This page contains information about connecting Looker to SAP HANA and SAP HANA 2+.
Encrypting network traffic
It is a best practice to encrypt network traffic between the Looker application and your database. Consider one of the options described on the Enabling secure database access documentation page.
Creating the Looker user
Create a Looker database user with a secure password.
CREATE USER LOOKER PASSWORD <SOME_PASSWORD>
Granting permissions
Grant read permissions on the schema(s) that you would like to use in Looker.
GRANT SELECT ON SCHEMA <YOUR_SCHEMA> TO LOOKER
Setting up a PDT schema
If using PDTs, create a scratch schema for PDTs to be written into.
CREATE SCHEMA LOOKER_SCRATCH OWNED BY LOOKER
Creating the Looker connection to your database
In the Admin section of Looker, select Connections, and then click Add Connection.
Fill out the connection details. The majority of the settings are common to most database dialects. See the Connecting Looker to your database documentation page for information. Some of the settings are described next:
- Name: The name of the connection. This is how you will refer to the connection in LookML projects.
- Dialect: SAP HANA or SAP HANA 2+.
- Port: The database port. The default port is 30015.
- Host: Hostname.
- Database: The name of your database.
- Username: The database username.
- Password: The user password.
- Schema: The default schema to use when none is specified. Entering a schema is optional.
- Enable PDTs: Use this toggle to enable persistent derived tables (PDTs). This reveals additional PDT fields and the PDT Overrides section for the connection.
- Temp Database: Schema to use for PDTs.
- Additional JDBC Parameters: Any additional SAP HANA JDBC connection properties.
- Datagroup and PDT Maintenance Schedule: A
cronexpression that indicates when Looker should check datagroups and persistent derived tables. Read more about this setting in the Datagroup and PDT Maintenance Schedule documentation. - SSL: Check to enable SSL.
- Verify SSL: Check to enforce strict hostname verification.
- Max connections per node: The default is 25. This value can be left at the default value initially. Read more about this setting in the Max connections per node section of the Connecting Looker to your database documentation page.
- Connection Pool Timeout: The default is 120 seconds.
- SQL Runner Precache: To cause SQL Runner not to preload table information and to load table information only when a table is selected, uncheck this option. Read more about this setting in the SQL Runner Precache documentation.
- Database Time Zone: Specify the time zone used in the database. Leave this field blank if you do not want time zone conversion. See the Using time zone settings documentation page for more information.
To verify that the connection is successful, click Test. See the Testing database connectivity documentation page for troubleshooting information.
To save these settings, click Connect.
Test the connection in SQL Runner. Navigate to SQL Runner, select your connection and schema, and then check if you can see your database tables.
Feature support
For Looker to support some features, your database dialect must also support them. The following sections show the feature support for SAP HANA and SAP HANA 2+.
SAP HANA
SAP HANA supports the following features as of Looker 24.18:
| Feature | Supported? |
|---|---|
| Support Level | Supported |
| Looker (Google Cloud core) | No |
| Symmetric Aggregates | Yes |
| Derived Tables | Yes |
| Persistent SQL Derived Tables | Yes |
| Persistent Native Derived Tables | Yes |
| Stable Views | Yes |
| Query Killing | Yes |
| SQL-based Pivots | No |
| Timezones | No |
| SSL | Yes |
| Subtotals | No |
| JDBC Additional Params | Yes |
| Case Sensitive | Yes |
| Location Type | Yes |
| List Type | No |
| Percentile | No |
| Distinct Percentile | No |
| SQL Runner Show Processes | Yes |
| SQL Runner Describe Table | Yes |
| SQL Runner Show Indexes | No |
| SQL Runner Select 10 | Yes |
| SQL Runner Count | Yes |
| SQL Explain | No |
| Oauth Credentials | No |
| Context Comments | Yes |
| Connection Pooling | No |
| HLL Sketches | No |
| Aggregate Awareness | Yes |
| Incremental PDTs | No |
| Milliseconds | Yes |
| Microseconds | Yes |
| Materialized Views | No |
| Approximate Count Distinct | No |
SAP HANA 2+
SAP HANA 2+ supports the following features as of Looker 24.18:
| Feature | Supported? |
|---|---|
| Support Level | Supported |
| Looker (Google Cloud core) | Yes |
| Symmetric Aggregates | Yes |
| Derived Tables | Yes |
| Persistent SQL Derived Tables | Yes |
| Persistent Native Derived Tables | Yes |
| Stable Views | Yes |
| Query Killing | Yes |
| SQL-based Pivots | No |
| Timezones | No |
| SSL | Yes |
| Subtotals | No |
| JDBC Additional Params | Yes |
| Case Sensitive | Yes |
| Location Type | Yes |
| List Type | No |
| Percentile | No |
| Distinct Percentile | No |
| SQL Runner Show Processes | Yes |
| SQL Runner Describe Table | Yes |
| SQL Runner Show Indexes | No |
| SQL Runner Select 10 | Yes |
| SQL Runner Count | Yes |
| SQL Explain | No |
| Oauth Credentials | No |
| Context Comments | Yes |
| Connection Pooling | No |
| HLL Sketches | No |
| Aggregate Awareness | Yes |
| Incremental PDTs | No |
| Milliseconds | Yes |
| Microseconds | Yes |
| Materialized Views | No |
| Approximate Count Distinct | No |
Next steps
After completing the database connection, configure authentication options.