Import SAP Business Warehouse Data Using Azure Data Factory

Microsoft Azure Data Factory (ADF) is a completely managed, serverless data integration service. When combined with CData Connect AI, ADF enables immediate cloud-to-cloud access to SAP Business Warehouse data within data flows. This article outlines the process of connecting to SAP Business Warehouse through Connect AI and accessing SAP Business Warehouse data within ADF.

CData Connect AI offers a cloud-to-cloud interface tailored for SAP Business Warehouse, granting you the ability to access live data from SAP Business Warehouse data within Azure Data Factory without the need for data replication to a natively supported database. Equipped with optimized data processing capabilities by default, CData Connect AI seamlessly channels all supported SQL operations, including filters and JOINs, directly to SAP Business Warehouse. This harnesses server-side processing to expedite the retrieval of the desired SAP Business Warehouse data.

Configure SAP Business Warehouse Connectivity for ADF

Connectivity to SAP Business Warehouse from Azure Data Factory is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with SAP Business Warehouse data from Azure Data Factory, we start by creating and configuring a SAP Business Warehouse connection.

CData Connect AI uses a straightforward, point-and-click interface to connect to data sources.

1. Log into Connect AI, click Sources, and then click Add Connection

2. Select "SAP Business Warehouse" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SAP Business Warehouse.

   To connect to SAP Business Warehouse, set the URL property to a valid SAP Business Warehouse server base URL. The driver must connect to SAP Business Warehouse instances hosted over HTTP with XMLA access.

   The driver supports the following authentication schemes via the AuthScheme property:

   • None: Anonymous authentication, if available on the server.
   • Basic: Set User and Password and set AuthScheme to Basic.
   • Kerberos: See the Using Kerberos section of the help documentation for the required Kerberos properties.

   By default, the driver attempts to negotiate SSL/TLS by checking the server's certificate against the system's trusted certificate store. To specify another certificate, see the SSLServerCert property for the available formats.

   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add SAP Business Warehouse Connection page and update the User-based permissions.

Add a Personal Access Token

When connecting to Connect AI through the REST API, the OData API, or the Virtual SQL Server, a Personal Access Token (PAT) is used to authenticate the connection to Connect AI. It is best practice to create a separate PAT for each service to maintain granularity of access.

1. Click on the Gear icon () at the top right of the Connect AI app to open the settings page.
2. On the Settings page, go to the Access Tokens section and click Create PAT.
3. Give the PAT a name and click Create.
4. The personal access token is only visible at creation, so be sure to copy it and store it securely for future use.

With the connection configured and a PAT generated, you are ready to connect to SAP Business Warehouse data from Azure Data Factory.

Access Live SAP Business Warehouse Data in Azure Data Factory

To establish a connection from Azure Data Factory to the CData Connect AI Virtual SQL Server API, follow these steps.

1. Login to Azure Data Factory.

2. If you have not yet created a Data Factory, Click New -> Dataset.

3. In the search bar, enter SQL Server and select it when it appears. On the following screen, enter a name for the server. In the Linked service field, select New.

4. Enter the connection settings.
   • Name - enter a name of your choice.
   • Server name - enter the Virtual SQL Server endpoint and port separated by a comma: tds.cdata.com,14333
   • Database name - enter the Connection Name of the CData Connect AI data source you want to connect to (for example, SAPBusinessWarehouse1).
   • User Name - enter your CData Connect AI username. This is displayed in the top-right corner of the CData Connect AI interface. For example, [email protected].
   • Password - select Password (not Azure Key Vault) and enter the PAT you generated on the Settings page.
   • Click Create.

5. In Set properties, set the Name, choose the Linked service we just created, select a Table name from those available, and Import schema from connection/store. Click OK.

6. After creating the linked service, the following screen should appear:

7. Click preview data to see the imported SAP Business Warehouse table.
You can now use this dataset when creating data flows in Azure Data Factory.

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