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Links and Collections in Columnar

In Capella DataStudio, the management of links and collections for Columnar instances provides a unified interface for accessing data from various sources. This section explains the concepts and processes involved in working with links and collections.

In Columnar, collections are part of a scope, but they differ from provisioned instances in how data is stored and accessed:

  • Standalone Collections: Data is located within the cluster itself.
  • External Collections: Data is stored outside the cluster, accessed through links.

External data sources can include:

  • Amazon S3
  • Capella/Couchbase instances
  • MongoDB
  • MySQL
  • PostgreSQL

Links are global to the cluster and provide the connection to these external data sources.

Capella DataStudio supports the following link types:

  1. Local Link: Always available, used for standalone collections.
  2. Couchbase Link: Requires a Couchbase/Capella connection in DataStudio.
  3. Amazon S3 Link: Requires an S3 store configuration in DataStudio.
  4. Confluent Cloud Platform Link: Link details maintained on the Columnar instance.
  5. Amazon MSK Link: Link details maintained on the Columnar instance.
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To maintain a consistent UI flow and paradigm, standalone collections in DataStudio are created under "Local" Links, ensuring a uniform creation and management process across all collection types.

  1. Open the Links Manager in Capella DataStudio.
  2. Add the required links based on your data source needs.

Creating Collections​

  1. In the Active Scope, create a link reference.
  2. Select the desired link from the dropdown, which displays available links from the Link Manager.
  3. Add collections to the selected link reference.
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The dialog for adding collections will vary based on the selected link type. Refer to subsequent sections for detailed information on each link type.

Next Steps​

In the following sections, we'll dive deeper into the specifics of each link type and provide step-by-step guides for creating and managing collections across different data sources.