SAP HANA OCF Connector: Overview

Alation Cloud Service Applies to Alation Cloud Service instances of Alation

Customer Managed Applies to customer-managed instances of Alation

Available from Alation version 2022.3

The OCF Connector for SAP HANA was developed by Alation and is available on demand as a Zip file. The required driver is compiled with the connector and does not require additional installation.

To download the SAP HANA OCF connector package, go to the Alation Connector Hub available from the Customer Portal. Go to Customer Portal > Connectors > Alation Connector Hub. Only Alation users with access to the Customer Portal can access the Alation Connector Hub. If you don’t have access to the Customer Portal, contact Alation Support.

This connector can be used to catalog SAP HANA Cloud and on-prem deployments of the SAP HANA database as data sources in Alation. ​​The connector catalogs such SAP HANA objects as schemas, tables, columns, and views. It enables end-users to search and find SAP HANA objects from the Alation user interface.

Team

You may need the assistance of your DBA to configure this data source.

  • SAP HANA administrator

    • Performs the configuration on the database to enable connection from Alation.

    • Creates a service account for Alation and grants it the privileges for metadata extraction (MDE), sampling and profiling, and query log ingestion (QLI).

    • Enables QLI on the SAP HANA database.

    • Provides the JDBC URI to access metadata.

    • Provides the SSL certificate, if necessary.

  • Alation Server Admin

    • Installs the connector.

    • Creates and configures a SAP HANA data source.

    • Tests the connection and performs extraction.

Scope

The table below describes which metadata objects are extracted by the connector and which catalog functionality is supported.

Feature

Scope

Availability

Authentication

Basic authentication

Authentication with a service account created on the database that uses a username and password

Yes

LDAP

Authentication with a database service account that is an LDAP account in an organization’s network

No

AWS IAM

Authentication through AWS IAM

No

SSL

Database connection over SSL

Yes

Kerberos

Support for Kerberos authentication

No

Keytab

Support for Kerberos with keytabs

No

SSO

SSO authentication with an identity provider application

No

Metadata Extraction (MDE)

Default MDE

Extraction of metadata based on default extraction queries in the connector code

Yes

Custom query-based MDE

Extraction of metadata based on extraction queries provided by a user

Yes

Popularity

Indicator of the popularity (intensity of use) of a data object, such as a table or a column

Yes

Extracted metadata objects

Data Source

Data source object in Alation that is parent to extracted metadata

Yes

Schemas

List of schemas

Yes

Tables

List of tables

Yes

Columns

List of columns

Yes

Column data types

Column data types

Yes

Views

List of views

  • Extraction of calculation views is supported from Alation version 2022.4 and connector version 1.1.0 or later. With connector versions older than 1.1.0, calculation views are not extracted.

Yes

Source comments

Source comments

Yes

Primary keys

Primary key information for extracted tables

Yes

Foreign keys

Foreign key information for extracted tables

Yes

Functions

Function metadata

Yes

Function definitions

Function definition metadata

Yes

Sampling and Profiling

Table sampling

Retrieval of data samples from extracted tables

Yes

Column sampling

Retrieval of data samples from extracted columns

Yes

Deep column profiling

Profiling of columns with the calculation of value distribution stats

Yes

Dynamic profiling

Ability for individual users to connect with their own database accounts to retrieve table and column samples and profiles

Yes

Custom query-based table sampling

Ability to use custom queries for sampling specific tables

Yes

Custom query-based column sampling

Ability to use custom queries for profiling specific columns

Yes

Query Log Ingestion (QLI)

Table-based QLI

Ingestion of query history based on a table or view that contains query history data

Yes

Query-based QLI

Ingestion of query history based on a custom query history extraction query

Yes

JOINs and filters

Calculation of JOIN and filter information based on ingested query history

Yes

Predicates

Ability to parse predicates in ingested queries

Yes

Lineage

Table-level lineage

Auto-calculation of lineage based on query history ingested from QLI, MDE, and Compose queries

Yes

Column-level lineage

Calculation of lineage data at the column level

Requires the column-level lineage parser add-on for SAP HANA

Yes

Direct lineage

Direct lineage is supported from Alation version 2022.4 and connector version 1.1.0.

Direct lineage relies on metadata extraction (MDE) and does not require query log ingestion (QLI). Alation will calculate lineage data for graphical calculation views if extracted metadata includes calculation views.

The direct lineage feature is not available by default. To enable it, set the alation_conf parameter alation.ocf.mde.direct_lineage.enable_extraction to True.

Yes

Compose

Customer-managed (on-prem) Alation instances

Compose on on-prem Alation instances

Yes

Alation Cloud Service instances

Depending on your network configuration, you may be using Alation Agent to connect to your data source.

Compose with Agent is supported from connector version 1.1.2.3270.

Yes

SSO authentication in Compose

Authentication in Compose with SSO credentials

No