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 direct data from that source.Im looking from ways in the internet and not finding anything guiding me.Thanks in advance

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).

Hi, There are couple of options that we can use and the decision will based on the method that you would like to use. But as a disclaimer, I would like to tell you that it is not a good idea for analysis, because SAP ECC's underlying database will be optimised for transaction processing with many table linkages (OLTP). If you import the data directly to Power BI, the performance will not be optimal. So the first step that we have to do is to convert the OLTP data into an OLAP data model (Star Schema, Snowflake Schema etc..) and then connect Power BI to this OLAP data source. This OLAP data source can either be SAP BW (with or without BI/BO) or any other databased modelled as OLAP. If you choose not to use SAP BW, and bring the data into a database like SQL Server from ECC to normalise them / optimise for analysis, and then connect Power BI to this database, then we have two options. Option I: Exporting SAP ECC data to another database. SAP ECC has a transaction code - "DBCO". Using this, we can configure a connection to an external database and define a connection string for that. We can create as many connections as we want. Then write an ABAP program to create a report in SAP and instead of throughing the output as ALV, the output of the report can be written to this external database using this connection string. You can schedule a background job in SAP to run this report periodically and the output will be available in the external database like SQL server. In this SQL server, you may write queries, normalise them, optimise for reporting, create views etc... and connect Power BI to the tables and views in this database for reporting. In this case, the data between SAP ECC and Power BI will not be live. It will be as per the frequency of the scheduled background job. Moreoever, the background job might put load on the ECC production client. Option 2: Using SAP PI (Process Integration) We can use SAP PI to sync the data in SAP ECC to another database or Power BI dataset. The dataset in Power BI can be used as the source of data for creating reports. In this case, the data from SAP ECC has to be pushed to the Power BI dataset or the external database through REST APIs, JSON etc... From what I understand, the major difference between these two options is that, in Option 1, the method of data transfer is similar to Pull Method where it is based on a time schedule. Whereas in the 2nd Option, it is more like a Push Method which happens in real-time. Another major consideration is what kind of SAP licensing you have and the option you choose to use has to be careful as not to violate any licensing terms. Search Terms: "SAP transaction code : DBCO", "Power BI REST APIs", "SAP Process Integration", "Push data into Power BI dataset using JSON" , "SAP BW Connector for Power BI"

1. Launch Power BI2. 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 on5. Enter the Database Name 6. (I do it this way) Expand 'Advanced Options' and paste your SQL Statement7. 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.

The answer is yes, it can be done. The 3 methods I know are: 1. SAP HANA connector (I have not tried the connector)2. SAP BW connector via Power BI Desktop. I am assuming if you have SAP ECC, then there will be equivalent SAP BW cubes. You will need your SAP/IT area to provide you with the relevant credentials). My company has been using this method.3. Ask IT to build a custom API that will work (ie. JSON with OAUTH2 security) - probably the best long term method, but will be difficult to convince IT. The challenges you face will be getting SAP Admin OR IT to allow Power BI to connect to SAP ECC. Security will always be the number 1 reason they use. With the right governance and implementation, it won't be an issue. Cheers,Dan

Just to add to this, SAP is sitting on top of a database which could be Hana, SQL Server, or Oracle. As such you can create a connection from Power BI directly to the database layer, however, you would have to currently have a FULL USE database license and not a RUNTIME license. I know this to be the case with SQL Server and would assume Oracle would be the same but I can't say the same for Hana. None the less a FULL USE license allows you to access the database directly where as a RUNTIME license only allows the application (SAP ECC) to access the database. You would have to check with you SAP Account rep or even your DBA should be able to tell you.

How get data directly from SAP ECC | Microsoft Fabric Community

29 Replies

djnww
Impactful Individual
8 years ago
The answer is yes, it can be done. The 3 methods I know are:

1. SAP HANA connector (I have not tried the connector)
2. SAP BW connector via Power BI Desktop. I am assuming if you have SAP ECC, then there will be equivalent SAP BW cubes. You will need your SAP/IT area to provide you with the relevant credentials). My company has been using this method.
3. Ask IT to build a custom API that will work (ie. JSON with OAUTH2 security) - probably the best long term method, but will be difficult to convince IT.

The challenges you face will be getting SAP Admin OR IT to allow Power BI to connect to SAP ECC. Security will always be the number 1 reason they use. With the right governance and implementation, it won't be an issue.

Cheers,
Dan
- ppothier
  New Member
  8 years ago
  I would say BW or HANA are not the approach we want to use ... the Power BI connectors for these sources are already defined. But they require ETL/staging to bring the desired data from ECC to BW or HANA.
  
  The need is for DIRECT access to ECC data, ideally using SAP-sanctioned API's.
  
  Up until last year, Power BI had a "BObj Universe" connector, which would be a desireable. But this connector was removed due to licensing issues (so I hear).
  
  I think there is a market for this if someone would develop it.
  
  Pete
  - 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).
- gudakrishna
  Regular Visitor
  7 years ago
  Hi Dan,
  
  I'm looking to connect SAP ECC through power Bi,
  SAP ECC is not a database, It's a service, In that service we are using oracle as a database.
  So could you please guide me step by step proccess how to connect SAP ECC and get the data.
  
  Thanks in advance.
  
  Best Regards
  Venkata
  - anupamj
    Helper II
    2 years ago
    Hi gudakrishna
    If PowerBI needs to fetch data directly from SAP (say reports, queries, tables, views CDS etc) then the USB4SAP connector for PowerBI will be useful: Ecoservity – Ecosystem. Services. Technology
    Besides realtime in PowerBI, you may also provision SAP data to a datalake/ DB / NFS & consume from there.
    This is certified by SAP & Microsoft: USB4SAP - Connectors | Microsoft Learn.
    hope this helps.
    AJ
    [PS] Step by step Video guide is here: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7174406748747833344/
Anonymous
Not applicable
8 years ago
Just to add to this, SAP is sitting on top of a database which could be Hana, SQL Server, or Oracle. As such you can create a connection from Power BI directly to the database layer, however, you would have to currently have a FULL USE database license and not a RUNTIME license. I know this to be the case with SQL Server and would assume Oracle would be the same but I can't say the same for Hana. None the less a FULL USE license allows you to access the database directly where as a RUNTIME license only allows the application (SAP ECC) to access the database. You would have to check with you SAP Account rep or even your DBA should be able to tell you.
unais
Helper V
5 years ago
We are having Sybase Database with SAP ECC and able to configure Sybase DB with ODBC and Though Gateway service able to connect Power bi service.
I had created Different Views in Sybase to and connect with Power BI Query.
Syndicate_Admin
Administrator
3 years ago
Do you need to install sap gui to use the extract table?

I've been trying for months, and when it connects what should be done to achieve the connection to extract
- Just_an_SAP_guy
  New Member
  2 years ago
  For the sourceforge ExtracTable tool to download or live connect SAP tables to Power BI or Power Query the SAP GUI is not needed.
  
  Use the tool's 'extract_table web service' in the power BI Web data source for real-time data retrieval. You need then to configure BI a little to get the streamed XML table presented the best.
  
  For none real-time data (e.g. downloaded via the tool at night or so) you can just link Power BI to the corresponding saved CSV or Excel file.

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How get data directly from SAP ECC

29 Replies

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