How to connect PolyBase to SAP ByDesign

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

Connect to SAP ByDesign

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 ByDesign Sys is created automatically).

Set the following connection properties to connect to SAP ByDesign.

• Url: Set this to the Url of your SAP ByDesign site. For example, https://test.sapbydesign.com
• User: Set this to the username of your account.
• Password: Set this to the password of your account.
• CustomService or AnalyticsService: Only one of these must be specified. If you have a custom service you want to retrieve data from, specify CustomService. If you want to retrieve the reports of a analytical service, specify AnalyticsService.
  If neither is specified, 'cc_home_analytics.svc' will used as a default for the AnalyticsService property. If you are not sure what service to specify, you can always query the Services view to list available services.

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

Create an External Data Source for SAP ByDesign 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 ByDesign data.

NOTE: IDENTITY and SECRET correspond with the User and Password properties for SAP ByDesign.

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL sapbydesign_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'sapbydesign_username', SECRET = 'sapbydesign_password';

Create an External Data Source for SAP ByDesign

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

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

For SAP ByDesign, 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_sapbydesign_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData SAP ByDesign Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = sapbydesign_creds
);

Create External Tables for SAP ByDesign

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

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE [Inventory Balance](
  ID [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ProductCategoryID [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='[Inventory Balance]',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_sapbydesign_source
);

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