Connect to SAP Data as an External Source in Dremio

The CData JDBC Driver for SAP ERP implements JDBC Standards and allows various applications, including Dremio, to work with live SAP data. Dremio is a data lakehouse platform designed to empower self-service, interactive analytics on the data lake. With the CData JDBC driver, you can include live SAP data as a part of your enterprise data lake. This article describes how to connect to SAP data from Dremio as an External Source.

The CData JDBC Driver enables high-speed access to live SAP data in Dremio. Once you install the driver, authenticate with SAP and gain immediate access to SAP data within your data lake. By surfacing SAP data using native data types and handling complex filters, aggregations, & other operations automatically, the CData JDBC Driver grants seamless access to SAP data.

Getting Started

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Prerequisites

This article assumes you are utilizing Docker to run Dremio. You can create a Docker container with the Dremio service using a command similar to the follow:

docker run -d --name dremio -p 9047:9047 -p 31010:31010 dremio/dremio-oss

Where dremio is the name of the container, 9047 is the container's port for the Dremio web interface and 31010 is the port that maps to the Dremio query service. dremio/dremio-oss specifies the image to use.

Build the ARP Connector

To use the CData JDBC Driver in Dremio, you need to build an Advanced Relation Pushdown (ARP) Connector. You can view the source code for the Connector on GitHub or download the ZIP file (GitHub.com) directly. Once you copy or extract the files, run the following command from the root directory of the connector (the directory containing the pom.xml file) to build the connector.

mvn clean install

NOTE: The CData ARP Connectors are build to be compiled with Java 11. Be sure to install Java 11 and use the correct version. You can update your Java version using a command similar to the following:

sudo update-alternatives --config java

Once the JAR file for the connector is built (in the target directory), you are ready to copy the ARP connector and JDBC Driver to your Dremio instance.

Installing the Connector and JDBC Driver

Install the ARP Connector to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/ and the JDBC Driver for SAP to %DREMIO_HOME%/jars/3rdparty. You can use commands similar to the following:

ARP Connector

docker cp PATH\TO\dremio-saperp-plugin-{DREMIO_VERSION}.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/

JDBC Driver for SAP

docker cp PATH\TO\cdata.jdbc.saperp.jar dremio_image_name:/opt/dremio/jars/3rdparty/

Connecting to SAP

SAP will now appear as an External Source option in Dremio. The ARP Connector built uses a JDBC URL to connect to SAP data. The JDBC Driver has a built-in connection string designer that you can use (see below).

Built-in Connection String Designer

For assistance in constructing the JDBC URL, use the connection string designer built into the SAP JDBC Driver. Double-click the JAR file or execute the jar file from the command line.

java -jar cdata.jdbc.saperp.jar

Fill in the connection properties and copy the connection string to the clipboard.

The driver supports connecting to an SAP system using the SAP Java Connector (SAP JCo). Install the files (sapjco3.jar and sapjco3.dll) to the appropriate directory for the hosting application or platform. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for information on using the SAP JCo files.

In addition, you can connect to an SAP system using Web services (SOAP). To use Web services, you must enable SOAP access to your SAP system and set the Client, RFCUrl, User, and Password properties, under the Authentication section.

For more information, see this guide on obtaining the connection properties needed to connect to any SAP system.

NOTE: To use the JDBC Driver in Dremio, you will need a license (full or trial) and a Runtime Key (RTK). For more information on obtaining this license (or a trial), contact our sales team.

Add the Runtime Key (RTK) to the JDBC URL. You will end up with a JDBC URL similar to the following:

jdbc:saperp:RTK=5246...;Host=sap.mydomain.com;User=EXT90033;Password=xxx;Client=800;System Number=09;ConnectionType=Classic;Location=C:/mysapschemafolder;

Access SAP as an External Source

To add SAP as an External Source, click to add a new source and select SAPERP. Copy the JDBC URL and paste it into the New SAPERP Source wizard.

Save the connection and you are ready to query live SAP data in Dremio, easily incorporating SAP data into your data lake.

More Information & Free Trial

Using the CData JDBC Driver for SAP ERP in Dremio, you can incorporate live SAP data into your data lake. Check out our CData JDBC Driver for SAP ERP page for more information about connecting to SAP. Download a free, 30 day trial of the CData JDBC Driver for SAP ERP and get started today.