Data Source Management

Purpose

The Data Source Management page in the Admin Console lets you manage your environment's data source connections. You can add, edit, and remove business data sources that connect Appian to external databases using a Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) connection. The page also lists server-managed data sources, and lets you change the source for record types that use either type of source.

Access

To access the Data Source Management page, go to the Admin Console. Then, in the left navigation menu, under Integration, click Data Sources.

Scroll or drag to pan · ⌘+/⌘− to zoom · Esc to close

Business data sources

Business data sources store the business data your Appian applications generate. You can register business data sources through the Admin Console or with a data source connected system.

Business data sources registered through the Admin Console appear in the top section of the Data Sources page, where you can add, edit, and remove them.

Add a data source

To add a business data source in your environment:

1. In the Admin Console, go to Data Sources.
2. Click New Data Source.

3. Configure the following data source properties:

   Field	Description
   Name	Name that appears in Appian objects like a record type or data store. As a best practice, begin the name with jdbc/. Use the same name in each environment you deploy to. You can't reuse the name of the Appian data source. In self-managed environments, system administrators set this name in the webapp.dataSources.primary.name property of the Appian CR configuration file.
   Type	The type of database to connect to: For Amazon Aurora, choose the option that matches your Aurora version. For Aurora PostgreSQL, choose PostgreSQL. For Aurora MySQL, choose the Aurora MySQL option, not the standard MySQL option, which uses a different JDBC driver than AWS recommends.
   Username	Username for connecting to the data source.
   Password	Password for connecting to the data source. Appian stores the password encrypted, not in plain text.
   Connection String	The data source URL, including the hostname, port, and database name. Syntax varies by database type. If you don't know the URL, contact your database administrator. For database-specific considerations, see Configuring Relational Databases.

4. Click TEST CONNECTION to verify your configurations.
5. Click SAVE.

Edit a data source

To edit a business data source:

1. In the Admin Console, go to Data Sources.
2. Click the name of the data source.
3. In the Configure Data Source dialog, edit the properties as needed.
4. Click TEST CONNECTION to verify your changes.
5. Click SAVE.

Delete a data source

Deleting a data source cannot be undone.

To delete a business data source:

1. In the Admin Console, go to Data Sources.
2. Click Delete Data Source .
3. Click DELETE.

Server-managed data sources

Server-managed data sources are managed by the Application Server for your whole environment.

The Data Sources page lists server-managed data sources in a read-only state. From the Admin Console, you can see how many record types use each data source and change the source for those record types.

In self-managed environments, system administrators can add, update, or delete server-managed data sources using properties in the Appian CR configuration file.

Enable one-way SSL/TLS connections

You can use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) in Appian to encrypt a connection to a supported database. SSL/TLS connections provide an additional layer of security by encrypting data transferred between Appian and your database instance or cluster.

In one-way SSL, only Appian validates the server certificate to ensure that it receives data from the intended database server.

To enable one-way SSL/TLS connections to an Appian-supported database:

1. Enable SSL/TLS on your database server.
2. Ensure that a valid SSL certificate has been uploaded to the Trusted Server Certificates in the Admin Console, especially if you are using a self-signed or private certificate authority (CA) signed SSL certificate on your database server.

3. Add SSL connection properties to your database connection URL.

   The following list example connection URLs for each supported database:

   • MariaDB:
     jdbc:mariadb://yourserver.example.com:3306/your_db_name?useOldAliasMetadataBehavior=true&useSSL=true&sslMode=VERIFY_IDENTITY
   • MySQL:
     jdbc:mysql://yourserver.example.com:3306/your_db_name?useOldAliasMetadataBehavior=true&useSSL=true&sslMode=VERIFY_IDENTITY
   • Oracle:
     jdbc:oracle:thin:@(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcps)(HOST=yourserver.example.com)(PORT=2484))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=YOUR_DB_NAME)))
   • SQL Server:
     jdbc:sqlserver://yourserver.example.com:1433;databaseName=your_db_name;encrypt=true;sslProtocol=TLS;trustServerCertificate=false
   • PostgreSQL:
     jdbc:postgresql://yourserver.example.com:5432/your_db_name?escapeSyntaxCallMode=callIfNoReturn&ssl=true&sslmode=verify-full

Change the source for record types

You can change the source for all the record types that use a business data source or a server-managed data source. For example, you can move record types to a data source connected system that supports additional connection properties and OAuth.

Feedback