About the Simba Drill JDBC Connector

About Apache Drill

Apache Drill is a low latency distributed query engine capable of querying large datasets from multiple data sources using SQL.

The data sources that Drill supports include file systems (local or distributed) and HBase. Drill also integrates with the Hive metastore seamlessly to complement existing Hive environments with low latency queries. Unlike traditional RDBMS or SQL-on-Hadoop solutions that require centralized schema definitions, Drill can query self-describing data as well as complex or multi-structured data that is commonly seen in big data systems. Moreover, Drill does not require a fully structured schema and can support semi-structured or nested data types such as JSON.

Apache Drill processes the data in record batches and discovers the schema during the processing of each record batch. Thus, Drill has the capability to support changing schemas over the lifetime of a query. Drill reconfigures its operators and handles these situations to make sure that data is not lost.

Apache Drill can support multiple Hive, HBase, and DFS data sources, including CSV, TSV, Parquet, and JSON files. Connections between data sources and Drill can be configured through Drill’s web UI.

Note:

For information about connecting Apache Drill to data sources, see the Apache Drill documentation: http://drill.apache.org/docs/.

About the Connector

The Simba Drill JDBC Connector lets organizations connect their BI tools to Drill. Drill provides an ANSI SQL query layer and also exposes the metadata information through an ANSI SQL standard metadata database called INFORMATION_SCHEMA. The Simba Drill JDBC Connector leverages INFORMATION_SCHEMA to expose Drill's metadata to BI tools as needed.

The Simba Drill JDBC Connector complies with the JDBC 4.2 data standard. JDBC is one of the most established and widely supported APIs for connecting to and working with databases. At the heart of the technology is the JDBC connector, which connects an application to the database. For more information about JDBC, see Data Access Standards on the Simba Technologies website: https://www.simba.com/resources/data-access-standards-glossary.

This guide is suitable for users who want to access data residing within Drill from their desktop environment. Application developers might also find the information helpful. Refer to your application for details on connecting via JDBC.