MariaDB Analytics Tutorial: 5 Steps to Get Started in 10 Minutes

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Looking for an easy way to get started with analytics? MariaDB ColumnStore provides a simple, open and scalable analytics solution. It leverages a pluggable storage engine to handle analytic workloads while keeping the same ANSI SQL interface that is used across the MariaDB portfolio. This blog provides a quick 5-step tutorial to help you get started with MariaDB ColumnStore.

Before you begin, please download the sample dataset, including:

Step 1: MariaDB ColumnStore Installation and Configuration

In this step, you will learn how to download and install MariaDB ColumnStore.

Step 2: Create Table and Load Data

MariaDB ColumnStore does not require you to set up index and partitioning. It provides an easy way to create a table and load data without help from DBAs. In addition, when ColumnStore loads data, it uses cpimport which leverages parallel query loading capability. To learn more about cpimport, watch this presentation by our solutions engineer, Anders Karlsson.

Step 3: Create Dimension Table / Cross Engine Join

Leveraging the MariaDB Server interface, we can use «Dimension Tables» from the InnoDB storage engine and join those with the «Fact Table» data in ColumnStore. In this demo, we join a loan stats fact table and dimension table to create a sample quarterly report on loan amount.

Step 4: Window Function

Another benefit of ColumnStore is built-in analytics queries like window functions. Without writing complex code, users can run window functions in SQL to run time series analysis or run averages on a certain dataset. In this example, with one SQL query, you can report on the top ranked delinquent loan amounts in five specific states.

Step 5: Data Visualization: Tableau integration

ColumnStore provides an easy way to connect to third-party BI tools like Tableau using a generic ODBC driver, enabling you to better visualize your data.

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Hope you enjoyed the tutorial! Here are some additional resources to help you along the way: