Technical Articles
SAP Analytics Cloud Live Data Connection to SAP BW
This blog post will show you how to create a live data connection from SAC to an on premise BW system. Main feature of live data connection is that changes made to data in the on-premise data source is immediately reflected in the Stories and models based on that data source. Check here for an overview of SAC connections and guidelines. Below is the architecture for live data connection to a BW/4HANA system using Direct connection type. A direct connection type is recommended if you don’t want to set up a reverse proxy on you local network. SAP documentation has been shared for the same in references at the end of the blog post.
System Requirements:
- SAP BW/4HANA 1.0 SP4 or higher
- SAP BW/4HANA 2.0 SP0 or higher
- Web Browsers such as Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, etc
- SAP Analytics Cloud Account.
Before moving on to the steps, we need to make sure of the below points:
- Configure your SAP on-premise data source to issue cookies with specific attributes to ensure that Chrome and other browsers allow cross-site access to your SAP on-premise data source cookies from SAP Analytics Cloud.
- Ensure that the InA package (/sap/bw/ina) or a higher-level package on your SAP NetWeaver system is configured for basic authentication.
- SAP Info Access Service (InA), version 4.10.0 or above, should be active in you on-premise system.
Moving on to the Steps to follow:
Configure CORS support on your SAP NetWeaver system.
Enable Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS) in your system parameters.
Enter transaction code: RZ11.
Enter Parameter: icf/cors_enabled
Select Display.
Click on Change Value.
Save changes.
Note: Every time the on-premise server is restarted the above steps would need to be redone.
Add SAP Analytics Cloud to the HTTP whitelist.
Enter transaction code: /NUCONCOCKPIT.
Change Scenario to HTTP Whitelist Scenario.
Change the Mode of Cross-origin Resource Sharing to Active Check.
Double-click Cross-origin Resource Sharing.
Select the Display/Change icon.
Under Whitelist, select the Add icon, and in the Input Window, add the following information:
-
- Service Path: Add /sap/bw/ina.
- Host rule: Add your SAP Analytics Cloud host. For example, mytenant.us1.sapbusinessobjects.cloud.
- Allowed Methods: Select GET, HEAD, POST, and OPTIONS.
- Add the following to Allowed Headers:
- x-csrf-token
- x-sap-cid
- authorization
- mysapsso2
- x-request-with
- sap-rewriteurl
- sap-url-session-id
- content-type
- accept-language
- Add the following to Exposed Headers:
- x-csrf-token
- sap-rewriteurl
- sap-url-session-id
- sap-perf-fesrec
- sap-system
- Allow Credentials: Ensure this is selected.
Save this information.
Verify end-users’ web browser configuration and access.
Your end users’ web browsers must be configured to:
- Allow pop-up windows from the SAP Analytics Cloud domain: [*.]sapbusinessobjects.cloud.
- Allow 3rd party cookies from the SAP BW server’s domain or the domain of your reverse proxy. For example, in Internet Explorer 11, go to , add your domain name, then select Enable Protected Mode.
Add a remote system to SAP Analytics Cloud:
Check the SAP documentation here.
(Main Menu) 
Connection Connections 
(Add Connection)
The Select a data source dialog will appear.
Expand Connect to Live Data and select SAP BW.
In the dialog, enter a name and description for your connection.
Set the connection type to Direct.
Add your SAP BW host name, HTTPS port, and Client.
(Optional) Choose a Default Language from the list.
This language will always be used for this connection and cannot be changed by users without administrator privileges.
Under Authentication Method select User Name and Password.
Enter an SAP BW user name and password.
Select OK
Conclusion:
By following all the above steps you will be able to save this connection. Further stories and models can be built using this connection as source.
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Good Work !!. Thanks for sharing lot of information at one palce.
Nice Blog Sonam, keep on
a question, can you show us how to achieve the following steps in the system, or do we need the basis team here?
BR,
Sherif
Hi Sherif,
Yes you will need the basis team here, you can also attempt to setup yourself if you have the required roles. Follow the below links to gain more knowledge on this.
Hello Sonam,
thank you for your blogpost. I was wondering if the realtime connection is also available to connect the SAC with SugarCRM.
Thank you for your help.
Best regards
Jessica
extra info needed for publising
Could someone clear up the additional info required in these advance setting at the bottom of the live connection.
Location:
Virtual Host / Port
User / pw and what roles are acquired.
Hi Ned,
In live data connection you have to grant the INA_ROLE to a user. By default, no user has this role granted. Please refer point 4 of this blog.
If this doesn’t solve the problem can you try setting up the connection in the below given way. Also could you provide the error screenshot. The user can be lacking roles in SAC or in on-premise system.
Thanks..
I am not being clear. There are two parts of the live connection.. look at the difference in my screen shot. vs your original one for the live connection in your original blog. I have no problem with my user id on the S4 ( bw) box it has the correct info and roles for my user and I can use it for a live connection.. just as you describe, but there is a new thing.. a setting under "advanced" at the bottom of the live connection screen that needs to be set up to allow the system to execute the PUBLICATION. It is I am 99% sure for the cloud platform to execute the query.... So I need very specific info to help me set these settings because our basis team switched! I do not access the cloud cockpit much.
thanks in advance
extra info at the bottom!
Hi Ned,
You need to setup the cloud connector for this.
This feature is documented here:
https://help.sap.com/viewer/00f68c2e08b941f081002fd3691d86a7/release/en-US/f3963783c51e4442b0192aa4a6989b80.html
Hope you are well,
John
Hi Sonam,
Thank you for your interesting article. It got me thinking about one question:
I have read in another blog that Live-Connectivity via Direct (CORS) is the only option, from SAC-Version 2018.22 on.
You are writing as if there still exists the choice between Reverse Proxy and CORS. Would you please clarify this issue for me?
Thank you very much.
Sincerely
Mesud
Hi Sonal,
Thank you for this blog.
I have a query. Is it possible to provide data-level security in the model with a Live connection to BW4HANA?
E.g. I want to show data from country A to user1 and data from country B to user2 for the same story.