Add Databases to the SAP HANA Database Explorer

Databases can be added directly to the SAP HANA database explorer. To connect to an SAP HANA Cloud or on-premise database, the host, port, user name, and password must be provided.

1. In the SAP HANA database explorer, press the + button to add a new database.

   

2. For database type, choose SAP HANA Database.

   

   Note that an SAP HANA, express edition or on-premise database can have two types of databases; system and tenant. This is known as multitenant. System databases are used to manage one or more tenant databases and are only applicable to on-premise systems. For further details, see Server Architecture of Tenant Databases.

3. Provide the host, port, user name, password, and name to show in display.

   

   The host and port values can be copied from SAP HANA Cloud Central.

   

   Remember to remove the colon and port number from the host name and add the port to the port field.

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   When connecting to an SAP HANA Cloud instance, the database connection must use TLS.

   

   The public root certificate of the certificate authority (CA) that signed the SAP HANA Cloud instance’s server certificate is required. This certificate is likely already available in the system certificate store and accessible by the browser, but if not, it can be pasted into the UI. For more information see Secure Communication Between SAP HANA Cloud and JDBC/ODBC Clients.

   If you are using an SAP HANA, express edition or on-premise database, the port numbers for a system or tenant database can be determined by running the following query against the System database.

   SELECT "DATABASE_NAME", "HOST", "SERVICE_NAME", "SQL_PORT" FROM SYS_DATABASES.M_SERVICES WHERE SQL_PORT != 0;
   

   

4. After pressing OK, a new database will appear whose type is SAP HANA Database.

   

   Advanced options can be used to specify database properties.

   

   An example of what can be configured is shown below.

   isolationLevel=SERIALIZABLE;locale=fr_FR;schema=HOTEL;client=55
   

   These values can be seen by opening a SQL console and noticing the schema that the database is using or by executing the following queries.

   select * from M_SESSION_CONTEXT where CONNECTION_ID=current_connection;
   select * from SYS.M_CONNECTIONS where CONNECTION_ID=current_connection;
   select ISOLATION_LEVEL from PUBLIC.M_TRANSACTIONS where CONNECTION_ID = current_connection;
   

   For additional details, see Add HDI Containers and Databases to the SAP HANA Database Explorer.

An SAP HANA Deployment Infrastructure (HDI) container can be created by using the SAP HANA Web IDE. An HDI container can contain database objects such as tables, views, functions, stored procedures, and calculation views. HDI containers support the use case where multiple versions of the same data model are deployed into the same database instance. This might be done by multiple developers working on a project. Objects within an HDI container all share the same schema and are accessed by a technical user. The following steps demonstrate how to use the SAP HANA Web IDE to create and deploy an HDI container containing a table and then add the container as a database in the SAP HANA database explorer.

Note: This section is optional and does not need to be followed to complete the subsequent tutorials in this group.

Note: The SAP Business Application Studio is now the recommended tool for SAP HANA native application development with SAP HANA Cloud. For additional details see SAP Business Application Studio and SAP Web IDE Full-Stack. The SAP HANA Web IDE for SAP HANA should is the recommended tool for on-premise SAP HANA. The following steps are similar in either tool.

1. Open the SAP HANA Web IDE for HANA Development if using SAP HANA Cloud or SAP HANA Web IDE for SAP HANA if using SAP HANA, express edition or an on-premise install.

   Open SAP HANA Web IDE (in SAP Cloud Platform).

   

   or

   Open SAP HANA Web IDE for SAP HANA (on-premise)

   

   An alternative way to determine the URL for the SAP Web IDE for SAP HANA is to run the below command on the machine where SAP HANA on-premise is installed.

   xs apps
   

   

2. Ensure that the SAP HANA extensions are enabled.

   

3. For the SAP HANA Web IDE running in the cloud, ensure that the targeted Cloud Foundry space is specified in the two locations indicated below.

   

   The API Endpoint can be found on the subaccount page of the SAP Cloud Platform Cockpit.

   

   The space can be found on the subaccount page of the SAP Cloud Platform Cockpit.

   

4. Open the development pane.

   

5. Create a new HANA database project.

   Right-click Workspace and choose New | Project from Template.

   In the Search field, enter HANA.

   If you are using SAP HANA Cloud, in the Environment dropdown, select Cloud Foundry.

   Select the template SAP HANA Database Application.

   

   Fill in the following values and press Finish.

   Setting	Value
   Project Name:	myHANAProj
   Space:	If you are using SAP HANA, express or on-premise, choose the space you wish to deploy to (e.g. development)
   SAP HANA Database Version:	Choose the appropriate version such as HANA Cloud or 2.0 SPS 04

6. After the wizard finishes, create a table by right-clicking on the src folder and choosing New | Database Artifact.

   Specify a file name of test and a file type of .hdbtable.

   Paste the below content into the file and choose File | Save.

   COLUMN TABLE test
   (
       "ID" INTEGER,
       "VALUE" VARCHAR(50)
   )
   

   

7. Deploy the HDI container. Right-click the db folder and choose Build | Build.

   

   The Console window will show the result of the build process.

   

8. Once complete, the HDI container can be opened in the SAP HANA database explorer by right-clicking on the db folder and choosing Open HDI Container.

   Alternatively, it can be added via the Add Database dialog.

   

   Notice, above, that a user name and password are not requested. The connection will use a technical user, which was generated when the HDI container was created.

   In the database browser and in the SQL console, notice that the schema name is not shown.

   

   It is also possible to connect to an HDI container as an admin, which enables the ability to grant additional permissions in the HDI container. For an example of where this might be used, see Grant a Support User Access to an SAP HDI Container. Note, never use the Admin connection to perform DDL (such as create, update, or delete) operations.

   

For an example of creating a calculation view inside an HDI container, see the video titled Develop Apps at the end of the blog post Getting Started with SAP HANA Cloud II | Basics

The mission Get Started with XS Advanced Development provides further examples of using an HDI container.

In the next tutorial, additional tables, views, functions, and procedures that will be used in subsequent tutorials in this group will be created directly in the database rather than in an HDI container.

Congratulations! You have added different databases to the SAP HANA database explorer.