How to connect PolyBase to Dynamics 365 Business Central

PolyBase for SQL Server allows you to query external data by using the same Transact-SQL syntax used to query a database table. When paired with the CData ODBC Driver for Dynamics 365 Business Central, you get access to your Dynamics 365 Business Central data directly alongside your SQL Server data. This article describes creating an external data source and external tables to grant access to live Dynamics 365 Business Central data using T-SQL queries.

NOTE: PolyBase is only available on SQL Server 19 and above, and only for Standard SQL Server.

The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live Dynamics 365 Business Central data using PolyBase due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SQL Server to Dynamics 365 Business Central, the driver pushes down supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Dynamics 365 Business Central and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations (often SQL functions and JOIN operations) client-side. And with PolyBase, you can also join SQL Server data with Dynamics 365 Business Central data, using a single query to pull data from distributed sources.

Connect to Dynamics 365 Business Central

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs. To create an external data source in SQL Server using PolyBase, configure a System DSN (CData Dynamics 365 Business Central Sys is created automatically).

To authenticate to Dynamics 365 Business Central, you must provide the User and AccessKey properties.

To obtain the User and AccessKey values, navigate to the Users page in Dynamics 365 Business Central and then click on Edit. The User Name and Web Service Access Key values are what you will enter as the User and AccessKey connection string properties. Note that the User Name is not your email address. It is a shortened user name.

To connect to data, specify OrganizationUrl. If you have multiple companies in your organization, you must also specify the Company to indicate which company you would like to connect to. Company does not need to be specified if you have only one company.

Click "Test Connection" to ensure that the DSN is connected to Dynamics 365 Business Central properly. Navigate to the Tables tab to review the table definitions for Dynamics 365 Business Central.

Create an External Data Source for Dynamics 365 Business Central Data

After configuring the connection, you need to create a master encryption key and a credential database for the external data source.

Creating a Master Encryption Key

Execute the following SQL command to create a new master key, 'ENCRYPTION,' to encrypt the credentials for the external data source.

CREATE MASTER KEY ENCRYPTION BY PASSWORD = 'password';

Creating a Credential Database

Execute the following SQL command to create credentials for the external data source connected to Dynamics 365 Business Central data.

NOTE: Since Dynamics 365 Business Central does not require a User or Password to authenticate, you may use whatever values you wish for IDENTITY and SECRET.

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL d365businesscentral_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'username', SECRET = 'password';

Create an External Data Source for Dynamics 365 Business Central

Execute a CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE SQL command to create an external data source for Dynamics 365 Business Central with PolyBase:

• Set the LOCATION parameter , using the DSN and credentials configured earlier.

For Dynamics 365 Business Central, set SERVERNAME to the URL or address for your server (e.g. 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1' for local servers; the remote URL for remote servers). Leave PORT empty. PUSHDOWN is set to ON by default, meaning the ODBC Driver can leverage server-side processing for complex queries.

CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE cdata_d365businesscentral_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData Dynamics 365 Business Central Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = d365businesscentral_creds
);

Create External Tables for Dynamics 365 Business Central

After creating the external data source, use CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statements to link to Dynamics 365 Business Central data from your SQL Server instance. The table column definitions must match those exposed by the CData ODBC Driver for Dynamics 365 Business Central. You can refer to the Tables tab of the DSN Configuration Wizard to see the table definition.

Sample CREATE TABLE Statement

The statement to create an external table based on a Dynamics 365 Business Central Accounts would look similar to the following:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Accounts(
  accountid [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  Name [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='Accounts',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_d365businesscentral_source
);

Having created external tables for Dynamics 365 Business Central in your SQL Server instance, you are now able to query local and remote data simultaneously. Thanks to built-in query processing in the CData ODBC Driver, you know that as much query processing as possible is being pushed to Dynamics 365 Business Central, freeing up local resources and computing power. Download a free, 30-day trial of the ODBC Driver for Dynamics 365 Business Central and start working with live Dynamics 365 Business Central data alongside your SQL Server data today.