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Trying to get a handle on what's possible and what's not with SAP Hana S/4 1610.

My understanding is that one can access the underlying SAP HANA DB via ODBC simply by utilzing the SAP HANA Client which installs the ODBC Driver required. Once installed one can, from what I read, access the vast data stores that power the SAP ERP via standard ODBC calls using tools such as SSIS.

However I'm being told conflicting information from other people on if this is even possible and that what is really required is for the vendor to be in control of that process and for them to write apps in ABAP that will interrogate the underlying DB and deliver unto us flat files which our ETL process will then use.

We'll be using a locally hosted SAP HANA installation so, not on prem but no cloudy either.

Clarification: All I need here is a yes, you can connect to SAP HANA S/4 1610 via ODBC or no, you can't and another method is required.

TBH not really interested in the how either since everything else I've read online tells me that. However when you've $10bn a hour consultants saying no, one has to question reality.

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  • What's your actual question? Please, take a look at How to ask
    – joanolo
    Commented Mar 16, 2017 at 17:45
  • My question is exactly as I asked. Can you connect to SAP HANA S/4 1610 via ODBC? It may sound like a stupid question but right now we've got some really expensive consultants telling us no, yet everything I'm reading say's yes.
    – Rachel Ambler
    Commented Mar 16, 2017 at 17:48
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    Id'suggest that you change the title of your post to make it "Can you connect to SAP HANA S/4 1610 via ODBC?", you'll have more chances of getting an answer. (If you re-read yourself, you'll see that the only question mark in your post is after OPBob...)
    – joanolo
    Commented Mar 16, 2017 at 17:51
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    Point taken & updated.
    – Rachel Ambler
    Commented Mar 16, 2017 at 17:54
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    "OpBob" is probably ABAP (a programming language used with SAP). Too short for me to edit it in.
    – RDFozz
    Commented Mar 16, 2017 at 18:08

1 Answer 1

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Your question is a bit confusing so I hope I'm deciphering it correctly.

Technically you can connect to a SAP HANA database using ODBC -- this is helpfully documented in the manual.

What you do after you connect is another question. The SAP ERP application schema is very complex and poorly (if at all) documented, and it is highly unlikely that you will be able to reverse engineer it and create a sufficiently reliable ETL process based on that.

So the answer I guess is "yes you can, but you don't want to".

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    The complexity I'm OK with - way back yonder when BaaN was still a thing I had to work on extracts between a legacy Cobol system and BaaN as part of a Y2K project, and their model reminded me of a web spun by a spider high on LSD, so I'm fully expecting SAP to be even worse. That said, these consultants were 100% adamant this was just not even technically possible, hence my question.
    – Rachel Ambler
    Commented Mar 16, 2017 at 18:51
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    A note for people finding this later. We use several such systems like this, and yes, certain like billing or accounting can be a nightmare, but there is a lot of very useful information that can be easily gotten. Documentation is of average quality, and it is easy to do a sql trace to investigate more complex queries. In my experience the consultants are either very good and telling you 'no' to protect their paycheck, or they are clueless and have no idea what is possible.
    – Whistler
    Commented Feb 25, 2020 at 21:12

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