Azure Analysis Services Connection Details¶

Introduction¶

Connector Version

This documentation is based on version 23.0.8843 of the connector.

Get Started¶

Azure Analysis Services Version Support

The connector leverages the Analysis Services SOAP API using the XMLA protocol to enable bidirectional access to Azure Analysis Services data.

Establish a Connection¶

Connect to Azure Analysis Services¶

To connect, set the URL property to a valid Azure Analysis Services server, for instance, asazure://southcentralus.asazure.windows.net/server, in addition to authenticating.

Optionally, set Database to distinguish which Azure database on the server to connect to.

Authenticate to Azure Analysis Services¶

Azure AD¶

Azure AD is Microsoft’s multi-tenant, cloud-based directory and identity management service. It is user-based authentication that requires that you set AuthScheme to AzureAD.

Desktop Applications¶

provides an embedded OAuth application that simplifies authentication at the desktop.

Before you connect, set the following variables:

• InitiateOAuth: GETANDREFRESH. Used to automatically get and refresh the OAuthAccessToken. provides an embedded OAuth application that simplifies authentication at the desktop; that is, in situations where the user is using a local server not connected to the internet.

  You can also authenticate from the desktop via a custom OAuth application, which you configure and register at the Azure Analysis Services console. For further information, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application.

• Custom Azure AD applications only:

  • OAuthClientId: The client ID assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
  • OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
  • CallbackURL: The redirect URI defined when you registered your custom OAuth application.

When you connect, the connector opens the Azure Analysis Services's OAuth endpoint in your default browser. Log in and grant permissions to the application. The connector then completes the OAuth process:

1. Extracts the access token from the callback URL and authenticates requests.
2. Obtains a new access token when the old one expires.
3. Saves OAuth values in OAuthSettingsLocation. These values persist across connections.

When the access token expires, the connector refreshes it automatically.

Azure Service Principal¶

Azure Service Principal is role-based application-based authentication. This means that authentication is done per application, rather than per user. All tasks taken on by the application are executed without a default user context, but based on the assigned roles. The application access to the resources is controlled through the assigned roles' permissions.

For information about how to set up Azure Service Principal authentication, see Creating a Custom OAuth Application.

Azure Password¶

Set AuthScheme to AzurePassword.

To connect using your Azure credentials directly, specify the following connection properties:

• User: Set this to the user account you use to connect to Azure.
• Password: Set this to the password you use to connect to Azure.
• AzureTenant: Set this to the Directory (tenant) ID, found on the Overview page of the OAuth app used to authenticate to Azure Analysis Services on Azure.

Managed Service Identity (MSI)¶

If you are running Azure Analysis Services on an Azure VM and want to leverage MSI to connect, set AuthScheme to AzureMSI.

User-Managed Identities¶

To obtain a token for a managed identity, use the OAuthClientId property to specify the managed identity's "client_id".

When your VM has multiple user-assigned managed identities, you must also specify OAuthClientId.

Use Azure Service Principal¶

Azure Service Principal¶

Azure Service Principal is role-based application-based authentication. This means that authentication is done per application, rather than per user. All tasks taken by the app are done without a default user context, but based on the assigned roles. The application access to the resources is controlled through the assigned roles' permissions.

To use Azure Service Principal authentication, you must:

• Set up the ability to assign a role to the authentication application. To do this, create a custom OAuth AD application, as described in Creating a Custom OAuth Application.
• Register an application with an Azure AD tenant, to create a new service principal that can be used with the role-based access control, to access resources in your subscription.

Do the following:

1. Create a custom Azure AD application, as described in Creating a Custom OAuth Application.
2. Assign a role to the application:
   1. Use the search bar to search for the Subscriptions service.
   2. Open the Subscriptions page.
   3. Select the subscription to which to assign the application.
   4. Open the Access control (IAM).
   5. Select Add > Add role assignment. Azure Analysis Services opens the Add role assignment page.
   6. Assign your custom Azure AD application the role of Owner.

Create a Custom OAuth Application¶

Create a Custom OAuth Application¶

Azure Analysis Services supports authentication using Azure AD and Azure Service Principal, both of which are OAuth-based.

This topic describes how to:

• create and register custom OAuth application for Azure AD or Azure Service Principal

Azure AD¶

In portal.azure.com:

1. Log in to https://portal.azure.com.
2. In the left-hand navigation pane, select Azure Active Directory, then applicationRegistrations.
3. Click New registration.
4. Enter a name for the application.
5. Select the desired tenant setup: single- or multi-tenant, and public or private use.
   • If you select the default option, "Accounts in this organizational directory only", you must set the AzureTenant connection property to the ID of the Azure AD Tenant when establishing a connection with the Azure Analysis Services connector. Otherwise, the authentication attempt fails with an error.
   • If your application is for private use only, specify Accounts in this organization directory only.
   • If you want to distribute your application, choose one of the multi-tenant options.
6. Set the redirect URL to http://localhost:33333 (the connector's default) OR specify a different port and set CallbackURL to the exact reply URL you defined.
7. Click Register to register the new application. An application management screen displays.
   Note the value in Application (client) ID as the OAuthClientId and the Directory (tenant) ID as the AzureTenant.
8. Navigate to Certificates & Secrets and define the application authentication type. There are two types of authentication available: certificate (recommended) or client secret.
   • For certificate authentication: In Certificates & Secrets, select Upload certificate, then upload the certificate from your local machine.
   • For creating a new client secret: In Certificates & Secrets, select New Client Secret for the application and specify its duration. After the client secret is saved, Azure Analysis Services displays the key value. Copy this value, as it is displayed only once. This value becomes the OAuthClientSecret.
9. Select API Permissions > Add > Delegated permissions.
10. Save your changes.
11. If you have specified the use of permissions that require admin consent, you can grant them from the current tenant on the API Permissions page.

Azure Service Principal¶

To use Azure Service Principal authentication, you must set up the ability to assign a role to the authentication application, then register an application with the Azure AD tenant to create a new Service Principal. That new Service Principal can then leverage the assigned role-based access

control to access resources in your subscription.

In portal.azure.com:

1. Create a custom OAuth AD application, as described above.
2. Use the search bar to search for the Subscriptions service.
3. Open the Subscriptions page.
4. Select the subscription to which to assign the application.
5. Open the Access control (IAM).
6. Select Add > Add role assignment. Azure Analysis Services opens the Add role assignment page.
7. Assign your custom Azure AD application the role of Owner.

Retrieve Analysis Services Data¶

Azure Analysis Services is an OLAP database that exposes data as cubes, which you query with MDX (multidimensional expressions). The connector models these cubes in relational views that you can query with SQL-92. The following mapping is for the layout of the model:

• Catalog - Displayed in the connector as a Catalog.
• Cube - Displayed in the connector as a Schema.
• Measure - Available in the connector under the special Measures view.
• Dimension - Each dimension is exposed as a view.
• Level - Each individual level of a hierarchy is exposed as a column on the appropriate dimension view.

Join Measures and Dimensions¶

In order to retrieve measures per specific level value, issue a join between the Measure view and any Dimension or set of dimensions. For example, issuing the following will retrieve the number of customers in each city:

SELECT m.[Customer Count], c.[City]
FROM [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Customer AS c
INNER JOIN [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Measures AS m

Note that there is no ON condition necessary. That is because tables are already related appropriately in Azure Analysis Services. If you are using a tool that requires ON conditions, set IncludeJoinColumns to true. This will append a number of foreign key columns to each view which will relate them to one another another. These columns will not return data on their own, but may be picked up on automatically with tools to construct the ON conditions for joins where needed.

Aggregate Data¶

Data stored in Azure Analysis Services is already aggregated. In many cases, attempting to retrieve an aggregate may be syntactically equivalent to not specifying anything. For example, the following query will return the exact same data as the previous:

SELECT SUM(m.[Customer Count]), c.[City]
FROM [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Customer AS c
INNER JOIN [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Measures AS m
GROUP BY c.[City]

The exception to this rule is when an aggregation of filtered results is requested. In such cases, a calculation will be requested from Azure Analysis Services. For example, to calculate the sum and average of customers in France and Germany:

SELECT SUM(m.[Customer Count]), AVG(m.[Customer Count]), c.[Country]
FROM [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Customer AS c
INNER JOIN [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Measures AS m
WHERE c.[Country] IN ('France', 'Germany')
GROUP BY c.[Country]

Select Multiple Hierarchies¶

In Azure Analysis Services, individual dimensions are made up of hierarchies which may have one or more levels. For instance, the AdventureWorks Customers table has City, Country and Gender. City and Country are part of the same hierarchy while Gender is its own hierarchy.

When selecting multiple hierarchies, the method to support this is to cross join the values in MDX. While not obvious from a relational table model of the data as the connector presents, this can cause for very expensive queries to be executed. For example, executing the following:

SELECT c.[Country], m.[Customer Count]
FROM [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Customer AS c
INNER JOIN [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Measures AS m

Will result in 6 rows. However, selecting Gender as well:

SELECT c.[Country], c.[Gender], m.[Customer Count]
FROM [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Customer AS c
INNER JOIN [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Measures AS m

Will now result in 12 rows. It is because Gender and Country are on different hierarchies, thus a crossjoin is required in order to return both together. Each additional hierarchy added to the SELECT will multiply the total results by the number of available values in that hierarchy. Thus to get a count of how many rows to expect, one can execute the following:

SELECT (Count(c.[Country])*Count(c.[Gender])) AS totalrows
FROM [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Customer AS c 

Response Row Limit¶

Due to how selecting multiple hierarchies will multiply the total number of result rows, it is possible to balloon the number of response rows very quickly, which will result in timeouts. In order to try and give some visibility into what queries will be very expensive, the ResponseRowLimit connection property has been added as a mechanism to try and guide users into better practices. When set, it will calculate how many rows to expect before any query is executed. If the number of predicted rows exceeds the limit, an error will be thrown indicating how many rows to expect back with the query.

It is recommended to select only the columns required or to apply a WHERE criteria. Both can significantly reduce the number of response rows, which will have a huge impact on performance. If you are already familiar with the connector and what queries may be expensive, ResponseRowLimit may be disabled by setting it to 0.

Fine-Tuning Data Access¶

Fine Tuning Data Access¶

Set the following other properties may also be useful in certain situations:

• UseMDX: Indicates if MDX queries are being submitted. By default this is false, which will cause the driver to accept only SQL-92 compliant queries. Setting this property to true will cause all queries to be passed through directly to Azure Analysis Services.

• ExtraProperties: Additional properties to submit along with an MDX query. Only meaningful if UseMDX is true.

• IncludeJoinColumns: Boolean indicating if extra columns used to make ON conditions with joins should be added.

  These do not come back with any values - they are added purely to enable tools that require them in order to automatically set up relationships between tables when creating joins.

• ResponseRowLimit: Sets a calculated limit on the number of rows to allow the user to select before returning an error.

  Because queries are being translated to MDX, selecting only a few columns may exponentially multiply the number of expected results.

  For this reason, ResponseRowLimit is available to try and give some guidance on what types of queries are likely to result in a Timeout. May be disabled by setting to 0.

Important Notes¶

Configuration Files and Their Paths¶

• All references to adding configuration files and their paths refer to files and locations on the Harmony Agent where the connector is installed. These paths are to be adjusted as appropriate depending on the agent and the operating system. If multiple agents are used in an agent group, identical files will be required on each agent.

Advanced Features¶

This section details a selection of advanced features of the Azure Analysis Services connector.

User Defined Views

The connector allows you to define virtual tables, called user defined views, whose contents are decided by a pre-configured query. These views are useful when you cannot directly control queries being issued to the drivers. See User Defined Views for an overview of creating and configuring custom views.

SSL Configuration

Use SSL Configuration to adjust how connector handles TLS/SSL certificate negotiations. You can choose from various certificate formats; see the SSLServerCert property under "Connection String Options" for more information.

Proxy

To configure the connector using Private Agent proxy settings, select the Use Proxy Settings checkbox on the connection configuration screen.

Query Processing

The connector offloads as much of the SELECT statement processing as possible to Azure Analysis Services and then processes the rest of the query in memory (client-side).

See Query Processing for more information.

User Defined Views¶

The Azure Analysis Services connector allows you to define a virtual table whose contents are decided by a pre-configured query. These are called User Defined Views, which are useful in situations where you cannot directly control the query being issued to the driver, e.g. when using the driver from Jitterbit. The User Defined Views can be used to define predicates that are always applied. If you specify additional predicates in the query to the view, they are combined with the query already defined as part of the view.

There are two ways to create user defined views:

• Create a JSON-formatted configuration file defining the views you want.
• DDL statements.

Define Views Using a Configuration File¶

User Defined Views are defined in a JSON-formatted configuration file called UserDefinedViews.json. The connector automatically detects the views specified in this file.

You can also have multiple view definitions and control them using the UserDefinedViews connection property. When you use this property, only the specified views are seen by the connector.

This User Defined View configuration file is formatted as follows:

• Each root element defines the name of a view.
• Each root element contains a child element, called query, which contains the custom SQL query for the view.

For example:

{
    "MyView": {
        "query": "SELECT * FROM [adventureworks].[Model].Customer WHERE MyColumn = 'value'"
    },
    "MyView2": {
        "query": "SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE Id IN (1,2,3)"
    }
}

Use the UserDefinedViews connection property to specify the location of your JSON configuration file. For example:

"UserDefinedViews", "C:\Users\yourusername\Desktop\tmp\UserDefinedViews.json"

Define Views Using DDL Statements¶

The connector is also capable of creating and altering the schema via DDL Statements such as CREATE LOCAL VIEW, ALTER LOCAL VIEW, and DROP LOCAL VIEW.

Create a View¶

To create a new view using DDL statements, provide the view name and query as follows:

CREATE LOCAL VIEW [MyViewName] AS SELECT * FROM Customers LIMIT 20;

If no JSON file exists, the above code creates one. The view is then created in the JSON configuration file and is now discoverable. The JSON file location is specified by the UserDefinedViews connection property.

Alter a View¶

To alter an existing view, provide the name of an existing view alongside the new query you would like to use instead:

ALTER LOCAL VIEW [MyViewName] AS SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE TimeModified > '3/1/2020';

The view is then updated in the JSON configuration file.

Drop a View¶

To drop an existing view, provide the name of an existing schema alongside the new query you would like to use instead.

DROP LOCAL VIEW [MyViewName]

This removes the view from the JSON configuration file. It can no longer be queried.

Schema for User Defined Views¶

User Defined Views are exposed in the UserViews schema by default. This is done to avoid the view's name clashing with an actual entity in the data model. You can change the name of the schema used for UserViews by setting the UserViewsSchemaName property.

Work with User Defined Views¶

For example, a SQL statement with a User Defined View called UserViews.RCustomers only lists customers in Raleigh:

SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE City = 'Raleigh';

An example of a query to the driver:

SELECT * FROM UserViews.RCustomers WHERE Status = 'Active';

Resulting in the effective query to the source:

SELECT * FROM Customers WHERE City = 'Raleigh' AND Status = 'Active';

That is a very simple example of a query to a User Defined View that is effectively a combination of the view query and the view definition. It is possible to compose these queries in much more complex patterns. All SQL operations are allowed in both queries and are combined when appropriate.

SSL Configuration¶

Customize the SSL Configuration¶

By default, the connector attempts to negotiate SSL/TLS by checking the server's certificate against the system's trusted certificate store.

To specify another certificate, see the SSLServerCert property for the available formats to do so.

Client SSL Certificates¶

The Azure Analysis Services connector also supports setting client certificates. Set the following to connect using a client certificate.

• SSLClientCert: The name of the certificate store for the client certificate.
• SSLClientCertType: The type of key store containing the TLS/SSL client certificate.
• SSLClientCertPassword: The password for the TLS/SSL client certificate.
• SSLClientCertSubject: The subject of the TLS/SSL client certificate.

Data Model¶

Azure Analysis Services is an OLAP database that exposes data as cubes, which you query with MDX (multidimensional expressions). The connector models these cubes in relational views that you can query with SQL-92. The following mapping is for the layout of the model:

• Catalog - Displayed in the connector as a Catalog.
• Cube - Displayed in the connector as a Schema.
• Measure - Available in the connector under the special Measures view.
• Dimension - Each dimension is exposed as a view.
• Level - Each individual level of a hierarchy is exposed as a column on the appropriate dimension view.

Measure Attributes

By default, all measure attributes are listed in a 'Measures' view. However, you can set SplitMeasures to 'true' to split the measures view; the result is each measure attribute is included in its respective view based on the Measure Group value. Further classification based on 'Measure Directories' is not included.

Joining Measures and Dimensions

In order to retrieve measures per specific level value, issue a join between the Measure view and any Dimension or set of dimensions. For example, issuing the following will retrieve the number of customers in each city:

SELECT m.[Customer Count], c.[City]
FROM [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Customer AS c
INNER JOIN [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Measures AS m

Note that there is no ON condition necessary. That is because tables are already related appropriately in Azure Analysis Services. If you are using a tool that requires ON conditions, set IncludeJoinColumns to true. This will append a number of foreign key columns to each view which will relate them to one another another. These columns will not return data on their own, but may be picked up on automatically with tools to construct the ON conditions for joins where needed.

Aggregating Data

Data stored in Azure Analysis Services is already aggregated. In many cases, attempting to retrieve an aggregate may be syntactically equivalent to not specifying anything. For example, the following query will return the exact same data as the previous:

SELECT SUM(m.[Customer Count]), c.[City]
FROM [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Customer AS c
INNER JOIN [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Measures AS m
GROUP BY c.[City]

The exception to this rule is when an aggregation of filtered results is requested. In such cases, a calculation will be requested from Azure Analysis Services. For example, to calculate the sum and average of customers in France and Germany:

SELECT SUM(m.[Customer Count]), AVG(m.[Customer Count]), c.[Country]
FROM [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Customer AS c
INNER JOIN [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Measures AS m
WHERE c.[Country] IN ('France', 'Germany')
GROUP BY c.[Country]

Selecting Multiple Hierarchies

In Azure Analysis Services, individual dimensions are made up of hierarchies which may have one or more levels. For instance, the AdventureWorks Customers table has City, Country and Gender. City and Country are part of the same hierarchy while Gender is its own hierarchy.

When selecting multiple hierarchies, the method to support this is to cross join the values in MDX. While not obvious from a relational table model of the data as the connector presents, this can cause for very expensive queries to be executed. For example, executing the following:

SELECT c.[Country], m.[Customer Count]
FROM [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Customer AS c
INNER JOIN [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Measures AS m

Will result in 6 rows. However, selecting Gender as well:

SELECT c.[Country], c.[Gender], m.[Customer Count]
FROM [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Customer AS c
INNER JOIN [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Measures AS m

Will now result in 12 rows. It is because Gender and Country are on different hierarchies, thus a crossjoin is required in order to return both together. Each additional hierarchy added to the SELECT will multiply the total results by the number of available values in that hierarchy. Thus to get a count of how many rows to expect, one can execute the following:

SELECT (COUNT(c.[Country])*COUNT(c.[Gender])) AS totalrows
FROM [AdventureWorksDW2012Multidimensional-SE].[Adventure Works].Customer AS c 

Response Row Limit

Due to how selecting multiple hierarchies will multiply the total number of result rows, it is possible to balloon the number of response rows very quickly, which will result in timeouts. In order to try and give some visibility into what queries will be very expensive, the ResponseRowLimit connection property has been added as a mechanism to try and guide users into better practices. When set, it will calculate how many rows to expect before any query is executed. If the number of predicted rows exceeds the limit, an error will be thrown indicating how many rows to expect back with the query.

It is recommended to select only the columns required or to apply a WHERE criteria. Both can significantly reduce the number of response columns, which will have a huge impact on performance. If you are already familiar with the connector and what queries may be expensive, ResponseRowLimit may be disabled by setting it to 0.

System Tables¶

You can query the system tables described in this section to access schema information, information on data source functionality, and batch operation statistics.

Schema Tables¶

The following tables return database metadata for Azure Analysis Services:

• sys_catalogs: Lists the available databases.
• sys_schemas: Lists the available schemas.
• sys_tables: Lists the available tables and views.
• sys_tablecolumns: Describes the columns of the available tables and views.
• sys_procedures: Describes the available stored procedures.
• sys_procedureparameters: Describes stored procedure parameters.
• sys_keycolumns: Describes the primary and foreign keys.
• sys_indexes: Describes the available indexes.

Data Source Tables¶

The following tables return information about how to connect to and query the data source:

• sys_connection_props: Returns information on the available connection properties.
• sys_sqlinfo: Describes the SELECT queries that the connector can offload to the data source.

Query Information Tables¶

The following table returns query statistics for data modification queries:

• sys_identity: Returns information about batch operations or single updates.

sys_catalogs¶

Lists the available databases.

The following query retrieves all databases determined by the connection string:

SELECT * FROM sys_catalogs

Columns¶

sys_schemas¶

Lists the available schemas.

The following query retrieves all available schemas:

SELECT * FROM sys_schemas

Columns¶

sys_tables¶

Lists the available tables.

The following query retrieves the available tables and views:

SELECT * FROM sys_tables

Columns¶

sys_tablecolumns¶

Describes the columns of the available tables and views.

The following query returns the columns and data types for the [adventureworks].[Model].Customer table:

SELECT ColumnName, DataTypeName FROM sys_tablecolumns WHERE TableName='Customer' AND CatalogName='adventureworks' AND SchemaName='Model'

Columns¶

sys_procedures¶

Lists the available stored procedures.

The following query retrieves the available stored procedures:

SELECT * FROM sys_procedures

Columns¶

sys_procedureparameters¶

Describes stored procedure parameters.

The following query returns information about all of the input parameters for the SelectEntries stored procedure:

SELECT * FROM sys_procedureparameters WHERE ProcedureName='SelectEntries' AND Direction=1 OR Direction=2

Columns¶

sys_keycolumns¶

Describes the primary and foreign keys.

The following query retrieves the primary key for the [adventureworks].[Model].Customer table:

SELECT * FROM sys_keycolumns WHERE IsKey='True' AND TableName='Customer' AND CatalogName='adventureworks' AND SchemaName='Model'

Columns¶

sys_foreignkeys¶

Describes the foreign keys.

The following query retrieves all foreign keys which refer to other tables:

SELECT * FROM sys_foreignkeys WHERE ForeignKeyType = 'FOREIGNKEY_TYPE_IMPORT'

Columns¶

sys_primarykeys¶

Describes the primary keys.

The following query retrieves the primary keys from all tables and views:

SELECT * FROM sys_primarykeys

Columns¶

sys_indexes¶

Describes the available indexes. By filtering on indexes, you can write more selective queries with faster query response times.

The following query retrieves all indexes that are not primary keys:

SELECT * FROM sys_indexes WHERE IsPrimary='false'

Columns¶

sys_connection_props¶

Returns information on the available connection properties and those set in the connection string.

When querying this table, the config connection string should be used:

jdbc:cdata:aas:config:

This connection string enables you to query this table without a valid connection.

The following query retrieves all connection properties that have been set in the connection string or set through a default value:

SELECT * FROM sys_connection_props WHERE Value <> ''

Columns¶

sys_sqlinfo¶

Describes the SELECT query processing that the connector can offload to the data source.

Discovering the Data Source's SELECT Capabilities¶

Below is an example data set of SQL capabilities. Some aspects of SELECT functionality are returned in a comma-separated list if supported; otherwise, the column contains NO.

The following query retrieves the operators that can be used in the WHERE clause:

SELECT * FROM sys_sqlinfo WHERE Name = 'SUPPORTED_OPERATORS'

Note that individual tables may have different limitations or requirements on the WHERE clause; refer to the Data Model section for more information.

Columns¶

sys_identity¶

Returns information about attempted modifications.

The following query retrieves the Ids of the modified rows in a batch operation:

SELECT * FROM sys_identity

Columns¶

Stored Procedures¶

Stored procedures are function-like interfaces that extend the functionality of the connector beyond simple SELECT operations with Azure Analysis Services.

Stored procedures accept a list of parameters, perform their intended function, and then return any relevant response data from Azure Analysis Services, along with an indication of whether the procedure succeeded or failed.

Azure Analysis Services Connector Stored Procedures¶

GetAdminConsentURL¶

Gets the admin consent URL that must be opened separately by an admin of a given domain to grant access to your application. Only needed when using custom OAuth credentials.

Input¶

Result Set Columns¶

GetOAuthAccessToken¶

Gets the auth token used to authenticate to the service.

Input¶

Result Set Columns¶

GetOAuthAuthorizationUrl¶

Gets an authorization URL from the data source. The authorization URL can be used to generate a verifier required to obtain the OAuth token.

Input¶

Result Set Columns¶

RefreshOAuthAccessToken¶

Obtains an updated OAuthAccessToken if passed a token to refresh.

Input¶

Result Set Columns¶

Advanced Configurations Properties¶

The advanced configurations properties are the various options that can be used to establish a connection. This section provides a complete list of the options you can configure. Click the links for further details.

Authentication

Azure Authentication

OAuth

JWT OAuth

SSL

Schema

Miscellaneous

Authentication¶

This section provides a complete list of authentication properties you can configure.

AuthScheme¶

The type of authentication to use when connecting to Azure Analysis Services.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

AzureAD

Remarks¶

• AzureAD: Set this to perform Azure Active Directory OAuth authentication.
• AzureMSI: Set this to automatically obtain Managed Service Identity credentials when running on an Azure VM.
• AzurePassword: Set this to submit User and Password to Azure. Under the hood, an OAuth process will still take place, but user/password credentials will be submitted which will avoid a browser window that will request authorization.
• AzureServicePrincipal: Set this to authenticate as an Azure Service Principal using client credentials.
• AzureServicePrincipalCert: Set this to authenticate as an Azure Service Principal using a certificate.

URL¶

The URL used to connect to the Azure Analysis Services.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The HTTP or HTTPS URL used to connect to the Azure Analysis Services in the format asazure://\[region\].asazure.windows.net/\[server\]. You can obtain the server name in Azure portal -> Overview -> Server name.

User¶

The Azure Analysis Services user account used to authenticate.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Together with Password, this field is used to authenticate against the Azure Analysis Services server.

Password¶

The password used to authenticate the user.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The User and Password are together used to authenticate with the server.

Azure Authentication¶

This section provides a complete list of Azure authentication properties you can configure.

AzureTenant¶

The Microsoft Online tenant being used to access data. If not specified, your default tenant is used.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The Microsoft Online tenant being used to access data. For instance, contoso.onmicrosoft.com. Alternatively, specify the tenant Id. This value is the directory ID in the Azure Portal > Azure Active Directory > Properties.

Typically it is not necessary to specify the Tenant. This can be automatically determined by Microsoft when using the OAuthGrantType set to CODE (default). However, it may fail in the case that the user belongs to multiple tenants. For instance, if an Admin of domain A invites a user of domain B to be a guest user. The user will now belong to both tenants. It is a good practice to specify the Tenant, although in general things should normally work without having to specify it.

The AzureTenant is required when setting OAuthGrantType to CLIENT. When using client credentials, there is no user context. The credentials are taken from the context of the app itself. While Microsoft still allows client credentials to be obtained without specifying which Tenant, it has a much lower probability of picking the specific tenant you want to work with. For this reason, we require AzureTenant to be explicitly stated for all client credentials connections to ensure you get credentials that are applicable for the domain you intend to connect to.

AzureEnvironment¶

The Azure Environment to use when establishing a connection.

Possible Values¶

GLOBAL, CHINA, USGOVT, USGOVTDOD

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

GLOBAL

Remarks¶

In most cases, leaving the environment set to global will work. However, if your Azure Account has been added to a different environment, the AzureEnvironment may be used to specify which environment. The available values are GLOBAL, CHINA, USGOVT, USGOVTDOD.

OAuth¶

This section provides a complete list of OAuth properties you can configure.

InitiateOAuth¶

Set this property to initiate the process to obtain or refresh the OAuth access token when you connect.

Possible Values¶

OFF, GETANDREFRESH, REFRESH

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

OFF

Remarks¶

The following options are available:

1. OFF: Indicates that the OAuth flow will be handled entirely by the user. An OAuthAccessToken will be required to authenticate.
2. GETANDREFRESH: Indicates that the entire OAuth Flow will be handled by the connector. If no token currently exists, it will be obtained by prompting the user via the browser. If a token exists, it will be refreshed when applicable.
3. REFRESH: Indicates that the connector will only handle refreshing the OAuthAccessToken. The user will never be prompted by the connector to authenticate via the browser. The user must handle obtaining the OAuthAccessToken and OAuthRefreshToken initially.

OAuthClientId¶

The client ID assigned when you register your application with an OAuth authorization server.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

As part of registering an OAuth application, you will receive the OAuthClientId value, sometimes also called a consumer key, and a client secret, the OAuthClientSecret.

OAuthClientSecret¶

The client secret assigned when you register your application with an OAuth authorization server.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

As part of registering an OAuth application, you will receive the OAuthClientId, also called a consumer key. You will also receive a client secret, also called a consumer secret. Set the client secret in the OAuthClientSecret property.

OAuthAccessToken¶

The access token for connecting using OAuth.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The OAuthAccessToken property is used to connect using OAuth. The OAuthAccessToken is retrieved from the OAuth server as part of the authentication process. It has a server-dependent timeout and can be reused between requests.

The access token is used in place of your user name and password. The access token protects your credentials by keeping them on the server.

OAuthSettingsLocation¶

The location of the settings file where OAuth values are saved when InitiateOAuth is set to GETANDREFRESH or REFRESH . Alternatively, you can hold this location in memory by specifying a value starting with 'memory://'.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

%APPDATA%\AAS Data Provider\OAuthSettings.txt

Remarks¶

When InitiateOAuth is set to GETANDREFRESH or REFRESH, the connector saves OAuth values to avoid requiring the user to manually enter OAuth connection properties and to allow the credentials to be shared across connections or processes.

Instead of specifying a file path, you can use memory storage. Memory locations are specified by using a value starting with 'memory://' followed by a unique identifier for that set of credentials (for example, memory://user1). The identifier can be anything you choose but should be unique to the user. Unlike file-based storage, where credentials persist across connections, memory storage loads the credentials into static memory, and the credentials are shared between connections using the same identifier for the life of the process. To persist credentials outside the current process, you must manually store the credentials prior to closing the connection. This enables you to set them in the connection when the process is started again. You can retrieve OAuth property values with a query to the sys_connection_props system table. If there are multiple connections using the same credentials, the properties are read from the previously closed connection.

The default location is "%APPDATA%\AAS Data Provider\OAuthSettings.txt" with %APPDATA% set to the user's configuration directory. The default values are

• Windows: "register://%DSN"
• Unix: "%AppData%..."
• Mac: "%AppData%..."

where DSN is the name of the current DSN used in the open connection.

The following table lists the value of %APPDATA% by OS:

CallbackURL¶

The OAuth callback URL to return to when authenticating. This value must match the callback URL you specify in your app settings.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

During the authentication process, the OAuth authorization server redirects the user to this URL. This value must match the callback URL you specify in your app settings.

OAuthVerifier¶

The verifier code returned from the OAuth authorization URL.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The verifier code returned from the OAuth authorization URL. This can be used on systems where a browser cannot be launched such as headless systems.

Authentication on Headless Machines¶

See to obtain the OAuthVerifier value.

Set OAuthSettingsLocation along with OAuthVerifier. When you connect, the connector exchanges the OAuthVerifier for the OAuth authentication tokens and saves them, encrypted, to the specified location. Set InitiateOAuth to GETANDREFRESH to automate the exchange.

Once the OAuth settings file has been generated, you can remove OAuthVerifier from the connection properties and connect with OAuthSettingsLocation set.

To automatically refresh the OAuth token values, set OAuthSettingsLocation and additionally set InitiateOAuth to REFRESH.

OAuthRefreshToken¶

The OAuth refresh token for the corresponding OAuth access token.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The OAuthRefreshToken property is used to refresh the OAuthAccessToken when using OAuth authentication.

OAuthExpiresIn¶

The lifetime in seconds of the OAuth AccessToken.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Pair with OAuthTokenTimestamp to determine when the AccessToken will expire.

OAuthTokenTimestamp¶

The Unix epoch timestamp in milliseconds when the current Access Token was created.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Pair with OAuthExpiresIn to determine when the AccessToken will expire.

JWT OAuth¶

This section provides a complete list of JWT OAuth properties you can configure.

OAuthJWTCert¶

The JWT Certificate store.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The name of the certificate store for the client certificate.

The OAuthJWTCertType field specifies the type of the certificate store specified by OAuthJWTCert. If the store is password protected, specify the password in OAuthJWTCertPassword.

OAuthJWTCert is used in conjunction with the OAuthJWTCertSubject

field in order to specify client certificates. If OAuthJWTCert has a value, and OAuthJWTCertSubject is set, a search for a certificate is initiated. Please refer to the OAuthJWTCertSubject field for details.

Designations of certificate stores are platform-dependent.

The following are designations of the most common User and Machine certificate stores in Windows:

In Java, the certificate store normally is a file containing certificates and optional private keys.

When the certificate store type is PFXFile, this property must be set to the name of the file. When the type is PFXBlob, the property must be set to the binary contents of a PFX file (i.e. PKCS12 certificate store).

OAuthJWTCertType¶

The type of key store containing the JWT Certificate.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

USER

Remarks¶

This property can take one of the following values:

OAuthJWTCertPassword¶

The password for the OAuth JWT certificate.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

If the certificate store is of a type that requires a password, this property is used to specify that password in order to open the certificate store.

OAuthJWTCertSubject¶

The subject of the OAuth JWT certificate.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

*

Remarks¶

When loading a certificate the subject is used to locate the certificate in the store.

If an exact match is not found, the store is searched for subjects containing the value of the property.

If a match is still not found, the property is set to an empty string, and no certificate is selected.

The special value "*" picks the first certificate in the certificate store.

The certificate subject is a comma separated list of distinguished name fields and values. For instance "CN=www.server.com, OU=test, C=US, E=support@jitterbit.com". Common fields and their meanings are displayed below.

If a field value contains a comma it must be quoted.

SSL¶

This section provides a complete list of SSL properties you can configure.

SSLClientCert¶

The TLS/SSL client certificate store for SSL Client Authentication (2-way SSL).

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The name of the certificate store for the client certificate.

The SSLClientCertType field specifies the type of the certificate store specified by SSLClientCert. If the store is password protected, specify the password in SSLClientCertPassword.

SSLClientCert is used in conjunction with the SSLClientCertSubject field in order to specify client certificates. If SSLClientCert has a value, and SSLClientCertSubject is set, a search for a certificate is initiated. See SSLClientCertSubject for more information.

Designations of certificate stores are platform-dependent.

The following are designations of the most common User and Machine certificate stores in Windows:

In Java, the certificate store normally is a file containing certificates and optional private keys.

When the certificate store type is PFXFile, this property must be set to the name of the file. When the type is PFXBlob, the property must be set to the binary contents of a PFX file (for example, PKCS12 certificate store).

SSLClientCertType¶

The type of key store containing the TLS/SSL client certificate.

Possible Values¶

USER, MACHINE, PFXFILE, PFXBLOB, JKSFILE, JKSBLOB, PEMKEY_FILE, PEMKEY_BLOB, PUBLIC_KEY_FILE, PUBLIC_KEY_BLOB, SSHPUBLIC_KEY_FILE, SSHPUBLIC_KEY_BLOB, P7BFILE, PPKFILE, XMLFILE, XMLBLOB

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

USER

Remarks¶

This property can take one of the following values:

SSLClientCertPassword¶

The password for the TLS/SSL client certificate.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

If the certificate store is of a type that requires a password, this property is used to specify that password to open the certificate store.

SSLClientCertSubject¶

The subject of the TLS/SSL client certificate.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

*

Remarks¶

When loading a certificate the subject is used to locate the certificate in the store.

If an exact match is not found, the store is searched for subjects containing the value of the property. If a match is still not found, the property is set to an empty string, and no certificate is selected.

The special value "*" picks the first certificate in the certificate store.

The certificate subject is a comma separated list of distinguished name fields and values. For example, "CN=www.server.com, OU=test, C=US, E=support@company.com". The common fields and their meanings are shown below.

If a field value contains a comma, it must be quoted.

SSLServerCert¶

The certificate to be accepted from the server when connecting using TLS/SSL.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

If using a TLS/SSL connection, this property can be used to specify the TLS/SSL certificate to be accepted from the server. Any other certificate that is not trusted by the machine is rejected.

This property can take the following forms:

If not specified, any certificate trusted by the machine is accepted.

Certificates are validated as trusted by the machine based on the System's trust store. The trust store used is the 'javax.net.ssl.trustStore' value specified for the system. If no value is specified for this property, Java's default trust store is used (for example, JAVA_HOME\lib\security\cacerts).

Use '*' to signify to accept all certificates. Note that this is not recommended due to security concerns.

Schema¶

This section provides a complete list of schema properties you can configure.

Location¶

A path to the directory that contains the schema files defining tables, views, and stored procedures.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

%APPDATA%\AAS Data Provider\Schema

Remarks¶

The path to a directory which contains the schema files for the connector (.rsd files for tables and views, .rsb files for stored procedures). The folder location can be a relative path from the location of the executable. The Location property is only needed if you want to customize definitions (for example, change a column name, ignore a column, and so on) or extend the data model with new tables, views, or stored procedures.

If left unspecified, the default location is "%APPDATA%\AAS Data Provider\Schema" with %APPDATA% being set to the user's configuration directory:

BrowsableSchemas¶

This property restricts the schemas reported to a subset of the available schemas. For example, BrowsableSchemas=SchemaA,SchemaB,SchemaC.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Listing the schemas from databases can be expensive. Providing a list of schemas in the connection string improves the performance.

Tables¶

This property restricts the tables reported to a subset of the available tables. For example, Tables=TableA,TableB,TableC.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Listing the tables from some databases can be expensive. Providing a list of tables in the connection string improves the performance of the connector.

This property can also be used as an alternative to automatically listing views if you already know which ones you want to work with and there would otherwise be too many to work with.

Specify the tables you want in a comma-separated list. Each table should be a valid SQL identifier with any special characters escaped using square brackets, double-quotes or backticks. For example, Tables=TableA,[TableB/WithSlash],WithCatalog.WithSchema.`TableC With Space`.

Note that when connecting to a data source with multiple schemas or catalogs, you will need to provide the fully qualified name of the table in this property, as in the last example here, to avoid ambiguity between tables that exist in multiple catalogs or schemas.

Views¶

Restricts the views reported to a subset of the available tables. For example, Views=ViewA,ViewB,ViewC.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

Listing the views from some databases can be expensive. Providing a list of views in the connection string improves the performance of the connector.

This property can also be used as an alternative to automatically listing views if you already know which ones you want to work with and there would otherwise be too many to work with.

Specify the views you want in a comma-separated list. Each view should be a valid SQL identifier with any special characters escaped using square brackets, double-quotes or backticks. For example, Views=ViewA,[ViewB/WithSlash],WithCatalog.WithSchema.`ViewC With Space`.

Note that when connecting to a data source with multiple schemas or catalogs, you will need to provide the fully qualified name of the table in this property, as in the last example here, to avoid ambiguity between tables that exist in multiple catalogs or schemas.

Catalog¶

The Analysis Services catalog to use. This may also be known as a Database from within Analysis Services.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

This input is optional as catalogs will be displayed by default. However, if if you have UseMDX set to true, this value will ensure the MDX queries are submitted to the correct catalog.

IncludeJoinColumns¶

Set this to true to include extra join columns on each table.

Data Type¶

bool

Default Value¶

false

Remarks¶

Some tools may require an ON condition (or generate them automatically) based on foreign key references. By setting IncludeJoinColumns to true, every table will include a foreign key reference to the other tables. These columns will not return any data and are not useful for anything other than passing as ON conditions to perform joins upon.

In Azure Analysis Services, the dimensions and measures making up the tables are already related naturally. There is no context on which to join them provided. Therefore, the Azure Analysis Services connector supports joining without specifying an ON condition, so they are optional to specify.

Miscellaneous¶

This section provides a complete list of miscellaneous properties you can configure.

CustomHeaders¶

Other headers as determined by the user (optional).

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

This property can be set to a string of headers to be appended to the HTTP request headers created from other properties, like ContentType, From, and so on.

The headers must be of the format "header: value" as described in the HTTP specifications. Header lines should be separated by the carriage return and line feed (CRLF) characters.

Use this property with caution. If this property contains invalid headers, HTTP requests may fail.

This property is useful for fine-tuning the functionality of the connector to integrate with specialized or nonstandard APIs.

ExposeMemberKeys¶

Determines if each level should be converted into a measure, allowing calculations to be performed on the measure.

Data Type¶

bool

Default Value¶

false

Remarks¶

By default, all levels are of type String. Enabling this option allows a level to be resolved down to its key property, creating a measure that has the level's DBType data type. Calculations can then be performed on the measure.

ExpressionInDescription¶

Set this to true to report expressions as part of the description on measure columns.

Data Type¶

bool

Default Value¶

false

Remarks¶

The connector reports the remarks for several types of entities (dimensions, measures, measure groups and heirarchies) as table and column descriptions. By default, the connector will include only the remarks in measure column descriptions.

If this option is enabled, then the measure expression is included in the measure column description, along with the remarks. The descriptions on other types of entities are not affected.

ExtraProperties¶

Additional properties to submit on each MDX request to Azure Analysis Services.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

When setting UseMDX to true, properties may be specified using this connection property to fill out extra values in the PropertiesList of the XMLA request. Use name=value pairs separated by a semicolon to submit the properties. For example, Catalog=MyCatalog;Cube=MyCube;.

A list of properties may be found by executing SELECT * FROM $System.DISCOVER_PROPERTIES.

MaxRows¶

Limits the number of rows returned when no aggregation or GROUP BY is used in the query. This takes precedence over LIMIT clauses.

Data Type¶

int

Default Value¶

-1

Remarks¶

Limits the number of rows returned when no aggregation or GROUP BY is used in the query. This takes precedence over LIMIT clauses.

Other¶

These hidden properties are used only in specific use cases.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

The properties listed below are available for specific use cases. Normal driver use cases and functionality should not require these properties.

Specify multiple properties in a semicolon-separated list.

Integration and Formatting¶

ResponseRowLimit¶

The number of response rows to allow before erroring. Set to 0 for now limit.

Data Type¶

int

Default Value¶

100000

Remarks¶

Selecting a lot of columns results in a number of crossjoins occurring under the hood when translated to something that is acceptable for Azure Analysis Services. This is not intuitive if you are not familiar with MDX. It can easily result in very large responses that time out. The ResponseRowLimit is designed to try and alert the user to understand what can be very expensive requests.

ShowHiddenEntities¶

Set this to true to include hidden dimensions, measures and levels.

Data Type¶

bool

Default Value¶

false

Remarks¶

By default the connector does not report entities that Azure Analysis Services marks as hidden. Enabling this option allows you to query them.

SplitMeasures¶

Set this to true to split Measures table into individual tables.

Data Type¶

bool

Default Value¶

false

Remarks¶

All measures are currently grouped into a single table 'Measures'. Set this to true to split Measures table into individual tables (if a table only contains measures) and include measures into respective dimensions tables.

SplitMeasuresOn¶

Use this property in conjunction with SplitMeasures to set the priority for how measures should be organized into tables.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

MeasureGroup

Remarks¶

This property controls the order in which measure storage attributes are used to sort them into subtables when SplitMeasures is true. Provide a comma-delimited list of storage methods in the order they should be prioritized. Available values are:

• MeasureGroup
• DisplayFolder

Split-Measure tables will be named according to whichever attribute comes first in the list, or sorted into a generic 'Measures' table if none of the values in the list are populated for the measure.

Timeout¶

The value in seconds until the timeout error is thrown, canceling the operation.

Data Type¶

int

Default Value¶

60

Remarks¶

If Timeout = 0, operations do not time out. The operations run until they complete successfully or until they encounter an error condition.

If Timeout expires and the operation is not yet complete, the connector throws an exception.

UseMDX¶

Set this to true to pass MDX queries to Azure Analysis Services as-is.

Data Type¶

bool

Default Value¶

false

Remarks¶

You can execute SQL-92 SELECT queries to the views modeled by the connector; set this property to instead execute MDX queries directly to Azure Analysis Services.

See Retrieving Analysis Services Data for more information on querying Azure Analysis Services through the connector.

UserDefinedViews¶

A filepath pointing to the JSON configuration file containing your custom views.

Data Type¶

string

Default Value¶

""

Remarks¶

User Defined Views are defined in a JSON-formatted configuration file called UserDefinedViews.json. The connector automatically detects the views specified in this file.

You can also have multiple view definitions and control them using the UserDefinedViews connection property. When you use this property, only the specified views are seen by the connector.

This User Defined View configuration file is formatted as follows:

• Each root element defines the name of a view.
• Each root element contains a child element, called query, which contains the custom SQL query for the view.

For example:

{
    "MyView": {
        "query": "SELECT * FROM [adventureworks].[Model].Customer WHERE MyColumn = 'value'"
    },
    "MyView2": {
        "query": "SELECT * FROM MyTable WHERE Id IN (1,2,3)"
    }
}

Use the UserDefinedViews connection property to specify the location of your JSON configuration file. For example:

"UserDefinedViews", C:\Users\yourusername\Desktop\tmp\UserDefinedViews.json

Note that the specified path is not embedded in quotation marks.