Using Microsoft Power BI

You can import Spark data into Microsoft Power BI through an ODBC connection.

The following procedure is written for Power BI Desktop 2.30.4246.181. The Simba Spark ODBC Driver also supports earlier versions of Power BI Desktop.

Important:

Make sure that the bitness of the driver that you are using matches the bitness of Power BI Desktop. If you are using the 32-bit version of Power BI Desktop, then you need to use the 32-bit version of the driver. If you are using the 64-bit version of Power BI Desktop, then you need to use the 64-bit version of the driver. For more information about diagnosing the issue, see "Architecture Mismatch Problems" in Troubleshooting.

To retrieve data from your Spark data store using Power BI:

  1. In Power BI Desktop, click Get Data.
  2. In the Get Data dialog box, click Other, then select ODBC from the list of data source types, and then click Connect.
  3. In the From ODBC dialog box, in the Data Source Name (DSN) drop-down list, select your DSN.
  4. Optionally, to specify what data is returned with a SQL statement, expand the Advanced Options area and then, in the SQL Statement (Optional) field, type or paste a SQL statement to specify the data.
  5. Click OK. If you are prompted to provide your credentials, then do one of the following:
    • If your data store requires credentials for access, then in the Username and Password fields, type your credentials for accessing your data store, and then click Connect.
    • Otherwise, from the column on the left, select Default or Custom and then click Connect.

    A dialog box opens and displays the data that is returned from the data store. If you used a SQL statement to specify what data is returned, then the dialog box only displays the rows returned by the SQL statement.

  6. Choose one:
    • If you did not use a SQL statement to select your data, then select the check boxes next to the tables that you want to import and click Load.
    • Or, if you used a SQL statement to select your data, click Load.

The selected data is loaded into Power BI Desktop and listed in the Fields task pane. You can now use Power BI to analyze the data.

Note:

For more information about connecting to a database in Power BI Desktop, see the Power BI Help documentation that is linked from the application.

For more Power BI tutorials and how-to information, see https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/documentation/powerbi-service-get-started.

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