Connecting to Azure Cosmos DB using ODBC

Question

Connecting to Azure Cosmos DB using ODBC

Anonymous

How to connect an on-premises Linux server to a cloud Azure Cosmos DB using ODBC? Would an internet connection be required?

2 answers

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Answer 1

AirGordon 7,150

You don't need to expose CosmosDb over the internet, CosmosDb supports Private Link. Resources mapped to Private Link are also accessible on-premises over private peering through VPN or Azure ExpressRoute.

For leveraging ODBC to connect to the CosmosDb, see this guide https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/nosql/odbc-driver#install-the-odbc-driver-and-connect-to-your-database

rfm_369 0 Reputation points

2023-07-10T19:15:32.96+00:00

Hi, thanks. I checked this guide it is for Windows. I understand that I could connect my Linux server using the ODBC driver ; however, is there a way to establish such connection to the Azure db without the need to go through the internet (besides private link and VPN options)?
AirGordon 7,150 Reputation points

2023-07-10T20:07:06.3733333+00:00

How else can connectivity be made if not over the internet (default) or privately using vnets and private link? TCP traffic has to be routed to the endpoint somehow.

Answer 2

Sedat SALMAN 14,180 MVP

You need to install IDBC Driver to the Linux first

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/nosql/odbc-driver

But as you can see there is an ODBC driver for Linux available by Microsoft but you can find it from a third-party vendor

The following link gives you a tutorial about how to connect from a Linux machine to cosmos db via phyton

https://www.cdata.com/kb/tech/cosmosdb-odbc-python-linux.rst

instead you can install azure-cosmos with pip on your system and you can connect by using it

pip install azure-cosmos

rfm_369 0 Reputation points

2023-07-10T19:09:25.9766667+00:00

Thank you for the information provided. I need to know whether the ODBC connection between my linux server and Azure cosmos cloud instance would work without an internet connection ?
Sedat SALMAN 14,180 Reputation points MVP

2023-07-10T19:11:32.2866667+00:00

of course, you need an internet connection between your on-prem server and Azure system to connect to the system each other. But a direct connection to internet is not required for your Cosmos DB. You can connect your on-prem server with the cosmos db with VPN or Expressroute

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/expressroute/expressroute-introduction
Yoshi 0 Reputation points

2023-07-16T11:22:15.05+00:00

Hi Sedat! I think the user rfm_369 is talking about a client that is connected to the internet but if an application A running on Linux needs to connect to Azure Cosmos DB this shouldn't not be done through the internet and neither the on-prem machine should be reachable through the (open) internet nor the cloud application itself. Microsoft has measures in order to avoid exactly that. Actually, if a private network is in place an internet connection is absolutely obsolete and still, Azure is reachable without any issues. So, network implementation in place and security requirements need to be taken into account before answering this.

What you and AirGordon are referring to is that the in order to connect to Cloud applications, you require internet connectivity but again this might not be the case if a person is within a corporate/private network.

So, the ideal scenario is that inbound and outbound traffic is disallowed (so, connecting through/from the internet is disallowed) and that we follow something similar like: https://knowledge-base.havit.eu/2017/11/10/azure-disable-outbound-traffic-from-vnet-to-internet-except-the-azure-services/ or https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/security/fundamentals/network-best-practices#avoid-exposure-to-the-internet-with-dedicated-wan-links (option 2 of what you state).

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Connecting to Azure Cosmos DB using ODBC

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