watsonx.data

How to add a Milvus Connection (Saas) to a project in watsonx.ai

Milvus is the vector database service within IBM’s lakehouse product watsonx.data. Vectorized data is an imperative part of performing RAG (retrieval augmented generation) prior to feeding into your LLM (large language model) of choice. 

Here are the steps to add a Milvus connection from a watsonx.data Saas instance to a project within watsonx.ai: 

1. Create a New Project in your watsonx.ai enviornment by selecting View All Projects from the main menu and choosing the blue New project +

• Define the details of your project accordingly

2. Once you have a new project, click New asset + and select, Connect to a data source

It is important to note in this step that there are two connectors related to watsonx.data . One for watsonx.data Engines such as Presto and another one specifically for the Milvus service. 

3. Use the search bar to find and Select the “Milvus” connector

4. Input a name for your connector such as “Milvus Connection”

Now you will need to retrieve the following credentials: Milvus Hostname, Port, Username, and Password. There is no database name required. 

To Collect the Hostname and Port Number:

1. 1. Log in to the watsonx.data console.

   2. From the navigation menu, select Infrastructure manager.

   3. Click on the Milvus service tile.

   4. Go to the Details tab.

   5. Copy the host from the GRPC host field.

• • • For the hostname, remove grpc:// For example: If the GRPC host is grpc://xxx.xxx.lakehouse.dev.appdomain.cloud.####, consider only: xxx.xxx.lakehouse.dev.appdomain.cloud.
    • The port number will be the digits at the end of the URL For example: ####

The default username is ‘ibmlhapikey’ 

To collect the Password you will need to generate an IBM Cloud API key:

1. From the IBM Cloud console, go to Manage > Access (IAM), and select the API keys.

2. Click Create to create an API key.

3. Copy the API key.

1. 1. Note: you will only have one opportunity to copy down this api key.

5. Enter the corresponding credentials into the fields in the connector UI in watsonx.ai 

6. Uncheck “Port is SSL enabled”

7. Test your connection using the button in the top right corner. There will be a green success message if the connection was able to be made.

8. Click Create

Congratulations! You have now successfully added a Milvus connection to your project in watsonx.ai. 

For more documentation on working with Milvus Click Here.