Connecting to Teradata

Concept Information

Teradata is a cloud data service. You can use the Teradata data connector to import your organization's Teradata data.

Note

Analytics provides Teradata as an optional connector and if it is not available in your Data Access window, it is likely that the connector was not selected during installation. For more information, see Install optional Analytics data connectors and Python engine.

Before you start

To connect to Teradata, you must gather the following:

name or IP address of the Teradata database instance
username
password

For help gathering the connection prerequisites, contact the Teradata administrator in your organization. If your administrator cannot help you, you or your administrator should contact Teradata Support.

Create a Teradata connection

From the Analytics main menu, select Import > Database and application.
From the New Connections tab, in the ACL Connectors section, select Teradata.
Tip
You can filter the list of available connectors by entering a search string in the Filter connections box. Connectors are listed alphabetically.
In the Data Connection Settings panel, enter the connection settings and at the bottom of the panel, click Save and Connect.
You can accept the default Connection Name, or enter a new one.

The connection for Teradata is saved to the Existing Connections tab. In the future, you can reconnect to Teradata from the saved connection.

Once the connection is established, the Data Access window opens to the Staging Area and you can begin importing data. For help importing data from Teradata, see Working with the Data Access window.

Connection settings

Basic settings

Setting	Description	Example
Name or IP address	The fully qualified domain name or IP address of the Teradata database instance.
Use Integrated Security	Specifies whether the driver authenticates the connection using Single Sign-On (SSO) or Conventional Sign-On (CSO): Enabled - The driver uses SSO and authenticates the connection by using Teradata database credentials derived from the user information on the client machine. Disabled - The driver uses CSO and requires user to provide Teradata database credentials.	Disabled
Mechanism	The mechanism that the driver uses to authenticate the connection to the database: KRBS - Uses the Kerberos protocol. The application provides the user name and password. LDAP - Uses the LDAP protocol. The application provides the user name and password. SPNEGO - Supports Kerberos authentication for users that log on to Teradata database from Windows .NET clients. TD2 - Uses the Teradata 2 mechanism, which requires users to provide a Teradata database username and password. TDNEGO - Uses the mechanism that is selected automatically through Teradata Negotiating, which can include single sign-on.	LDAP
Username	User name to authenticate the Teradata database connection through the specified authentication mechanism.
Password	The password to access the database.
Enable Teradata Wallet	Specifies whether the driver authenticates the connection using a Teradata Wallet reference string.
Default Database	The name of the database to access when a Teradata connection is opened.
Account String	Identifies an individual user account and is associated with a specific User Id.
Session Character Set	The character set (character encoding) to use for the session. The default value is ASCII.	ASCII

Advanced settings

Setting	Description	Example
No Help Database	Specifies whether the Help Database is used: Enabled - SQLTables uses a SELECT statement when no wildcard characters are used in SQLTables. Disabled - The driver uses the HELP DATABASE command.	Disabled
Ignore Search Patterns	Specifies whether the underscore (_) and percent sign (%) characters are parsed as normal characters or as search wildcards.
Enable Legacy Parser	Specifies whether to enable the legacy parser or not.
Log Error Events	Specifies whether to log error events or not.
Use Regional Settings for Decimal Symbol	Specifies whether the driver uses the regional settings for decimal symbols, or uses a period (.) regardless of the regional settings.	Enabled
Enable Data Encryption	Specifies whether the driver encrypts all communication with the database or authentication information only.
Enable Extended Statement Information	Specifies whether extended statement information is used when it is available from the database. If this option is enabled, the ODBC API function SQLDescribeParam is supported.
Session Mode	Specifies the session mode that the driver uses during sessions on the database: ANSI Teradata System Default The default value is System Default.	ANSI
Maximum Response Buffer	The maximum size of the response buffer for SQL requests, in kilobytes. The default value is 65536.	65536
TDMST Port Number	The port number used to access Teradata Database. The default value is 1025.	1025
Translation DLL Name	The full path to the .dll file that contains functions for translating all data that is transferred between the Teradata server and the driver.
Translation Option	Options used by the Translation DLL file.
Login Timeout	The number of seconds that the driver waits for a response when logging in to the database before canceling the operation. The default value is 20.	20
DataSource DNS Entries	The number of entries defined in DNS for the datasource .
Use TCP_NODELAY	Specifies whether TCP sends small packets immediately or waits to gather packets into a single, larger packet: Enabled - TCP immediately sends small packets. This option can avoid transmission delays but might increase network traffic. Disabled - TCP gathers small packets into a single larger packet. This option can reduce network traffic but might cause transmission delays.	Enabled
Use Null for Catalog Name	Specifies whether the driver sets any Catalog Name parameters to NULL.
Enable Read Ahead	Specifies whether to request the next response message while the current message is being processed.
Retry System Calls (EINTR)	Specifies whether the driver retries the socket system calls or returns a SQL_ERROR when an EINTR error occurs.
Use DATE Data for TIMESTAMP Parameters	Specifies whether the driver sends DATE data for parameters that are bound as SQL_TIMESTAMP and SQL_C_TIMESTAMP.
Use Custom Catalog Mode for 2.x Applications	If this option is enabled, provides backwards compatibility for ODBC 2.x applications that use noncompliant search patterns.
Return Empty String in CREATE_PARAMS Columns for SQL_TIMESTAMP	Specifies whether the driver returns an empty string or the given value for the CREATE_PARAMS column when you call SQLGetTypeInfo for SQL_TIMESTAMP data.
Return Max. CHAR/VARCHAR Length as 32K	Specifies whether the driver returns a hard-coded value for the COLUMN_SIZE column when you call SQLGetTypeInfo for SQL_CHAR and SQL_VARCHAR data.

Data connector updates

When you upgrade Analytics, the Robots Agent, or AX Server, you should test any of your scripts that import data using one of the Analytics data connectors (ACCESSDATA command).

The possibility exists that changes made by third-party data sources or ODBC driver vendors required updates to one or more of the data connectors. Scripted data connections may need to be updated in order to continue working correctly.

Re-run the import The easiest way to update a connection is to manually perform an import using the Data Access window in the upgraded version of Analytics. Copy the ACCESSDATA command from the log and use it to update your script.
Note
Before connecting to a data source and re-running the import, clear the connector cache to flush the existing set of table names.
In the Existing Connections tab in the Data Access window, beside the connector name, select > Clear cache.
Update field specifications You may also need to update field specifications in the script body to align with table schema changes in the data source or ODBC driver. Possible changes include field names, field data types, and field and record lengths.
Check the results of any filtering You should also check the results of any filtering that you apply as part of the data import. Confirm that the import filtering is including and excluding records correctly.