JDBC connector for live model

[rahuldhomane]

Hi, 

We had established Athena connection using the JDBC connector present under elasticube model. We wanted to establish Athena connection using live model but could not find JDBC connector for the same.

Do let us know the right way to connect with Athena using live model.

Thanks

[KatieG]

Hi @rahuldhomane,

For your current connection to Athena in an Elasticube - are you using the Sisense Athena connector (yellow "Amazon Athena") or Generic JDBC (purple "Generic JDBC")? 

If you are using the Sisense Athena connector, there is a way to enable live connection to Athena with a few steps. We do advise caution in that the performance of Live queries to Athena may not be as speedy as a connection to a high performance warehouse. So your mileage may vary here. 

These are the steps (for Sisense Linux only):

1. Within Sisense, go to Admin tab > System Management > File Management 
   (if you're logged in as an Admin and don't see this menu, follow instructions at the end of this reply to enable)
   
2. In File Management, navigate to connectors > framework > athena
3. Double click the manifest.json file to open it it
4. Find "supportLiveDataSource"
   Update its value to true
   
5. Click the save icon at the top right corner
6. Exit out of File Management
7. Within Admin tab > System Management > click "Configuration"
   
8. Scroll down to the bottom of the page - click "Manage Connectors" 
   
9. Click "Athena"
10. Scroll down to "enableAnalyticalEngine.value" and toggle this on
    
11. Click "Save Changes"
12. Now Athena should be enabled for Live and it should come up as an option when you create a new Live model

___________________________________

How to enable File Management:

1. In Admin tab > System Management, click the Configuration button
   
2. Click on the Sisense logo 5+ times to reveal additional menu options
   
3. Click on ‘Base Configuration’
   
4.  Scroll down the ‘File Management’ and expand the menu item.
   Toggle on fileManagement.enabled
   
5. Click Save Base at the top right hand side of the page
   

6. Then the File Management icon should show up

___________________________________

Hope that helps,

[rahuldhomane]

Hi @KatieG ,

Thanks for the detailed clarification!

However we used the  Generic JDBC (purple "Generic JDBC") connector for our Elasticube connection. Also, we are running Sisense Version: L2021.8.0.99 on Chrome (Windows machines).

Do let us know if you need additional details from our end.

Thanks,

Rahul Dhomane 

[KatieG]

Hi @rahuldhomane, 

Thanks for that info - based on my research, if you were to use the GenericJDBC live connection in Sisense you will need to do additional work yourself to create and configure a custom dialect for the driver. Creating a custom dialect may not be straightforward if you don't have experience with it.

Before considering that route, I recommend you try the method I outlined in the previous response with the Athena connector as you would not need to create and configure a dialect.

Hope that helps,

[SusanneK]

@KatieG This is very, very interesting. We have a similar issue. We are using Exasol for our DWH and since Sisense does not have a native Exasol connector, we are using the generic JDBC for the Elasticubes which works ok. Since there is no generic jdbc live connect, we thought, we were not able to use live connect at all with our Exasol DB. This is very sad, especially because we would like to use the notebook feature and this feature needs a live connection. 

As I interpret you answer it is generally possible to build a generic live connector for Exasol on our own? Could you give some more advice on this?

Thank you very very much in advance.

Kind regards

Susanne

[GuyRaz]

Hi @rahuldhomane \ @SusanneK,

I would like to clarify a few points mentioned in this thread:

• Athena native live connector is in the product roadmap to H2
• The Sisense R&D team is developing a new generic JDBC connector to replace the current generic JDBC connector for Elasticube models only  
• At the moment, only Sisense R&D creates new dialects for live connectors.
• There are plans to release a generic JDBC live connector that can be customized to the customer's needs, but this initiative will take longer.

Best,

Guy | Product Manager