Tableau #

Tableau is a popular analytics tool with powerful data visualization capabilities. You can access clusters in Starburst Galaxy or SEP from the following Tableau products:

• Tableau Desktop
• Tableau Prep Builder
• Tableau Server
• Tableau Cloud (Online)

Only on this page are these three products collectively called the “Tableau products”. When an instruction applies to one or two of the products, they are explicitly named.

Video: Learn how to use Tableau with Starburst Galaxy.

There are three ways to connect recent releases of Tableau products to recent releases of a Starburst Enterprise platform (SEP) or Starburst Galaxy cluster:

• Tableau data connector: For Tableau products, the recommended connection method uses a Tableau data connector paired with the Starburst JDBC driver.

• Legacy JDBC connection: For Tableau Desktop and Prep Builder, Starburst continues to support the legacy connection method that uses a plain JDBC connection and the “Other Databases (JDBC)” entry point.

  However, Starburst strongly recommends migrating from this legacy method to the Tableau data connector method.

• ODBC connection: For Tableau Desktop and Prep Builder, Starburst also supports connecting to clusters with the Starburst ODBC driver.

Before you begin #

1. Determine the connection information for your cluster, including its network name, listening port (or default port), and your login credentials.

2. For Starburst Galaxy clusters, use the Connection info pane to obtain the connection information.

3. Instructions to connect Tableau products to SEP clusters vary slightly, depending on the SEP version and on the Tableau product version.

Tableau data connector with JDBC driver #

You can connect recent releases of Tableau products to recent clusters with a combination of a Tableau data connector file and JDBC driver. This method requires:

• Starburst Galaxy or SEP 354-e or later
• Tableau Desktop, Prep Builder, Cloud (Online), or Server 2020.4 or later
• Trino JDBC driver 386 or later

Note that a Tableau data connector is not the same as a data source connector in SEP. The Tableau data connector is a software bridge between Tableau and the standard Starburst JDBC driver. The two files work together to enable read-only access between Tableau and one or more Starburst Galaxy or SEP clusters. The Tableau data connector is a JAR file with a name similar to StarburstEnterprise.taco.

The procedure to install and use the Tableau data connector depends on your Tableau product and version:

• For Tableau Desktop/Server version 2021.2.0 and later, the Tableau data connector is included. This allows you to select the Starburst Enterprise option directly from a Tableau menu following the standard data connector procedure.

• For Tableau Desktop/Server 2020.4 to 2021.1 and Tableau Prep Builder 2020.4 and later, you must first download the data connector file yourself, as described in download data connector.

• For Tableau Cloud (Online) the Starburst Enterprise by Starburst data connector is included for every customer. This option can be used to connect to both Starburst Galaxy and SEP clusters, with a username and password as the authentication method.

Standard data connector procedure #

For Tableau Desktop/Server 2021.2.0 or later and Tableau Prep Builder 2020.4 or later, follow these steps:

1. If the Tableau product is open, close it and exit.

2. Download the latest Starburst JDBC driver.

3. Place the JDBC driver file in the following location, dependent on which Tableau product and operating system you are using::

   Tableau Desktop and Prep Builder

   Windows: C:\Program Files\Tableau\Drivers

   macOS: /Users/username/Library/Tableau/Drivers

   Tableau Server

   Windows: C:\Program Files\Tableau\Drivers

   Linux: /opt/tableau/tableau_driver/jdbc

   Do not store more than one Starburst JDBC driver in this directory. Delete any older drivers when you update to a newer version. Connections to all connected data sources are made through the JDBC driver.

4. Start the Tableau product. Then:

   Desktop

   In the left column, under To a Server, click More.

   Prep Builder

   In the left-side blue panel, click to expose the Connections pane, then click the plus + sign to add a new connection.

   Server

   Log in to the server. Click Create, then select Workbook. In the Connect to Data pane, click the Connectors tab.

5. In the list of server types, select Starburst Enterprise by Starburst. This opens a Connector Details dialog that describes the data connector.

6. Click Install. This opens a connection dialog:

    

7. Fill in the connection dialog with the following parameters:

   Field	Value
   Server	Hostname or IP address of your cluster.
   Port	Port used by your cluster.
   Authentication	Use the drop-down list to select among three options: Username for a cluster with no authentication, Username and Password for a cluster with TLS enabled and a password-based authentication method such as LDAP, or Kerberos.
   Username	Your username for Starburst Galaxy or SEP.
   Password	(If selected) the password for the specified Username.
   Require SSL	Select this checkbox if your cluster has TLS enabled. When selected, the following field appears.
   SSL Verification	Select an entry in the drop-down list to specify how rigorously the server’s certificate is to be validated.

   If you select Kerberos in the Authentication drop-down, see Kerberos authentication.

   The values for SSL Verification have the following meanings:

   FULL

   Confirm that the certificate's validity is chained all the way back to a root Certificate Authority (CA).

   CA

   Confirm that the certificate is valid as far back as the included intermediate CA.

   NONE

   Confirm that the server's certificate matches the DNS name and private key of the server.

8. When the connection is made, the Connections panel shows a list of the catalogs (data sources) configured in your cluster.

    

9. To see the available tables, select a catalog, then a schema from that catalog.

    

Configure an initial SQL query #

When using the Starburst data connector, best practice is to take advantage of the Initial SQL panel of the initial connection dialog.

Use of this panel is not required to successfully connect Tableau to clusters, but using it makes troubleshooting connection issues much easier.

Provide an initial SQL statement that is known to be valid and is cluster independent, such as SHOW CATALOGS or SELECT version(). Do not close the statement with a semicolon (;).

With the initial SQL query in place, if any connection errors are encountered, the presence of the SQL statement allows Tableau to show an error dialog that helps you diagnose the exact cause of the problem. For example:

Without an initial SQL statement, if there is a problem connecting to the cluster, Tableau can fail to show an error dialog. This can leave the connection in a state where it appears to be successful, yet fails to return any catalog or schema information. In these cases, Tableau looks OK, but is unresponsive.

See the Learn More link in the Tableau Initial SQL panel for information on the limitations of the feature.

Kerberos authentication #

After selecting Kerberos in the Authentication drop-down, additional connection options appear in the Connection dialog.

The first four fields including Username are the same as described above. The Kerberos-specific fields are described in the following table:

Use the same paths for the keytab and configuration file that are used after publishing a SEP data source to Tableau Server. If they are not specified, default locations are used.

To troubleshoot Kerberos:

• Set the JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS environment variable on the Tableau host to include:

   -Dsun.security.krb5.debug=true -Dtrino.client.debugKerberos=true \
   -Djava.security.debug=gssloginconfig,configfile,configparser,logincontext
  

• Check the Tableau log files that have jprotocolserver in their name, located in the \data\tabsvc\logs\dataserver directory on the Tableau server.

For further information on configuring and troubleshooting Kerberos on Tableau products, see:

• Kerberos
• Enable Kerberos Run As Authentication for JDBC Connectors
• Enable Kerberos Delegation for JDBC Connectors
• Troubleshoot Kerberos

Customized JDBC connections #

If you need to set additional connection properties that are not included in Tableau’s connection dialog, customize the connection using a properties file.

For more information, see Customize JDBC Connections Using a Properties File in the Tableau Community and the list of available parameters for the JDBC driver.

Newer versions of the Tableau connector show a third tab, Advanced, in the Connector Details dialog. This tab has a single field. Extra JDBC properties, where you can enter one or more comma-separated key-value pairs of properties that are to be forwarded verbatim to the authentication system. This allows you to populate the extraCredentials property of the JDBC driver for authentication systems that need this parameter.

Starburst advantage #

Remember that Starburst Enterprise and Starburst Galaxy are not databases. They are SQL query engines that can connect to multiple data sources at the same time. Each cluster can query multiple catalogs in a wide range of different data sources.

Although Tableau products are typically configured to access one specific catalog and schema, it is possible to query more than one data source with a single Tableau connection.

To query multiple catalogs, select New Custom SQL in Tableau Desktop or Server, and then reference the fully-qualified name of any table in the cluster using the full catalog.schema.table syntax. Tableau Prep Builder does not provide a Custom SQL feature.

The following example query accesses four catalogs: postgresql, hive, mysql, and sqlserver.

SELECT c.custkey
  , c.state
  , c.estimated_income
  , cp.customer_segment
  , a.cc_number
  , pp.cc_type
  , a.mortgage_id
  , a.auto_loan_id
FROM postgresql.burst_bank.customer c
JOIN hive.burst_bank.account a on c.custkey = a.custkey
JOIN mysql.burst_bank.product_profile pp on a.custkey = pp.custkey
JOIN sqlserver.burst_bank.customer_profile cp on c.custkey = cp.custkey
WHERE c.country = 'US'
AND c.state NOT IN ('AA', 'AE', 'AP')

This approach is faster because all table access is managed by the cluster on the cluster, and takes advantage of Starburst query optimization features such as pushdown.

Tableau is also capable of joining data from multiple data sources, but this approach creates an unnecessary workload on Tableau, and can negatively impact Tableau performance.

Download data connector #

For Tableau Desktop/Server with versions 2020.4 through 2021.1 and Tableau Prep Builder with versions 2020.4 or later, the Tableau data connector for Starburst Enterprise does not appear automatically in the list of Additional Connectors. To get Starburst Enterprise to appear in that list, either:

• Upgrade your Tableau Desktop/Server to version 2021.2.0 or later, or

• Prepare your Tableau product installation as described here before attempting to connect to a cluster.

Follow these steps to manually download the Tableau data connector for Starburst Enterprise:

1. Close and exit the Tableau product.

2. From the Starburst Enterprise page of Tableau’s web-based Extension Gallery, download the Tableau data connector file whose name is similar to StarburstEnterprise.taco. Use the Download button on the upper right of the page. This requires logging into Tableau’s site with a free login.

3. Move the data connector .taco file to the following location, dependent on which Tableau product and operating system you are using:

   Tableau Desktop

   Windows: C:\Users\username\Documents\My Tableau Repository\Connectors

   macOS: /Users/username/Documents/My Tableau Repository/Connectors

   Tableau Server

   Windows: /Users/username/Documents/My Tableau Repository/Connectors

   Linux: /opt/tableau/connectors

   Tableau Prep Builder

   Windows: C:\Users\username\Documents\My Tableau Prep Repository\Connectors

   macOS: /Users/username/Documents/My Tableau Prep Repository/Connectors

   For Tableau Server on Windows or Linux, follow the instructions in the Tableau Server section of the Run Your Connector page provided by Tableau.

4. Proceed from here to the standard data connector procedure.

Legacy JDBC driver connection #

Tableau Desktop and Prep Builder provide a generic connection method titled Other Databases (JDBC). Although Starburst strongly recommends using a Tableau data connector, this generic JDBC connection method is still available for these two products. Follow these steps:

1. Download the latest JDBC driver version.

2. Place the JDBC driver file in the Tableau drivers directory:

   Windows

   C:\Program Files\Tableau\Drivers

   macOS

   /Users/username/Library/Tableau/Drivers

   Do not store more than one Starburst JDBC driver in this directory. Delete any older drivers when you update to a newer version. Connections to all connected data sources are made through the Starburst JDBC driver.

3. Start Tableau Desktop or Prep Builder and select Connect to a server using the Other Databases (JDBC) connector in Tableau.

4. Fill in the connection dialog as shown in the following table. For the URL field, use a JDBC connection string in this format:

   jdbc:trino://cluster.example.com:8080/catalog?SSL=true
   

   The JDBC connection string must include the initial catalog to connect to. Once connected, you can select schemas and tables within that catalog, or select a different catalog.

   If your cluster has TLS enabled, append the property ?SSL=true to the connection string.

   Field	Value
   URL	Full JDBC connection string for your cluster. Must include a catalog name.
   Dialect	Must be ‘SQL92’
   Username	Your username
   Password	Your password
   Properties File	Specify or browse to the path of a JDBC properties file containing further specifications for this connection. See Customized JDBC Connections.

    

ODBC driver connection #

Contact Starburst Support to obtain access to the Starburst ODBC driver for use with Tableau Desktop or Prep Builder (but not Tableau Server). The Presto ODBC driver provided by Tableau is not supported.

Open Tableau Desktop or Prep Builder and begin the ODBC configuration. On the Tableau products’s startup page, select Other Databases (ODBC), and configure as follows:

• Driver: Starburst ODBC Driver
• Username: <username>
• String Extras: Driver=Starburst ODBC Driver;Catalog=<catalog>;Host=<host>;Port=<portDriver>;

The String Extras field supports any of the ODBC connection properties from the Starburst ODBC driver.

Select Sign In to establish the connection. If you are prompted for a password, this means the SEP server has authentication enabled.

The Tableau ODBC documentation contains further information.