Looker

This article explains how to connect Looker to an Exasol database.

Looker is a business intelligence software and big data analytics platform that helps you explore, analyze, and share real-time business analytics easily. Looker is a web-based application and connects to Exasol using JDBC.

For more information about Looker, refer to the Looker Documentation.

Exasol takes no responsibility for any changes in functionality or terms of use for the third-party software described in this section. For more information, refer to the respective software vendor’s website.

Prerequisites

  • Ensure right permissions are provided to users to access Exasol. For more information, refer to Exasol section in the Looker documentation.
  • A running Exasol SaaS database. For more information, see Database Management.
  • The IP address of the host where the tool is running must be in the allowed IP address list. For more information, see Network Security.

Connect Looker to Exasol

Follow these steps to create a connection to Exasol on Looker: 

  1. Open Looker in your browser using the Looker URL for your organization and login with your credentials. The Looker landing page is displayed, as shown below.

  2. From the top panel, click Admin and under Database, select Connections.

  3. In the Connections screen, click New Connection to add a new connection.

  4. At the top of the New Connection screen, you have two options to configure the connection. Select the option Existing Database to configure a Looker connection to a current database or select the option New Database to create, connect, and download your data into a new Looker database. In this guide, we have chosen the option Existing Database.

  5.  Enter the connection details for the following fields in the New Connection screen: 
    • Name: Name to identify the connection.
    • Dialect: Choose Exasol from the drop-down list.
    • Host:Port: The database hostname and port number that Looker should use to connect to your database.
    • Database: Your Exasol database name.
    • Username: Enter the user name to connect to the database.
    • Password: Enter the password to connect to the database.
    • Schema: The default schema Looker must use.
    • Persistent Derived Tables: Select this checkbox to enable persistent derived tables. This reveals the Temp Database, which is a dedicated schema in the database to store persistent derived tables.
    • Temp Database: Schema name Looker must use to create persistent derived tables (for example, LOOKER_SCRATCH).
    • Additional Params: You can include additional Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) parameters for your queries here if needed.
    • PDT and Datagroup Maintenance Schedule: You can provide a Cron expression that indicates Looker on how often should a check for datagroups and Persistent Derived Tables be regenerated or dropped. The default value is */5****, which means 'check every 5 minutes', and this is the maximum frequency of checks.
    • SSL: Choose whether or not you want to use SSL encryption to protect data.
    • Max Connections: Set the maximum number of connections that Looker can establish with your database.
    • Connection Pool Timeout: Enter the maximum amount of time a request will wait before the connection times out.
    • SQL Runner Precache: Select the checkbox to pre-cache table. This allows all table information to be pre-loaded as soon as you select a connection and schema, and faster display of table columns when you click on a table name.

  6. To test the connection to Exasol, click Test These Settings.
  7. To save the connection, click Add Connection.

View Connection

Once you have configured the Looker connection, you can view the connection on the Connections screen as shown below: 

Once you have configured the connection to Exasol, you can next create dashboards and reports. For more information on how to create dashboards, see Looker Documentation.

See also