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How to Connect to Elasticsearch Data in Using Python: 6 Steps
Create Python applications on Linux/UNIX machines with connectivity to Elasticsearch data. Leverage the pyodbc module for ODBC in Python.
The rich ecosystem of Python modules lets you get to work quicker and integrate your systems more effectively. With the CData Linux/UNIX ODBC Driver for Elasticsearch and the pyodbc module, you can easily build Elasticsearch-connected Python applications. This article shows how to use the pyodbc built-in functions to connect to Elasticsearch data, execute queries, and output the results.
How to Use the CData ODBC Drivers on UNIX/Linux
The CData ODBC Drivers are supported in various Red Hat-based and Debian-based systems, including Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL, CentOS, and Fedora. There are also several libraries and packages that are required, many of which may be installed by default, depending on your system. For more information on the supported versions of Linux operating systems and the required libraries, please refer to the "Getting Started" section in the help documentation (installed and found online).
About Elasticsearch Data Integration
Accessing and integrating live data from Elasticsearch has never been easier with CData. Customers rely on CData connectivity to:
- Access both the SQL endpoints and REST endpoints, optimizing connectivity and offering more options when it comes to reading and writing Elasticsearch data.
- Connect to virtually every Elasticsearch instance starting with v2.2 and Open Source Elasticsearch subscriptions.
- Always receive a relevance score for the query results without explicitly requiring the SCORE() function, simplifying access from 3rd party tools and easily seeing how the query results rank in text relevance.
- Search through multiple indices, relying on Elasticsearch to manage and process the query and results instead of the client machine.
Users frequently integrate Elasticsearch data with analytics tools such as Crystal Reports, Power BI, and Excel, and leverage our tools to enable a single, federated access layer to all of their data sources, including Elasticsearch.
For more information on CData's Elasticsearch solutions, check out our Knowledge Base article: CData Elasticsearch Driver Features & Differentiators.
Getting Started
1. Install the Driver Manager
Before installing the driver, check that your system has a driver manager. For this article, you will use unixODBC, a free and open source ODBC driver manager that is widely supported.
For Debian-based systems like Ubuntu, you can install unixODBC with the APT package manager:
$ sudo apt-get install unixodbc unixodbc-dev
For systems based on Red Hat Linux, you can install unixODBC with yum or dnf:
$ sudo yum install unixODBC unixODBC-devel
The unixODBC driver manager reads information about drivers from an odbcinst.ini file and about data sources from an odbc.ini file. You can determine the location of the configuration files on your system by entering the following command into a terminal:
$ odbcinst -j
The output of the command will display the locations of the configuration files for ODBC data sources and registered ODBC drivers. User data sources can only be accessed by the user account whose home folder the odbc.ini is located in. System data sources can be accessed by all users. Below is an example of the output of this command:
DRIVERS............: /etc/odbcinst.ini
SYSTEM DATA SOURCES: /etc/odbc.ini
FILE DATA SOURCES..: /etc/ODBCDataSources
USER DATA SOURCES..: /home/myuser/.odbc.ini
SQLULEN Size.......: 8
SQLLEN Size........: 8
SQLSETPOSIROW Size.: 8
2. Install the Driver
You can download the driver in standard package formats: the Debian .deb package format or the .rpm file format. Once you have downloaded the file, you can install the driver from the terminal.
The driver installer registers the driver with unixODBC and creates a system DSN, which can be used later in any tools or applications that support ODBC connectivity.
For Debian-based systems like Ubuntu, run the following command with sudo or as root:
$ dpkg -i /path/to/package.deb
For Red Hat systems and other systems that support .rpms, run the following command with sudo or as root:
$ rpm -i /path/to/package.rpm
Once the driver is installed, you can list the registered drivers and defined data sources using the unixODBC driver manager:
List the Registered Driver(s)
$ odbcinst -q -d
CData ODBC Driver for Elasticsearch
...
List the Defined Data Source(s)
$ odbcinst -q -s
CData Elasticsearch Source
...
To use the CData ODBC Driver for Elasticsearch with unixODBC, ensure that the driver is configured to use UTF-16. To do so, edit the INI file for the driver (cdata.odbc.elasticsearch.ini), which can be found in the lib folder in the installation location (typically /opt/cdata/cdata-odbc-driver-for-elasticsearch), as follows:
cdata.odbc.elasticsearch.ini
...
[Driver]
DriverManagerEncoding = UTF-16
3. Modify the DSN
The driver installation predefines a system DSN. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties. Additionally, you can create user-specific DSNs that will not require root access to modify in $HOME/.odbc.ini.
Set the Server and Port connection properties to connect. To authenticate, set the User and Password properties, PKI (public key infrastructure) properties, or both. To use PKI, set the SSLClientCert, SSLClientCertType, SSLClientCertSubject, and SSLClientCertPassword properties.
The data provider uses X-Pack Security for TLS/SSL and authentication. To connect over TLS/SSL, prefix the Server value with 'https://'. Note: TLS/SSL and client authentication must be enabled on X-Pack to use PKI.
Once the data provider is connected, X-Pack will then perform user authentication and grant role permissions based on the realms you have configured.
/etc/odbc.ini or $HOME/.odbc.ini
[CData Elasticsearch Source]
Driver = CData ODBC Driver for Elasticsearch
Description = My Description
Server = 127.0.0.1
Port = 9200
User = admin
Password = 123456
For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).
You can follow the procedure below to install pyodbc and start accessing Elasticsearch through Python objects.
4. Install pyodbc
You can use the pip utility to install the module:
pip install pyodbc
Be sure to import with the module with the following:
import pyodbc
5. Connect to Elasticsearch Data
You can now connect with an ODBC connection string or a DSN. Below is the syntax for a connection string:
cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DRIVER={CData ODBC Driver for Elasticsearch};Server=127.0.0.1;Port=9200;User=admin;Password=123456;')
Below is the syntax for a DSN:
cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DSN=CData Elasticsearch Sys;')
6. Execute SQL on Elasticsearch
Instantiate a Cursor and use the execute method of the Cursor class to execute any SQL statement.
cursor = cnxn.cursor()
Select
You can use fetchall, fetchone, and fetchmany to retrieve Rows returned from SELECT statements:
import pyodbc
cursor = cnxn.cursor()
cnxn = pyodbc.connect('DSN=CData Elasticsearch Source;User=MyUser;Password=MyPassword')
cursor.execute("SELECT OrderName, Freight FROM Orders WHERE ShipCity = 'New York'")
rows = cursor.fetchall()
for row in rows:
print(row.OrderName, row.Freight)
You can provide parameterized queries in a sequence or in the argument list:
cursor.execute(
"SELECT OrderName, Freight
FROM Orders
WHERE ShipCity = ?", 'New York',1)
Insert
INSERT commands also use the execute method; however, you must subsequently call the commit method after an insert or you will lose your changes:
cursor.execute("INSERT INTO Orders (ShipCity) VALUES ('New York')")
cnxn.commit()
Update and Delete
As with an insert, you must also call commit after calling execute for an update or delete:
cursor.execute("UPDATE Orders SET ShipCity = 'New York'")
cnxn.commit()
Metadata Discovery
You can use the getinfo method to retrieve data such as information about the data source and the capabilities of the driver. The getinfo method passes through input to the ODBC SQLGetInfo method.
cnxn.getinfo(pyodbc.SQL_DATA_SOURCE_NAME)
You are now ready to build Python apps in Linux/UNIX environments with connectivity to Elasticsearch data, using the CData ODBC Driver for Elasticsearch.
Ready to get started?
Download a free trial of the Elasticsearch ODBC Driver to get started:
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Elasticsearch ODBC Driver
The Elasticsearch ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live Elasticsearch document databases, directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.
Access Elasticsearch like you would a database - read, write, and update through a standard ODBC Driver interface.
