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Introduction
The existing SAP Datasphere catalog feature allows one catalog to extract and manage metadata from multiple Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud tenants. Using this method, you can have a single catalog, though it does come with certain disadvantage
- The user needs to select one Datasphere tenant as the primary tenant for catalog functionality
- It also requires the user to manually set up the system connections within the catalog to execute tenant pairing and identify the necessary tenants for pairing
- Finally, users must ignore the catalog on paired tenants that do not serve as the main tenant. Despite being able to access certain catalog screens, they will not find asset information as it is located in the primary tenant
This blog introduces the new central catalog feature in SAP Business Data Cloud (SAP BDC) that is designed to share catalog assets across multiple systems, currently Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud systems, in your landscape (more informationhere). This feature, located within the SAP BDC cockpit, aims to unify all Datasphere catalogs in the customer's landscape. It utilizes the (UCL) Unified Customer Landscape formations defined for BDC in SAP for Me (more information here) to structure the system connections for each Datasphere catalog and the central catalog within BDC. The new central catalog feature also serves as the central place to discover data products available in the customer landscape from all SAP (e.g. S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition) and Non-SAP Providers (e.g. Databricks) and to share data products in the customer landscape to partners like Databricks.
Additionally, this blogpost demonstrates, how the BDC central catalog can be integrated into Collibra.
SAP BDC Central Catalog
The overall idea of the feature is depicted on the following diagram:
In the Datasphere tenant of each BDC formation, the respective Datasphere catalog is set up along with the metadata extraction connections to systems of the respective formation. In the BDC Cockpit tenant, there is the same catalog application as in Datasphere, which provides a holistic view of all Datasphere catalogs that are within formations that contain that BDC Cockpit tenant. The catalog assets are not stored redundantly on the Datasphere catalogs but reside in the central catalog on the BDC Cockpit tenant.
To set up the central catalog, the BDC formations are configured as follows:
Each BDC formation must add the same BDC Cockpit tenant. Each formation can include a Datasphere tenant (as of the General Availability Date, only greenfield Datasphere systems are included; the integration of existing Datasphere systems is planned for later in the year). Additionally, an SAP Analytics Cloud system can be added to the formation, as well as other systems like an S/4HANA system.
As soon as applications are added to the BDC formation, a connection to the respective system appears in the Datasphere catalog of the formation under "Metadata Extractions" as well as on the “Metadata Extractions” tab of the central catalog on the BDC Cockpit tenant. Then, a user must be authenticated for the connection, as described here (Note: The connection can be authenticated in both the Datasphere catalog as well as the central catalog on the BDC Cockpit tenant. Only for SAP Datasphere, BW Bridge connections the user must be authenticated in the Datasphere system). Currently, assets from SAP Analytics Cloud and Datasphere can be displayed in the Datasphere catalog, as well as SAP-managed BDC data products, which are displayed from the source system (e.g. S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition).
The following graphic shows how the central catalog appears in the BDC cockpit tenant. In addition to the filter options available in the Datasphere catalog, it is possible to filter by BDC formations.
In the following figure, it is shown how to search for SAP-managed BDC data products in the BDC cockpit tenant in the “Data Products” section.
Collibra Integration with the BDC Central Catalog
Good news for the integration with Collibra: The BDC central catalog can be integrated to Collibra, similarly like SAP Datasphere. There is a blog post from Gaetan Saulnier about the integration between Datasphere and Collibra. (Note: Currently you can access Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud assets via the Collibra integration)
The only two deviations from the procedure in the blog post for integrating the central catalog with Collibra are:
1. In the BDC Cockpit Tenant, an OAuth Client with the settings purpose "API Access," access "Catalog User API," and authorization grant "Client Credentials" must be created in the "Administration" app (see following screenshot).
2. In the "Create a Connection" dialog in Collibra, the URL of the BDC Cockpit Tenant must be entered in the "Datasphere Catalog URL" field instead of the Datasphere URL.
The assets are displayed in Collibra grouped for each system which is connected to the central catalog. An example is shown in the following images.
In this blog post, you learned how easily catalog assets from various systems within a customer landscape of Business Data Cloud can be combined using the new central catalog feature. Thank you for your attention!
Thank you very much Ben, Christian, Devan, Francois, Gaetan, Mirko and Prasanthi for the collaboration on this blogpost.
Tim
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are solely my own and do not represent those of the company I am affiliated with. Any information provided is based on my personal experiences and research, and should not be taken as official statements or endorsements from the company.
Find more information and related blog posts on the topic page for SAP Business Data Cloud.
