Copy data from MariaDB using Azure Data Factory or Synapse Analytics

APPLIES TO: Azure Data Factory Azure Synapse Analytics

This article outlines how to use the Copy Activity in an Azure Data Factory or Synapse Analytics pipeline to copy data from MariaDB. It builds on the copy activity overview article that presents a general overview of copy activity.

Supported capabilities

This MariaDB connector is supported for the following capabilities:

Supported capabilities	IR
Copy activity (source/-)	① ②
Lookup activity	① ②

① Azure integration runtime ② Self-hosted integration runtime

For a list of data stores that are supported as sources/sinks by the copy activity, see the Supported data stores table.

The service provides a built-in driver to enable connectivity, therefore you don't need to manually install any driver using this connector.

This connector currently supports MariaDB of version 10.x, 11.x under the recommended new driver version v2 and 10.0 to 10.5 for the legacy driver version.

Prerequisites

If your data store is located inside an on-premises network, an Azure virtual network, or Amazon Virtual Private Cloud, you need to configure a self-hosted integration runtime to connect to it.

If your data store is a managed cloud data service, you can use the Azure Integration Runtime. If the access is restricted to IPs that are approved in the firewall rules, you can add Azure Integration Runtime IPs to the allow list.

You can also use the managed virtual network integration runtime feature in Azure Data Factory to access the on-premises network without installing and configuring a self-hosted integration runtime.

For more information about the network security mechanisms and options supported by Data Factory, see Data access strategies.

Getting started

To perform the Copy activity with a pipeline, you can use one of the following tools or SDKs:

• The Copy Data tool
• The Azure portal
• The .NET SDK
• The Python SDK
• Azure PowerShell
• The REST API
• The Azure Resource Manager template

Create a linked service to MariaDB using UI

Use the following steps to create a linked service to MariaDB in the Azure portal UI.

1. Browse to the Manage tab in your Azure Data Factory or Synapse workspace and select Linked Services, then click New:

   • Azure Data Factory
   • Azure Synapse

   

2. Search for Maria and select the MariaDB connector.

   

3. Configure the service details, test the connection, and create the new linked service.

   

Connector configuration details

The following sections provide details about properties that are used to define Data Factory entities specific to MariaDB connector.

Linked service properties

If you use the recommended driver version, the following properties are supported for MariaDB linked service:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property must be set to: MariaDB	Yes
driverVersion	The driver version when you select the recommended driver version. The value is v2.	Yes
server	The name of your MariaDB Server.	Yes
port	The port number to connect to the MariaDB server.	No
database	Your MariaDB database name.	Yes
username	Your user name.	Yes
password	The password for the user name. Mark this field as SecureString to store it securely. Or, you can reference a secret stored in Azure Key Vault.	Yes
connectVia	The Integration Runtime to be used to connect to the data store. Learn more from Prerequisites section. If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime.	No

Example:

{
    "name": "MariaDBLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "MariaDB",
        "typeProperties": {
            "server": "<server>",
            "port": "<port>",
            "database": "<database>",
            "username": "<username>",
            "password": {
                "type": "SecureString",
                "value": "<password>"
            },
            "driverVersion": "v2"
        },
        "connectVia": {
            "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
            "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

Example: store password in Azure Key Vault

{
    "name": "MariaDBLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "MariaDB",
        "typeProperties": {
            "server": "<server>",
            "port": "<port>",
            "database": "<database>",
            "username": "<username>",
            "password": {
                "type": "AzureKeyVaultSecret",
                "store": {
                    "referenceName": "<Azure Key Vault linked service name>",
                    "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
                },
                "secretName": "<secretName>"
            },
            "driverVersion": "v2"
        },
        "connectVia": {
            "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
            "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

If you use the legacy driver version, the following properties are supported:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property must be set to: MariaDB	Yes
connectionString	An ODBC connection string to connect to MariaDB. You can also put password in Azure Key Vault and pull the pwd configuration out of the connection string. Refer to the following samples and Store credentials in Azure Key Vault article with more details.	Yes
connectVia	The Integration Runtime to be used to connect to the data store. Learn more from Prerequisites section. If not specified, it uses the default Azure Integration Runtime.	No

Example:

{
    "name": "MariaDBLinkedService",
    "properties": {
        "type": "MariaDB",
        "typeProperties": {
            "connectionString": "Server=<host>;Port=<port>;Database=<database>;UID=<user name>;PWD=<password>"
        },
        "connectVia": {
            "referenceName": "<name of Integration Runtime>",
            "type": "IntegrationRuntimeReference"
        }
    }
}

Dataset properties

For a full list of sections and properties available for defining datasets, see the datasets article. This section provides a list of properties supported by MariaDB dataset.

To copy data from MariaDB, set the type property of the dataset to MariaDBTable. There is no additional type-specific property in this type of dataset.

Example

{
    "name": "MariaDBDataset",
    "properties": {
        "type": "MariaDBTable",
        "typeProperties": {},
        "schema": [],
        "linkedServiceName": {
            "referenceName": "<MariaDB linked service name>",
            "type": "LinkedServiceReference"
        }
    }
}

Copy activity properties

For a full list of sections and properties available for defining activities, see the Pipelines article. This section provides a list of properties supported by MariaDB source.

MariaDB as source

To copy data from MariaDB, set the source type in the copy activity to MariaDBSource. The following properties are supported in the copy activity source section:

Property	Description	Required
type	The type property of the copy activity source must be set to: MariaDBSource	Yes
query	Use the custom SQL query to read data. For example: "SELECT * FROM MyTable".	No (if "tableName" in dataset is specified)

Example:

"activities":[
    {
        "name": "CopyFromMariaDB",
        "type": "Copy",
        "inputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<MariaDB input dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "outputs": [
            {
                "referenceName": "<output dataset name>",
                "type": "DatasetReference"
            }
        ],
        "typeProperties": {
            "source": {
                "type": "MariaDBSource",
                "query": "SELECT * FROM MyTable"
            },
            "sink": {
                "type": "<sink type>"
            }
        }
    }
]

Data type mapping for MariaDB

When copying data from MariaDB, the following mappings are used from MariaDB data types to interim data types used by the service internally. See Schema and data type mappings to learn about how copy activity maps the source schema and data type to the sink.

MariaDB data type	Interim service data type	Interim service data type (for the legacy driver version)
bigint	Int64	Int64
bigint unsigned	Decimal	Decimal
bit(1)	UInt64	Boolean
bit(M), M>1	UInt64	Byte[]
blob	Byte[]	Byte[]
bool	Boolean (If TreatTinyAsBoolean=false, it is mapped as SByte. TreatTinyAsBoolean is true by default )	Int16
char	String	String
date	Datetime	Datetime
datetime	Datetime	Datetime
decimal	Decimal	Decimal, String
double	Double	Double
double precision	Double	Double
enum	String	String
float	Single	Single
int	Int32	Int32
int unsigned	Int64	Int64
integer	Int32	Int32
integer unsigned	Int64	Int64
JSON	String	-
long varbinary	Byte[]	Byte[]
long varchar	String	String
longblob	Byte[]	Byte[]
longtext	String	String
mediumblob	Byte[]	Byte[]
mediumint	Int32	Int32
mediumint unsigned	Int64	Int64
mediumtext	String	String
numeric	Decimal	Decimal
real	Double	Double
set	String	String
smallint	Int16	Int16
smallint unsigned	Int32	Int32
text	String	String
time	TimeSpan	TimeSpan
timestamp	Datetime	Datetime
tinyblob	Byte[]	Byte[]
tinyint	SByte	Int16
tinyint unsigned	Int16	Int16
tinytext	String	String
varchar	String	String
year	Int	Int

Lookup activity properties

To learn details about the properties, check Lookup activity.

Upgrade the MariaDB driver version

Here are steps that help you upgrade your MariaDB driver version:

1. In Edit linked service page, select Recommended under Driver version and configure the linked service by referring to Linked service properties.

2. The data type mapping for the latest MariaDB linked service is different from that for the legacy version. To learn the latest data type mapping, see Data type mapping for MariaDB.

3. The latest driver version v2 supports more MariaDB versions. For more information, see Supported capabilities.

Differences between the recommended and the legacy driver version

The table below shows the data type mapping differences between MariaDB using the recommended and the legacy driver version.

MariaDB data type	Interim service data type (using the recommended driver version)	Interim service data type (using the legacy driver version)
bit(1)	UInt64	Boolean
bit(M), M>1	UInt64	Byte[]
bool	Boolean	Int16
JSON	String	Byte[]

Related content

For a list of data stores supported as sources and sinks by the copy activity, see supported data stores.