Connect to Amazon Athena in Analyst Studio

Supported JDBC drivers and known issues

Driver	Driver Release Date	Analyst Studio Removal Date
Amazon v 3.2.2	7/22/2024
(Recommended) Simba v 2.1.1.1001	7/31/2023
Simba v 2.0.35.1001	12/22/2022
Simba v 2.0.33.1001	10/4/2022
Simba v 2.0.31.1001	5/30/2022
Simba v 2.0.27.1001	1/13/2022
Simba v 2.0.23.1000	6/10/2021
Simba v 2.0.18.1000	1/29/2021
Simba v 2.0.13.1000	6/9/2020

Driver

Driver Release Date

Analyst Studio Removal Date

Amazon v 3.2.2

7/22/2024

(Recommended) Simba v 2.1.1.1001

7/31/2023

Simba v 2.0.35.1001

12/22/2022

Simba v 2.0.33.1001

10/4/2022

Simba v 2.0.31.1001

5/30/2022

Simba v 2.0.27.1001

1/13/2022

Simba v 2.0.23.1000

6/10/2021

Simba v 2.0.18.1000

1/29/2021

Simba v 2.0.13.1000

6/9/2020

Analyst Studio recommends connecting via the Simba Athena driver because it is the official driver endorsed by Amazon.

The following are known issues with the current supported drivers. Analyst Studio continues to advocate on our customers' behalf for vendors and open-source communities to resolve these issues.

Driver Known Issue Further Details

Driver	Known Issue	Further Details
Simba v 2.0.27.1001	Queries with special characters failing	Queries with special characters (for example, ‘√ß’ and ‘√Ö’) are failing with String index out of range error. As a workaround, use the previous version of the driver (2.0.23.1000).
Simba v 2.0.13.1000	Requires additional IAM permissions for queries	This version of the driver requires that the Analyst Studio user’s IAM permissions include the `athena:ListDataCatalogs` permission. This permission is required for query execution via Analyst Studio (not just the Schema Browser). Customers whose Analyst Studio user is managed via the AmazonAthenaFullAccess Managed Policy will not experience issues.
Simba v 2.0.13.1000	Schema refreshes fail with Null Pointer Exception for external data sources	Attempts to get or update schemas when Athena is connected to non-Hive (PostgreSQL confirmed) external data sources results in a Null Pointer Exception. For customers whose Athena instance includes external data sources, automatic refresh of the database’s schema data should be disabled and the Analyst Studio Schema Browser will be unable to display data.

Simba v 2.0.27.1001

Queries with special characters failing

Queries with special characters (for example, ‘√ß’ and ‘√Ö’) are failing with String index out of range error. As a workaround, use the previous version of the driver (2.0.23.1000).

Simba v 2.0.13.1000

Requires additional IAM permissions for queries

This version of the driver requires that the Analyst Studio user’s IAM permissions include the athena:ListDataCatalogs permission. This permission is required for query execution via Analyst Studio (not just the Schema Browser).
Customers whose Analyst Studio user is managed via the AmazonAthenaFullAccess Managed Policy will not experience issues.

Simba v 2.0.13.1000

Schema refreshes fail with Null Pointer Exception for external data sources

Attempts to get or update schemas when Athena is connected to non-Hive (PostgreSQL confirmed) external data sources results in a Null Pointer Exception. For customers whose Athena instance includes external data sources, automatic refresh of the database’s schema data should be disabled and the Analyst Studio Schema Browser will be unable to display data.

Database configuration instructions

The Analyst Studio user’s IAM permissions must include athena:ListDatabases and athena:ListDataCatalogs. In addition, ensure that port 444 is open to outbound traffic.

Connecting to Analyst Studio via access keys

Follow the steps to connect a database with Direct Connect.
Select Amazon Athena from the list of databases.
Fill out your AWS region to be formatted like us-west-2.
Select Authentication method: Access keys in the Analyst Studio connection form.
The AWS Access Key and Access Secret should be for the AWS user you want to connect through. When creating an Athena connection, we recommend creating a user in AWS that only has access to the data you want to query through Athena. For data you want to query, the AWS user only needs read access.
The S3 Results Directory should be a bucket where Athena can write query results. For this bucket, the AWS user specified above needs read and write access. The bucket should be a full S3 url (for example, s3://acme/my/athena/bucket).
Click Connect. You will land on a page that displays your database schema.

Connecting to Analyst Studio via IAM role

Follow the steps to connect a database with Direct Connect.
Select Amazon Athena from the list of databases.
Fill out your AWS region to be formatted like us-west-2.
Select Authentication method: IAM role in the Analyst Studio connection form.
Navigate to IAM > Roles in your AWS Console.
Create a new role or choose an existing role and select Custom trust policy under Trusted entity type.
Alternatively, you can choose an existing role and select the Trust relationships tab.
Copy and paste the trust relationship from the Analyst Studio connection form into your AWS IAM Role.
Add in the necessary IAM permissions to access your Athena resource (must include athena:ListDatabases and athena:ListDataCatalogs).
Click Create Role in AWS and paste the IAM Role ARN into the Analyst Studio connection form.
The S3 Results Directory should be a bucket where Athena can write query results. For this bucket, the AWS user specified above needs read and write access. The bucket should be a full S3 url (for example, s3://acme/my/athena/bucket).
Click Connect. You will land on a page that displays your database schema.