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For an introduction on smart data integration (SDI) for HCP check this post > Smart Data Integration available for HCP

This current blog will provide step-by-step instructions on how to set up SDI for your HCP trial account, anyone can sign up for such a trial account and get started with HANA and smart data integration.

We'll cover the end to end process until you see some sample data from an onPremise source (we will use a file for simplicity). in your HANA database on HCP. Once you reach this stage, you'll be able to extend it yourself to more advanced scenarios.

In summary, we'll go through these steps:

  1. Prepare your HANA database on hanatrial.ondemand.com
  2. Download the required software components
  3. Import the SDI delivery unit
  4. Create HANA users with the required permissions
  5. Install and configure the SDI agent to connect to your cloud instance
  6. Setup a test to read a file and load to a HANA table

1. Prepare your HANA database on hanatrial.ondemand.com

With the introduction of MDC (Muti-tenant Database Containers) on hanatrial, you can now use the SDI functionality as part of this HANA MDC database. Additional information on MDC in the HCP trial landscape can be found in this blog : SAP HANA Multitenant Database Containers (MDC) scenarios now on trial landscape


Keep in mind that trial databases will auto-shutdown in 12 hours and the whole instance gets deleted after 7 days of inactivity. You can check the blog mentioned above, and especially the comments to that blog for details and updates.

To prepare your HANA database:

  • Go to https://hanatrial.ondemand.com and register for a free trial account (if you don't have one yet). Login to this account.
  • Go to "Database & Schemas" and click "New" to create a new database system
  • Provide the following information in the pop-up:
    • Database ID: a name you choose for your database (must be lower case, no special characters).
    • Database System: choose HANA MDC (<trial>)
    • SYSTEM User Password: a password for the SYSTEM user. Make sure you remember this 😉
    • Web Access : keep "On" value.
    • DP Server : switch to "On". This is the Data Provisioning server, the server component for SDI. By default this is "Off", so make sure to switch this to On. You will not be able to use SDI without DP Server enabled. In MDC HANA instances it's not possible to switch on SDI in the tenant itself, like you could do for a regular HANA database, so this screen during the tenant setup is the only way to enable DP server in your tenant.

It will take a few minutes to create the HANA database.But once it's available you will see the database in this list of Databases & Schemas and can open it. There will be direct links to the SAP HANA Cockpit and the SAP HANA Web-based development Workbench.

Click the link to open the SAP HANA Cockpit and login with the SYSTEM user, this will trigger some scripts to assign additional roles and permissions to the SYSTEM user.


2. Download the required software components

There are 2 software components you need in order to start using SDI: the data provisioning agent (either for Windows or Linux) and the delivery unit (DU). Both can now be obtained from https:\\tools.hana.ondemand.com. On the HCI (HANA Cloud Integration) tab you will find the downloads under the "Data Integration downloads" section (scroll down on the page).

When you click the download link you will need to accept the SAP Developer license (so the agent is only provided for demo/test usage, no productive use allowed), before the actual download starts.

[Update August 8, 2016]

Both the Data Provisioning Agent and the Deployment Unit are .tgz files. The Data Provisioning agent download file will need to get unzipped with your favorite tool before you start the installation (step 5), the deployment unit tgz file will be used as-is in the next step.

3. Import the SDI delivery unit

The SDI delivery unit needs to be imported in your HANA database in order for the agent to communicate over HTTPS to your data provisioning server. The same delivery unit will also add the SDI monitoring user interface.You will need the downloaded .tgz file from the previous step which will be named like HANAIMDP-1.2.2.tgz or similar (version number will change in the future when updates are made). The HANA trial instances currently don't have the web based Lifecycle Management UI installed, so for this step you need HANA Studio. All next steps can be executed in both Studio and Web IDE, but we will use Web IDE where possible in this series).

So as a pre-requisite for this step you will need to have HANA Studio installed, with the plugin for the HANA Cloud Platform so that you can connect to the HANA database on HCP. How to obtain and configure HANA Studio to connect to HCP is explained on this page in the help portal: SAP HANA Cloud Platform

Once in HANA Studio, create a connection to your HANA database on HCP.

Execute these steps to impor the DU:

  • In HANA Studio go to the menu File / Import...
  • Select in the folder "SAP HANA Content" > "Delivery Unit"
  • In "Systems for import" select your HCP HANA database
  • Select file from "Client" and browse to the .tgz file with the delivery unit.
  • Click Finish

For the next steps go the part 2 of this blog: Step-by-step: Setup SDI for your HCP account (part 2)

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