Add a SAP HANA connection

Once ThoughtSpot Connections is enabled, you can add a connection to a SAP HANA database. This allows you to perform a live query of the external database to create Answers and Liveboards, without having to bring the data into ThoughtSpot.

To add a connection to SAP HANA:

  1. Select Data in the top navigation bar.

  2. Open the Connections tab in the left navigation bar, and select the Others tile. Alternatively, select + Create new in the left navigation bar, select Connection, and select the SAP HANA tile.

  3. Create a name for your connection, a description (optional), then select the SAP HANA connection type, and select Continue.

    Add a HANA connection

  4. Enter the connection details for your SAP HANA data source.

    Enter connection details

    Refer to the SAP HANA connection reference for more information on each of the specific attributes you must enter for your connection.

  5. (Optional) Provide additional key-value pairs that you need to set up your connection to SAP HANA or customize additional JDBC parameters supported by SAP HANA, by doing the following:

    1. Select the Advanced Config menu to reveal the Key and Value fields.

    2. Enter your key and value information. Refer to the SAP HANA JDBC documentation.

    3. To add more keys and values, select the plus sign (+), and enter them.

    Any key-value pairs that you enter must be defined in your HANA data source. Key-value pairs are case-sensitive.

    For more information about the advanced properties for SAP HANA, see: SAP HANA Client Interface Programming Reference, in SAP’s documentation.

  6. Select Continue.

  7. Select tables (on the left) and the columns from each table (on the right), and then select Create connection.

    Select tables and columns for your connection

    Once the connection is added, you can search your SAP HANA database right away by selecting Search now.

    The "Connection created" screen

    Your new connection appears on the Data > Connections page. Select the name of your connection to view the tables and columns in your connection.

The connection you just created is a link to the external data source. If there are any joins in the selected tables of the external data source, those are imported into ThoughtSpot.

You can now perform a live query on the selected tables and columns of your connection. Because the selected tables and columns in your connection are linked, it may take a while to initially render the search results. This is because ThoughtSpot does not cache linked data. With linked data, ThoughtSpot queries the external database directly, which is slower than querying data that is stored in ThoughtSpot’s database.

Share a connection

Users with can manage data or admin privileges can share connections with other users or groups that have can manage data privileges. Once granted access to a connection, users can add, remove, and modify tables in that connection.

To share a connection with another user, follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to the Data tab and select Connections.

  2. Select the checkbox next to the name of the connection you want to share, and click Share.

  3. In the Share connection dialog, enter the ID of the user or group you want to share the connection with. You can use the search bar to find the user or group.

  4. Select Done.

Note that to remove share access from a connection, you must navigate to the Share connection dialog and select Remove access to the left of the user group or name.

Troubleshooting

If you run into an error while creating a SAP HANA connection, try making the following adjustments:

  • Under Advanced Configuration, enter the following key-value pair:

    • key: encrypt

    • value: true

  • Make sure that the database listed is the internal database name. You can find the internal database name in the Database Explorer in SAP HANA.

Related information

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