Connect QlikView Desktop to AWS EC2 or RDS

[spetushi]

Hello,

I would like to ask for your input with regard to this intriguing approach where source data (relational database) is sitting in AWS EC2/RDS and I want to connect QlikView Desktop to it to extract the data.

I will be very interested in any recent documentation or experience you can share, pros, cons, etc.

Also, I am interested in identifying an experienced SME in the QlikView-AWS EC2/RDS area.

Thank you,

Sokol

[rodjager]

Hi Sokol,

You can do this by configuring some tigh security groups in AWS.  You need to open the SQL server port 1433 via Windows firewall on the AWS instance and then again via the AWS security group that applies to the instance.  You may also need to configure your local network firewall depending on your organisations security.

A couple of quick tips if you are having trouble getting started:

1. I would recommend that this security be as tight as possible with a minimum setting of locking the SQL port to your own IP address.

2. To test it is working try connecting to the server using SQL Server Management studio on the local machine.  You will need the fully qualified AWS name in the server box. The username and password for the database may require you to enter the domain of the AWS instance unless you have them connected to a single Active Directory.

3. If that works then you should be able to set up a connection string in QlikView using the same server name and credentials.

Hard to give you an estimate on performance as there are a lot of variables and you need to take into account whether this is a production system etc so I would recommend doing a simple test using the QlikView debug function to bring down say the first 1,000 records and see what the performance is like.

What you are trying to do is becoming more common as more data moves to the cloud.  If you are uncomfortable with using the raw Windows / AWS functionality there are various third party connectors that will create a link between the AS server and your local network.

Hope this helps.

Rod

[spetushi]

Thank you Rod  for the input.

Have you had any first hand experience using a third party connector for this purpose?

Any specific one you would recommend?

[spetushi]

Anyone else who has the know-how with QlikView and AWS EC2/RDS?

To expand this discussion a bit more, would installation of QlikView Desktop in AWS EC2  and then establishing a DB connection within AWS be a more viable option?   In this scenario, will there be any issues getting data/reports out of QlikView Desktop document?

Thanks,

Sokol

[a_mullick]

Hi,

There is a 3rd party product available, which may help (I'm not involved with it):

http://wiki.qvsource.com/Amazon-S3-Connector-For-QlikView-And-Qlik-Sense.ashx

Thanks,

Azam

[spetushi]

Thanks Azam, saw this in another post, but that seems to still be in beta version when I downloaded the QlikVew connectors.

[rodjager]

Hi Sokol,

Thanks.  I have first hand experience with directly connecting a Qlik environment to an AWS SQL server but not via a third party app so I can't make any thoughtful recommendations.

In response to your second question.  If you have QlikView desktop on the same or another AWS instance in the same zone then the reload will be a lot faster than connecting from outside AWS.

I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve or what sort of environment this is (test or production).  If you want fast reload performance then see if you can place QlikView desktop on the same instance as the SQL server.  It's not necessarily best practice but it will give the latest reload times assuming the AWS instance is suitably configured.

If you are configuring another AWS instance for QlikView desktop then I would recommend you set ip up to use the same security group as the SQL instance and but also go a step further to make sure they are on the same virtual network to make it simpler for the QlikView instance to connect to the SQL Server instance.

Hope this helps.

Rod