The Microsoft Windows PC on which Safyr is to be installed should have the following:

‍

• A minimum of 8 Gigabytes of RAM
• 100 Megabytes of hard disk space for the Safyr Software
• Disk space of about 2GB for each Metadata Repository (each repository stores the metadata from 1 instance of a source system)
• The appropriate client connectivity software (e.g. Oracle Net) for connection to the Safyr Repository database and (unless ABAP extraction is to be used for SAP) the Enterprise Application database.

‍

FOR SAP: If Safyr is to be used with SAP and the user wants to have control of running the extraction of metadata from the SAP system, the SAP GUI client software needs to be installed on the PC, if the metadata is to be extracted from SAP via RFC/ABAP. (Note: The ABAP functions provided with Safyr can be run independently of the product. In this case, SAP GUI would not be required on the PC).

Metadata extracted from a single instance of a source application is used to populate a Safyr Repository.

‍

This contains a set of tables in a relational database where the various extracted objects (e.g. tables, relationships, indexes…) are stored.

‍

The size of the repository will depend to some extent on the size of the source application. Therefore, an SAP S/4HANA or ECC source will require about 2GB of space. The other sources will need less.

Safyr repositories can be stored in:

‍

• SQLite (ships with Safyr at no cost. Single user only)
• Oracle
• SQLServer

• SAP Versions: 3.1, ECC and above (see list of modules below) including SAP S/4HANA
• SAP BW: 2.0 and above including SAP BW/4HANA
• SAP MDG
• SAP SuccessFactors
• Oracle eBusiness Suite: 11 and above
• Siebel Versions: 6.5 and above
• JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Versions: Xe and above
• PeopleSoft Versions: Enterprise 8.0 and above
• Salesforce and Force based applications
• Microsoft Dynamics 365 (PLEASE NOTE: Safyr extracts metadata from the Microsoft Dataverse. As of January 2021, Dynamics365 Finance & Operations does not store metadata in the Dataverse).
• Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012
• Microsoft Dynamics CRM

Safyr extracts metadata from what is generally termed 'Data Dictionary tables'. The way it does this varies from source type to source type. In the case of SAP, the metadata is coming from ABAP Data Dictionary tables (and in the case of SAP BW, additionally BW Data Dictionary tables).

‍

For Salesforce, the metadata is only accessible by API. The Safyr Getting Started Guide has full details on the extraction mechanisms for each type of source Safyr supports.

‍

For SAP, Safyr uses ABAP Function Modules to access the tables holding the required metadata.

‍

For Salesforce an API is used.

‍

For the Oracle applications like PeopleSoft and JD Edwards, Safyr uses a series of SQL Queries to access the required tables containing metadata.

‍

‍

The preferred process for connecting to SAP applications (SAP ECC (Business Suite), S/4HANA, SAP MDG, SAP BW, SAP BW/4HANA) and extracting their metadata is as follows:

‍

• Install the Silwood supplied SAP Transport(s) on the target SAP system(s). These contain the ABAP Function Modules needed for accessing and extracting SAP metadata.
• Install Safyr on a Windows PC which also has the SAP GUI installed. Use the Safyr connection wizard to connect via SAP Remote Function Calls (RFCs) to the SAP system which initiates the ABAP Function Module and extracts the metadata from the SAP Data Dictionary tables into a Safyr Repository.

‍

NOTE: Silwood’s SAP Transports are certified by SAP

Safyr extracts metadata from the SAP ERP system that it is connected to. All metadata that is present in the ERP system Data Dictionary tables will be extracted.

‍

SAP ECC: The modules from which Safyr extracts metadata are:

‍

‍

SAP S/4HANA: Safyr supports all versions of SAP S/4HANA

Safyr supports all versions of SAP S/4HANA.

Safyr supports the following:

‍

• SAP BW Classic
• SAP BW on HANA
• SAP BW/4HANA

Safyr covers a range of SAP BW systems so the type of 'objects' extracted from BW will depended upon the version as demonstrated in the table below:

Safyr also extracts Lineage information to show how data flows through the BW system.

Safyr extracts the metadata from Salesforce using the Salesforce Enterprise WSDL API.

‍

Details of how to connect to the Salesforce system are required in order to make the connection and extract the metadata when using the Safyr connection wizard.

Safyr uses an XML file containing ODATA definitions of SuccessFactors data structures to populate the repository. This file is generated from the SuccessFactors system before the extraction of metadata into Safyr.

Safyr uses a third-party solution that utilises an API connection to the Microsoft Dataverse to extract the metadata. This metadata is automatically stored in a staging area before being loaded into a Safyr repository.

‍

Dataverse stores both the metadata and data for Dynamics 365 CE and PowerApps based applications in the cloud. It does not store the metadata from Dynamics 365 F&O.

To use Microsoft Dynamics AX metadata in Safyr it is necessary to configure a connection to the Dynamics AX system where the required metadata is stored.

‍

Safyr extracts the metadata from a Dynamics using the Dynamics AX Metadata Service API.

‍

In order to connect to the AX Server, the Windows user for the workstation where Safyr is installed needs to be known to the AX Server Active Directory, and .NET framework 4.0 or higher needs to installed on the workstation.

If the source is an on-premise Dynamics CRM system, then it is necessary to configure a connection to the application database in order to extract its metadata from the data dictionary tables.

‍

This is achieved using Microsoft ADO (ActiveX Data Objects).

‍

Appropriate security access to the database is required.

Extracting metadata from JD Edwards requires an extra step compared to the methods used for other Oracle applications. This is because of the way the JD Edwards metadata is located and structured.

‍

It is necessary to configure a connection to the EnterpriseOne database where the required metadata is stored.

‍

Safyr extracts the metadata from a small set of tables in this database and a group of XML files that are generated by a process in the EnterpriseOne application.

‍

These files must be generated before attempting the extraction of metadata from the EnterpriseOne system.

‍

The connection to the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne database is achieved using Microsoft ADO (ActiveX Data Objects).

If the metadata source application is Siebel, then it is necessary to configure a connection to the application database in order to extract its metadata from the data dictionary tables.

‍

This is achieved using Microsoft ADO (ActiveX Data Objects).

‍

Appropriate security access to the database is required.

If the source is Oracle eBusiness Suite it is necessary to configure a connection to the application database in order to extract its metadata from the data dictionary tables.

‍

This is achieved using Microsoft ADO (ActiveX Data Objects).

‍

Appropriate security access to the database is required.

If the source application is a PeopleSoft system it is necessary to configure a connection to the PeopleSoft application database data dictionary tables where the required metadata is stored.

‍

This is achieved using Microsoft ADO (ActiveX Data Objects).

‍

Appropriate security access to the database is required.

It is possible to configure Safyr to achieve many of the day-to-day tasks required of the product without the user having to be present and (if desired) as a scheduled process.

‍

Three types of Tasks can be automated:

‍

1. Extraction of metadata from the source application (SAP, Salesforce, PeopleSoft…)
2. Creation and Expansion of Subject Areas
3. Export of Subject Areas (not all export formats supported)

‍

More information is available in our product documentation.

Safyr extracts:

‍

• Custom objects (Tables, fields etc)
• Programs and components (SAP only)
• Technical names for database tables and fields (attributes)
• Descriptive names for database tables and fields (attributes)
• Long descriptions for tables and fields (where available)
• Table and field information
• Views (where available)
• Table row count (where available)
• Names in multiple languages (Only supported by SAP)

‍

Safyr discovers:

‍

• Primary and Foreign Keys
• Table relationships
• Application module hierarchy (where available)

The Application Hierarchies shown in Safyr will vary depending on the Application Type. In each case, the Hierarchy is based upon the metadata extracted and is never a ‘pre-configured’ structure delivered by Silwood.

A Safyr Subject Area is any user defined collection of tables from an instance of the source application. This grouping usually contains some or all of the related tables.

‍

A Subject Area can contain as many tables as needed for the project which is being worked on.

‍

It is common for a Subject Area to contain the tables and related tables which relate to a specific business concept or artefact. For example, Customer Master, Account, Product Master, Bill of Materials, Accounts Payable, etc.

‍

In addition, Safyr can be used to group together tables and attributes which represent Personal or PII data and are useful in the context of meeting CCPA, GDPR and other regulatory requirements.

‍

Finally, Subject Areas can be reused between different instances of the same application source. This makes it possible to compare complete or partial instances of a source application.

‍

Safyr Subject Areas are used to populate or provision other products and tools with metadata via Safyr’s Subject Area Export facilities.

Safyr’s Advanced functions can be used to search for Attributes (Columns) in Tables which contain the text strings which are relevant for Personal Data Discovery for GDPR, CCPA and other regulatory regimes.

‍

The results show which table or tables hold those Personal Data attributes.

‍

Results can be saved as Safyr Subject Areas and exported to other tools and in other formats. It is also possible to combine all the Personal Data Subject Areas into a single consolidated Subject Area.

‍

Silwood also provide some pre-configured GDPR/CCPA Subject Areas.

Safyr Subject Areas can be exported to:

‍

• Safyr’s ER Diagrammer - a built in graphical representation of tables and relationships
• Safyr Metadata Reporting (Microsoft Excel format)
• Safyr Compare (Compares whole or partial sets of metadata from two instances of the same source application)
• Safyr JSON for Data Catalog (Premium Export) (used by Alation, Solidatus, Zeenea, Purview and other data catalog vendors)
• Comma Separated Variable (CSV)
• Extensible Mark-up Language (XML)
• Collibra DGC (Premium Export)
• Informatica EDC (Premium Export)
• Erwin Data Modeler
• ER/Studio
• SAP PowerDesigner
• IBM Infosphere Data Architect
• System Architect

Safyr’s JSON export formats have two main advantages:

‍

1. Supports the loading of larger quantities of metadata (e.g., thousands of tables and attributes or even complete SAP BW systems) very quickly.

‍

2. To provision the internal connectivity or data lineage between SAP BW objects into a data catalog, lineage or other application.

Safyr needs to be installed in a Microsoft Windows environment. Normally this is a physical PC, but could equally be a Virtual Machine or a Citrix environment.

To achieve this, we recommend that Safyr should be implemented in client / server configuration.

‍

This means that the RDBMS which will store the Safyr repositories should be installed on a separate server to which each Safyr user has a connection.

‍

Safyr needs a separate database or schema for each set of metadata to be stored. Each database will require a database user to be specified who must also be the Table Owner for the database.

‍

Each Safyr user wishing to share the metadata in a Safyr repository must specify the same database (or schema) and database user when defining a new Safyr repository within their local Safyr environment.

‍

Both Safyr Extractor/Browser licences and Safyr Browser only licences can access the Safyr repositories if required.

This depends on two main factors.

‍

Firstly, the number of tables and attributes that are contained in the source application.

‍

Secondly the speed of the network across which the metadata is to be transferred.

‍

Under normal circumstances Silwood anticipate that it will take between 60 and 90 minutes to populate a Safyr repository with the metadata from an SAP system. A Salesforce application would be much quicker, typically 10 to 15 minutes only.

Silwood offer two training courses for Safyr. These are usually delivered over the internet using web conferencing facilities.

‍

1. Fast track Safyr training – up to 2 delegates This is a ½ day course designed to enable end users who do not need to know how to install and connect to source applications to get to know Safyr’s browsing and export capabilities.

‍

2. Web based training (Safyr) for up to 8 delegates This is a one-day course normally delivered over 2 or 3 discreet sessions. It includes topics such as:

‍

• Product installation
• Creating database schema for Safyr repositories
• Connecting to the application source(s)
• Extracting metadata
• ‍Repository management
• Use of Safyr for metadata exploration, sub setting and export

Most of the work to implement Safyr can be done by the end user (usually a data architect, analyst, scientist or modeler).

‍

It may be necessary to have some technical assistance with setting up a database server for the Safyr repositories or gaining access rights to the data dictionary tables in the source application.

‍

For SAP source applications it is common for the SAP BASIS team to install the Silwood Safyr SAP Transports. This is not a challenging or time-consuming task, it is merely something over which the SAP team often prefers to maintain control.

‍

All Safyr User documentation is available in our product documentation.