How to load data from Looker to Apache Iceberg

Learn how to use Airbyte to synchronize your Looker data into Apache Iceberg within minutes.

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Set up a Looker connector in Airbyte

Connect to Looker or one of 400+ pre-built or 10,000+ custom connectors through simple account authentication.

Set up Apache Iceberg for your extracted Looker data

Select Apache Iceberg where you want to import data from your Looker source to. You can also choose other cloud data warehouses, databases, data lakes, vector databases, or any other supported Airbyte destinations.

Configure the Looker to Apache Iceberg in Airbyte

This includes selecting the data you want to extract - streams and columns -, the sync frequency, where in the destination you want that data to be loaded.

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TL;DR

set up Looker as a source connector (using Auth, or usually an API key)
set up Apache Iceberg as a destination connector
define which data you want to transfer and how frequently

You can choose to self-host the pipeline using Airbyte Open Source or have it managed for you with Airbyte Cloud.

This tutorial’s purpose is to show you how.

What is Looker

Looker is a Google-Cloud-based enterprise platform that provides information and insights to help move businesses forward. Looker reveals data in clear and understandable formats that enable companies to build data applications and create data experiences tailored specifically to their own organization. Looker’s capabilities for data applications, business intelligence, and embedded analytics make it helpful for anyone requiring data to perform their job—from data analysts and data scientists to business executives and partners.

What is Apache Iceberg

For huge analytical tables, Apache Iceberg is a high-performance format. Using Apache Iceberg, engines such as Spark, Trino, Flink, Presto, Hive and Impala can safely work with the same tables, at the same time, providing the reliability and simplicity of SQL tables to big data. With Apache Iceberg, you can merge new data, update existing rows, and delete specific rows. Data files can be eagerly rewritten or deleted deltas can be used to make updates faster.

Integrate Looker with Apache Iceberg in minutes

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Prerequisites

A Looker account to transfer your customer data automatically from.
A Apache Iceberg account.
An active Airbyte Cloud account, or you can also choose to use Airbyte Open Source locally. You can follow the instructions to set up Airbyte on your system using docker-compose.

Airbyte is an open-source data integration platform that consolidates and streamlines the process of extracting and loading data from multiple data sources to data warehouses. It offers pre-built connectors, including Looker and Apache Iceberg, for seamless data migration.

When using Airbyte to move data from Looker to Apache Iceberg, it extracts data from Looker using the source connector, converts it into a format Apache Iceberg can ingest using the provided schema, and then loads it into Apache Iceberg via the destination connector. This allows businesses to leverage their Looker data for advanced analytics and insights within Apache Iceberg, simplifying the ETL process and saving significant time and resources.

Step 1: Set up Looker as a source connector

1. Open Looker and navigate to the Admin panel.

2. Click on "Connections" and then "New Connection".

3. Select "Airbyte" as the type of connection.

4. Enter a name for the connection and the URL for the Airbyte instance.

5. In the "Authentication" section, select "OAuth2" as the authentication method.

6. Enter the Client ID and Client Secret provided by Airbyte.

7. In the "Advanced" section, set the "API Version" to "v1".

8. Click "Test" to ensure the connection is successful.

9. Save the connection and navigate to the "Explore" panel.

10. Select the Airbyte connection as the data source and choose the relevant tables to explore.

Note: It is important to ensure that the Airbyte instance is properly configured and the necessary connectors are installed before attempting to connect to Looker. Additionally, the specific steps for adding credentials may vary depending on the version of Looker being used.

Step 2: Set up Apache Iceberg as a destination connector

1. Open the Airbyte platform and navigate to the "Destinations" tab on the left-hand side of the screen.
2. Click on the "Apache Iceberg" destination connector and select "Create new connection."
3. Enter a name for your connection and provide the necessary credentials for your Apache Iceberg database, including the host, port, database name, username, and password.
4. Test the connection to ensure that it is successful. 5. Select the tables or data sources that you want to replicate to your Apache Iceberg database.
6. Configure any additional settings or options for your connection, such as the frequency of data replication or any transformations that you want to apply to your data.
7. Save your connection and start the replication process.
8. Monitor the progress of your data replication and troubleshoot any issues that may arise.
9. Once the replication process is complete, verify that your data has been successfully replicated to your Apache Iceberg database.
10. Use your Apache Iceberg database to analyze and query your data as needed.

Step 3: Set up a connection to sync your Looker data to Apache Iceberg

Once you've successfully connected Looker as a data source and Apache Iceberg as a destination in Airbyte, you can set up a data pipeline between them with the following steps:

Create a new connection: On the Airbyte dashboard, navigate to the 'Connections' tab and click the '+ New Connection' button.
Choose your source: Select Looker from the dropdown list of your configured sources.
Select your destination: Choose Apache Iceberg from the dropdown list of your configured destinations.
Configure your sync: Define the frequency of your data syncs based on your business needs. Airbyte allows both manual and automatic scheduling for your data refreshes.
Select the data to sync: Choose the specific Looker objects you want to import data from towards Apache Iceberg. You can sync all data or select specific tables and fields.
Select the sync mode for your streams: Choose between full refreshes or incremental syncs (with deduplication if you want), and this for all streams or at the stream level. Incremental is only available for streams that have a primary cursor.
Test your connection: Click the 'Test Connection' button to make sure that your setup works. If the connection test is successful, save your configuration.
Start the sync: If the test passes, click 'Set Up Connection'. Airbyte will start moving data from Looker to Apache Iceberg according to your settings.

Remember, Airbyte keeps your data in sync at the frequency you determine, ensuring your Apache Iceberg data warehouse is always up-to-date with your Looker data.

Use Cases to transfer your Looker data to Apache Iceberg

Integrating data from Looker to Apache Iceberg provides several benefits. Here are a few use cases:

Advanced Analytics: Apache Iceberg’s powerful data processing capabilities enable you to perform complex queries and data analysis on your Looker data, extracting insights that wouldn't be possible within Looker alone.
Data Consolidation: If you're using multiple other sources along with Looker, syncing to Apache Iceberg allows you to centralize your data for a holistic view of your operations, and to set up a change data capture process so you never have any discrepancies in your data again.
Historical Data Analysis: Looker has limits on historical data. Syncing data to Apache Iceberg allows for long-term data retention and analysis of historical trends over time.
Data Security and Compliance: Apache Iceberg provides robust data security features. Syncing Looker data to Apache Iceberg ensures your data is secured and allows for advanced data governance and compliance management.
Scalability: Apache Iceberg can handle large volumes of data without affecting performance, providing an ideal solution for growing businesses with expanding Looker data.
Data Science and Machine Learning: By having Looker data in Apache Iceberg, you can apply machine learning models to your data for predictive analytics, customer segmentation, and more.
Reporting and Visualization: While Looker provides reporting tools, data visualization tools like Tableau, PowerBI, Looker (Google Data Studio) can connect to Apache Iceberg, providing more advanced business intelligence options. If you have a Looker table that needs to be converted to a Apache Iceberg table, Airbyte can do that automatically.

Wrapping Up

To summarize, this tutorial has shown you how to:

Configure a Looker account as an Airbyte data source connector.
Configure Apache Iceberg as a data destination connector.
Create an Airbyte data pipeline that will automatically be moving data directly from Looker to Apache Iceberg after you set a schedule

With Airbyte, creating data pipelines take minutes, and the data integration possibilities are endless. Airbyte supports the largest catalog of API tools, databases, and files, among other sources. Airbyte's connectors are open-source, so you can add any custom objects to the connector, or even build a new connector from scratch without any local dev environment or any data engineer within 10 minutes with the no-code connector builder.

We look forward to seeing you make use of it! We invite you to join the conversation on our community Slack Channel, or sign up for our newsletter. You should also check out other Airbyte tutorials, and Airbyte’s content hub!

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How to Sync Looker to Apache Iceberg Manually

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FAQs

What is ETL?

ETL, an acronym for Extract, Transform, Load, is a vital data integration process. It involves extracting data from diverse sources, transforming it into a usable format, and loading it into a database, data warehouse or data lake. This process enables meaningful data analysis, enhancing business intelligence.

What is Looker?

What data can you extract from Looker?

Looker's API provides access to a wide range of data categories, including:

1. User and account data: This includes information about users and their accounts, such as user IDs, email addresses, and account settings.

2. Query and report data: Looker's API allows users to retrieve data from queries and reports, including metadata about the queries and reports themselves.

3. Dashboard and visualization data: Users can access data about dashboards and visualizations, including the layout and configuration of these elements.

4. Data model and schema data: Looker's API provides access to information about the data model and schema, including tables, fields, and relationships between them.

5. Data access and permissions data: Users can retrieve information about data access and permissions, including which users have access to which data and what level of access they have.

6. Integration and extension data: Looker's API allows users to integrate and extend Looker with other tools and platforms, such as custom applications and third-party services.

Overall, Looker's API provides a comprehensive set of data categories that enable users to access and manipulate data in a variety of ways.

How do I transfer data from Looker?

This can be done by building a data pipeline manually, usually a Python script (you can leverage a tool as Apache Airflow for this). This process can take more than a full week of development. Or it can be done in minutes on Airbyte in three easy steps:
1. Set up Looker to Apache Iceberg as a source connector (using Auth, or usually an API key)
2. Choose a destination (more than 50 available destination databases, data warehouses or lakes) to sync data too and set it up as a destination connector
3. Define which data you want to transfer from Looker to Apache Iceberg and how frequently
You can choose to self-host the pipeline using Airbyte Open Source or have it managed for you with Airbyte Cloud.

What is ELT?

ELT, standing for Extract, Load, Transform, is a modern take on the traditional ETL data integration process. In ELT, data is first extracted from various sources, loaded directly into a data warehouse, and then transformed. This approach enhances data processing speed, analytical flexibility and autonomy.

Difference between ETL and ELT?

ETL and ELT are critical data integration strategies with key differences. ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) transforms data before loading, ideal for structured data. In contrast, ELT (Extract, Load, Transform) loads data before transformation, perfect for processing large, diverse data sets in modern data warehouses. ELT is becoming the new standard as it offers a lot more flexibility and autonomy to data analysts.

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Databases

Product Analytics

How to load data from Looker to Apache Iceberg

Learn how to use Airbyte to synchronize your Looker data into Apache Iceberg within minutes.

Try Airbyte Cloud free

Deploy Airbyte Open Source

TL;DR

What is Looker

What is Apache Iceberg

Prerequisites

Step 1: Setup Looker

Step 2: Setup Apache Iceberg

Step 3: Setup a connection Use Cases Wrapping Up

Example H2

Example H3

Sync data between Looker and Apache Iceberg

Get your data syncing in minutes

Try Airbyte free

TL;DR

set up Looker as a source connector (using Auth, or usually an API key)
set up Apache Iceberg as a destination connector
define which data you want to transfer and how frequently

You can choose to self-host the pipeline using Airbyte Open Source or have it managed for you with Airbyte Cloud.

This tutorial’s purpose is to show you how.

What is Looker

What is Apache Iceberg

Integrate Looker with Apache Iceberg in minutes

Try for free now

Prerequisites

A Looker account to transfer your customer data automatically from.
A Apache Iceberg account.
An active Airbyte Cloud account, or you can also choose to use Airbyte Open Source locally. You can follow the instructions to set up Airbyte on your system using docker-compose.

Step 1: Set up Looker as a source connector

1. Open Looker and navigate to the Admin panel.

2. Click on "Connections" and then "New Connection".

3. Select "Airbyte" as the type of connection.

4. Enter a name for the connection and the URL for the Airbyte instance.

5. In the "Authentication" section, select "OAuth2" as the authentication method.

6. Enter the Client ID and Client Secret provided by Airbyte.

7. In the "Advanced" section, set the "API Version" to "v1".

8. Click "Test" to ensure the connection is successful.

9. Save the connection and navigate to the "Explore" panel.

10. Select the Airbyte connection as the data source and choose the relevant tables to explore.

Step 2: Set up Apache Iceberg as a destination connector

Step 3: Set up a connection to sync your Looker data to Apache Iceberg

Once you've successfully connected Looker as a data source and Apache Iceberg as a destination in Airbyte, you can set up a data pipeline between them with the following steps:

Create a new connection: On the Airbyte dashboard, navigate to the 'Connections' tab and click the '+ New Connection' button.
Choose your source: Select Looker from the dropdown list of your configured sources.
Select your destination: Choose Apache Iceberg from the dropdown list of your configured destinations.
Configure your sync: Define the frequency of your data syncs based on your business needs. Airbyte allows both manual and automatic scheduling for your data refreshes.
Select the data to sync: Choose the specific Looker objects you want to import data from towards Apache Iceberg. You can sync all data or select specific tables and fields.
Select the sync mode for your streams: Choose between full refreshes or incremental syncs (with deduplication if you want), and this for all streams or at the stream level. Incremental is only available for streams that have a primary cursor.
Test your connection: Click the 'Test Connection' button to make sure that your setup works. If the connection test is successful, save your configuration.
Start the sync: If the test passes, click 'Set Up Connection'. Airbyte will start moving data from Looker to Apache Iceberg according to your settings.

Remember, Airbyte keeps your data in sync at the frequency you determine, ensuring your Apache Iceberg data warehouse is always up-to-date with your Looker data.

Use Cases to transfer your Looker data to Apache Iceberg

Integrating data from Looker to Apache Iceberg provides several benefits. Here are a few use cases:

Advanced Analytics: Apache Iceberg’s powerful data processing capabilities enable you to perform complex queries and data analysis on your Looker data, extracting insights that wouldn't be possible within Looker alone.
Data Consolidation: If you're using multiple other sources along with Looker, syncing to Apache Iceberg allows you to centralize your data for a holistic view of your operations, and to set up a change data capture process so you never have any discrepancies in your data again.
Historical Data Analysis: Looker has limits on historical data. Syncing data to Apache Iceberg allows for long-term data retention and analysis of historical trends over time.
Data Security and Compliance: Apache Iceberg provides robust data security features. Syncing Looker data to Apache Iceberg ensures your data is secured and allows for advanced data governance and compliance management.
Scalability: Apache Iceberg can handle large volumes of data without affecting performance, providing an ideal solution for growing businesses with expanding Looker data.
Data Science and Machine Learning: By having Looker data in Apache Iceberg, you can apply machine learning models to your data for predictive analytics, customer segmentation, and more.
Reporting and Visualization: While Looker provides reporting tools, data visualization tools like Tableau, PowerBI, Looker (Google Data Studio) can connect to Apache Iceberg, providing more advanced business intelligence options. If you have a Looker table that needs to be converted to a Apache Iceberg table, Airbyte can do that automatically.