CData Tableau Connector for Microsoft Active Directory

Overview

The CData Tableau Connector for Microsoft Active Directory offers self-service integration with Tableau. The connector facilitates live access to Microsoft Active Directory data in Tableau using the connection window. The connector also provides direct querying to visualize and analyze Microsoft Active Directory data.

Differences from ODBC and JDBC

Using the connector provides several advantages over using the ODBC or JDBC drivers:

Easier to Install: The connector automatically performs Tableau-specific setup that must be done by hand when using JDBC.
Easier to Configure: The connector can be configured directly in Tableau without having to create a separate ODBC DSN or JDBC connection string.
Easier to Publish: The connector saves all its connection settings within Tableau. This allows you to publish to Tableau Server without having to copy your ODBC DSN to the server or other authors.
Consistency: The connector uses the same technology across all supported platforms. ODBC may behave or perform differently due to differences in how each platform handles ODBC.

Getting Started

See Getting Started for a guide to create a Microsoft Active Directory Data Source in Tableau. The guide will walk you through Installing the Connector and then Configuring a Connection.

Advanced Features

Advanced Features details additional features supported by the connector, such as defining user defined views, ssl configuration, remoting, caching, firewall/proxy settings, and advanced logging.

Using the Connector

See Using the Connector to customize data access and visualize data. You can further customize the exact Microsoft Active Directory data pulled by Using Custom SQL Queries.

Refer to Visualizing Data to create and work with Tableau visualizations.

See User Defined Views to construct virtual tables whose contents are determined by a pre-configured query, which will then be discovered among existing table metadata.

Data Model

See Data Model for information on the available database objects and how to use SQL to work with Microsoft Active Directory APIs. This section provides more detailed information on querying specific Microsoft Active Directory entities.

Connection String Options

The Connection properties describe the various options that can be used to establish a connection.