Azure Synapse

The Azure Synapse connector lets you connect to a Azure Synapse SQL pools and use SQL to retrieve and update the Azure Synapse data.

Before you begin

Before using the Azure Synapse connector, do the following tasks:

• In your Google Cloud project:
  • Ensure that network connectivity is set up. For information about network patterns, see Network connectivity.
  • Grant the roles/connectors.admin IAM role to the user configuring the connector.
  • Grant the following IAM roles to the service account that you want to use for the connector:
    • roles/secretmanager.viewer
    • roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor

    A service account is a special type of Google account intended to represent a non-human user that needs to authenticate and be authorized to access data in Google APIs. If you don't have a service account, you must create a service account. For more information, see Creating a service account.

  • Enable the following services:
    • secretmanager.googleapis.com (Secret Manager API)
    • connectors.googleapis.com (Connectors API)

    To understand how to enable services, see Enabling services.

  If these services or permissions have not been enabled for your project previously, you are prompted to enable them when configuring the connector.

Configure the connector

Configuring the connector requires you to create a connection to your data source (backend system). A connection is specific to a data source. It means that if you have many data sources, you must create a separate connection for each data source. To create a connection, do the following steps:

1. In the Cloud console, go to the Integration Connectors > Connections page and then select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Go to the Connections page

2. Click + Create new to open the Create Connection page.
3. In the Location section, choose the location for the connection.
   1. Region: Select a location from the drop-down list.

      Supported regions for connectors include:

      For the list of all the supported regions, see Locations.

   2. Click Next.
4. In the Connection Details section, complete the following:
   1. Connector: Select Azure Synapse from the drop down list of available Connectors.
   2. Connector version: Select the Connector version from the drop down list of available versions.
   3. In the Connection Name field, enter a name for the Connection instance.

      Connection names must meet the following criteria:

      • Connection names can use letters, numbers, or hyphens.
      • Letters must be lower-case.
      • Connection names must begin with a letter and end with a letter or number.
      • Connection names cannot exceed 49 characters.
   4. Optionally, enter a Description for the connection instance.
   5. Service Account: Select a service account that has the required roles.
   6. Optionally, configure the Connection node settings:
      • Minimum number of nodes: Enter the minimum number of connection nodes.
      • Maximum number of nodes: Enter the maximum number of connection nodes.

      A node is a unit (or replica) of a connection that processes transactions. More nodes are required to process more transactions for a connection and conversely, fewer nodes are required to process fewer transactions. To understand how the nodes affect your connector pricing, see Pricing for connection nodes. If you don't enter any values, by default the minimum nodes are set to 2 (for better availability) and the maximum nodes are set to 50.

   Note: You can customize the connection node values only if you are a Pay-as-you-go customer.
   7. Azure Tenant: This property specifies The Microsoft Azure tenant being used to access data.
   8. Database: This property specifies The name of the Synapse database in the serverless sql pool or dedicated sql pool .
   9. Under Destinations enter the following properties:
   • Destination Type: Select Host Addrress from drop down
   • Host 1: Enter sql pool endpoint
   • Port 1: Enter the port for the sql endpoint
   .
   10. Optionally enter the following properties for SSL:
       • Enable SSL: This checkbox property specifies whether to enable SSL.
       • Trust Store: This property specifies the trust store. You can select a radio button to select the trust store from Pubic, Private or Insecure Connection.
       • Custom Trust Store: This property is used to select a secret containing the custom trust store in PEM format.
       • SSL Client Certificate: This property specifies the SSL client certificate.
       • SSL Client Private Key: This property specifies the SSL client private key in PEM format.
       • SSL Client Certificate Key Passphrase: This property specifies the SSL client private key passphrase.
   11. Optionally, click + Add label to add a label to the Connection in the form of a key/value pair.
   12. Click Next.
5. In the Authentication section, enter the authentication details.
   1. Select an Authentication type and enter the relevant details.

      The following authentication types are supported by the Azure Synapse connection:

      • User Password
      • Azure AD

   To understand how to configure these authentication types, see Configure authentication.

   2. Click Next.
6. Review: Review your connection and authentication details.
7. Click Create.

Configure authentication

Enter the details based on the authentication you want to use.

• User Password
  • User Name: Enter the database username.
  • Password: Secret Manager Secret containing the password associated with the user name.

• Azure AD
  • Client ID: The client ID used for requesting access tokens. This can be found in the overview of the connected app created in the Azure portal.
  • Scope:A comma-separated list of desired scopes.
  • Client Secret: Secret Manager Secret containing the Account Access Key.
  • Authorization URL: Authorization URL generated when creating client.

Additional steps after connection creation

If you selected OAuth 2.0 - Authorization code for authentication, you must do the following additional steps after creating the connection:

1. In the Connections page, locate the newly created connection.

   Notice that the Status for the new connector will be Authorization required.

2. Click Authorization required.

   This shows the Edit authorization pane.

3. Copy the Redirect URI value to your external application.
4. Verify the authorization details.
5. Click Authorize.

   If the authorization is successful, the connection status will be set to Active in the Connections page.

Re-authorization for authorization code

If you are using Authorization code authentication type and have made any cofiguration changes in your Azure Synapse application, you must re-authorize your Azure Synapse connection. To re-authorize a connection, perform the following steps:

1. Click on the required connection in the Connections page.

   This opens the connection details page.

2. Click Edit to edit the connection details.
3. Verify the OAuth 2.0 - Authorization code details in the Authentication section.

   If required, make the necessary changes.

4. Click Save. This takes you to the connection details page.
5. Click Edit authorization in the Authentication section. This shows the Authorize pane.
6. Click Authorize.

   If the authorization is successful, the connection status will be set to Active in the Connections page.

Entities, operations, and actions

All the Integration Connectors provide a layer of abstraction for the objects of the connected application. You can access an application's objects only through this abstraction. The abstraction is exposed to you as entities, operations, and actions.

Note: You can view the entities, operations, and actions of a connector in the Connectors task.

• Entity: An entity can be thought of as an object, or a collection of properties, in the connected application or service. The definition of an entity differs from a connector to a connector. For example, in a database connector, tables are the entities, in a file server connector, folders are the entities, and in a messaging system connector, queues are the entities.

  However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support or have any entities, in which case the Entities list will be empty.

• Operation: An operation is the activity that you can perform on an entity. You can perform any of the following operations on an entity:
  • List
  • Get
  • Create
  • Update
  • Delete

  Selecting an entity from the available list, generates a list of operations available for the entity. For a detailed description of the operations, see the Connectors task's entity operations. However, if a connector doesn't support any of the entity operations, such unsupported operations aren't listed in the Operations list.

• Action: An action is a first class function that is made available to the integration through the connector interface. An action lets you make changes to an entity or entities, and vary from connector to connector. Normally, an action will have some input parameters, and an output parameter. However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support any action, in which case the Actions list will be empty.

Note: All entities and actions will have a schema associated with them. For example, an action schema will have the parameter details such as; the parameter names, and its corresponding data type. The schema (metadata) for entities and actions is fetched by the connection at runtime from your backend. If there are any updates to the schema, such updates won't be automatically reflected in your existing connections; you must manually refresh the schema. To refresh the schema for a connection, open the Connection details page of the connection, and then click Refresh connection schema.

System limitations

The Azure Synapse connector can process a maximum of 4 transactions per second, per node, and throttles any transactions beyond this limit. By default, Integration Connectors allocates 2 nodes (for better availability) for a connection.

For information on the limits applicable to Integration Connectors, see Limits.

Note: The number of Integration Connectors nodes will autoscale dynamically based on your usage. However, if you want to reserve capacity for large volumes without waiting for autoscaling, you can adjust the minimum node value for a connection. More nodes are required to process more transactions for a connection. Conversely, fewer nodes are required if a connection processes fewer transactions. To configure the node values, do the following:

• If you are a pay-as-you-go customer, configure the minimum and maximum node value in the edit connection page.
• If you are a subscription based customer, contact support.

The maximum transactions that a node can handle depends on various factors. So, before adjusting the minimum nodes for better throughput, it is recommended you check if your backend systems are set up optimally to handle the required traffic.

Supported data types

The following are the supported data types for this connector:

• BIGINT
• BINARY
• BIT
• CHAR
• DATE
• DATETIME
• DATETIME2
• DATETIMEOFFSET
• DECIMAL
• FLOAT
• DECIMAL
• FLOAT
• INT
• MONEY
• NCHAR
• NVARCHAR
• REAL
• LSEG
• SMALLDATETIME
• SMALLINT
• SMALLMONEY
• TINYINT
• UNIQUEIDENTIFIER
• VARBINARY
• VARCHAR

Actions

The Azure Synapse connector lets you execute your stored procedures and custom SQL queries in the format supported by your Azure Synapse. To execute custom SQL queries, the connector provides the Execute custom query action.

To create a custom query, follow these steps:

1. Follow the detailed instructions to add a connectors task.
2. When you configure the connector task, in the type of action you want to perform, select Actions.
3. In the Action list, select Execute custom query, and then click Done.

   

4. Expand the Task input section, and then do the following:
   1. In the Timeout after field, enter the number of seconds to wait till the query executes.

      Default value: 180 seconds.

   2. In the Maximum number of rows field, enter the maximum number of rows to be returned from the database.

      Default value: 25.

   3. To update the custom query, click Edit Custom Script. The Script editor dialog opens.

      

   4. In the Script editor dialog, enter the SQL query and click Save.

      You can use a question mark (?) in a SQL statement to represent a single parameter that must be specified in the query parameters list. For example, the following SQL query selects all rows from the Employees table that matches the values specified for the LastName column:

      SELECT * FROM Employees where LastName=?

      Note: Data manipulation language (DML) and data definition language (DDL) statements are supported.
   5. If you've used question marks in your SQL query, you must add the parameter by clicking + Add Parameter Name for each question mark. While executing the integration, these parameters replace the question marks (?) in the SQL query sequentially. For example, if you have added three question marks (?), then you must add three parameters in order of sequence.

      

      To add query parameters, do the following:

      1. From the Type list, select the data type of the parameter.
      2. In the Value field, enter the value of the parameter.
      3. To add multiple parameters, click + Add Query Parameter.

Entity operation examples

Example - List records of an entity

This example lists the records of the Users entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Users from the Entity list.
3. Select the List operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, you can set the filterClause as per your requirement.

   For example, setting the filter clause to employeeCode='5100' and startDate='2010-01-01 00:00:00', lists only those records whose employeeCode is 5100 and startDate is 2010-01-01 00:00:00.

Example - Get a single record from an entity

This example fetches a record from the Users entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select User from the Entity list.
3. Select the Get operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click entityId and then enter 103032 in the Default Value field.

   Here, 103032 is the primary key value of the Users entity.

Example - Delete a record from an entity

This example deletes a record from the Users entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Users from the Entity list.
3. Select the Delete operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click entityId and then enter 113132 in the Default Value field.

   Alternately, if the entity has composite primary keys instead of specifying the entityId, you can set the filterClause. For example, employeeCode='5100' and startDate='2010-01-01 00:00:00'.

Example - Create a record in an entity

This example creates a record in the Users entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Users from the Entity list.
3. Select the Create operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "employeeCode": "5100",
   "startDate": "2010-01-01 00:00:00.0",
   "country": "US"
   }

If the integration is successful, the connector task's connectorOutputPayload field will have the response of the create operation.

Example - Update a record in an entity

This example updates a record in the Users entity.

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Users from the Entity list.
3. Select the Update operation, and then click Done.
4. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click connectorInputPayload and then enter a value similar to the following in the Default Value field:

   {
   "country": "IN"
   }

5. In the Task Input section of the Connectors task, click entityId and then enter 113132 in the Default Value field.

   Alternately, if the entity has composite primary keys instead of specifying the entityId, you can set the filterClause. For example, employeeCode='5100' and startDate='2010-01-01 00:00:00'.

If the integration is successful, the connector task's connectorOutputPayload field will have the response of the update operation.

Use the Azure Synapse connection in an integration

After you create the connection, it becomes available in both Apigee Integration and Application Integration. You can use the connection in an integration through the Connectors task.

• To understand how to create and use the Connectors task in Apigee Integration, see Connectors task.
• To understand how to create and use the Connectors task in Application Integration, see Connectors task.

Get help from the Google Cloud community

You can post your questions and discuss this connector in the Google Cloud community at Cloud Forums.

What's next

• Understand how to suspend and resume a connection.
• Understand how to monitor connector usage.
• Understand how to view connector logs.