Installing and Configuring the SAP BTP Cloud Connector and SAP Analytics Cloud Agent

In this lesson, we provide an overview of the different possible installation scenarios and of the installation and configuration process. It is meant to provide you, the SAP Analytics Cloud administrator, with an overview of the different installation scenarios available. These scenarios will vary depending on the on-premise data source. It is not meant to be a step-by-step guide, as the installation of the SAP BTP cloud connector and SAP Analytics cloud agent is performed by your SAP system administrator or your network administrator.

The SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) cloud connector serves as the link between SAP Analytics Cloud and existing on-premise data sources.

The SAP BTP cloud connector is a shared piece of software that is also used by SAP BTP, so this software may already be installed within your company's landscape. It combines an easy setup with a clear configuration of the systems that are exposed to SAP Analytics Cloud.

The connector runs as an on-premise agent in a secured network and acts as a reverse invoke proxy between the on-premise networking customer domain and SAP Analytics Cloud. Due to its reverse invoke support, you don't need to configure the on-premise firewall to allow external access from the cloud to internal systems.

Compared to the approach of opening ports in the firewall and using reverse proxies in the customer domain to establish access to on-premise systems, the SAP BTP cloud connector has the following advantages:

• The firewall of the on-premise network does not have to open an inbound port to establish connectivity from SAP Analytics Cloud to an on-premise system. In the case of allowed outbound connections, no modifications are required.
• The SAP BTP cloud connector allows propagating the identity of cloud users to on-premise systems in a secure way.
• The SAP BTP cloud connector is easy to install and configure; that is, it comes with a low total cost of ownership and fits well to cloud scenarios.
• SAP provides standard support for the SAP BTP cloud connector.

The SAP Analytics Cloud agent is an on-premise data connectivity component that is used to establish import data connections.

It's recommended to install the SAP Analytics Cloud agent on the same SAP BTP cloud connector server. For the majority of the data import scenarios, you'll need both the SAP BTP cloud connector and SAP Analytics Cloud agent.

For data sources that can be accessed via HTTP(S) protocol, such as SAP BPC and OData Services, only the SAP BTP cloud connector is required to create the connection.

If the data you want to import is stored on multiple domains, then you can add multiple cloud connectors to a single SAP Analytics Cloud tenant. In this configuration, each SAP BTP cloud connector must be installed on a different domain.

It is best practice to set up a connection for each tenant, however, it is technically possible to create one connection for multiple SAP Analytics Cloud tenants. Use this scenario if the data that you want to import is stored on one on-premise network. Only one SAP BTP cloud connector can be connected to an SAP Analytics Cloud tenant, but the same SAP BTP cloud connector may be used by multiple SAP Analytics Cloud tenants. For example, you may have one SAP Analytics Cloud tenant for development activities and another one for production use. In this scenario, you may use the same SAP BTP cloud connector and SAP Analytics Cloud agent for both SAP Analytics Cloud tenants.

• It is recommended that the SAP BTP cloud connector, SAP Analytics Cloud agent, and the SAP JCo are installed together on a dedicated server, and not a personal computer. This helps to ensure that multiple users can use an import data connection without experiencing slowness or downtime.
• For SAP Analytics Cloud to connect to on-premise backend systems using the SAP BTP cloud connector, it is not necessary to create inbound rules in your firewalls.
• The SAP BTP cloud connector doesn't need to be deployed in your DMZ. Placing the SAP BTP cloud connector and SAP Analytics Cloud agent in the DMZ may cause connectivity issues, because there are network filters on the DMZ’s inner firewall.
• The SAP BTP cloud connector and SAP Analytics Cloud agent should be deployed in a network segment that allows outgoing connections to the internet, and direct (unblocked) connections to on-premise backend systems. Such a network segment may exist in your corporate network instead of the DMZ.
• If you choose to deploy the SAP BTP cloud connector and SAP Analytics Cloud agent on separate servers, connections from the cloud connector to the agent's Tomcat port must be allowed.

There are two ways to install and configure the SAP BTP cloud connector and the SAP Analytics Cloud agent:

Use the SAP Analytics Cloud Agent Simple Deployment Kit. This deployment kit installs the SAP BTP cloud connector, installs Apache Tomcat, and deploys the SAP Analytics Cloud agent. Environment variables and folders for required for JDBC and file server connections are also created and configured.

The deployment kit is ideal if you do not already have an Apache Tomcat server deployment running or an existing SAP BTP cloud connector configured.

Full instructions on installing the SAP BTP cloud connector and SAP Analytics Cloud agent using the SAP Analytics Cloud Agent Simple Deployment Kit can be found on the SAP Help Portal.

Use a customized setup of the SAP BTP cloud connector, Apache Tomcat, and the SAP Analytics Cloud agent.

The detailed steps for the manual installation are outlined in the following Technology Blogs by SAP post: Enable SAP Analytics Cloud for data acquisition from on-premise systems.

Installation files can be found in the C:\Program Files\SAP\SACAgentKit directory. In this folder, you will also find the Post-Setup Guide file, Setup-Guide.html.

Once the SAP BTP cloud connector and SAP Analytics Cloud agent are installed, the SAP system administrator provides you with the User Name and Password as you will need them when adding the location in SAP Analytics Cloud in the final step of the configuration.

This step is completed by you, the SAP Analytics Cloud administrator. As a first step, in SAP Analytics Cloud, you must enable your SAP Analytics Cloud tenant to allow a connection from the SAP BTP cloud connector. This is accomplished using the process below:

1. Go to System → Administration → Data Source Configuration.
2. Select Edit.
3. In the SAP BTP Core Account section, enter your S-User Account ID, and then select Add S-User. In the following example, you can see it is also possible to change the user once the initial configuration is complete.

   If your SAP Analytics Cloud tenant is hosted on a non-SAP data center, then your account ID is an email address.

   When the S-User Account ID is accepted, account information will be displayed as in the following example.

4. Record the account information and provide it to the SAP system administrator. They will use it when they set up the SAP BTP cloud connector.
5. Select Save.

This step is completed by the SAP system administrator. This step establishes a secure tunnel between the SAP BTP cloud connector and your SAP Analytics Cloud tenant.

Once the SAP BTP cloud connector is connected to your SAP Analytics Cloud tenant, the internal systems and resources that should be accessible in your on-premise environment need to be specified. In the example below, you can see that the Apache Tomcat server where the SAP Analytics Cloud agent is deployed has been added to the internal resources, as the SAP Analytics Cloud agent is required for the majority of the import data connections.

Once the SAP BTP cloud connector is set up, they provide you with the Virtual Host and Virtual Port, as you will need them when adding the location in SAP Analytics Cloud in the final step of the configuration.

The detailed instructions for this step can be found at: Configuring the SAP BTP Cloud Connector | SAP Help Portal.

To complete the setup, the last step in the process is to add the SAP Analytics Cloud agent information in SAP Analytics Cloud. This step is completed by you, the SAP Analytics Cloud administrator.

We will cover the steps in detail in the practice exercise for this lesson, however, a summary of the process flow is as follows:

1. Go to System → Administration → Data Source Configuration
2. Scroll down to the On-premise data sources section and select Add a new location.
3. In the New Location dialog, enter the Location for the SAP BTP cloud connector that you want to use and make sure Enable Agent is set to ON.
4. Enter the following information, as provided by the SAP system administrator:
   • Host: The Virtual Host specified during the SAP Analytics Cloud configuration.
   • Port: The Virtual Port specified during the SAP Analytics Cloud configuration.
   • User Name: Provided to you by the SAP system administrator from the Post-Setup Guide.
   • Password: Provided to you by the SAP system administrator from the Post-Setup Guide.
5. Select Create.