Connect to Cloudant database from SparkR

How to Connect to Cloudant Database from SparkR kernel



Below i will show how to do it from Bluemix but it will apply  Jupyter Notebook running on any environment.

Connecting to Cloudant from IBM Bluemix - Juypter Notebooks on Spark

1. Create an account in bluemix(ibm offers 30 days free trial) - https://console.ng.bluemix.net/registration/


2. Create a spark service (https://www.ng.bluemix.net/docs/services/AnalyticsforApacheSpark/index.html) 
3. Now create notebook with sparkR as language.  
• spark context needs to know which driver to use to connect to Cloudant database. In bluemix spark service enivornment the driver is loaded by default. 
•  https://github.com/cloudant-labs/spark-cloudant
•  Also if you are in different environment, you use binary
• https://github.com/cloudant-labs/spark-cloudant/releases/download/v1.6.3/cloudant-spark-v1.6.3-125.jar
• For ex. use %Addjar -f https://github.com/cloudant-labs/spark-cloudant/releases/download/v1.6.3/cloudant-spark-v1.6.3-125.jar to add it to your spark.
4. Once you have spark-cloudant connector in your spark.
5.  You are going to need to have 3 configuration parameters set for you spark context

• cloudant.host","ACCOUNT.cloudant.com"

  "cloudant.username", "USERNAME"
  "cloudant.password","PASSWORD"

  So in sparkR, you would need to use one of the sparkEnv variable

  to pass your environment variables to all the executors.

  sc <- sparkR.init(sparkEnv = list("cloudant.host"="c8dca934-d2a4-4dcc-9123-2189ce9f5812-bluemix.cloudant.com","cloudant.username"="c8dca934-d2a4-4dcc-9123-2189ce9f5812-bluemix","cloudant.password"="XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX")) 

  Once you execute above. Your sparkcontext is ready to use cloudant-connector.

  All you need to do is specify that you are reading using com.cloudant.spark

  people <- read.df(sqlContext, database, header='true', source = "com.cloudant.spark",inferSchema='true') 

  I have complete Notebook published on this github repo. Feel Free to use it.

Running your first R notebook on IBM Bluemix Apache Spark Service

Running your first R notebook on IBM Bluemix Apache Spark Service

IBM Bluemix Apache Spark Service have introduced R -tech preview for allowing users to run R programs on spark cluster.
https://developer.ibm.com/clouddataservices/docs/spark/technical-previews/r-in-jupyter-notebooks/
So how do you get yourself started on R notebook on Spark.

You would need to create new instance of the service as tech preview was introduced in May 2016. Please check it out.
I have a simple example of PI Calculator here, if you just want to import and give the service a try:- https://github.com/charles2588/bluemixsparknotebooks/raw/master/R/Pi_Bluemix.ipynb