Database connector

The SAP HANA data catalog your whole team can trust.

The Dawiso SAP HANA data catalog turns every schema, table and calculation view into a searchable inventory, with ownership, classification and a shared glossary.

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Live connector Stable connector

SAP HANA

Dawiso

Metadata-only · your data never leaves the source

Type: In-memory column-store database
Auth: Username & password (read-only user)
Sync: Scheduled, incremental
Direction: Read-only · metadata

First things first

What is a data connector?

Metadata-only Read-only access Incremental sync Cross-system lineage

A data connector is the bridge between a tool in your stack and the catalog that gives you a unified view of it. Once a connector is configured, it reaches into the source system on a schedule, reads out the metadata - schemas, tables, dashboards, jobs, ownership, lineage - and represents it inside the catalog. Your actual rows and values stay where they are.

Connectors are the reason a data catalog can answer questions like "which Power BI dashboard depends on this Snowflake table?" or "who owns the orders topic in Kafka?" - automatically, without anyone keeping a spreadsheet up to date.

Three properties separate a good connector from a brittle one: it should be read-only and safe, it should be incremental so a full re-scan isn't required for every refresh, and it should resolve lineage across system boundaries, not just inside one tool.

About the platform

What is SAP HANA?

SAP HANA is the in-memory, column-oriented database SAP shipped in late 2010. It runs OLAP and OLTP on the same row + column engine, which is why S/4HANA, SAP's strategic ERP rewrite released in 2015, is written specifically for it. For most SAP customers, HANA is the analytical and transactional core simultaneously.

HANA exposes its own catalog inside SAP tooling, but most enterprises run HANA alongside Snowflake, Power BI and a non-SAP warehouse. SAP-internal catalogs do not bridge that boundary. That's where the Dawiso SAP HANA data catalog joins the picture: read-only, metadata-only, and cross-platform.

Architecture

How Dawiso connects to SAP HANA

A small read-only role on the SAP HANA side. The Dawiso scanner pulls metadata on a schedule. Everything ends up in your catalog, business-readable.

Source

SAP HANA instance

Schemas & tables
Standard views & synonyms
Calculation Views
Procedures & functions

REST · JDBC

Dawiso scanner

Read-only metadata

Schema & object discovery
Dependency resolution
SQL flow parsing (optional)
Sampling on opt-in

Internal

Catalog

Dawiso platform

Searchable metadata
Lineage & ownership
Business glossary
Policy & classifications

Connection details

Protocol: SAP HANA JDBC · system tables _SYS_REPO and _SYS_BI
Authentication: Dedicated user with SELECT METADATA
Lineage: Object dependencies resolved from the HANA system catalog, mapping relationships between schemas, tables, views, Calculation Views and procedures

Setup

Connect SAP HANA in 4 steps

01

Create a database user

Connect as a HANA administrator and run CREATE USER dawiso_user PASSWORD '...' NO FORCE_FIRST_PASSWORD_CHANGE. The NO FORCE clause is required so the integration user can log in without an interactive password reset.
02

Grant metadata access

GRANT SELECT METADATA ON SCHEMA <name> TO dawiso_user, repeated per business schema. Use SELECT METADATA only for strict environments where no row data should ever be read.
03

Enable Calculation Views

GRANT SELECT ON _SYS_REPO.ACTIVE_OBJECT and _SYS_BI.BIMC_PROPERTIES. These two grants let Dawiso ingest the analytical layer SAP teams actually run reports on.
04

Connect via JDBC and ingest

Provide the host (DNS, IP or SAP HANA cloud URL), port 443, user and password. Scheduled incremental sync from there. On-prem instances route through the Dawiso Integration Runtime.

Capabilities

What you get with the SAP HANA connector

Schema, table & view catalog

Every HANA schema, table, view and synonym is searchable, with column types, comments and the upstream source for downstream BI consumers.
Calculation Views indexed

HANA's analytical Calculation Views, where most SAP semantic logic actually lives, are catalogued through _SYS_REPO and _SYS_BI alongside standard tables.
Object dependencies mapped

Object dependencies from the HANA system catalog map how Calculation Views, views and procedures relate to the underlying ERP and master-data tables.
PII classification

Classify a column once. Dawiso flags every HANA column carrying email, IBAN or government IDs across every schema and instance.
Business glossary alignment

Tie HANA tables and Calculation View measures to glossary terms so finance and SAP teams share one definition with the rest of the business.
Read-only by design

Dawiso connects through SELECT METADATA only, with the option to omit row-level SELECT entirely for strict-access SAP environments.

Business value

Why teams turn on the SAP HANA connector

−65%
Fewer 'which view?' pings

Analysts find the certified HANA Calculation View in Dawiso instead of pinging the SAP BI team to ask which view drives the finance report.
10×
Faster impact analysis

Before changing a HANA Calculation View, see exactly which BI reports, procedures and downstream tables depend on it. Seconds, not days.
Audit-ready
GDPR & DORA evidence

Sensitive HANA columns are classified once and the policy follows them through views, joins and downstream BI, with a full audit trail.

Ready to catalog your SAP HANA?

Set up the connector in an afternoon. See your first lineage graph the same day.

Read the docs

Frequently asked questions

Still curious? Talk to our team ->

What is a data catalog in SAP?

SAP catalogs data through SAP Datasphere and Business Data Cloud. Dawiso complements them cross-platform: it reads SAP HANA catalog metadata read-only - schemas, tables, views and calculation views - and links them to non-SAP systems with object dependencies and a glossary.

What is content and catalog in SAP HANA?

In SAP HANA the catalog holds runtime database objects (schemas, tables, views) and content holds design-time artifacts. Dawiso reads the catalog read-only and turns it into a business-readable, searchable inventory with ownership and object dependencies.

What is a data catalog used for?

A data catalog makes every SAP HANA object discoverable, documented and trustworthy. Dawiso turns catalog metadata into one searchable inventory the whole business can use.

What permissions does Dawiso need in SAP HANA?

A dedicated user created with NO FORCE_FIRST_PASSWORD_CHANGE, granted SELECT METADATA on each target schema. Calculation Views require SELECT on _SYS_REPO.ACTIVE_OBJECT and _SYS_BI.BIMC_PROPERTIES. SELECT METADATA can be used standalone for strict no-row-data environments.

Does Dawiso copy our HANA data?

No. Dawiso reads HANA metadata only and supports the SELECT METADATA-only mode where row-level SELECT is never granted. Column profiling and sampling are opt-in per data source and never run automatically.

On-prem HANA, HANA Cloud and S/4HANA - which are supported?

All three. On-prem HANA via JDBC routed through the Dawiso Integration Runtime; HANA Cloud through the cloud URL on port 443; S/4HANA databases through their HANA backend. Calculation Views are catalogued the same way in each.

How are object dependencies mapped?

Object dependencies come from the HANA system catalog, mapping how schemas, tables, views, Calculation Views and procedures relate to one another so dependencies are searchable across the instance.