Bigtable

The Bigtable connector lets you perform insert, delete, update, and read operations on Bigtable data.

Supported versions

This connector supports Google Bigtable version 2.

Before you begin

Before you use the Bigtable connector, do the following in your Google Cloud project:

• Ensure that network connectivity is set up. For information about network patterns, see Network connectivity.
• Grant the roles/connectors.admin IAM role to the user configuring the connector.
• Grant the roles/secretmanager.viewer and roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor IAM roles to the service account that you want to use for the connector.
• Enable the following services:
  • secretmanager.googleapis.com (Secret Manager API)
  • connectors.googleapis.com (Connectors API)

  To understand how to enable services, see Enabling services. If these services or permissions have not been enabled for your project previously, you are prompted to enable them when you configure the connector.

Configure the connector

A connection is specific to a data source. It means that if you have many data sources, you must create a separate connection for each data source. To create a connection, do the following:

1. In the Cloud console, go to the Integration Connectors > Connections page and then select or create a Google Cloud project.

   Go to the Connections page

2. Click + CREATE NEW to open the Create Connection page.
3. In the Location section, choose the location for the connection.
   1. Region: Select a location from the drop-down list.

      For the list of all the supported regions, see Locations.

   2. Click NEXT.
4. In the Connection Details section, complete the following:
   1. Connector: Select Bigtable from the drop down list of available Connectors.
   2. Connector version: Select the Connector version from the drop down list of available versions.
   3. In the Connection Name field, enter a name for the Connection instance.

      Connection names must meet the following criteria:

      • Connection names can use letters, numbers, or hyphens.
      • Letters must be lower-case.
      • Connection names must begin with a letter and end with a letter or number.
      • Connection names cannot exceed 49 characters.
   4. Optionally, enter a Description for the connection instance.
   5. Optionally, enable Cloud logging, and then select a log level. By default, the log level is set to Error.
   6. Service Account: Select a service account that has the required roles.
   7. Project ID: The ID of the project that contains the Bigtable instance.
   8. Instance ID: The Bigtable instance ID.
   9. Connection Pool Size: The Bigtable connection pool size.
   10. Optionally, configure the Connection node settings:
       • Minimum number of nodes: Enter the minimum number of connection nodes.
       • Maximum number of nodes: Enter the maximum number of connection nodes.

       A node is a unit (or replica) of a connection that processes transactions. More nodes are required to process more transactions for a connection and conversely, fewer nodes are required to process fewer transactions. To understand how the nodes affect your connector pricing, see Pricing for connection nodes. If you don't enter any values, by default the minimum nodes are set to 2 (for better availability) and the maximum nodes are set to 50.

   11. Optionally, click + ADD LABEL to add a label to the Connection in the form of a key/value pair.
   12. Click NEXT.
5. In the Authentication section, enter the authentication details.
   1. Select an Authentication type and enter the relevant details.

      The following authentication types are supported by the Bigtable connection:

      • Service Account Authentication
      • OAuth 2.0 - Authorization code

   To understand how to configure these authentication types, see Configure authentication.

   2. Click NEXT.
6. Review: Review your connection and authentication details.
7. Click Create.

Configure authentication

Enter the details based on the authentication you want to use.

• Service Account Authentication: Ensure that the service account has the required roles.

• OAuth 2.0 - Authorization code
  • Client ID: The client ID provided by the application.
  • Scopes: List of desired scopes
  • Client Secret: Secret Manager Secret containing the client secret for the application.
  • Secret Version: Secret version for the secret selected above.

Connection configuration samples

This section lists the sample values for the various fields that you configure when creating the connection.

Service account authentication connection type

Field name	Details
Location	asia-east1
Version	1
Connector	bigtable
Connector version	1
Connection Name	googlecloud-bigtable-service-authontication
Service Account	SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com
Project Id	PROJECT_ID
Instance ID	gcloud-bigtable-instance
Connection Pool Size	1
Minimum number of nodes	2
Maximum number of nodes	50
Client Secret	bigtable-client-secret
Secret Version	1

OAuth 2.0 - Authorization code connection type

Field name	Details
Location	asia-east1
Version	1
Connector	bigtable
Connector version	1
Connection Name	bigtable-oauth
Service Account	SERVICE_ACCOUNT_NAME@PROJECT_ID.iam.gserviceaccount.com
Project Id	PROJECT_ID
Instance ID	googlecloud-bigtable-instance
Connection Pool Size	1
Minimum number of nodes	2
Maximum number of nodes	50
Client Secret	bigtable-client-secret
Secret Version	1

System limitations

The Bigtable connector can process a maximum of 16 transactions per second, per node, and throttles any transactions beyond this limit. By default, Integration Connectors allocates 2 nodes (for better availability) for a connection.

For information on the limits applicable to Integration Connectors, see Limits.

Use the Bigtable connection in an integration

After you create the connection, it becomes available in both Apigee Integration and Application Integration. You can use the connection in an integration through the Connectors task.

• To understand how to create and use the Connectors task in Apigee Integration, see Connectors task.
• To understand how to create and use the Connectors task in Application Integration, see Connectors task.

Entities, operations, and actions

All the Integration Connectors provide a layer of abstraction for the objects of the connected application. You can access an application's objects only through this abstraction. The abstraction is exposed to you as entities, operations, and actions.

• Entity: An entity can be thought of as an object, or a collection of properties, in the connected application or service. The definition of an entity differs from a connector to a connector. For example, in a database connector, tables are the entities, in a file server connector, folders are the entities, and in a messaging system connector, queues are the entities.

  However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support or have any entities, in which case the Entities list will be empty.

• Operation: An operation is the activity that you can perform on an entity. You can perform any of the following operations on an entity:
  • List
  • Get
  • Create
  • Update
  • Delete

  Selecting an entity from the available list, generates a list of operations available for the entity. For a detailed description of the operations, see the Connectors task's entity operations. However, if a connector doesn't support any of the entity operations, such unsupported operations aren't listed in the Operations list.

• Action: An action is a first class function that is made available to the integration through the connector interface. An action lets you make changes to an entity or entities, and vary from connector to connector. Normally, an action will have some input parameters, and an output parameter. However, it is possible that a connector doesn't support any action, in which case the Actions list will be empty.

Entity operation examples

This section shows how to perform some of the entity operations in this connector.

Example - Get a record from a table

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Table from the Entitylist.
3. Select the Get operation, and then click Done.
4. Set the entity ID to Get Operation. To set the entity ID, in the Data Mapper section of the Data Mapping, click Open Data Mapping Editor and then enter row99 in the Input Value field and choose the EntityId as Local variable.

Example - List all records from a table

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities.
2. Select Table from the Entitylist.
3. Select the List operation, and then click Done.

Example - Create a record in a table

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities and select Table2.
2. Select the Create operation, and then click Done.
3. Set the RowKey to Create operation. To set the RowKey, in the Data Mapper section of the Data Mapping, click Open Data Mapping Editor and then enter in the Input Value field and provide the RowKey and Payload for column family as Local variable.

Example - Update a record in a table

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities and select Table.
2. Select the Update operation, and then click Done.
3. Set the entity ID to Update operation. To set the entity ID, in the Data Mapper section of the Data Mapping, click Open Data Mapping Editor and then enter in the Input Value field and provide RowKey and payload for column family as Local variable.

Example - Delete a record from a table

1. In the Configure connector task dialog, click Entities and select Table2.
2. Select the Delete operation, and then click Done.
3. Set the entity ID to Delete opearation. To set the entity ID, in the Data Mapper section of the Data Mapping, click Open Data Mapping Editor and then enter row99 in the Input Value field and choose the EntityId as Local variable.

Get help from the Google Cloud community

You can post your questions and discuss this connector in the Google Cloud community at Cloud Forums.

What's next

• Understand how to suspend and resume a connection.
• Understand how to monitor connector usage.
• Understand how to view connector logs.