How to connect PolyBase to Acumatica

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

Connect to Acumatica

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 Acumatica Sys is created automatically).

Set the following connection properties to connect to Acumatica:

• User: Set this to your username.
• Password: Set this to your password.
• Company: Set this to your company.
• Url: Set this to your Acumatica URL, in the format http://{Acumatica ERP instance URL}/entity/{Endpoint name}/{Endpoint version}/.
  For example: https://acumatica.com/entity/Default/17.200.001/

See the Getting Started guide in the CData driver documentation for more information.

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

Create an External Data Source for Acumatica 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 Acumatica data.

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

CREATE DATABASE SCOPED CREDENTIAL acumatica_creds
WITH IDENTITY = 'acumatica_username', SECRET = 'acumatica_password';

Create an External Data Source for Acumatica

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

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

For Acumatica, 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_acumatica_source
WITH ( 
  LOCATION = 'odbc://SERVER_URL',
  CONNECTION_OPTIONS = 'DSN=CData Acumatica Sys',
  -- PUSHDOWN = ON | OFF,
  CREDENTIAL = acumatica_creds
);

Create External Tables for Acumatica

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

CREATE EXTERNAL TABLE Events(
  Id [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  location_displayname [nvarchar](255) NULL,
  ...
) WITH ( 
  LOCATION='Events',
  DATA_SOURCE=cdata_acumatica_source
);

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