Connectors → SAP HANA

About SAP HANA

SAP HANA is a high-performance in-memory database that accelerates data-driven, real-time decision-making and actions, and supports all workloads with the broadest advanced analytics on multi-model data, on premises and in the cloud.

SAP HANA Connector

The SAP HANA Connector loads data into Incorta from SAP HANA databases. The connector uses a sqljdbc42.jar file that is included with the Incorta customer release distribution. You can find the JAR file in the following directory: {path to IncortaNode}/runtime/lib

The SAP HANA connector supports the following Incorta specific functionality:

Feature	Supported
Chunking	✔
Data Agent	✔
Encryption at Ingest
Incremental Load	✔
Multi-Source	✔
OAuth
Performance Optimized	✔
Remote
Single-Source	✔
Spark Extraction
Webhook Callbacks	✔

Steps to connect SAP HANA and Incorta

To connect SAP HANA and Incorta, here are the high level steps, tools, and procedures:

Create an external data source
Create a schema with the Schema Wizard
or, Create a schema with the Schema Designer
Load the schema
Explore the schema

Create an external data source

Here are the steps to create a external data source with the SAP HANA connector:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform.
In the Navigation bar, select Data.
In the Action bar, select + New → Add Data Source.
In the Choose a Data Source dialog, in Database, select SAP Hana.
In the New Data Source dialog, specify the applicable connector properties.
To test, select Test Connection.
Select Ok to save your changes.

SAP HANA connector properties

Here are the properties for the SAP HANA connector:

Property	Control	Description
Data Source Name	text box	Enter the name of the data source
Username	text box	Enter the database username
Password	text box	Enter the database password
Connection Pool	text box	Enter the connection pool. The default is 30.
Connection String	text box	Enter the connection string for the SAP JDBC driver. The format is: `jdbc:sap://<HOST>:<PORT>/<DB>`
Connection Properties	text box	There are not currently any connection properties for the SAP HANA connector.
Use Data Agent	toggle	Enable using a data agent to securely ingest data from an external data source that is behind a firewall. For more information, please review Tools → Data Agent and Tools → Data Manager.
Data Agent	drop down list	Enable Use Data Agent to configure this property. Select from the data agents created in the tenant, if any.

Important: Data Agent

A data agent is a service that runs on a remote host. It is also a data agent object in the Data Manager for a given tenant. An authentication file shared between the data agent object and the data agent service enables an authorized connection without using a VPN or SSH tunnel. With a data agent, you can securely extract data from one or more databases behind a firewall to an Incorta cluster. Your Incorta cluster can reside on-premises or in the cloud. A CMC Administrator must enable and configure an Incorta cluster to support the use of Data Agents. Only a Tenant Administrator (Super User) or user that belongs to a group with the SuperRole role for a given tenant can create a data agent that connects to a data agent service. To learn more, see Concepts → Data Agent and Tools → Data Agent.

Create a schema with the Schema Wizard

Here are the steps to create an SAP HANA schema with the Schema Wizard:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform.
In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the Action bar, select + New → Schema Wizard.
In (1) Choose a Source, specify the following:
- For Enter a name, enter the schema name.
- For Select a Datasource, select the SAP HANA external data source.
- Optionally create a description.
In the Schema Wizard footer, select Next.
In (2) Manage Tables, in the Data Panel, first select the name of the Data Source, and then check the Select All checkbox.
In the Schema Wizard footer, select Next.
In (3) Finalize, in the Schema Wizard footer, select Create Schema.

Create a schema with the Schema Designer

Here are the steps to create an SAP HANA schema using the Schema Designer:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform.
In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the Action bar, select + New → Create Schema.
In Name, specify the schema name, and select Save.
In Start adding tables to your schema, select SQL Database.
In the Data Source dialog, specify the SAP HANA table data source properties.
Select Add.
In the Table Editor, in the Table Summary section, enter the table name.
To save your changes, select Done in the Action bar.

SAP HANA table data source properties

For a schema table in Incorta, you can define the following SAP HANA specific data source properties as follows:

Property	Control	Description
Type	drop down list	Default is SQL Database
Data Source	drop down list	Select the SAP HANA external data source
Incremental	toggle	Enable the incremental load configuration for the schema table. See the simple incremental load example configuration below.
Fetch Size	text box	Used for performance improvement, fetch size defines the number of records that will be retrieved from the database in each batch until all records are retrieved. The default is 5000.
Query	text box	Enter the SQL query to retrieve data from the SAP HANA database
Update Query	text box	Enable Incremental to configure this property. Enter the SQL query to retrieve data updates from the SAP HANA database.
Incremental Field Type	drop down list	Enable Incremental to configure this property. Select the format of the table date column: ● TImestamp ● Unix Epoch (seconds) ● Unix Epoch (milliseconds)
Chunking Method	drop down list	Chunking methods allow for parallel extraction of large tables. The default is No Chunking. There are two chunking methods: ● By Size of Chunking (Single Table) ● By Date/Timestamp
Chunk Size	text box	Select By Size of Chunking for the Chunking Method to set this property. Enter the number of records to extract in each chunk in relation to the Fetch Size. The default is 3 times the Fetch Size.
Order Column	drop down list	Select By Size of Chunking for the Chunking Method to set this property. Select a column in the source table you want to order by before chunking. It's typically an ID column and it must be numeric.
Upper Bound for Order Column	text box	Optional. Enter the maximum value for the order column.
Lower Bound for Order Column	text box	Optional. Enter the minimum value for the order column.
Order Column [Date/Timestamp]	drop down list	Select By Date/Timestamp for the Chunking Method to set this property. Select a column in the source table you want to order by before chunking. It should be a Date/Timestamp column.
Chunk Period	drop down list	Select the chunk period that will be used in dividing chunks: ● Daily ● Weekly (default) ● Monthly ● Yearly ● Custom
Number of days	text box	Select Custom for the Chunk Period to set this property. Enter the chunking period in days
Callback	toggle	Enable post extraction callback, that is, enable callback on the data source data set(s) by invoking a certain callback URL with parameters containing details about the load job
Callback URL	text box	Enable Callback to configure this property. Specify the callback URL.

View the schema diagram with the Schema Diagram Viewer

Here are the steps to view the schema diagram using the Schema Diagram Viewer:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform.
In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the list of schemas, select the SAP HANA schema.
In the Schema Designer, in the Action bar, select Diagram.

Load the schema

Here are the steps to perform a Full Load of the SAP HANA schema using the Schema Designer:

Sign in to the Incorta Direct Data Platform.
In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the list of schemas, select the SAP HANA schema.
In the Schema Designer, in the Action bar, select Load → Load Now → Full.
To review the load status, in Last Load Status, select the date.

Explore the schema

With the full load of the SAP HANA schema complete, you can use the Analyzer to explore the schema, create your first insight, and save the insight to a new dashboard.

To open the Analyzer from the schema, follow these steps:

In the Navigation bar, select Schema.
In the Schema Manager, in the List view, select the SAP HANA schema.
In the Schema Designer, in the Action bar, select Explore Data.

Additional Considerations

Below is a simple incremental load configuration example of how you would complete the related data source properties if you enable the Incremental property for the SAP HANA schema table.

Incremental Load Example

The Schema Designer is used to create a table for invoices, and is to be refreshed with invoice updates. In order to load the table incrementally with updates, the invoice table must contain a column of the type date or timestamp. The name of the date column is ModifiedOn, and the format of this column is Timestamp.

Here are the data source property values for this scenario: