ODBC Client Connections on Windows

IMPORTANT This component is deprecated. Hewlett Packard Enterprise recommends using an alternate product. For more information, see Discontinued Ecosystem Components.

You can connect to Impala through an ODBC client tool, such as Tableau, from a Windows operating system. Use the MapR Impala ODBC Driver for SQL access to files and tables. Install the driver and configure it to pass a SQL query to Impala. You can run 32- and 64-bit applications on 64-bit Windows operating systems. You can install both versions of the driver on the same computer, however you should use the version of the driver that matches the architecture of the client application running the query.

Before you install the driver, verify that your system meets the following system prerequisites:

  • Administrator privileges on the machine.
  • One of the following operating systems (32- and 64-bit editions are supported):
    • Windows 7
    • Windows Server 2008 R2
    • Windows Server 2012
  • 25 MB of available disk space
To install and the configure the MapR Impala ODBC Driver, complete the following steps:
  1. Download the MapR Impala ODBC Driver:
  2. Install the MapR Impala ODBC Driver on the machine that you connect to the Impala service from. When you install the driver, the driver program updates the system path to include the JVM directory. To install the driver:
    1. Double-click the file.
    2. Click Next.
    3. Accept the terms of the License Agreement, and click Next.
    4. Select an installation location and then click OK. To accept the installation location, click Next.
    5. Click Install.
    6. When the installation completes, click Finish.
  3. Configure the MapR Impala ODBC Driver. To configure the driver:
    1. Click the Windows Start button.
    2. Click All Programs.
    3. Select the MapR Impala ODBC Driver. If you installed both versions of the driver, two options appear. Select the version that matches the architecture of your application. For example, a DSN that is defined for the 32-bit driver will only be accessible from 32-bit applications.
    4. Click 64-bit ODBC Administrator or 32-bit ODBC Administrator. The ODBC Data Source Administrator window opens.
    5. Click the Drivers tab, and verify that the MapR Impala ODBC Driver appears in the list of ODBC drivers that are installed on your system.
    6. Click the System DSNtab to create a system DSN or click the User DSN tab to create a user DSN. All users that login to a workstation can see a system DSN. A user DSN is specific to a user on the workstation. Only the user who creates a user DSN can see it.
    7. Click Add. The Create New Data Source window opens.
    8. Select MapR Impala ODBC Driver and then click Finish. The MapR Impala ODBC Driver DSN Setup dialog opens.
    9. Enter the DSN information. Optionally, you can select Advanced Options, and enter the following information in the Advanced Options window:
      Option Description
      Use Native Query Select this option to disable translating ODBC SQL to Impala SQL. By default, the driver applies transformations to the queries produced by an application to convert the queries to an equivalent form in Impala SQL. If the application produces Impala SQL, you can turn off the translation to avoid additional overhead of query transformation.
      Rows Fetched Per Block Enter the number of rows to fetch per block. You can enter any positive 32-bit integer as a value.
      Socket Timeout Enter the number of seconds Impala waits to close an idle connection with the client application. If you want to disable this option, set the value to 0.
      Allow Common Name Hostname Mismatch Select this option to allow the common name of a CA-issued SSL certificate to mismatch the hostname of the Impala server. Note: This setting only applies to the User Name and Password (SSL) and No Authentication (SSL) authentication mechanisms. Other authentication mechanisms ignore this setting.
      Trusted Certificates field

      Enter the path to the file that contains the trusted certificates in this field to configure the driver to load trusted certificates (such as the certificate from the Impala server) from a specific file when authenticating the Impala server using SSL.

      Note: This setting only apples to the User Name and Password (SSL) and No Authentication (SSL) authentication mechanisms. Other authentication mechanisms ignore this setting. SSL certificates in the trusted certificates file must be in PEM format. If this setting is not set, then the driver defaults to using the trusted CA certificates PEM file installed by the driver.
    10. Click OK.
    11. Optionally, if the operations against Impala are to be done on behalf of a user that is different than the authenticated user for the connection, enter the user name of the user to be delegated in the Delegation UID text box.
    12. Click Test to test the connection.
    13. Review the connection test results, and click OK in the Test Results dialog.
    14. In the MapR Impala ODBC Driver DSN Setup dialog, click OK.
  4. Configure authentication. The Impala server supports multiple authentication mechanisms. You must determine the authentication type your server is using and configure your DSN accordingly. The following table provides the authentication methods available with configuration instructions:
    Method Configuration
    Kerberos

    Kerberos must be configured before you can use this authentication mechanism. For details, see Configuring Kerberos Authentication for Windows. After Kerberos is installed and configured, configure your DSN to use Kerberos authentication.

    To configure your DSN to use Kerberos authentication, complete the following steps:

    1. In the MapR Impala ODBC Driver DSN Setup dialog, click the drop-down arrow next to the Mechanism field, and then select Kerberos
    2. If your Kerberos setup does not define a default realm or if the realm of your Impala server is not the default, then type the Kerberos realm of the Impala server host in the Realm field. Otherwise, leave the field blank.
    3. In the Host FQDN field, type the fully qualified domain name of the Impala host.

    4. In the Service Name field, type the service name of the Impala server.

      For example, if the principle for the Impala server is
       impala/fully.qualified.domain.name@your-realm.com
      , then the value in the service name field is impala. If you are unsure of the correct service name to use for your particular Hadoop deployment, contact your Hadoop administrator.
    5. In the Transport Buffer Size field, type the number of bytes to reserve in memory for buffering unencrypted data from the network.

    Note: In most circumstances, the default value of 1000 bytes is optimal.
    No Authentication For this authentication mechanism, you do not need to configure any additional settings. To configure your DSN for connections that do not require authentication, click the drop-down arrow next to the Mechanism field, and then select No Authentication in the driver DSN Setup dialog.
    No Authentication (SSL)

    This authentication mechanism uses SSL but does not require a user name or a password. The driver accepts self-signed SSL certificates.

    To configure your DSN to use No Authentication (SSL) authentication, complete the following steps:

    1. In the MapR Impala ODBC Driver DSN Setup dialog, click the drop-down arrow next to the Mechanism field, and then select No Authentication (SSL)
    2. Optionally, configure the driver to allow a mismatch between the common name of a CA-issued certificate and the host name of the Impala server by clicking Advanced Options and selecting the Allow Common Name Host Name Mismatch check box.

    Note: For self-signed certificates, the driver always allows the common name of the certificate to not match the host name.

    Optionally, configure the driver to load SSL certificates from a specific file by clicking Advanced Options and typing the path to the file in the Trusted Certificates field.

    Note: By default, the driver uses the trusted CA certificates PEM file that is installed with the driver.
    User Name

    This authentication mechanism requires a user name but does not require a password. The user name labels the session, facilitating database tracking.

    To configure your DSN to use User Name authentication, complete the following steps:

    1. In the MapR Impala ODBC Driver DSN Setup dialog, click the drop-down arrow next to the Mechanism field, and then select User Name
    2. In the User Name field, type a user name that is recognized by the Impala server.
    3. In the Transport Buffer Size field, type the number of bytes to reserve in memory for buffering unencrypted data from the network.

    Note: In most circumstances, the default value of 1000 bytes is optimal.
    User Name and Password

    This authentication mechanism requires a user name and a password.

    Note: This authentication mechanism should not be used with an Impala configuration that does not have LDAP enabled.

    To configure your DSN for User Name and Password authentication, complete the following steps:

    1. In the MapR Impala ODBC Driver DSN Setup dialog, click the drop-down arrow next to the Mechanism field, and then select User Name and Password
    2. In the User Name field, type a user name that is recognized by the Impala server.
    3. In the Password field, type the password corresponding to the user name you typed in step 2.
    User Name and Password (SSL)

    This authentication mechanism uses SSL and requires a user name and a password. The driver accepts self-signed SSL certificates.

    Note: This authentication mechanism should not be used with an Impala configuration that does not have LDAP enabled.

    To configure your DSN to use User Name and Password (SSL) authentication, complete the following steps:

    1. In the MapR Impala ODBC Driver DSN Setup dialog, click the drop-down arrow next to the Mechanism field, and then select User Name and Password (SSL)
    2. In the User Name field, type a user name that is recognized by the Impala server.
    3. In the Password field, type the password corresponding to the user name you typed in step 2.
    4. Optionally, configure the driver to allow a mismatch between the common name of a CA-issued certificate and the host name of the Impala server by clicking Advanced Options and selecting the Allow Common Name Host Name Mismatch check box.

    Note: For self-signed certificates, the driver always allows the common name of the certificate to not match the host name

    Optionally, configure the driver to load SSL certificates from a specific file by clicking Advanced Options and typing the path to the file in the Trusted Certificates field.

    Note: By default, the driver uses the trusted CA certificates PEM file that is installed with the driver.