Forum Discussion

Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
8 years ago

How get data directly from SAP ECC

Since the last question someone asked about that was 2 years ago. I wanna know if its possible to get data direclty from the SAP. I am pretty sure that my SAP is ECC, and I wanna know how I can pull...
Fossgm's avatar
Fossgm
Frequent Visitor
8 years ago

Do you have the Netweaver Gateway installed? The one used for fiori apps. It is a free SAP product. You just need to install it. You can write simple report function modules in ECC (say for sales or inventory data) and then map them through the gateway. Super simple. Then you've just created a REST oData feed that can be consumed in PowerBI. Straight Up...now BW garbage, cubes, all that muck and no Hana required. I've done it numerous times...only downfall is if you are trying to read too much (like financials for five years). 

Anonymous's avatar
Anonymous
Not applicable
7 years ago

Could you please specify the steps to connect SAP ECC to power BI.

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    Not applicable
    7 years ago

    1. Launch Power BI

    2. Select 'Get Ddata'

    3. Select the Database Source that your instance of ECC is on. In my case its a SQL Server Database

     

    4. Enter the Server Name that the database is on

    5. Enter the Database Name 

    6. (I do it this way) Expand 'Advanced Options' and paste your SQL Statement

    7. Click Ok and your done. Here is the output from my select statement. 

    As mentioned in previous posts this requires you to have a full use database license. There are instances where the database that SAP runs on is a runtime license which means that the application is the only one that can access the database. This is licensing issue more than a technical issue. If you have a runtime license you can still technically do the above but from a licensing standpoint you'll most likely run into issues with SAP. 

     

    Also, you'll need your DBA or who ever manages your databases to create a Read-Only databse user that you can use to login with. I don't know what else to add, your simply connecting to a database just like any other database. 

     

    Please note that we do have a Full-Use SQL Server Database License. 

     

    Hope that helps. 

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Not applicable
      7 years ago

      Thank you very much for your reply. I understood the steps you have specified is from Power BI side. I would like to how to establish the connectivity between SAP and Power BI. Is there any gateway configuration that needs to be done from netweaver side. Also we have tried to create the project via SEGW  and initiated the config however we are confused from connectivity point of view. Could you please let me know the steps that needs to be done from SAP ECC side.

       

      Thank you.

       

      Regards

      Raj

      • Anonymous's avatar
        Anonymous
        Not applicable
        7 years ago

        There is no direct connection from Power BI to SAP ECC. And I would assume there never will be. 

         

        Your options are but not limited to (As others may have come up with other ways to get data):

        1. Direct connection to the database
        2. Connect to SAP BW (Which can be done through Power BI)
        3. Connect to SAP Hana (Which can be done through Power BI)
        4. Follow the examples from sreenathv and use the DBCO T-Code or SAP PI and put your data in a different database and then once again use a direct connection to the database that has your replicated data. 

        I've have talked to other companyies who do schedule nighly reports to be ran and saved to a network drive. They then consume these reports in Power BI with the Excel connection. 

    • Anonymous's avatar
      Anonymous
      Not applicable
      6 years ago

      Thanks for the reply. We are looking for the document for the Odata configuration in SAP application.