Managing Connections

A connection specifies the authentication settings Data Hub uses to access an external source system, such as SAP S/4HANA or Microsoft Dynamics 365.

You can manage connections on the Integrations page, which you open from the Data Hub in the main menu. The page lists every connection together with its source datasets: each connection is a parent row that you can expand to display the source datasets that use it.

The Integrations page is displayed as follows, for example:

Integrations page with connections expanded to display their source datasets — Connections and their source datasets on the Integrations page

The overview table on the Integrations page provides the following information for each connection:

Column	Description
Connection name, Number of associated data sources	Name of the connection and the number of source datasets that use it.
Source system	External system the connection is established to, for example SAP S/4HANA or Microsoft Dynamics 365.
Status	Status indicating whether the connection is active or inactive.
Created by	User who created the connection.
Import	Status of the most recent import of the connection's source datasets.

To create a connection:

In the main menu, select Data Hub. The Integrations page is displayed.

In the top-right corner, click Create new connection. The connection form is displayed as follows, for example:

The connection form with the connection name field and the open 'Source system' drop-down list showing Microsoft Dynamics 365 and SAP S/4HANA — Connection form with the source-system selection

Select the source system you want to connect to, for example SAP S/4HANA or Microsoft Dynamics 365.

Enter the connection settings for the selected source system. For more information, see Connection Settings below.

Click Create. The connection is created and displayed on the Integrations page.

The connection settings depend on the source system you want to extract the data from.

The following settings are the same for every source system:

Setting	Description
Connection name	Name that identifies the connection on the Integrations page. Required.
SEA Instance	Instance of the Lucanet.Script Execution Application (SEA) that runs the connection. Required.
Description	Optional description of the connection.

All other settings are specific to the selected source system and define how Data Hub authenticates with it. For example, an SAP S/4HANA connection additionally requires the following settings:

Setting	Description
Language	Login language for the SAP system.
Host	Host name or address of the SAP system.
Instance number	Instance number of the SAP system.
Client	SAP client to log in to.
User	User name for the login.
Password	Password for the login.

The connection settings for an SAP S/4HANA connection are displayed as follows, for example:

You can manage an existing connection from the icon in the row of the connection on the Integrations page. The following options are available:

Option	Description
Edit	Option to view and change the connection's settings.
Create new dataset	Option to define a source dataset for the connection. For more information, see Managing Source Datasets.
Deactivate / Activate	Option to set the connection to Inactive or back to Active. While a connection is inactive, it cannot be used for imports, and all its source datasets are inactive as well.
Delete	Option to delete the connection. You can only delete a connection which is not used by any source dataset.

When you deactivate a connection that still has active source datasets, you confirm the change, and the connection together with all its source datasets is set to Inactive. Activating a connection again does not automatically reactivate its source datasets. You cannot deactivate a connection or source dataset while one of its imports is running or queued.