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

Connect to Workday

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 Workday Sys is created automatically).

To connect, there are three pieces of information required: Authentication, API URL, and WSDL URL.

Authentication

To authenticate, specify your User and Password. Note that you must append your Tenant to your User separated by an '@' character. For instance, if you normally log in with 'geraldg' and your Tenant is 'mycompany_mc1', then your User should be specified as 'geraldg@mycompany_mc1'.

API URL

The API URL may be specified either directly via APIURL, or it may be constructed from the Tenant, Service, and Host. The APIURL is constructed in the following format: <Host>/ccx/service/<Tenant>/<Service>.

WSDL URL

The WSDLURL may be specified in its entirety, or may be constructed from the Service and WSDLVersion connection properties. The WSDLURL is constructed in the following format: https://community.workday.com/sites/default/files/file-hosting/productionapi/<Service>/<WSDLVersion>/<Service>.wsdl

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

Create an External Data Source for Workday 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 Workday data.

NOTE: IDENTITY and SECRET correspond with the User and Password properties for Workday.

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL workday_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'workday_username', SECRET = 'workday_password';

Create an External Data Source for Workday

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

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

For Workday, set SERVERNAME to 'localhost' or '127.0.0.1' and 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_workday_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://localhost',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData Workday Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = workday_creds
);

Create External Tables for Workday

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

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Workers(
  Worker_Reference_WID [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  Legal_Name_Last_Name [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='Workers',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_workday_source
);

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