Strategy ONE

Communicating with Databases

Establishing communication between Strategy and your databases or other data sources is an essential first step in configuring Strategy One products for reporting and analyzing data. This section explains how Strategy communicates with various data sources and the steps required to set up this communication.

ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) is a standard database access method. ODBC enables a single application to access database data, regardless of the database management system (DBMS) that stores the data. A DBMS is a collection of programs that enables you to store, modify, and extract information from a database.

Strategy Intelligence Server, when used in a three- or four-tier configuration, is the application that uses ODBC to access a DBMS. ODBC drivers translate Strategy Intelligence Server requests into commands that the DBMS understands. Strategy Intelligence Server connects to several databases (at a minimum, the data warehouse and the metadata repository) to do its work.

Users of Strategy Web can also connect to data sources using database connections. A database connection supports connecting to data sources through the use of DSNs, as well as through DSNless connections, to import and integrate data into Strategy. For steps to create database connections in Strategy Web, see Creating Database Connections in Web.

This section describes the ODBC standard for connecting to databases and creating data source names (DSNs) for the ODBC drivers that are bundled with the Strategy applications.

The diagram below illustrates the three-tier metadata and data warehouse connectivity used in the Strategy system.

The diagram shown above illustrates projects that connect to only one data source. However, Strategy allows connection to multiple data sources in the following ways:

  • With Strategy MultiSource Option, a Strategy project can connect to multiple relational data sources. For information on MultiSource Option, see the Project Design Help.
  • You can integrate MDX cube sources such as SAP BW, Microsoft Analysis Services, and Hyperion Essbase with your Strategy projects. For information on integrating these MDX cubes sources into Strategy, see the MDX Cube Reporting Help.

This section provides information and instructions on the following tasks: