Teiid is a runtime for executing queries against a Virtual Database or VDB. Before you can access your data in a federated manner, use either the Teiid Designer or the Dynamic VDB feature to build a VDB. This picture shows the relationship between the components involved.
A Virtual Database (VDB) is an artifact that combines one or more physical data sources to provide for easy data integration. Integration is encapsulated through view and procedures that Teiid will process in an optimized way against their respective sources. The physical sources can be JDBC sources, delimited text files, spreadsheets, or even Web services.
The Teiid Designer tool lets you define physical data sources by importing the required metadata (schema) from these sources. Once the metadata is imported, Designer can assist in building additional view layers according to how you wish to expose the data to user access. The collection of physical and view models will form a VDB.