How to connect PolyBase to UKG Pro WFM

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 API Driver for ODBC, you get access to your UKG Pro WFM 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 WFM data using T-SQL queries.

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

The CData ODBC drivers offer unmatched performance for interacting with live UKG Pro WFM data using PolyBase due to optimized data processing built into the driver. When you issue complex SQL queries from SQL Server to UKG Pro WFM, the driver pushes down supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to UKG Pro WFM 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 UKG Pro WFM data, using a single query to pull data from distributed sources.

Connect to UKG Pro WFM

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 UKG Pro WFM Sys is created automatically).

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

UKGProWFM API Profile Settings

UKG Pro Workforce Management uses OAuth 2.0 with the Resource Owner Password Credentials grant (grant_type=password) to authorize access to the API. Unlike most OAuth-based profiles, this does not use a browser redirect/authorization-code step: the driver exchanges your UKG Pro WFM username, password, client ID, and client secret directly for an access token.

Set the following connection properties to authenticate:

• AuthScheme: Set this to OAuthPassword.
• Host: Set this to the hostname of your UKG Pro Workforce Management datacenter/tenant (for example, yourcompany.mykronos.com). Do not include the protocol (https://) or a trailing slash.
• OAuthClientId: Set this to the client ID issued for your UKG Pro Workforce Management OAuth application.
• OAuthClientSecret: Set this to the client secret issued for your UKG Pro Workforce Management OAuth application.
• User: Set this to your UKG Pro Workforce Management username.
• Password: Set this to your UKG Pro Workforce Management password.

Access tokens are obtained from https://{Host}/api/authentication/access_token. Refresh tokens issued by UKG Pro Workforce Management expire after 7 days; if a refresh attempt fails because the refresh token itself has expired, the driver must re-authenticate with your User/Password credentials to obtain a new access token.

Click "Test Connection" to ensure that the DSN is connected to UKG Pro WFM properly. Navigate to the Tables tab to review the table definitions for UKG Pro WFM.

Create an External Data Source for UKG Pro WFM 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 UKG Pro WFM data.

NOTE: IDENTITY and SECRET correspond with the User and Password properties for UKG Pro WFM.

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL api_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'api_username', SECRET = 'api_password';

Create an External Data Source for UKG Pro WFM

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

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

For UKG Pro WFM, 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_api_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData UKG Pro WFM Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = api_creds
);

Create External Tables for UKG Pro WFM

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

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Employees(
  PersonNumber [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  UserName [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='Employees',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_api_source
);

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