Analyze SQL Analysis Services Data in SAP Analytics Cloud

SAP Analytics Cloud is a cloud-based business intelligence platform. The CData Connect Server creates a virtual database for SQL Analysis Services and can be used to generate an OData API (natively consumable in Analytics Cloud) for SQL Analysis Services. By pairing SAP Analytics Cloud with the CData Connect Server, you get direct connectivity to all of your SaaS and cloud-based Big Data and NoSQL sources — no need to migrate your data or write your integrations. Simply connect to Connect Server as you would any other OData service and get instant, consolidated access to all of your data.

In this article, we walk through connecting to SQL Analysis Services in Connect Server and connecting to Connect Server from Analytics Cloud to create a model and build a simple dashboard.

Configure Connect Server to Connect to SQL Analysis Services

To connect to SQL Analysis Services data from SAP Analytics Cloud, you need to configure SQL Analysis Services access from your Connect Server instance. This means creating a user, connecting to SQL Analysis Services, adding OData endpoints, and (optionally) configuring CORS.

Add a Connect Server User

Create a User to connect to SQL Analysis Services from Analytics Cloud through Connect Server.

1. Click Users -> Add
2. Configure a User
3. Click Save Changes and make note of the Authtoken for the new user

Connect to SQL Analysis Services from Connect Server

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

1. Open Connect Server and click Connections
2. Select "SQL Analysis Services" from Available Data Sources
3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to SQL Analysis Services.

   To connect, provide authentication and set the Url property to a valid SQL Server Analysis Services endpoint. You can connect to SQL Server Analysis Services instances hosted over HTTP with XMLA access. See the Microsoft documentation to configure HTTP access to SQL Server Analysis Services.

   To secure connections and authenticate, set the corresponding connection properties, below. The data provider supports the major authentication schemes, including HTTP and Windows, as well as SSL/TLS.

   • HTTP Authentication

     Set AuthScheme to "Basic" or "Digest" and set User and Password. Specify other authentication values in CustomHeaders.

   • Windows (NTLM)

     Set the Windows User and Password and set AuthScheme to "NTLM".

   • Kerberos and Kerberos Delegation

     To authenticate with Kerberos, set AuthScheme to NEGOTIATE. To use Kerberos delegation, set AuthScheme to KERBEROSDELEGATION. If needed, provide the User, Password, and KerberosSPN. By default, the data provider attempts to communicate with the SPN at the specified Url.

   • SSL/TLS:

     By default, the data provider 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.

   You can then access any cube as a relational table: When you connect the data provider retrieves SSAS metadata and dynamically updates the table schemas. Instead of retrieving metadata every connection, you can set the CacheLocation property to automatically cache to a simple file-based store.

   See the Getting Started section of the CData documentation, under Retrieving Analysis Services Data, to execute SQL-92 queries to the cubes.

4. Click Save Changes
5. Click Privileges -> Add, and add the new user (or an existing user) with the appropriate permissions (SELECT is all that is required for Reveal)

Add SQL Analysis Services OData Endpoints in Connect Server

After connecting to SQL Analysis Services, create OData Endpoint for the desired table(s).

1. Click OData -> Tables -> Add Tables
2. Select the SQL Analysis Services database
3. Select the table(s) you wish to work with and click Next
4. (Optional) Edit the resource to select specific fields and more
5. Save the settings

(Optional) Configure Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS)

When accessing and connecting to multiple different domains from an application such as Ajax, there is a possibility of violating the limitations of cross-site scripting. In that case, configure the CORS settings in OData -> Settings.

• Enable cross-origin resource sharing (CORS): ON
• Allow all domains without '*': ON
• Access-Control-Allow-Methods: GET, PUT, POST, OPTIONS
• Access-Control-Allow-Headers: Authorization

Save the changes to the settings.

Create a Model of SQL Analysis Services Data in SAP Analytics Cloud

With the connection to SQL Analysis Services configured and the OData endpoint(s) created, we can create a Model for SQL Analysis Services data in SAP Analytics Cloud.

1. Log into your Analytics Cloud instance and click Create -> Model from the menu.
2. Choose "Get data from a datasource" and select "OData Services"
3. Choose an existing connection to your Connect Server OData or Create a new one:
   • Set "Connection Name"
   • Set "Data Service URL" to the Base URL for your OData API (typically: CONNECT_SERVER_URL/api.rsc)
   • Set "Authentication Type" to Basic Authentication
   • Set "User Name" to the Connect Server user you configured earlier
   • Set "Password" to the Authtoken for the above user
4. Choose "Create a new query" and click Next
5. Name the Query, select an OData endpoint (like ssasdb_Adventure_Works) and click Next
6. Drag the columns you wish to work with into the Selected Data workspace and click Create
7. At this point, a Draft Data source is created; click the draft to finalize the model
8. Perform any transformations, including creating calculated dimensions, location dimensions, and combining data sources, then click Create Model
9. Name your model and click OK

Build a Dashboard in SAP Analytics Cloud

With the model created, you are ready to create a dashboard in SAP Analytics Cloud based on SQL Analysis Services data.

1. From the menu, click Create -> Story
2. Click an SAP Analytics Template (this article uses the "Dashboard" template)
3. Choose a layout and click Apply
4. From the More menu, select a visualization to insert (Chart)
5. Select a model to visualize
6. Select a structure and the required Measures and Dimensions
7. Save the story

More Information & Free Trial

Now, you have created a simple but powerful dashboard from live SQL Analysis Services data. For more information on creating OData feeds from SQL Analysis Services (and more than 200 other data sources), visit the Connect Server page. Sign up for a free trial and start working with live SQL Analysis Services data in SAP Analytics Cloud.