It is a best practice to encrypt network traffic between the Looker application and your database. Consider one of the options described on the Enabling secure database access documentation page.
Installing the hash_md5 user-defined function (UDF)
Before configuring Looker to work with Teradata, you must install the hash_md5 user-defined function (UDF) on your Teradata server. You can find instructions for installing the UDF on this Teradata downloads page.
Installing the Teradata JDBC driver
If you have a Looker (original) instance, you will need to configure a Teradata driver before creating the Looker connection. These instructions describe that process, assuming use of a startup script that is similar to the examples that are provided on the looker-open-source GitHub page.
To install the driver, you will need to acquire two Teradata files, include them as part of the startup process, and add an option to tell Looker to access the driver.
Follow the steps on the Unpackaged JDBC drivers documentation page using the following values:
To create the connection from Looker to your database, follow these steps:
In the Admin section of Looker, select Connections, and then click Add Connection.
Select Teradata from the Dialect drop-down menu.
Fill out the connection details. The majority of the settings are common to most database dialects. See the Connecting Looker to your database documentation page for information.
To verify that the connection is successful, click Test. See the Testing database connectivity documentation page for troubleshooting information.
To save these settings, click Connect.
Feature support
For Looker to support some features, your database dialect must also support them.
Teradata supports the following features as of Looker 25.12:
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-25 UTC."],[],[],null,["# Teradata\n\n| **Note:** See the [Teradata end-user license agreement](/looker/docs/2512/db-teradata-eula).\n\nThe procedures that are required to connect Looker to a Teradata database depend on your Looker deployment:\n\n- For Looker-hosted, Looker (original) instances, contact [Looker Support](/looker/docs/2512/best-practices/looker-support-details) if you want to enable the Teradata driver.\n\n- For [customer-hosted](/looker/docs/2512/glossary#customer-hosted) Looker (original) instances, perform the following procedures:\n\n 1. [Install the `hash_md5` user-defined function (UDF) on your Teradata server](#install-udf).\n 2. [Install the Teradata JDBC driver](#install-jdbc-driver).\n 3. [Create the Looker connection to your database](#creating-the-connection-to-your-database).\n- For [Looker (Google Cloud core)](/looker/docs/looker-core-overview) instances, perform the following procedures:\n\n 1. [Install the `hash_md5` user-defined function (UDF) on your Teradata server](#install-udf).\n 2. [Create the Looker connection to your database](#creating-the-connection-to-your-database).\n\nEncrypting network traffic\n--------------------------\n\nIt is a best practice to encrypt network traffic between the Looker application and your database. Consider one of the options described on the [Enabling secure database access](/looker/docs/2512/enabling-secure-db-access) documentation page.\n\nInstalling the `hash_md5` user-defined function (UDF)\n-----------------------------------------------------\n\nBefore configuring Looker to work with Teradata, you must install the `hash_md5` user-defined function (UDF) on your Teradata server. You can find instructions for installing the UDF on this [Teradata downloads](https://downloads.teradata.com/download/extensibility/md5-message-digest-udf) page.\n\nInstalling the Teradata JDBC driver\n-----------------------------------\n\nIf you have a Looker (original) instance, you will need to configure a Teradata driver before creating the Looker connection. These instructions describe that process, assuming use of a startup script that is similar to the examples that are provided on the [looker-open-source GitHub page](https://github.com/looker-open-source/customer-scripts/tree/master/startup_scripts).\n| **Note:** If you have a [Looker (Google Cloud core)](/looker/docs/looker-core-overview) instance, you can create a connection to a Teradata database without configuring a Teradata driver. After you [install the `hash_md5` user-defined function (UDF) on your Teradata server](#install-udf), you can go right to the [Creating the Looker connection to your database](#creating-the-connection-to-your-database) procedure on this page.\n\nTo install the driver, you will need to acquire two Teradata files, include them as part of the startup process, and add an option to tell Looker to access the driver.\n\nFollow the steps on the [Unpackaged JDBC drivers](/looker/docs/2512/unpackaged-jdbc-drivers) documentation page using the following values:\n\n**driver symbol** : `teradata`\n\n**driver entry**: \n\n - name: teradata\n dir_name: teradata\n module_path: com.teradata.jdbc.TeraDriver\n\nFor the [step to put the driver in your dialect's directory](/looker/docs/2512/unpackaged-jdbc-drivers#driver_directory), the paths to these files will look like this:\n\n- `looker/custom_jdbc_drivers/teradata/tdgssconfig.jar`\n- `looker/custom_jdbc_drivers/teradata/terajdbc4.jar`\n\nCreating the Looker connection to your database\n-----------------------------------------------\n\nTo create the connection from Looker to your database, follow these steps:\n\n1. In the **Admin** section of Looker, select **Connections** , and then click **Add Connection**.\n2. Select **Teradata** from the **Dialect** drop-down menu.\n3. Fill out the connection details. The majority of the settings are common to most database dialects. See the [Connecting Looker to your database](/looker/docs/2512/connecting-to-your-db) documentation page for information.\n4. To verify that the connection is successful, click **Test** . See the [Testing database connectivity](/looker/docs/2512/testing-db-connectivity) documentation page for troubleshooting information.\n5. To save these settings, click **Connect**.\n\nFeature support\n---------------\n\nFor Looker to support some features, your database dialect must also support them.\n\nTeradata supports the following features as of Looker 25.12:"]]
