Data Applications → Configure Incorta Intelligent Ingest for Azure Synapse

About Incorta Intelligent Ingest for Azure Synapse

Incorta Intelligent Ingest streamlines the integration between complex data sources and Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics. Incorta Intelligent Ingest accelerates data mart deployment, and automates data model design and source schema mapping with Incorta data applications. Incorta data applications provide a new, faster, more effective option for analyzing and understanding your data, with no data modeling or extract, transform, load (ETL) required.

Following is the high-level Incorta Intelligent Ingest process:

Connect Incorta to your data source with a data application, and load pre-existing physical schema fact and dimension tables.
Copy the physical schema tables to the Parquet that resides on Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS) Gen 2.
Load Synapse data marts from the parquet.
Visualize the data with Power BI.

Get Started with Incorta Intelligent Ingest

Following are the steps to get started with Incorta Intelligent Ingest:

Enable Incorta Intelligent Ingest
Configure Spark for Intelligent Ingest
Configure Your Azure Synapse Analytics SQL Pool
Create an Azure Synapse Data Destination
Set a Data Destination for a Physical Schema
Create Materialized Views to Trigger Data Ingest
Schedule Materialized View Load Jobs

Intelligent Ingest Prerequisites

In order to use Incorta Intelligent Ingest, you must have the following:

Incorta On-Premises version 5.2.1
An Incorta Tenant hosted on ADLS Gen2.

Recommendation

When naming tenants or data destinations it is best practice to use a generic name. For example, "Incorta" rather than "IncortaDev". Doing so can be helpful when and if you need to import/export tenants or perform data destination integrations.

Enable Incorta Intelligent Ingest

For existing on-premises customers, a Systems Administrator with root access to your Incorta host can enable Intelligent Ingest by setting the intelligent.ingest.enabled property in the Analytics and Loader service.properties files. Here are the steps to update the service.properties files:

Sign in to the host running your Incorta nodes.
Navigate to your service.properties file located in the following path: <INCORTA_NODE_INSTALLATION_PATH>/IncortaNode/services/<GUID>/incorta/service.properties
The GUID is located in the services directory for both the Analytics and Loader services. An example of a GUID is c3b87de2-d49e-4099-8005-cd6251a35d69. You will need to update the service.properties file for each GUID.
In the service.properties file, to enable Incorta Intelligent Ingest, set the intelligent.ingest.enabled property to true:
intelligent.ingest.enabled = true
To disable Incorta Intelligent Ingest, set the intelligent.ingest.enabled property to false.

Configure Spark for Intelligent Ingest

There is a Spark configuration file read by the materialized views that trigger the ingest to Azure Synapse. Here is the path to the configuration file: <INCORTA_NODE_INSTALLATION_PATH>/IncortaNode/spark/conf/spark-defaults.conf

Install Python 3.6 and Dependent Libraries

You will need to install Python version 3.6 for compatibility with the Intelligent Ingest Python package.

Update the package installer for Python

Use the following commands to update the package installer for Python:

/usr/bin/python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip --user

Install the SQL Server ODBC driver

Note

The SQL Server ODBC driver library, pyodc, may require dependent libraries. For Red Hat, you can install them with the following commands:

sudo yum install epel-release
sudo yum install python3-pip gcc-c++ python3-devel unixODBC-devel
pip3 install --user pyodbc

sudo su

#Red Hat Enterprise Server 7 and Oracle Linux 7
curl https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/7/prod.repo > /etc/yum.repos.d/mssql-release.repo

exit
sudo yum remove unixODBC-utf16 unixODBC-utf16-devel #to avoid conflicts
sudo ACCEPT_EULA=Y yum install -y msodbcsql17

Install the Intelligent Ingest Wheel

Run the following command to install the Intelligent Ingest wheel file:

/usr/bin/python3 -m pip install <INCORTA_NODE_INSTALLATION_PATH>/IncortaNode/Synapse/pkg/incorta_synapse-2.0.5-py3-none-any.whl

Update the Spark environment properties

Update the Python Path in the CMC for your tenant or default tenant configuration.

Update the Python Path for a Tenant Configuration

Here are the steps to specify the Python Path for a specific tenant:

Sign in to the CMC.
In the Navigation bar, select Clusters.
In the cluster list, select a Cluster name.
In the canvas tabs, select Tenants.
For the given tenant, select Configure.
In the left pane, select Advanced.
In the right pane, for Python Path, enter python3.
Select Save.

Update the Python Path for the Default Tenant Configuration

Here are the steps to specify the Python Path for the Default Tenant Configuration:

Sign in to the CMC.
In the Navigation bar, select Clusters.
In the cluster list, select a Cluster name.
In the canvas tabs, select Cluster Configurations.
In the panel tabs, select Default Tenant Configurations.
In the left pane, select Advanced.
In the right pane, for Python Path, enter python3.
Select Save.

Update the Spark configuration properties

There is a Spark configuration file read by the materialized views that trigger the ingest to Azure Synapse. This file requires several parameter updates. Here is the path to the configuration file: <INCORTA_INSTALLATION_PATH>/IncortaNode/spark/conf/spark-defaults.conf

The required Intelligent Ingest properties for the Spark configuration file are as follows, and are discussed in more detail below:

spark.ADLS.accountname=<STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME>
spark.ADLS.filesystem=<CONTAINER_NAME>
spark.ADLS.rootdirectory=<TENANT_DIRECTORY_PATH>

spark.Incorta.host=http://127.0.0.1:8080/incorta
spark.Incorta.tenantname=<TENANT_NAME>
spark.Incorta.user=<USER_NAME>
spark.Incorta.password=<PASSWORD>

Update the Spark ADLS parameters

Update the following Spark ADLS parameters:

spark.ADLS.accountname=<STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME>
spark.ADLS.filesystem=<CONTAINER_NAME>
spark.ADLS.rootdirectory=<DIRECTORY_PATH>

You can use the CMC tenant path to identify the property values.

abfs://<CONTAINER_NAME>@<STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME>.dfs.core.windows.net/<DIRECTORY_PATH>

For example, with a CMC tenant path of

abfs://storage@incortadatalakegen2.dfs.core.windows.net/incorta/Tenants/ebs_demo

the Spark ADLS parameters are

spark.ADLS.accountname=incortadatalakesa
spark.ADLS.filesystem=storage
spark.ADLS.rootdirectory=incorta/Tenants/ebs_demo

Update the Incorta API parameters

To access the Incorta APIs used by Intelligent Ingest, you will need to specify the Incorta host URL, tenant name, user name that has access to the schemas, and the password. Add the following parameters to the configuration file, replacing the example host URL, tenant name, user name, and password with the values for your instance:

#Incorta APIs
spark.Incorta.host=http://127.0.0.1:8080/incorta
spark.Incorta.tenantname=<TENANT_NAME>
spark.Incorta.user=<USER_NAME>
spark.Incorta.password=<PASSWORD>

By default the Intelligent Ingest logs are located in the following directory:

<INCORTA_INSTALLATION_PATH>/IncortaNode/Synapse/logs>

There are several optional configurations for your Incorta API parameters, you can review the options in the Optional Incorta API configurations section.

Table level Settings

All tables with keys will use the Hash distribution option. By default, it uses the first key.

All tables are indexed using Clustered columnstore indexes by default.

Optional configurations for table level settings are available in the Optional table level settings section.

Configure Your Azure Synapse Analytics SQL Pool

Perform the following configuration steps in your Azure Synapse Analytics SQL Pool before you load data into Synapse from Incorta:

Create the Incorta login for your SQL pool for the master database
Create the Incorta user with grants for the SQL pool database

Note

It is assumed that you already have a Synapse workspace and dedicated SQL Pool from the Azure blade.

Here are the steps to create an Incorta login for your SQL pool for the master database. You must replace <PASSWORD> with a secure password.

In Synapse Analytics, for your workspace, select New → SQL script.
In the SQL editor, in the SQL Script tab, in Connect to, first select your dedicated SQL Pool and then, in Use database, select master.
In the SQL editor, run the following CREATE LOGIN command, replacing <PASSWORD> with a secure password for the new login.

CREATE LOGIN incorta WITH PASSWORD = '<PASSWORD>';

Important

You will need to provide this username and password when you create an Azure Synapse Data Destination.

Create the Incorta user with grants for the SQL pool database

Here are the steps to create an Incorta user with grants for the selected SQL pool database:

In Synapse Analytics, in Develop, select + → SQL script.
In the SQL editor, in the SQL Script tab, in Connect to, first select your dedicated SQL Pool and then, in Use database, select your SQL pool database.
In the SQLeditor canvas, run the following SQL commands:

CREATE USER incorta FOR LOGIN incorta;
EXEC sp_addrolemember 'db_ddladmin', 'incorta';
EXEC sp_addrolemember 'db_datawriter', 'incorta';
EXEC sp_addrolemember 'db_datareader', 'incorta';
GRANT ALTER ANY EXTERNAL FILE FORMAT to incorta;
GRANT ADMINISTER DATABASE BULK OPERATIONS to incorta;

Create an Azure Synapse Data Destination

When you create an Azure Synapse Data Destination, you are able to seamlessly ingest physical schema tables from Incorta to your Azure Synapse instance.

Here are the steps:

In the Navigation bar, select Data.
In the Action bar, select + New → Add Data Destination.
In the Choose a Data Destination dialog, in Schema Destination select Synapse Analytics.
In the New Data Destination dialog, specify the following Asure Synapse schema destination properties:
- SQL Pool Endpoint: This is the dedicated SQL endpoint
- Database Name: This is the SQL pool name
- SQL Username: This is the username created in the Create the Incorta login for your SQL pool for the master database section above.
- SQL Password: This is the password created in the Create the Incorta login for your SQL pool for the master database section above.
- Port: The default value is 1433
To test the connection, select Test Connection.
To save, select Ok.

For more information on how to manage Data Destinations, refer to Tools → Data Manager.

Set a Data Destination for a Physical Schema

Set a data destination for physical schemas that will push tables to Azure Synapse. Here are the steps:

In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the Action bar, select Settings (gear icon) → Set Data Destination.
In the Set Schema Destination for <SCHEMA_NAME> dialog,
- Select a Schema Destination or select + New Schema Data Destination to create a new one.
- Select Done.

A Synapse Analytics icon will appear to the left of the schema name to indicate a data destination has been set for the schema.

Create Materialized Views to Trigger Data Ingest

For each physical schema that will trigger data ingest into Azure Synapse, create a materialized view. Each materialized view should contain the following lines of code for full and incremental load scripts:

Script (full load script)

from incorta_synapse import load_to_synapse
df = load_to_synapse("<PHYSICAL_SCHEMA_NAME>", "Full")
save (df)

Incremental Script (incremental load script)

from incorta_synapse import load_to_synapse
df = load_to_synapse("<PHYSICAL_SCHEMA_NAME>", "Incremental")
save (df)

Note

These examples pass the schema name as a parameter in the load script. There is also an option to pass a list of tables in the same schema as a comma separated list of fully qualified names as follows:

df = load_to_synapse([<PHYSICAL_SCHEMA_NAME>.<TABLE_NAME_1>, <PHYSICAL_SCHEMA_NAME>.<TABLE_NAME_2>], "Full")

Schedule Materialized View Load Jobs

You can schedule the materialized views that trigger data ingest into Azure Synapse to run in a specific order. For more information, refer to Tools → Scheduler.

Note

The physical schema should be separate from the Synapse load schemas to support scheduling the load jobs.

Optional configurations

Throughout the Intelligent Ingest configuration process there are several optional configurations you can add or modify from the default settings.

Optional Incorta API configurations

You can override the default path for the Intelligent Ingest logs directory by adding the following line:

#Log directory path
spark.Synapse.logs.path=<patth_of_the_logs_folder>

You can set table level configurations using the Synapse mappings CSV file that is located by default in the following path:

<INCORTA_INSTALLATION_PATH>/IncortaNode/Synapse/synapse_mappings.csv

You can override the default path of the Synapse mappings CSV file by adding the following line:

spark.Synapse.mappings.csv=<sample_path_including_the_file_name>

You can add the following to override the default Synape connection string parameters:

#Synapse connection string parameters
spark.Synapse.driver={ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server}
spark.Synapse.mars.connection.enabled=yes
spark.Synapse.application.name=IncortaIntelligentIngest

You can add the following to override the target schema name and target table name in Synapse:

spark.Synapse.targetschemaname=<I_SCHEMA>
spark.Synapse.targettablename=<I_TABLE>

spark.Synapse.targetschemaname: Overrides the schema name in Synapse
spark.Synapse.targettablename: Appends a prefix to the table name when the target schema is overridden For example,
```
spark.Synapse.targettablename=<I_SCHEMA>_<I_TABLE>
```
sets the destination table as
```
targetschemaname.incortaschemaname_tablename
```

You can change the way you access the tenant directory using the following line:

spark.Synapse.copy.auth=principal

spark.Synapse.copy.auth: Controls the ADLS authentication mechanism in the COPY statements. The possible values are:
- principal(default): Use the service principal that uses the same credentials as in core-site.xml.
- managed: Use Managed Identity authentication in Synapse and the ADLS storage account.

Optional table level settings

You can change some settings at the table level, which include the table hash distribution key or indexing type of columns.

If you want to change the key, you can add the following to the synapse_mappings.csv file:

<SCHEMA_NAME>,<TABLE_NAME>,<HASH_COLUMN>,false

If you want to change the indexing type of a table to Heap, you can add the following to the synapse_mappings.csv file:

<SCHEMA_NAME>,<TABLE_NAME>,,true

Limitations

Intelligent Ingest limitations

If you want to perform an incremental table load, the incremental column name must be LAST_UPDATE_DATE .
Encrypted columns are not supported and will be ingested into Synapse as a string, as it exists in Parquet.
SSO/LDAP users are not supported. The Python script uses only Incorta internal users for authentication.
For incremental data loading, deduplication is only supported across multiple load jobs, as the solution is built on an assumption that a single load job does not have duplicates.
If you have multiple tenants in Incorta, Synapse will be supported for a single tenant only.
Tenant and schema export/import for data destinations are not supported.

Synapse limitations

Hashing, the methodology used for deduplication and key definition, supports a single key only. Composite keys are not supported.
A client error will be thrown if a date or timestamp column with a value less than 1.1.1970 is ingested.
The MV used to trigger ingest into Synapse may be stuck in the Allocating resource phase in Incorta due to one of the following reasons:
- Multiple jobs are submitted to Synapse and are stuck in queue. Synapse will not terminate these jobs. You can use the following query to check the jobs in queue:
```
SELECT * FROM sys.dm_pdw_exec_requests WHERE status='Running' ;
```
- A large data volume is ingested while the SQL pool performance is small.