How to connect PolyBase to SAP Business One

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

Connect to SAP Business One

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 Business One Sys is created automatically).

To authenticate to SAP Business One you must provide the Userand Passwordproperties.

To connect to data, specify Url. This is your SAP Business One Service Layer root URL.

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

Create an External Data Source for SAP Business One 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 Business One data.

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

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL sapbusinessone_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'sapbusinessone_username', SECRET = 'sapbusinessone_password';

Create an External Data Source for SAP Business One

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

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

For SAP Business One, 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_sapbusinessone_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData SAP Business One Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = sapbusinessone_creds
);

Create External Tables for SAP Business One

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

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Orders(
  DocEntry [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  DocType [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='Orders',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_sapbusinessone_source
);

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