Looker connection

To access your data in Looker, create a connection asset for it.

Looker is a business intelligence software and big data analytics platform that helps you explore, analyze and share real-time business analytics.

Create a connection to Looker

To create the connection asset, you need these connection details:

  • Hostname or IP address
  • Port number of the Looker server
  • Client ID and Client secret

For Credentials, you can use secrets if a vault is configured for the platform and the service supports vaults. For information, see Using secrets from vaults in connections.

Before you configure the connection, set up API3 credentials for your Looker instance. For details, see Looker API Authentication.

Choose the method for creating a connection based on where you are in the platform

In a project
Click Assets > New asset > Data access tools > Connection. See Adding a connection to a project.
In a catalog
Click Add to catalog > Connection. See Adding a connection asset to a catalog.
In a deployment space
Click Add to space > Connection. See Adding connections to a deployment space.
In the Platform assets catalog
Click New connection. See Adding platform connections.

Next step: Add data assets from the connection

Where you can use this connection

You can use Looker connections in the following workspaces and tools:

Projects

  • Notebooks (Watson Studio). Click Read data on the Code snippets pane to get the connection credentials and load the data into a data structure. See Load data from data source connections.
  • SPSS Modeler(SPSS Modeler service)

Catalogs

  • Platform assets catalog

  • Other catalogs (Watson Knowledge Catalog)

Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS) compliance

The Looker connection cannot be created in a FIPS environment.

Looker setup

Set up and administer Looker

Restriction

You can use this connection only for source data. You cannot write to data or export data with this connection.

Running SQL statements

To ensure that your SQL statements run correctly, refer to the Looker documentation, Using SQL Runner, for the correct syntax.

Supported file types

The Looker connection supports these file types:  CSV, Delimited text, Excel, JSON.

Learn more

Looker documentation

Parent topic: Supported connections