How to connect PolyBase to SAP Netweaver Gateway

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

Connect to SAP Netweaver Gateway

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 Netweaver Gateway Sys is created automatically).

SAP Gateway allows both basic and OAuth 2.0 authentication. You can use basic authentication to connect to your own account, or you can use OAuth to enable other users to retrieve data from your service with their accounts. In addition to authenticating, set the following connection properties to access SAP Gateway tables.

• Url: Set this to the URL of your environment, or to the full URL of the service. For example, the full URL might appear as: https://sapes5.sapdevcenter.com/sap/opu/odata/IWBEP/GWSAMPLE_BASIC/. In this example, the environment URL would just be: https://sapes5.sapdevcenter.com.
• Namespace: Set the appropriate Service Namespace. In the example above, IWBEP is the namespace. It is optional if the full URL to the service is specified.
• Service: Set this to the service you want to retrieve data from. In the example above, the service is GWSAMPLE_BASIC. It is not required if the full URL is specified.

Authenticate via Basic Authentication

In basic authentication, you use your login credentials to connect. Set the following properties:

• User: This is the username you use to log in to SAP Gateway.
• Password: This is the password you use to log in to SAP Gateway.

Authenticate via OAuth Authentication

You can connect to SAP Gateway using the embedded OAuth connectivity (without setting any additional authentication connection properties). When you connect, the OAuth endpoint opens in your browser. Log in and grant permissions to complete the OAuth process. See the OAuth section in the online Help documentation for more information on other OAuth authentication flows.

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

Create an External Data Source for SAP Netweaver Gateway 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 Netweaver Gateway data.

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

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL sapgateway_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'sapgateway_username', SECRET = 'sapgateway_password';

Create an External Data Source for SAP Netweaver Gateway

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

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

For SAP Netweaver Gateway, 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_sapgateway_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData SAP Netweaver Gateway Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = sapgateway_creds
);

Create External Tables for SAP Netweaver Gateway

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

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE SalesOrderLineItems(
  ProductID [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  Quantity [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='SalesOrderLineItems',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_sapgateway_source
);

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