MicroStrategy Desktop

This section provides you with information on how to connect MicroStrategy Desktop to your Exasol database.

For addition information on MicroStrategy, see MicroStrategy Learning Center.

Prerequisite

You need to have the following:

  • MicroStrategy Installation.
  • Download the latest Exasol ODBC driver.
  • A running Exasol SaaS database. For more information, see Manage Databases and Clusters.
  • The IP address of the client or server where the tool is running must be listed in the allowed IP address list. For more information, see Network Security.

Get Drivers and Connection Details

Before you can proceed with connecting to your database from a tool, you need to download the latest Exasol ODBC driver and get the connection string. Follow these steps to get your connection details: 

  1. Click Databases Databases in the web console to open the Databases page.
  2. Click More on the cluster you want to connect to and then click Connect via tools.
  3. In the Connect to cluster wizard, enter the IP address of the client or server which will connect to the database and click Add IP. Then click Next. If the IP address was already added, just click Next.
  4. If not already installed, download the latest ODBC driver for your operating system and install it.
  5. Installing the latest ODBC driver requires you to uninstall a previous version of the Exasol ODBC Driver. After installation, the ODBC driver will be used for all Exasol ODBC connections from your local machine. The ODBC driver is backwards compatible and will work with any existing database connections.

  6. Click Next and proceed through the wizard until you see your connection details:
  7. Copy the HOST, PORT, USERNAME, and PASSWORD. You can generate a new Personal Access Token by clicking Generate. You will need this information to connect to your database.

Connect MicroStrategy Desktop to Exasol

Follow the steps below to establish a connection to an existing Exasol database:

  1. Open MicroStrategy Desktop and click New Dossier on the left panel.
  2. On the dossier window, click on New Data to add data to the dossier.
  3. From the list of data sources, search for EXASolution and select it.
  4. The Select Import Options window is displayed. To import specific tables from your Exasol instance, click Select tables.
  5. The Import from Table window is displayed. To define a data source, click the + next to DATA SOURCES.
  6. Do one of the following on the Data Source window:
    1. Select DSN-less Data Sources and add the following details from the Get Drivers and Connection Details procedure:
      • Database and Version: Set the database and version field to EXASolution.
      • Host name: Port number: Enter the Host string you copied from the web console followed by the port 8563.
      • User: Enter your user name you copied from the web console.
      • Password: Enter your Personal Access Token you copied from the web console.
      • Data Source Name: Enter a name for the data source. For example, Exasol.

    2. Select DSN Data Sources and add the following details from the Get Drivers and Connection Details procedure:
      • DSN: Select the DSN that you created earlier.
      • Version: Select EXASolution from the drop-down.
      • User: Enter the user name you copied from the web console.
      • Password: Enter your Personal Access Token you copied from the web console.
      • Data Source Name: Enter a name for the data source. For example, Exasol via DSN.

      The data source name will be displayed under DATA SOURCES in the Import from Table screen.

      Note: If there is nothing listed in the DSN drop-down menu, then make sure you have created and tested a System DSN on your Windows operating system using the ODBC Data Source Administrator.

  7. Click on the data source name and select the schema you want to use followed by the tables.
  8. Click Finish.
  9. On the Data Access Mode screen, you can choose to either Connect Live or Import as In-memory Dataset. We recommend you to select Connect Live.

You can now create dashboards using MicroStrategy Desktop.

Additional Information