InformationAccess (INA) not available in HXE 2.0

[mike_howles4]

Hey guys,

Before in HXE 1.0, I could use INA to connect the BI tools to HANA Express without any problems. Now in HXE 2.0 SPS02, it looks like INA is now part of some plugin called EPMMDS (SAP Note: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2456225)

Excerpt:

“Starting from SAP HANA 2.0 SP01 the functionality provided by the InA/MDS component, which was directly included in SAP HANA 1.0, is now beeing provided as a separate HANA plug-in. This plug-in is called SAP HANA EPMMDS and needs to be installed and updated

This sadly means that we cannot use HXE 2.0, as we can today in HXE 1.0, because many of the tools we are wanting to use are the ones relying on INA/MDS.

Is there a way to optionally download this plugin or get it added to the HANA Express Download Manager? Basically I cannot do any reporting out of the box without it, and I'd rather not use the older JDBC method.

[lsubatin · Accepted solution]

While I would also like it to be back in the HXE image and save us all the trouble (it was removed from HANA, not just HXE), I documented my process to enable it back here: https://blogs.sap.com/2017/11/02/configure-information-access-in-hana-express-to-connect-from-lumira...

[mike_howles4 · Accepted solution]

Hey Lucia,

Thank you for posting that blog on how to configure it.

And yes, but as your blog entry states in the big warning sign, you must have an SAP Marketplace account (not an issue here, as we are an SAP customer), but also have a HANA license to legitimately download the EPMMDS plugin.

And that's our issue, as we are in the midst of "try before we buy" with the free HANA Express edition. You've even already pre-empted this with your mention:

(I know, you want it back…not everybody has this access… it used to be there… life was great… this is all I can offer for now)

Yes, life was great beforehand LOL. 😞 I guess we'll stay on HXE 1.0 for now, or I'll see if I happened to download a copy of HXE 2.0 prior to SPS02.

Thanks for laying this to rest.

[lbreddemann]

Stating that reporting is not possible because the INA/MDS interface is not available anymore is simply false.

Most reporting tools support ODBC/JDBC as data sources, so that's definitively possible to use, even if it isn't your preference.

What the reasons for moving this functionality are is something I cannot comment on.

Maybe @Lucia Subatin has some insight into this.

[lbreddemann]

Gosh, when will this "@" mention feature finally work??

[mike_howles4]

Lars,

Forgive me, but everything I've come across states that the ODBC/JDBC is the not-preferred method of accessing HANA data these days. While "legacy" JDBC/ODBC might work for some products, even the SAP BI products such as Lumira Designer have disabled such usage, for example. So no, I do not accept that ODBC/JDBC is a valid interface going forward.

I've already pinged both Lucia and Rudi on this one (thanks for paging her as well though), so here's to hoping that a more modern interface (Information Access) that was available in 1.0 is restored in 2.0?