Connecting Source Systems

Source systems are connected to the catalog automatically through an SAP Business Data Cloud formation or manually through SAP Datasphere or the SAP Business Data Cloud cockpit on the Metadata Extractions page. After connection, the catalog monitors these systems and extracts metadata for their objects. This process make the objects discoverable in the catalog.

Organizations using a standalone SAP Datasphere system manually connect all source systems through the local SAP Datasphere system that hosts the catalog. For details on how to connect source systems, see: You then can access the catalog from the local SAP Datasphere system that hosts the catalog, where you have a single view of the catalog. For more information, see Understanding the Single Catalog View.

Organizations using SAP Business Data Cloud can connect systems to the catalog in two ways: automatically by adding systems to an SAP Business Data Cloud formation or manually through SAP Datasphere or the SAP Business Data Cloud cockpit.

Automatic Connections to the Catalog

Your organization’s landscape consists of one SAP Business Data Cloud cockpit system. You'll have any number of SAP systems, such as SAP Datasphere, SAP Analytics Cloud, and SAP S/4HANA. Your organization may also include supported external systems in the landscape, such as SAP Databricks.

In the SAP BTP cockpit, you'll create one or more SAP Business Data Cloud formations. A formation is a logical grouping of systems that communicates only with the systems within that formation. Formations are independent of each other, and there is no cross-formation communication. A formation can consist of the following systems:

  • One SAP Business Data Cloud cockpit

  • One SAP Datasphere

  • One SAP Analytics Cloud

  • One or more other SAP systems, such as SAP S/4HANA

  • One or more partner systems, such as SAP Databricks

You can have any combination of these systems in a formation, where:

  • The SAP Business Data Cloud cockpit system is part of all formations.

  • Some systems can be part of multiple formations. For example, SAP S/4HANA and SAP Databricks systems can be included in more then one formation.

  • The same SAP Datasphere or SAP Analytics Cloud system can belong to only one formation. For example, a system named SAP Datasphere 1 can only belong to Formation 1. You can't add it to a different formation.

For information about creating formations, see Creating SAP Business Data Cloud Formations.

Systems that are in a formation are automatically connected to the catalog. For each SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud system in the formation, you must set up the authorized user. This ensures that the catalog monitors those systems and automatically extracts metadata for objects that become the catalog assets. If you don't set up the authorized user, no metadata from the objects is extracted from these systems to the catalog.

For information about setting up the authorized user, see Setting Up the Authorized User for Metadata Extraction.

Manual Connections to the Catalog

You can't add BW systems (for example, SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge) to formations. Instead, you must manually connect them to the catalog through an SAP Datasphere system in a formation. To connect a BW system, see Connecting to BW Systems.

After the systems are connected to the catalog, you can access the catalog from the SAP Business Data Cloud cockpit system to get a central view of the catalog, or from an SAP Datasphere system to get a formation-based view of the catalog. How you access the catalog determines the tasks you can perform on the connected source systems and the content you see in the catalog. For more information, see Understanding Central and Formation-Based Catalog Views.

Supported Object Types

The following table provides a list of object types that are added to the Assets collection when the source systems are synchronized with the catalog:

SAP Datasphere

SAP Analytics Cloud

BW Systems

  • Analytic Model

  • Data Flow

  • Graphical View

  • Intelligent Lookup

  • Local Table

  • Remote Table

  • Perspective

  • SQL View

  • Add-in Workbook

  • Analysis Workbook

  • Composite

  • Content Link

  • Dataset

  • Data Action

  • Insight

  • Model

  • Predictive Scenario

  • Story

  • Uploaded File

  • ADSO (Advanced DataStore Object)

  • ALVL (Aggregation Level) (SAP BW∕4HANA and SAP BW 7.5)

  • DEST (Open Hub Destination) (SAP BW∕4HANA and SAP BW 7.5)

  • DSUB (Data Subscription) (SAP BW∕4HANA, and SAP BW 7.5)

  • DTPA (Data Transfer Process)

  • ELEM (BW Query) (SAP BW∕4HANA and SAP BW 7.5)

  • FBPA (Open ODS View) (SAP BW∕4HANA and SAP BW 7.5)

  • HCPR (HANA CompositeProvider)

  • IOBJ (InfoObject)

  • RSDS (DataSource)

  • TRCS (InfoSource)

  • TRFN (Transformation)
You can learn more about these object types, by searching the help documentation for the source system: