SAP ASE (Sybase) Source Connection

Prerequisites

Before configuring the SAP ASE source connection in Crestone, make sure you have the following:

Main Requirement: An active and accessible SAP ASE (Sybase) instance, version 12.5.1 or higher, with a user that has read privileges on the target database. The following versions are fully supported:

Version	Support
SAP ASE 12.5.x (< 12.5.1)	Not supported (SELECT TOP not available)
SAP ASE 12.5.1+	Supported
SAP ASE 15.x	Supported (recommended)
SAP ASE 16.x	Supported (recommended, tested)
SAP IQ (Sybase IQ)	Not supported (different engine and protocol)
SAP SQL Anywhere	Not supported (different engine)

Note: Crestone connects to SAP ASE using pyodbc with the FreeTDS open-source driver (TDS protocol version 5.0). No SAP-licensed ODBC driver is required on the Crestone server.

Required Information:

Field	Description
Server / Host	IP address or hostname of the ASE server (e.g. 192.168.1.100 or ase.example.com)
Port	TCP port where ASE is listening. Default is 5000.
Database	Name of the ASE database to connect to (e.g. my_database)
Username	User with read privileges on the tables you want to extract
Password	Password for the specified user

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Pre-Verification Step

Before configuring the connection in Crestone, we recommend verifying your credentials using a compatible SQL client such as DBeaver, DataGrip, or the isql CLI (part of FreeTDS). This ensures that the server is reachable and the credentials are correct before proceeding.

DBeaver tip: To connect to SAP ASE from DBeaver, select Sybase ASE as the driver type. Make sure the TDS version is set to 5.0 in the advanced driver properties. DBeaver uses a JDBC driver for Sybase (jTDS or the Sybase JDBC driver), while Crestone uses FreeTDS/ODBC — both use TDS 5.0 and should behave consistently for credential validation.

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Configuration Steps

Follow these steps to create a new SAP ASE source connection in Crestone:

1. Navigate to Connections in the top navigation bar.
2. Select the Source tab.
3. Click the + button to create a new connection.
4. Fill in the Connection Name field with a descriptive name (e.g. My Sybase Source).
5. In the Source Type dropdown, select SAP ASE (Sybase).
6. Complete the credentials form with the required fields:
   • Server — host or IP address of your ASE instance
   • Port — default 5000
   • Database — name of the ASE database to connect to
   • Username — database user
   • Password — password for the user
7. Click Test Connection to validate that Crestone can reach the database successfully.
8. Once the test passes, click Create Source to save the connection.

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Editing an Existing Connection

To update the credentials of an existing SAP ASE source connection:

1. Navigate to Connections and find your SAP ASE source.
2. Click Edit.
3. Modify the desired fields in the credentials form.
4. Click Test Connection to verify the new credentials.
5. Click Confirm to save the changes.

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Using SAP ASE as a Source in an Extraction Node

Once the connection is created, you can use it as the source of an Extraction Node. Two extraction modes are available:

Visual Mode

Configure the extraction without writing SQL:

1. Open or create an Extraction Node and go to the Source tab.
2. In Select Source, choose your SAP ASE connection.
3. In Select Schema, choose the schema (database user) that owns the tables you want to extract.
4. In Select Table, choose the table to extract.
5. In Select Fields, choose the specific columns you want, or leave empty to extract all columns.
6. Optionally add a WHERE condition to filter rows.
7. The Preview panel shows a sample of the data that will be extracted.

SQL Script Mode

Write a custom SQL query for more complex extractions:

1. Select the source and schema as in Visual Mode.
2. Switch to SQL Script mode.
3. Write your SQL query using standard Sybase ASE T-SQL syntax.
4. Click Run Preview to validate and preview the query results.

Note: SQL Script mode supports any valid ASE SELECT statement, including JOIN, subqueries, aggregate functions, and GROUP BY. Avoid DDL statements (CREATE, DROP, ALTER) in this field.

Note on schemas: In SAP ASE, schemas correspond to database users. A schema named dbo is the default schema owned by the DBA. User-created schemas (e.g. crestone) correspond to database users with the same name. Crestone lists all users in the connected database that are available as schemas.

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Data Type Handling

When Crestone reads data from SAP ASE, column types are returned via the ODBC cursor and mapped internally to Polars types. Because pyodbc/FreeTDS returns Python native types, the mapping is determined at runtime based on the values:

ASE type	Python type returned	Polars type
TINYINT, SMALLINT	int	Int64
INT, INTEGER	int	Int64
BIGINT	int	Int64
REAL, FLOAT	float	Float64
DOUBLE PRECISION	float	Float64
NUMERIC, DECIMAL	Decimal (cast to str)	String
CHAR, VARCHAR, TEXT	str	String
DATETIME, SMALLDATETIME	datetime (cast to str)	String
DATE	date (cast to str)	String
BIT	bool	Boolean
Other / unknown	cast to str	String

Note: Non-standard Python types (e.g. Decimal, datetime) are automatically cast to string to ensure compatibility across all destination connectors. If you need numeric precision preserved, consider casting in your SQL Script query.

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Common Issues

Issue	Possible Cause	Solution
Connection timeout	Firewall blocking port 5000	Allow inbound connections on port 5000 from the Crestone server IP
Adaptive Server is unavailable or does not exist	Wrong host, port, or server name	Verify the host and port with your DBA; ensure the ASE server is running
Authentication failed	Wrong username or password	Verify credentials using a SQL client (DBeaver, isql)
No schemas listed	User has no visible users in sysusers	Verify the user has at least SELECT on system tables; contact your DBA
No tables listed for a schema	Schema user owns no tables in that database	Select a different schema, or use SQL Script mode to query across schemas
Can't open lib 'FreeTDS'	FreeTDS driver not installed	This is a server-side issue; contact your Crestone administrator
Preview shows no data	Table is empty or WHERE condition filters all rows	Verify data exists using a SQL client
Column names with special characters	Source columns contain /, spaces, or non-ASCII characters	Crestone automatically sanitizes column names; the original names may differ in the destination

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Required Permissions

For read-only access (source extraction), the database user needs at minimum the following privileges:

-- Grant SELECT on all tables owned by a specific user/schema
GRANT SELECT ON dbo.my_table TO crestone_user
GO

-- Or grant SELECT on all tables in the database (requires DBA or resource role)
GRANT SELECT ON ALL TO crestone_user
GO

Note: In SAP ASE, SELECT permission is granted per table or per user. There is no equivalent of GRANT SELECT ON *.* TO user as in MySQL. Ask your DBA to grant SELECT on the specific tables you need to extract, or assign the user to a group with the appropriate permissions.

Note: To list schemas (users) and tables in the schema discovery UI, Crestone queries the sysusers and sysobjects system tables. These are readable by any authenticated user by default in ASE.