Searching the Help
To search for information in the Help, type a word or phrase in the Search box. When you enter a group of words, OR is inferred. You can use Boolean operators to refine your search.
Results returned are case insensitive. However, results ranking takes case into account and assigns higher scores to case matches. Therefore, a search for "cats" followed by a search for "Cats" would return the same number of Help topics, but the order in which the topics are listed would be different.

Search for | Example | Results |
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A single word | cat
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Topics that contain the word "cat". You will also find its grammatical variations, such as "cats". |
A phrase. You can specify that the search results contain a specific phrase. |
"cat food" (quotation marks) |
Topics that contain the literal phrase "cat food" and all its grammatical variations. Without the quotation marks, the query is equivalent to specifying an OR operator, which finds topics with one of the individual words instead of the phrase. |

Search for | Operator | Example |
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Two or more words in the same topic |
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Either word in a topic |
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Topics that do not contain a specific word or phrase |
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Topics that contain one string and do not contain another | ^ (caret) |
cat ^ mouse
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A combination of search types | ( ) parentheses |
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Data Collectors
The Data Collectors page enables you to create, execute, and manage queries on a database in order to collect historical data. To visualize that data and create lightweight reports, you can create dashboards that use this data.

Administration > Data Collectors
Learn More

Query execution
You can create on-demand reports from a Vertica database by defining queries in the Data Collector UI and displaying the queried data in a dashboard. The queries you specify are executed on the Vertica database every time a dashboard is loaded that is using this data.
The query is executed directly in Vertica; no data is being cached in BVD. Note that this might have a performance impact on the Vertica database.
If you use the Default format for your query, each row of data that is returned can be used for one widget.
If you use the Use in Widget Group format instead, each row of data relates to one array that can be used for one widget group. When using the data channel created by the data collector, you cannot add widgets with time dimensions to a widget group.
Query syntax
- The query must contain a
SELECT
statement. - The query must not contain a semicolon.
-
If the data is used in widgets with time dimensions (for example Line Charts), the query must return a column with the name
timestamp
. The timestamp must be a string representing an RFC2822 or (a variant of) an ISO 8601 date. -
If the data is used in a Widget Group, the query must return a column with the name
id
that contains unique values.Tip If you have columns for
timestamp
andid
that use different names, use theSELECT AS
statement to rename the columns in the query result. For example, useSELECT country, town, store, item, time_stamp AS timestamp, sales_id AS id FROM Sales
to renametime_stamp
totimestamp
andsales_id
toid
.
Query examples
The following queries are examples for different use cases:
-
Show the top 50 results
By selecting only a reduced number of records (50 in this example), you can reduce the performance impact on the Vertica database.
Tip Only select more than one element if you want to display that data in a time dimension widget. Otherwise, the latest value (
LIMIT 1
) is sufficient.When using the Use in Widget Group format, you can use the
LIMIT
statement to specify the number of widgets displayed in the group.SELECT * FROM products_2016 ORDER BY number_sales ASC LIMIT 50
-
Define a specific time frame
If you want to use the queried data in widgets with time dimensions (for example a Line Chart), you need to define a specific time frame to make sure that the widget displays the data for the time frame you are interested in.
SELECT * FROM Orders WHERE Date BETWEEN '1/1/2014' AND '12/31/2014'

For every query, a new data channel is created. The execution result of the query serves as the data source for the data channel.
In order to clearly identify each data channel, the query name is added as the first tag. You can add additional tags when adding or editing a query.

The following limitations exist for data collectors:
-
You cannot execute queries that return data bigger than about 5 MB. The exact maximum depends on the data package that BVD receives from Vertica based on the query.
-
If you use the data in widgets with time dimensions, the data is displayed starting with the latest available time stamp instead of today's date and time. Due to this, make sure to properly define the time frame you are interested in when executing the query.
-
If you use the data in widgets with time dimensions, you can use the Chart Period property to set the period of time for which the widget will display data. However, the time period must be calculated and specified in minutes.
Example: If you want the widget to display data for the last 7 days (starting from the latest time stamp in the execution result), calculate
7 * 24 * 60 = 10,080
and enter10,080
as the Chart Period. -
If the data is used in a Widget Group, you cannot add widgets with time dimensions (for example Line Charts) to the group.

Use these buttons to manage your queries as follows:
|
Add a new query. |
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Set up a database connection, or modify the existing database connection. The database must be a Vertica database, and you cannot define multiple database connections. All queries are executed on the specified database. |
|
Edit the query. |
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Duplicate the query. |
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Execute the query. |
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Delete the query. |
Tasks

Click DB connection settings. Specify the following database settings:
Important At the moment, only Vertica databases (version 8.0.1 and 8.1.1) are supported. Micro Focus strongly recommends implementing TLS 1.2 encryption to connect to the Vertica database. Note, however, that BVD does not support SSL Mutual Mode.
- Host name
- Port
-
TLS. If checked, the database connection must be set up with TLS and you must upload the corresponding CA certificate in PEM format by clicking Attach certificate.
If you use a self-signed certificate, Micro Focus recommends to replace it with a CA issued certificate instead. For more information, see Vertica database: replace the self-signed certificate with a CA certificate.If you do not enable this setting, BVD still tries to connect to Vertica via TLS. If that fails, BVD uses HTTP.
- DB name
- Login. For security reasons, we recommend specifying a user with view-only permission.
- Password
Once you have specified all mandatory fields, you can click Test Connection to test the database connection.
Click Save settings to save the database settings.

Note You must have a database connection set up in order to execute queries. For details, see How to set up a database connection.
Click New. Specify the following query settings:
- Query name. For easier identification, the query name should reflect the data you are collecting, for example "
Data between 2015 and 2017
" or "Query for Location A
". The query name must be unique. It is added as the first tag of the generated data channel. - Description. Optional. Describe which data you want to retrieve with this query.
- Tags. Add additional tags to the data channel which describe or differentiate the queried data.
- Format. Decide if you want to use the Default format or the Use in Widget Group format. If you want to use your queried data in a widget group, the query must return a column with the name
id
that contains unique values. - Query. Enter the query you want to execute on the defined database. The query must contain a
SELECT
statement and must not contain a semicolon at the end. For more information, see Query execution, syntax, and examples.
Once the query is specified, click Run to test which data the query returns. Only the first five rows of data are returned.
Click Save Query to add the query, or Cancel to exit without saving.