Connect BI tools
You can connect business intelligence (BI) tools to Databricks clusters to query data in tables. Every Databricks cluster runs a JDBC/ODBC server on the driver node. This article covers general installation and configuration instructions for most BI tools. For tool-specific connection instructions, see Business intelligence tools.
Requirements
To access a cluster via JDBC/ODBC you must have Can Attach To permission.
Note
If you connect to a terminated cluster using JDBC/ODBC and have Can Restart permission, the cluster will be restarted.
Step 1: Download and install a JDBC/ODBC driver
For most BI tools, you need a JDBC or ODBC driver, according to the tool’s specification, to make a connection to Databricks clusters.
- Go to the Databricks JDBC / ODBC Driver Download page.
- Fill out the form and submit it. The page will update with links to multiple download options.
- Select a driver and download it.
- Install the driver. For JDBC, a JAR is provided which does not require installation. For ODBC, an installation package is provided for your chosen platform that needs to be installed on your system.
- Configure your BI tool to use the installed library. Depending on the tool, point it to the JAR or installed library.
Step 2: Configure JDBC/ODBC connection
Here are some of the parameters a JDBC/ODBC driver might require:
| Parameters | Value |
|---|---|
| Username/password | See Username and password. |
| Host | YOUR_WORKSPACE_URL |
| Port | 443 |
| HTTP Path | See Construct the JDBC URL. |
The following are usually specified in the “httpPath” for JDBC and the DSN conf for ODBC:
| Parameters | Value |
|---|---|
| Spark Server Type | Spark Thrift Server |
| Schema/Database | default |
| Authentication Mechanism (AuthMech) | Username and password authentication |
| Thrift Transport | http |
| SSL | true |
The following is for performance. Ask your vendor to change the parameter if you can’t access it:
| Parameters | Value |
|---|---|
| (Batch) Fetch Size | 100000 |
Username and password
To establish the connection, you use a personal access token to authenticate to the cluster gateway:
- Username:
token - Password:
<personal-access-token>
If SSO is disabled, you can also use your Databricks username and password to authenticate to the cluster gateway. If SSO is enabled, you must use a personal access token.
Construct the JDBC URL
On the cluster detail page, go to Advanced Options and click the JDBC/ODBC tab. It contains the hostname, port, protocol, HTTP path, and JDBC URL.
Copy JDBC URL and replace
<personal-access-token>with your personal access token.
ODBC Data Source Name (DSN) configuration for the Simba ODBC driver
The Data Source Name (DSN) configuration contains the parameters for communicating with a specific database. BI tools like Tableau usually provide a friendly user interface for entering these parameters. If you have to install and manage the Simba ODBC driver yourself, you might need to create the configuration files and also allow your Driver Manager (odbc32.dll on Windows and unixODBC /iODBC on Unix) to access them.
After you download and install the Simba ODBC driver, create two files,
/etc/odbc.ini and /etc/odbcinst.ini. The content in /etc/odbc.ini can be:
[Databricks-Spark-2-x]
Driver=Simba
Server=<server-hostname>
HOST=<server-hostname>
PORT=<port>
SparkServerType=3
Schema=default
ThriftTransport=2
SSL=1
AuthMech=3
UID=token
PWD=<personal-access-token>
HTTPPath=<http-path>
The content in /etc/odbcinst.ini can be:
[ODBC Drivers]
Simba = Installed
[Simba]
Driver = <driver-path>
Set <driver-path> according to the type of operating system you chose when you downloaded the driver in Step 1. For example:
- MacOs
/Library/simba/spark/lib/libsparkodbc_sbu.dylib - Linux
/opt/simba/sparkodbc/lib/universal/libsimbasparkodbc.dylib
You can specify the paths of the two files in your environment variables so that they can be used by the Driver Manager:
export ODBCINI=/etc/odbc.ini
export ODBCSYSINI=/etc/odbcinst.ini
export SIMBASPARKINI=<simba-ini-path>/simba.sparkodbc.ini # (Contains the configuration for debugging the Simba driver)
where <simba-ini-path> is
- MacOS
/Library/simba/spark/lib - Linux
/opt/simba/sparkodbc/lib/universal
Troubleshooting
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