Getting Connection Strings

IBM Cloud® Databases for DataStax is deprecated and no longer supported as of 30 June 2024. For more information, see the deprecation details.

To connect to IBM Cloud® Databases for DataStax, you need some users and connection strings. Connection Strings for your deployment are displayed on the Dashboard Overview, in the Endpoints pane.

Endpoints pane on the Dashboard Overview — Figure 1. Endpoints pane

A Databases for DataStax deployment is provisioned with an admin user, and after setting the admin password, you can use its connection strings to connect to your deployment.

Client connections

Clicking the Download button in the Overview tab -> Connections section provides you with a <formation_id>_<endpoint_type>.zip file. This compressed file includes:

All necessary Certificates
All necessary JKS/truststore/keystore files so the Java client can connect.
The location of the host:port endpoint to access the metadata service.

An example bundle:

ls src/main/resources/bundle
ca.crt         cert.pfx       identity.jks   trustStore.jks
cert           config.json    key

Example config.json:

cat src/main/resources/bundle/config.json | python3 -m json.tool
{
  "host": "fd21c05e-28db-4858-9d8f-66651da81d74.bktg0ujl08k42osvn5ig.databases.appdomain.cloud",
  "port": 31868,
  "keyspace": "system",
  "keyStorePassword": "Z8XIXlC+gW02vDtLRnvka6MXqPKf4RLl1vcU/GSoPac=",
  "trustStorePassword": "FPB40vxFET9pXZuqZ8qyWH3BpEO8KinYy4LIIpE1m4M=",
  "pfxCertPassword": "nPegtaZDiwjQFvvHKdIyxmW4A426qiY1gwc2cM5SLXk="
}

Getting Connection Strings through the CLI

You can also grab connection strings from the CLI.

ibmcloud cdb deployment-connections example-deployment -u <newusername> [--endpoint-type <endpoint type>]

Full connection information is returned by the ibmcloud cdb deployment-connections command with the --all flag. To retrieve all the connection information for a deployment named "example-deployment", use the following command.

ibmcloud cdb deployment-connections example-deployment -u <newusername> --all [--endpoint-type <endpoint type>]

If you don't specify a user, the deployment-connections commands return information for the admin user by default. If you don't specify an endpoint type, the connection string returns the public endpoint by default. If your deployment has only a private endpoint, you must specify --endpoint-type private or the commands return an error. The user and endpoint type is not enforced. You can use any user on your deployment with either endpoint (if both exist on your deployment).

To use the ibmcloud cdb CLI commands, install the Cloud Databases plug-in.

Getting Connection Strings through the API

To retrieve user's connection strings from the API, use the /users/{userid}/connections endpoint. You must specify in the path which user and which type of endpoint (public or private) to use in the returned connection strings. The user and endpoint type is not enforced. You can use any user on your deployment with either endpoint (if both exist on your deployment).

curl -X GET -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIKEY" 'https://api.{region}.databases.cloud.ibm.com/v4/ibm/deployments/{id}/users/{userid}/connections/{endpoint_type}'