A storage system communicatively coupled to a database management system (DBMS performs storage-side scanning of data sources that are not stored in native database storage format of the DBMS. Data sources for external tables are accessible in a storage system referred to as a distributed data access system (DDAS), e.g. a Hadoop Distributed File System. To execute a query that references an external table, a DBMS first generates an execution plan. The DDAS supplies the DBMS with information that specifies each portion of the data source, and specifies which data node to use to access the portion. The DBMS sends a request for each portion to the respective data node, requesting that the data node generate rows from data in the portion. The request may specify scanning criteria, specifying one or more columns to project and/or filter on, and code modules for the data node to execute to generate records.