Connect to UKG Pro HCM Data as an External Data Source using PolyBase

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

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

CData Connect AI provides a pure SQL Server interface for UKG Pro HCM, allowing you to query data from UKG Pro HCM without replicating the data to a natively supported database. Using optimized data processing out of the box, CData Connect AI pushes all supported SQL operations (filters, JOINs, etc.) directly to UKG Pro HCM, leveraging server-side processing to return the requested UKG Pro HCM data quickly.

Configure UKG Pro HCM Connectivity for PolyBase

Connectivity to UKG Pro HCM from PolyBase is made possible through CData Connect AI. To work with UKG Pro HCM data from PolyBase, we start by creating and configuring a UKG Pro HCM connection.

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

2. Select "UKG Pro HCM" from the Add Connection panel

3. Enter the necessary authentication properties to connect to UKG Pro HCM.

   Start by setting the Profile connection property to the location of the UKGProHCM Profile on disk (e.g. C:\profiles\UKGProHCM.apip). Next, set the ProfileSettings connection property to the connection string for UKGProHCM (see below).

   UKGProHCM API Profile Settings

   UKG Pro HCM uses Basic authentication combined with a customer API key to authorize access to the API. To connect, you will need your UKG Pro HCM credentials and a customer API key issued by UKG.

   Set the following connection properties to authenticate:

   • AuthScheme: Set this to Basic.
   • User: Set this to your UKG Pro HCM username.
   • Password: Set this to your UKG Pro HCM password.
   • ProfileSettings: Set this to a semicolon-separated list containing:
     • Host: Your UKG Pro HCM tenant hostname (e.g., yourcompany.ultipro.com).
     • CustomerAPIKey: Your UKG customer API key. This is passed as the US-CUSTOMER-API-KEY request header on each API call.

   To obtain your customer API key, contact your UKG Pro HCM administrator or refer to the UKG Developer Portal at https://developer.ukg.com.

   
4. Click Save & Test
5. Navigate to the Permissions tab in the Add UKG Pro HCM 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 UKG Pro HCM data from Polybase.

Create an External Data Source for UKG Pro HCM Data

After configuring the connection, you need to create a credential database for the external data source.

Creating a Credential Database

Execute the following SQL command to create credentials for the external data source connected to UKG Pro HCM data.

NOTE: Set IDENTITY to your Connect AI username and set SECRET to your Personal Access Token.

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL ConnectAICredentials
WITH IDENTITY = 'yourusername', SECRET = 'yourPAT';

Create an External Data Source for UKG Pro HCM

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

CREATE EXTERNAL DATA SOURCE ConnectAIInstance
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'sqlserver://tds.cdata.com:14333',
  PUSHDOWN = ON,
  CREDENTIAL = ConnectAICredentials
);

Create External Tables for UKG Pro HCM

After creating the external data source, use CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE statements to link to UKG Pro HCM data from your SQL Server instance. The table column definitions must match those exposed by CData Connect AI. You can use the Data Explorer in Connect AI to see the table definition.

Sample CREATE TABLE Statement

Execute a CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE SQL command to create the external table(s), using the collation and setting the LOCATION to three-part notation for the connection, catalog, and table. The statement to create an external table based on a UKG Pro HCM UserDetails would look similar to the following.

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE UserDetails(
  UserId COLLATE [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  UserName COLLATE [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='API1.API.UserDetails',
  DATA_SOURCE=ConnectAIInstance
);

Having created external tables for UKG Pro HCM in your SQL Server instance, you are now able to query local and remote data simultaneously. To get live data access to hundreds of SaaS, Big Data, and NoSQL sources directly from your SQL Server database, try CData Connect AI today!