to the username of the authenticating Sybase user.
  • Password: Set this to the username of the authenticating Sybase user.

  Connect using LDAP Authentication

  To connect with LDAP authentication, configure Sybase server-side to use the LDAP authentication mechanism.

  After configuring Sybase for LDAP, you can connect using the same credentials as Password authentication.

  Connect Using Kerberos Authentication

  To leverage Kerberos authentication, begin by enabling it setting AuthScheme to Kerberos.

See the Using Kerberos section in the Help documentation for more information on using Kerberos authentication.

You can find an example connection string below:

Server=MyServer;Port=MyPort;User=SampleUser;Password=SamplePassword;Database=MyDB;Kerberos=true;KerberosKDC=MyKDC;KerberosRealm=MYREALM.COM;KerberosSPN=server-name

Built-in Connection String Designer

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

java -jar cdata.jdbc.sybase.jar

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

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

A typical JDBC URL is below:

jdbc:sybase:User=myuser;Password=mypassword;Server=localhost;Database=mydatabase;Charset=iso_1;

Build the JDBC Foreign Data Wrapper

The Foreign Data Wrapper can be installed as an extension to PostgreSQL, without recompiling PostgreSQL. The jdbc2_fdw extension is used as an example (downloadable here).

1. Add a symlink from the shared object for your version of the JRE to /usr/lib/libjvm.so. For example:

   ln -s /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/amd64/server/libjvm.so /usr/lib/libjvm.so
   

2. Start the build:

   make install USE_PGXS=1
   

Query Sybase Data as a PostgreSQL Database

After you have installed the extension, follow the steps below to start executing queries to Sybase data:

1. Log into your database.
2. Load the extension for the database:

   CREATE EXTENSION jdbc2_fdw;
   

3. Create a server object for Sybase:

   CREATE SERVER Sybase 
   FOREIGN DATA WRAPPER jdbc2_fdw OPTIONS (
   drivername 'cdata.jdbc.sybase.SybaseDriver',
   url 'jdbc:sybase:User=myuser;Password=mypassword;Server=localhost;Database=mydatabase;Charset=iso_1;',
   querytimeout '15',
   jarfile '/home/MyUser/CData/CData\ JDBC\ Driver\ for\ Salesforce MyDriverEdition/lib/cdata.jdbc.sybase.jar'); 
   

4. Create a user mapping for the username and password of a user known to the MySQL daemon.

   CREATE USER MAPPING for postgres SERVER Sybase OPTIONS (
   username 'admin', 
   password 'test');
   

5. Create a foreign table in your local database:

   postgres=# CREATE FOREIGN TABLE products (
   products_id text,
   products_Id text,
   products_ProductName numeric) 
   SERVER Sybase OPTIONS (
   table_name 'products');
   

You can now execute read/write commands to Sybase:

postgres=# SELECT * FROM products;