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TL;DR

Extract and catalog metadata from your SAP ECC system including tables, fields, and modules in Atlan.

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Crawl SAP ECC

Extract and catalog metadata from your SAP ECC system including tables, fields, and modules in Atlan. Once configured, the crawler connects to your SAP system through Self-Deployed Runtime and automatically discovers your SAP assets.

Prerequisites​

Before you begin, make sure you have:

  • Completed SAP ECC setup with required permissions
  • Learn more about SAP connectivity: How Atlan connects to SAP ECC
  • Secure Agent deployed with network access configured:
    • Outbound HTTPS: Connection to Atlan Cloud
    • SAP connectivity: Local network access to your SAP ECC system
    • Firewall: No inbound ports required
    • Proxy support: Configured for corporate HTTP/HTTPS proxies (if applicable)
  • Complete the Self-Deployed Runtime configuration by following the instructions in the How to configure Self-Deployed Runtime for workflow execution guide.

Create crawler workflow​

To create and configure the SAP ECC crawler workflow, complete the following steps.

  1. In your Atlan workspace, click Connectors in the left sidebar.

    • If you are using the Old UI (Classic), click New Workflow in the top navigation.

  2. Click Marketplace.

  3. Search for SAP ECC Assets and select it.

  4. Click Install.

  5. Once installation completes, click Setup Workflow on the same tile.

Configure metadata extraction​

Atlan supports using Self-Deployed Runtime for fetching metadata from SAP ECC.

  1. Install Self-Deployed Runtime if you haven't already:

  2. Select the Agent tab.

  3. Add secret keys for your SAP ECC credentials in the linked secret store.

  4. Provide the following SAP ECC connection parameters:

  5. Provide the following SAP ECC connection parameters:

    • SAP Host Name: The hostname or IP address of your SAP ECC system
    • SAP User Name: The dedicated user account for metadata extraction
    • SAP Password: The password for the user account
    • Connection Type: Choose between Application Server or Message Server. If you choose Message Server, provide:
      • Port: Port number (required if using Message Server)
      • Group: Group number (required if using Message Server)
    • SAP System Number: Two-digit system identifier (00-99)
    • SAP Client Number: Three-digit client identifier (001-999)
    • Use SAP Router: Choose Yes if using a SAP Router, and provide the SAP Router String

  6. Click Next after completing the configuration.

Configure connection​

To complete the SAP ECC connection configuration:

  1. Provide a connection name that represents your source environment, such as production, development, gold, or analytics.

  2. To change the users able to manage this connection, change the users or groups listed under Connection Admins. If you don't specify any user or group, nobody can manage the connection - not even admins.

  3. Click Next to proceed.

Configure crawler​

Configure which SAP components to include or exclude and set advanced crawler options. The component selection supports hierarchical browsing, allowing you to expand and collapse component categories to select specific subcomponents.

To configure component filters:

  • Include Components: Click to select specific SAP components and their subcomponents to crawl. You can search for components using the search bar or use the advanced search option.
  • Exclude Components: Click to select specific SAP components and their subcomponents to exclude from the crawl.
  • Asset types: Select the asset types to crawl. Leave this empty to crawl all supported asset types. Available options are Table, View, ABAP Program, Transaction Codes, Function Modules, and Classes & Characteristics.
  • Enable glossary ingestion: Choose whether Atlan builds a business glossary from your SAP F1 field help and links its terms to the columns it crawls. Off by default. See Glossary ingestion before you turn it on.
  • To configure advanced crawler settings:
    • SAP Language: Language code (default: EN)
    • SAP Codepage: Character encoding (default: 0)
    • SAP Unicode System: Choose Yes to use unicode
    • Unicode Support: Choose Yes to enable Unicode support
    • SAP Trace: Choose Yes to enable trace logging for debugging
    • Connection Pool Size: Maximum number of connections (default: 5)

Component filters apply to tables, views, and columns, and to the glossary when you enable glossary ingestion. SAP stores classification classes as customizing data rather than repository objects, so component filters have no effect on classes and characteristics. Selecting a narrow set of components still returns every class. To exclude them, deselect Classes & Characteristics in Asset types.

Glossary ingestion​

SAP ships documentation for each data element. It's the text a user sees after pressing F1 on a field in the SAP GUI. Turn on Enable glossary ingestion to have the crawler read that documentation and build a business glossary from it in the same run that crawls your tables and columns.

When the toggle is on, Atlan:

  • Creates one glossary for the connection, named SAP ECC (<connection name>).
  • Creates one term per data element, named after the data element's description and technical name, for example Base Unit of Measure (MEINS). The term description is the F1 long text, converted to Markdown.
  • Organizes terms into categories that mirror the SAP application component hierarchy, such as LO > LO-MD > LO-MD-MM.
  • Links each term to the crawled columns that use its data element, so the business definition shows up on the column and the column shows up under the term.

Keep the following in mind before you turn it on:

  • Additional table access: Glossary ingestion reads two SAP documentation tables that the crawler doesn't otherwise touch. If you authorized table reads by name pattern, table group, or exact table name, ask your Atlan team for the updated list and grant the additions before you enable the toggle. The preflight check probes these tables only when the toggle is on.
  • Longer runs: The F1 documentation table holds millions of rows on a typical SAP system, so a run with glossary ingestion on takes longer than a run without it.
  • Component filters apply: Atlan builds terms only for data elements used by tables in the components you include, so a narrow component selection produces a narrow glossary.
  • English only: Atlan reads the English version of the documentation.

For how Atlan names, categorizes, and links terms, see Glossary.

Run crawler​

Choose how and when to run the crawler to extract metadata from your SAP ECC system.

  1. You can either:
    • To run the crawler once immediately, click Run
    • To schedule the crawler to run hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly, click Schedule Run

Once the crawler completes, you can view the discovered SAP ECC assets in Atlan's asset page.

See also​