MongoDB Connector for BI¶

About the MongoDB Connector for BI¶

Note

The MongoDB Connector for BI and associated utilities are compatible only with MongoDB server version 3.2 or greater.

The MongoDB Connector for Business Intelligence (BI) allows users to visualize their MongoDB Enterprise data using existing relational business intelligence tools such as Tableau, MicroStrategy, and Qlik. These tools expect to connect to a data source and find data in tabular form following a fixed schema. This presents a challenge when working with MongoDB’s flexible schema and rich, multi-dimensional documents.

The MongoDB Connector for BI acts as a layer that passes queries and data between a mongod or mongos instance and your reporting tool. The MongoDB Connector for BI stores no data, and purely serves to bridge your MongoDB server with business intelligence tools.

New in Version 2.2¶

Authentication Plugins¶

MongoDB Connector for BI Version 2.0 introduced passthrough authentication, in which clients authenticate as a user defined in MongoDB, without the need to create a separate user within the connector itself.

MongoDB Connector for BI Version 2.2 further increases ease of use with a set of authentication plugins which can authenticate users through the connector without the need for SSL certificates. These plugins perform user authentication via the SASL framework and support the SCRAM-SHA-1 and PLAIN authentication mechanisms. We currently provide authentication plugins in the following languages:

Java - for use with MySQL’s Connector/J driver
C - for use with the MySQL ODBC driver and the MySQL Shell

New in Version 2.0¶

Improved Server-Side Execution¶

The MongoDB Connector for BI delivers significant performance and scalability improvements by moving as much execution as possible to the underlying MongoDB instance. Pushing execution down to the server reduces network latency and reduces bandwidth consumption.

This approach also reduces memory and CPU consumption in the MongoDB Connector for BI itself.

Pass-through Authentication¶

The user authentication process is now passed through the MongoDB Connector for BI to the underlying MongoDB instance. Users now authenticate as a user already created within MongoDB.

Simplified Architecture¶

The MongoDB Connector for BI package is now trimmed down from four separate components to two:

mongodrdl

This tool connects to a MongoDB instance and generates a Document-Relational Definition Language (DRDL) file, which maps a given collection shape to relational schema.

mongosqld

Once installed and run as a daemon, mongosqld responds to SQL queries, requests for DB information, and schema from the requesting BI tool via the MySQL wire protocol.

mongosqld requires at least one Document Relational Definition Language file to start. You will need to have defined your schema with mongodrdl before starting mongosqld.

SQL Compatibility¶

MongoDB Connector for BI Version 2.x is compatible with SQL-99 SELECT statements, and uses the MySQL wire protocol.