Datastores

Note

This feature may not yet be activated for your tenant. For more information, contact Syniti Support.

A system’s main component is a Datastore, which is the parent asset for the application metadata objects (tables, functions, procedures, files and APIs). The following are examples of Datastores in specific instances:

• SQL Server—Database

• Oracle, HANA, PostgreSQL—Schema

• Web APIs—all available API endpoints

A Datastore generally has one connection, which can be shared where practical. For some database types (such as SQL Server), multiple Datastores may share a common connection. With the exception of SAP database types, each Datastore supports only a single connection. An SAP database type Datastore supports Database and Remote Function Call (RFC) connections.

Alternatively, other database types (such as Oracle) require a different username and password combination for every datastore. Therefore, the connection information must be assigned at the System or datastore level.

Create a Datastore

Datastores can be created manually by adding a single datastore or by importing databases to create multiple datastores. Importing Datastores is useful in cases where multiple databases exist for a connection (such as databases used in Migrate) or when quickly browsing for the desired schemas is necessary.

To manually create a single datastore:

1. Verify that you’re in the Catalog module of the Syniti Knowledge Platform.
   Or
   Select Catalog from the Home menu to navigate to the Catalog module of the Syniti Knowledge Platform.

2. Search for and open a system from the SKP Search field.

3. Click Add datastore on the system Datastores tab.

To create multiple datastores through an import:

1. Verify that you’re in the Catalog module of the Syniti Knowledge Platform.
   Or
   Select Catalog from the Home menu to navigate to the Catalog module of the Syniti Knowledge Platform.

2. Search for and open a system from the SKP Search field.

3. Click Import datastores on the system Datastores tab.

4. Select a connection from the Connection list box. If a connection doesn’t exist, click +Add Connection to create a new connection. Refer to Create a Connection for more details.

5. Choose the desired database(s) and schema(s) to be imported. The selected databases will be used to create new datastores with the associated schema(s) chosen.

   Note

   If no schemas are selected, all tables across the database will be imported on the first scan.

6. Click Import to initiate the datastore creation.

   Note

   The imported datastore will not appear in the list of datastores until the import is complete. Refresh the page to see the imported Datastore(s).

   Datastore names are automatically created based on the selected database(s).

When datastores are created using the Import datastores button, tables will not be automatically added to the datastore. To import tables into the newly created datastore(s), click the Scan button on the datastore Overview page. Refer to Manage Datastore Tables below for more details on datastore tables.

Manage Datastore Tables

Tables organize data into rows and columns, similar to worksheets in a spreadsheet application. Datastores may contain various table types that are displayed in the Tables grid when a datastore is selected.

If tables have not been imported for the selected datastore (as referenced in the Import All Tables column of the Datastores grid), a table can be manually added to the datastore.

To manually create a single new table for a selected datastore, click the Add table button that displays at the top of the Tables grid.

Note

When adding tables to SAP system datastores, tables are automatically scanned using baseline SAP metadata. Once a connection is established for the Datastore, a rescan of the table can be performed to import a specific copy of your system metadata, including any customizations. For non-SAP systems datastores, adding a table does not automatically initiate a metadata scan.

To import a list of tables for SAP system datastores, click the More actions (…) button and select the Import Tables option. This allows you to import a list of tables into the Datastore in one file instead of manually adding tables one at a time. The table import file must be in .CSV format and no larger than 6MB. A file template is available on the Import Tables window.

The following data should be populated in the file:

Note

The upload of these tables is not immediate. You will receive a notification once complete.

To automatically scan these imported tables once added, set up a metadata scanning connection with at least one SKP Connector on the parent Datastore.

Note

Multiple scans will be initiated for a Datastore when the number of roots to be scanned exceeds 1,000. The roots are divided into batches of 1,000, with up to six batches running concurrently.

Manage Table Columns

Columns are the fields within a table that store specific type of data. Tables can have one or more columns, which display in the Columns grid when a specific table is selected from the Tables grid.

The data type of a column is used to indicate the type of data being stored and varies by database provider. Differentiating between logical data types facilitates translating physical data types between database vendors.

Columns also contain metadata about required fields, specific values, default values, identity or autogenerated sequence columns, etc.

Table Constraints

Constraints exist in each database table to represent the table-level rules that determine what type of metadata can exist within the table to further assist in data migration and governance. The type of constraint is defined in the Type column of the Constraints grid. For example, you might have a FOREIGN-KEY constraint type, which represents the database rule that ensures relationship integrity between tables by enforcing that the values in that column exist in the PRIMARY-KEY constraint type column.

Selecting a constraint from the Constraints grid displays the columns associated with that constraint in the Columns grid.