How to connect PolyBase to Anaplan

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 Anaplan, you get access to your Anaplan data directly alongside your SQL Server data. This article describes creating an external data source and external tables to grant access to live Anaplan data using T-SQL queries.

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

The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live Anaplan data using PolyBase due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SQL Server to Anaplan, the driver pushes down supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to Anaplan 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 Anaplan data, using a single query to pull data from distributed sources.

Connect to Anaplan

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 Anaplan Sys is created automatically).

Authenticating to Anaplan

The driver supports authenticating with Basic, Certificate, or OAuth. In every case, set Region to the region where your Anaplan account data is hosted (e.g., US1, which is the default).

Using Basic Authentication

Set AuthScheme to Basic, then supply your Anaplan User and Password. If your workspace uses single sign-on (SSO), you must be assigned as an Exception User to use Basic authentication.

Using Certificate Authentication

Set AuthScheme to Certificate, then supply the Certificate, CertificateType, and PrivateKey properties (and the matching CertificatePassword / PrivateKeyPassword if either is encrypted). The certificate must be a CA-issued X.509 certificate registered with your Anaplan tenant administrator.

Using OAuth Authentication

Register a custom OAuth application in Anaplan, then set the following properties:

• OAuthClientId: The client Id assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
• OAuthClientSecret: The client secret assigned when you registered your custom OAuth application.
• CallbackURL: The redirect URI defined when you registered your application.
• InitiateOAuth: Set to GETANDREFRESH to have the driver manage the OAuth token exchange and refresh automatically.

See the Getting Started chapter of the help documentation for a guide to creating a custom OAuth app and using OAuth.

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

Create an External Data Source for Anaplan 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 Anaplan data.

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

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

Create an External Data Source for Anaplan

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

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

For Anaplan, 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_anaplan_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData Anaplan Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = anaplan_creds
);

Create External Tables for Anaplan

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

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Sales(
  Region [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  Product [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='Sales',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_anaplan_source
);

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