How to connect PolyBase to SAP Ariba Procurement

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 SAP Ariba Procurement, you get access to your SAP Ariba Procurement data directly alongside your SQL Server data. This article describes creating an external data source and external tables to grant access to live SAP Ariba Procurement 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 SAP Ariba Procurement data using PolyBase due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SQL Server to SAP Ariba Procurement, the driver pushes down supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to SAP Ariba Procurement 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 SAP Ariba Procurement data, using a single query to pull data from distributed sources.

Connect to SAP Ariba Procurement

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 SAP Ariba Procurement Sys is created automatically).

In order to connect with SAP Ariba Procurement, set the following:

• ANID: Your Ariba Network ID.
• ANID: Specify which API you would like the provider to retrieve SAP Ariba data from. Select the Buyer or Supplier API based on your business role (possible values are PurchaseOrdersBuyerAPIV1 or PurchaseOrdersSupplierAPIV1).
• Environment: Indicate whether you are connecting to a test or production environment (possible values are TEST or PRODUCTION).

Authenticating with OAuth

After setting connection properties, you need to configure OAuth connectivity to authenticate.

• Set AuthScheme to OAuthClient.
• Register an application with the service to obtain the APIKey, OAuthClientId and OAuthClientSecret.

  For more information on creating an OAuth application, refer to the Help documentation.

Automatic OAuth

After setting the following, you are ready to connect:

APIKey: The Application key in your app settings. OAuthClientId: The OAuth Client Id in your app settings. OAuthClientSecret: The OAuth Secret in your app settings.

When you connect, the provider automatically completes the OAuth process:

1. The provider obtains an access token from SAP Ariba and uses it to request data.
2. The provider refreshes the access token automatically when it expires.
3. The OAuth values are saved in memory relative to the location specified in OAuthSettingsLocation.

Click "Test Connection" to ensure that the DSN is connected to SAP Ariba Procurement properly. Navigate to the Tables tab to review the table definitions for SAP Ariba Procurement.

Create an External Data Source for SAP Ariba Procurement 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 SAP Ariba Procurement data.

NOTE: Since SAP Ariba Procurement does not require a User or Password to authenticate, you may use whatever values you wish for IDENTITY and SECRET.

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

Create an External Data Source for SAP Ariba Procurement

Execute a CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE SQL command to create an external data source for SAP Ariba Procurement with PolyBase:

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

For SAP Ariba Procurement, 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_saparibaprocurement_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData SAP Ariba Procurement Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = saparibaprocurement_creds
);

Create External Tables for SAP Ariba Procurement

After creating the external data source, use CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statements to link to SAP Ariba Procurement data from your SQL Server instance. The table column definitions must match those exposed by the CData ODBC Driver for SAP Ariba Procurement. 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 SAP Ariba Procurement Orders would look similar to the following:

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Orders(
  DocumentNumber [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  Revision [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='Orders',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_saparibaprocurement_source
);

Having created external tables for SAP Ariba Procurement 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 SAP Ariba Procurement, freeing up local resources and computing power. Download a free, 30-day trial of the ODBC Driver for SAP Ariba Procurement and start working with live SAP Ariba Procurement data alongside your SQL Server data today.