Data Sources

A data source is reference object for a data set that is external to the database. It consists of the location & connection information to that external source, but doesn't hold the names of any specific data sets/files within that source.

The following data source types are supported:

• Azure (Microsoft blob storage)
• HDFS (Apache Hadoop Distributed File System)
• S3 (Amazon S3 Bucket)

Note

The following hosts are used for each of the data source providers:

• Azure: <service_account_name>.blob.core.windows.net
• HDFS: Specified via the location parameter
• S3: <region>.amazonaws.com

Data sources perform no function by themselves, but act as proxies for accessing external data when referenced in certain database operations. The following operations can make use of data sources:

• External tables (in SQL)
• Insert records (from files) API calls (in SQL)

Individual files within a data source need to be identified when the data source is referenced within these calls.

Note

The data source will be validated upon creation, by default, and will fail to be created if an authorized connection cannot be established.

Managing Data Sources

A data source can be managed using the following API endpoint calls. For managing data sources in SQL, see CREATE DATA SOURCE.

API Call	Description
/create/datasource	Creates a data source, given a location and connection information
/alter/datasource	Modifies the properties of a data source, validating the new connection
/drop/datasource	Removes the data source reference from the database; will not modify the external source data
/show/datasource	Outputs the data source properties, for users with system_admin permission; users with connect permission will see only the names & providers for the data sources to which they have access
/grant/permission/datasource	Grants the permission for a user to connect to a data source
/revoke/permission/datasource	Revokes the permission for a user to connect to a data source

Creating a Data Source

To create a data source, kin_ds, that connects to an Amazon S3 bucket, kinetica_ds, in the US East (N. Virginia) region, in Python:

h_db.create_datasource(
    name = 'kin_ds',
    location = 's3',
    user_name = aws_id,
    password = aws_key,
    options = {
        's3_bucket_name': 'kinetica-ds',
        's3_region': 'us-east-1'
    }
)

Important

For Amazon S3 connections, the user_name & password parameters refer to the AWS Access ID & Key, respectively.

Provider-Specific Syntax

Several authentication schemes across multiple providers are supported.

• Azure Using Password
• Azure Using SAS Token
• Azure Using OAuth Token
• Azure Using Active Directory
• HDFS Using Password
• HDFS Using Kerberos Token
• HDFS Using Kerberos Keytab
• S3

Azure Using Password

h_db.create_datasource(
    name = '<data source name>',
    location = 'azure',
    user_name = '<azure storage account name>',
    password = '<azure storage account key>',
    options = {
        'azure_container_name': '<azure container name>'
    }
)

Azure Using SAS Token

h_db.create_datasource(
    name = '<data source name>',
    location = 'azure',
    user_name = '<azure storage account name>',
    password = '',
    options = {
        'azure_container_name': '<azure container name>',
        'azure_sas_token': '<azure sas token>'
    }
)

Azure Using OAuth Token

h_db.create_datasource(
    name = '<data source name>',
    location = 'azure',
    user_name = '<azure storage account name>',
    password = '',
    options = {
        'azure_container_name': '<azure container name>',
        'azure_oauth_token': '<azure oauth token>'
    }
)

Azure Using Active Directory

h_db.create_datasource(
    name = '<data source name>',
    location = 'azure',
    user_name = '<ad client id>',
    password = '<ad client secret key>',
    options = {
        'azure_storage_account_name': '<azure storage account name>',
        'azure_container_name': '<azure container name>',
        'azure_tenant_id': '<azure tenant id>'
    }
)

HDFS Using Password

h_db.create_datasource(
    name = '<data source name>',
    location = 'hdfs://<host>:<port>',
    user_name = '<hdfs username>',
    password = '<hdfs password>',
    options = {}
)

HDFS Using Kerberos Token

h_db.create_datasource(
    name = '<data source name>',
    location = 'hdfs://<host>:<port>',
    user_name = '<hdfs username>',
    password = '',
    options = {
        'hdfs_use_kerberos': 'true'
    }
)

HDFS Using Kerberos Keytab

h_db.create_datasource(
    name = '<data source name>',
    location = 'hdfs://<host>:<port>',
    user_name = '<hdfs username>',
    password = '',
    options = {
        'hdfs_kerberos_keytab': '<keytab file/path>'
    }
)

S3

h_db.create_datasource(
    name = '<data source name>',
    location = 's3',
    user_name = '<aws access id>',
    password = '<aws access key>',
    options = {
        's3_bucket_name': '<aws s3 bucket name>',
        's3_region': '<aws s3 region>'
    }
)