SAP Community - SAP BW/4HANA

SAP BI Asset Extraction Architecture in S4/ECC

2024-02-01T13:35:52.444000+01:00

Asset extraction from SAP is designed such a way that it could be optimized for delta extraction. Asset delta extraction is designed differently from other delta mechanism using SAP standard extractors / data sources.

SAP BadI FIAA_BW_DELTA_UPDATE is responsible for marking data records as delta if any transaction has been posted in the ECC/S4 system related to Asset master or asset transaction. Delta extraction in BW system will delete these delta marked records from these tables with specified limit. The last step of the delta extraction is to delete data from these tables based on its type and store the new timestamp of successful delta. At a very high level, I will try to explain the process of asset extraction architecture.

BadI FIAA_BW_DELTA_UPDATE will update the mainly below three tables as per the asset posting.

Table 1 : BWFIAA_AEDAT_AS – Asset Master

Table 2 : BWFIAA_AEDAT_AB – Asset AFAB - depreciation area specific master

Table 3 : BWFIAA_AEDAT_TR – Asset Transactions

If you are not using Asset extraction by standard content/extractors at all, the mentioned BadI must be deactivated. Please refer 590034 - Deactivating implementation FIAA_BW_DELTA_UPDATE - SAP for Me. If you are extracting any of the delta, mentioned BadI must be active.

For e.g. if you are only extracting masterdata, BadI must be active, however the tables related to transactions will grow day to day without deletion. You must take care of growing such unnecessary logs by deleting from Transactions by creating small custom ABAP report or direct table update. Please refer 952920 - Reorganization of change tables for delta upload - SAP for Me and 2969759 - How to reduce the data volume of BWFIAA_AEDAT_ table - SAP for Me.

Interface class IF_EX_FIAA_BW_DELTA_UPDATE of BadI FIAA_BW_DELTA_UPDATE has mainly 3 methods.

IF_EX_FIAA_BW_DELTA_UPDATE~UPDATE_POSTING_720 is updating below tables for delta marking

BWFIAA_AEDAT_AS and BWFIAA_AEDAT_TR

IF_EX_FIAA_BW_DELTA_UPDATE~UPDATE_MASTERDATA is updating below tables for delta marking

BWFIAA_AEDAT_AS and BWFIAA_AEDAT_AB

IF_EX_FIAA_BW_DELTA_UPDATE~UPDATE_DEPRECIATIONS is updating below tables for delta marking

BWFIAA_AEDAT_AB and BWFIAA_AEDAT_TR

There are four SAP provided Asset extractor for Delta extraction which utilizes above tables.

ASSET_ATTR_TEXT - Asset Subnumber with Description
0ASSET_AFAB_ATTR - Depreciation Area Real or Derived
0FI_AA_11 - FI-AA: Transactions
0FI_AA_12 - FI-AA: Posted Depreciations

SAP has created internal validation for extracting data in sequence based on timestamp of last successful delta extraction which is stored in table BWOM2_TIMEST. Validation is very straight forward. Timestamp should be ASSET_ATTR_TEXT <= 0ASSET_AFAB_ATTR <= 0FI_AA_11/12. i.e. SAP system will not allow to extract 0FI_AA_11/12 without extracting 0ASSET_AFAB_ATTR. (I am not including 0FI_GL_4 dependency because most of the organization has already started using ACDOCA based extraction). There is a ABAP report BWOM2_TIMEST which also useful in case of identifying which timestamps should be compared within above extractors. Please refer 2420714 - FI delta initialization ends with error - SAP for Me. In your ECC/S4 system there are more than one entries for timestamp depending on table BWOM2_TIMEST-DELTIMEST or 15 days. There is only one and most preferably last timestamp should be marked as LAST_TS = 'X'.

Delta / Init with data / Init w/o data extractions is deleting the unnecessary data logs from BWFIAA_AEDAT_ tables as well as timestamps from BWOM2_TIMEST which are older than 15 days as default. There is another table BWOM_SETTINGS for maintaining these parameters for lot many SAP extractors if you wish to change these default parameters. Here in below example, above 15 days has been changed to 60 days. It means now after successful Asset delta extraction, logs are being deleted which are 60 days older.

Below is exact location of Asset delta extraction code where deletion from logs table are handled. Below SAP function module is getting called for all four extractors at the end of successful extraction. Code will dynamically identify the table from which data needs to be deleted.

ASSET_ATTR_TEXT will delete data from BWFIAA_AEDAT_AS
0ASSET_AFAB_ATTR will delete data from BWFIAA_AEDAT_AB
0FI_AA_11 will delete data from BWFIAA_AEDAT_TR
0FI_AA_12 will delete data from BWFIAA_AEDAT_TR

Below is standard ABAP report and function group which is being called during Asset extraction. There are lot many useful comments/documentation maintained by SAP in code itself.

Report : SAPLBWFIAA

Function Group : BWFIAA

How to replace RRW3_GET_QUERY_VIEW_DATA

2024-02-07T23:59:11.396000+01:00

This blog is about how to replace the outdated function module in latest system using the Lightwight BICS API (LBA)

function to be replaced

DATA lt_parameter TYPE  rrxw3tquery.
lt_parameter = VALUE #( ( name = 'VAR_LAND'  value = 'DE' ) ).

CALL FUNCTION 'RRW3_GET_QUERY_VIEW_DATA'
  EXPORTING
    i_query       = l_query
*   i_view_id     =
    i_t_parameter = lt_parameter
  IMPORTING
    e_axis_info   = lt_axis_info
    e_cell_data   = lt_cell_data
    e_axis_data   = lt_axis_data.
*   E_TXT_SYMBOLS

this call is showing an example for an analytical query with 1 query variable. Provide a query name and retrieve query resultset with table lt_cell_data. Depending on the use case additional information about axis and text symbols can fetched and need to interpreted by the caller.

replacing with LBA

using LBA the same query is called like this

DATA(lr_lba_query) = NEW cl_lba_std_query( i_query_name = l_query ).
Data(lt_varialbe_value) = VALUE cl_lba_std_query=>tn_t_values( ( name = 'VAR_LAND'  sign = 'I' opt = 'EQ' value_low = 'DE' ) ).
lr_lba_query->get_resultset( EXPORTING "i_t_requested_columns = 
                                       "i_t_filter_values     =
                                       i_t_variable_values   = lt_varialbe_value
                             IMPORTING e_t_column_catalog    = DATA(lt_column_catalog)
                                       e_r_resultset         = DATA(lt_resultset) ).

resultset comparision function module output and LBA output

changing query desingtime setting at runtime

RRW3_GET_QUERY_VIEW_DATA has parameter i_view_id to overrule the query desingtime setting. A view_id contains other query resultset setting than the designtime with regards to dimension-& keyfigures selection and filter settings. The view_id need to be created before using it.

Overruling designtime setting with LBA works different , view_id's are not needed anylonger.

Instead dimension and keyfigure selection can be changed and set with each call dynamicly with i_t_requested_columns.
not providing or empty i_t_requested_columns means to select all available dimensions and keyfigures including dimension from free axis for resultset
Filters can be supplied with i_t_filter_values.

Further details are available with ABAPDoc in the code.

Also see this blog introducing LBA https://blogs.sap.com/2023/01/17/how-to-consume-an-analytical-query-bex-query-in-abap/

Release Info:

Valid for all SAP_BW & BW/4 codelines equal or later than SAP_BW 755 ( embedded BW 7.55 in S/4HANA 2009 ) and DW4CORE300 ( BW/4Hana 2021 )

Reporting daily material stocks using CDS views

2024-02-19T08:01:39.265000+01:00

Core Data Service Views (CDS) offer the possibility of reporting daily inventory values without the need to set up and fill info structures.

Every company must be able to show and report its inventories and, above all, be able to control them. For some companies, it is also important to be able to see the development of their stock on a weekly or even daily basis. For retail companies in particular, there is also the need to track not only the quantities but also the development of inventory values. In SAP ECC, this was made possible by updating information structures and transferring data to an SAP BW system using so-called 2LIS extractors. In this blog, I would like to discuss the possibilities in S/4HANA systems using CDS views, as in certain scenarios it is no longer possible to update the required info structures. In addition, the approach using CDS views offers the avoidance of non-posting times and the extraction of values without an S-API. This can be used within SAP Datasphere scenarios using CDS-CDC datasources.

General challenge in reporting inventory quantities and values:

In order to be able to display the inventory key figures as time series accurate to the day in the past, the required data was and is loaded into corresponding BW systems (SAP BW, SAP BW on HANA or SAP BW/4HANA) via the 2LIS_03* DataSources. This is done by extracting the current stock via the DataSource 2LIS_03_BX and adding the movements of the materials come via 2LIS_03_BF. These two sources can be used to generate the time series for the quantities. To be able to display the values accurately, we also need all documents that generate price changes. These can be, for example, revaluations for own products or adjustment invoices for third-party products that were not yet known at the time of the actual material movement. We receive these revaluations via the DataSource 2LIS_03_UM (or 2LIS_40_REVAL). The corresponding transactions in ECC, such as MC.5, are based on information structures such as S033, which are maintained via transaction OM09. Without these methods, the reporting of a stock value is only possible at the end of the period.

It is also possible in SAP S/4HANA systems using the options mentioned above. However, challenges arise if SAP Datasphere is to be used instead of an SAP Business Warehouse. This cannot read the above-mentioned DataSources directly but requires the SAP BW Bridge. On the other hand, the S/4HANA source system can no longer manage info structure S033 with data if late locks are to be used when posting goods movements. However, this is particularly required by retailers with a high volume of documents, who in turn often rely on the daily value representations. In the following sections I will describe how this can be done.

Options for data extraction in SAP S/4HANA

The CDS-based extraction of data is the current and future data extraction method to be selected, primarily due to the Change Data Capture procedure.

By now it is possible to extract the goods movements via the CDS view I_GoodsMovementDocumentDEX. However, the revaluations are missing here. There are standard views for extracting the current material valuations. However, these do not enable the creation of valid time series for the stock value. (See First Guidance: Inventory Handling in SAP BW/4HANA)

Possibilities in SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics

SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics enables real-time reporting within the operational transactional SAP S/4HANA system. This is based on analytical CDS views. For stock evaluations, SAP Virtual Data Model (VDM) offers these two CDS views, among others:

C_StockQtyCurrentValue_3 - Material stock for current valuation

C_MaterialStockTimeSeries - Material stock quantities over time

However, it is not possible to evaluate the stock values over time.

How to get relevant documents for revaluation from ACDOCA

In both scenarios described above,, the standard options provided by SAP do not include the revaluations that 2LIS_03_UM used to provide in order to be able to display daily time series for stock values.

For my customers' initial prototypes, I took the route of selecting the values via ACDOCA.

A corresponding representation of a model in an SAP BW/4HANA system is shown below and is based on the CDS view I_GLAccountLineItemRawData for the ACDOCA postings:

Possible Datamodell in SAP BW/4HANA:
Possible Datamodell in SAP BW/4HANA

Unfortunately, there is currently no standard view delivered by SAP for selecting the relevant postings. I am currently using the following filters:

Filter Settings Part 1:

Filter Settings Part 2

For reporting in S/4HANA Embedded Analytics, this report could be modeled by implementing the revaluations in an analytical cube, which is combined with the inventory quantities via Union. However, the values of the goods movements would also have to be updated in the standard cube for the quantities.

Conclusion:

Core Data Service Views offer the possibility of reporting daily stock values without the need to set up and fill info structures. The selection logic for revaluations may still need to be refined in order to guarantee secure data management. I am hoping for a corresponding view from SAP that reliably selects all necessary postings. This would open up new and more flexible possibilities for inventory controlling.

Until then, I look forward to your feedback! What selections would you make here on the ACDOCA posting documents? Are you already taking the approach of analyzing stock quantities and values via CDS views?

And how do you deal with stock valuation by storage location? (This will be the topic of one of my next blog entries).

How do you rate the topic? What topics are you dealing with along the sales & supply chain analytics? You can find the link to my main topics on my profile.
For which use cases have you found smart solutions for extending the SAP standard?

Enhancing BW datasources based on ODP_CDS – useful for Datasphere too!

2024-02-23T09:41:23.394000+01:00

The need to enhance SAP Standard Datasources is a familiar requirement for a BW consultant. Traditional SAPI datasources are routinely enhanced using custom appends and exit/badi ABAP code or for Logistics datasources additional pool fields can be added via the LBWE LO cockpit.

While SAPI DataSources remain the mainstay of most BW systems, ODP_CDS Datasources have become more widely available. ODP_CDS is also widely used by SAP Datasphere and is at the heart of its SAP delivered Content.

I have recently found myself using ODP_CDS based extraction in both BW and Datasphere contexts. And I’ve found myself faced with that same familiar task – How do I enhance an SAP Standard DataSource? Same old question, slightly difference techniques.

Here’s how it can be achieved.

Data Extractor Extension using the Fiori App Custom Fields and Logic

The Custom fields and logic App is used for custom field enhancements (Z fields in old money). If a Z field has already been developed and belongs to the same Business Context as the extraction CDS view, the Custom Fields and Logic App can be used to make it available in your DataSource.

Let’s take DataSource 0C_BILLINGDOCITEMBASICDEX_1, which is based on CDS extraction view C_BILLINGDOCITEMBASICDEX_1 as an example.

Transaction SCFD_REGISTRY on the S4 system can be used to identify the Business Context that the Extraction CDS view belongs to (SD_BILLINGDOCITEM).

Use the Business Context in the Custom fields and logic App to find Custom Fields that can be included in your DataSource.

Select the desired custom field and navigate to the UI’s and Reports section. Use the “CDS View Description” from SCFD_REGISTRY (Data Extraction for Billing Item Basic) to find the corresponding entry. Enable Usage for this line. Save and Publish.

This generates 2 CDS Extension views. One for the main CDS extraction view (C_BillingDocItemBasicDEX_1) and one for the Association Extension CDS view (E_BILLINGDOCUMENTITEM) referenced on the Support of Custom Fields tab of transaction SCFD_REGISTRY.

The first view extends E_BILLINGDOCUMENTITEM which acts as a hook back into table VBRP giving a direct path for including additional fields.

@AbapCatalog.sqlViewAppendName: 'ZZ1_BFA9672D8D27'

extend view E_BILLINGDOCUMENTITEM with ZZ1_KOG7E7IFO4FCZHS5RBIOMCALBU

{

Persistence.ZZ1_TESTEXTRACTAPPEND_BDI as ZZ1_TestExtractAppend_BDI

}

If you look at E_BILLINGDOCUMENTITEM it is a basic select on billing item table VBRP. Extension Associations equivalent to this are commonly used in many CDS views.

define view E_BillingDocumentItem as select from vbrp as Persistence {

key Persistence.vbeln as BillingDocument,

key Persistence.posnr as BillingDocumentItem

}

The second view extends the main extraction view C_BillingDocItemBasicDEX_1, via the first extension view.

@AbapCatalog.sqlViewAppendName: 'ZZ1_783ADAFAD8A2'

extend view C_BILLINGDOCITEMBASICDEX_1 with ZZ1_4HYM4U74XYJM3IO2EQOIWB5VOM

{

_ExtensionItem.ZZ1_TESTEXTRACTAPPEND_BDI as ZZ1_TestExtractAppend_BDI

}

A quick data preview of the Main CDS View shows that the new field is now included for extraction.

There are limits to this Key User Extensibility App approach.

Standard SAP fields cannot be added using the Custom Fields technique. If you are lucky, you might be able to use the “Data Source Extensions” option within the Custom Fields and Logic App.

But this will only work on Extensible CDS views which support this feature. Settings for this are configured under the Support of Data Source Extensions tab on transaction SCFD_REGISTRY.

The SD Billing Item CDS view does not support this, and it is absent from other Extraction enabled CDS views that I have checked.

If the Custom Fields and Logic App can’t be used, the CDS extensions will need to be manually developed in Eclipse. Which we will come back to in section Data Extractor Extension using Eclipse.

But let’s finish off the extension process for our Z field by updating the ODP_CDS DataSource definition on the BW system.

In eclipse, open DataSource 0C_BILLINGDOCITEMBASICDEX_1. On the Extraction tab choose Exchange.

Keep the existing Operational Data Provider and choose Next. New Fields available in the underlying CDS views and changes to existing fields will be presented. The new CDS extension field is listed at the end. Finish to implement the changes.

Check the DataSource to see that the CDS extension field is now included. Activate.

Now incorporate the new field into the BW data model by updating data targets, transformations etc…

Data Extractor Extension using Eclipse

If the fields you want to include in your Extraction cannot be added using the Fiori Apps, it will be necessary to add them manually using Eclipse.

A recent example I have worked on involved the extraction of Purchase Order Header data. The requirement was to simply add the field EKKO-FRGKE (Release Code) to CDS view C_PurchaseOrderDEX so that it could be extracted to a BW system and incorporated into an existing data model.

Taking a first look at C_PurchaseOrderDEX in the Eclipse editor you can see that it includes the extension association E_PurchasingDocument.

This allows us to follow the same extension technique that the Custom Fields and Logic App employed on the Billing Item example. Only this time we are creating the CDS extension views manually. As before, 2 extension views will be required.

First the Extension Association. To be on the safe side an appropriately named Alias should be used for the field that you want to include. A prefix of ZZ will give the extension some protection from possible problems that could occur during upgrades/support packs should SAP decide to include the field in a future release.

@AbapCatalog.sqlViewAppendName: 'ZZEMMPURDOC'

@EndUserText.label: 'Additional Fields for Data Extraction'

extend view E_PurchasingDocument with ZE_PurchasingDocument {

Persistence.frgke as zz_frgke

}

Then the main extraction CDS extension

@AbapCatalog.sqlViewAppendName: 'ZCMMPURORDDEX'

@EndUserText.label: 'Extension for C_PurchaseOrderDEX'

extend view C_PurchaseOrderDEX with ZC_PurchaseOrderDEX

{

_HeaderExtension.zz_frgke

}

There are currently no SAP provided ODP_CDS DataSources for Purchase Order data. So to complete the task create a custom ODP_CDS DataSource on CDS view C_PurchaseOrderDEX.

Note on API State

It is worth reading up on API State Extend (Contract C0). Extensions are not supported for CDS views which do not have this setting. That’s not to say you can’t create extensions if this isn’t set. C_PurchaseOrderDEX which I have used here is not C0 released. Just be mindful that it would be wise to check extensions like this during upgrades. Using the ZZ alias name for any fields will protect your developments to an extent.

Useful blogs and reference material

As referenced in OSS Note 3005736.

https://blogs.sap.com/2018/01/11/extending-cds-queries-with-co-pa-ww-fields/

CDS view extension – long activation times

https://me.sap.com/notes/0003033180

Safeguard your SAP BW conversion with SAP Enterprise Support services

2024-02-28T15:04:18.393000+01:00

As an SAP BW customer you may be in the process of planning your conversion from SAP Netweaver BW 7.5 to SAP BW/4HANA and investigating SAP Datasphere use cases in parallel.

It is important to note that the timeline for end of maintenance is fast approaching for SAP BW Netweaver 7.5 and its related components (as outlined in the recent Feature Overview SAP BW/4HANA 2023 – page 18).

With that in mind I would like to take this opportunity to refresh your knowledge of support and empowerment services that are available from SAP Enterprise Support to safeguard you SAP BW project milestones.

CONVERSION GUIDANCE

In a recent blog I provided all of the details about our Expert Guided Implementation service.
This virtual classroom session is designed to provide guidance SAP BW/4HANA, SAP Datasphere, and the conversion strategies associated with these SAP Data warehousing solutions.

As a brief summary the goals are:

Understand the use cases and important features in SAP BW/4HANA and SAP Datasphere and the available conversion approaches for each to support customers that must convert (due to maintenance) from a current SAP BW system.
Learn how to convert an existing SAP BW system to SAP BW/4HANA or SAP Datasphere, SAP BW Bridge.
Enable customers to leverage SAP Readiness Check for BW/4HANA and SAP Readiness Check for SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge.

SUPPORT SERVICES

It is timely to remember that as an SAP Enterprise Support customer you are entitled to a range of Continuous Quality Check services.

This is where you engage with and SAP Expert to analyze your system and/or situation based on real life data from your systems or solution. After each service, you receive a service report with an executive summary, findings, and a detailed action plan to mitigate risks or improve your situation.

For SAP BW the following are applicable:

Technical Performance Optimization (TPO)

The TPO service is designed to focus on the optimization of the throughput of your database.
Some of the checks included in the service include:

Checks for major misconfigurations and hardware bottlenecks
Parameter settings, table space, expensive SQL statements
Database management (CBO statistics, Index and table storage management, Online log configuration)

For more details read the infosheet.

Business Process Performance Optimization (BPPO)

The CQC for SAP Business Process Performance Optimization is designed to ensure best performance for business-critical steps in your solution.
Some of the checks included in the service include:

Detailed technical analysis of critical process steps, evaluates and identifies potential improvement areas.
Investigation of long running process chains / failed process chains.
Investigation of long running BW queries
Parameter checks of the system for both hardware/software and suggestions for performance improvement

For more details read the infosheet

Implementation Service

The CQC for implementation analyzes your SAP system for stability, performance and optimization potential based on SAP best practices.
This would be applicable to position for the new SAP BW/4HANA system to ensure technical capabilities of the new productive environment are verified, configuration of parameters is aligned with SAP best practices, performance and stability are optimized.

For more details read the infosheet.

Data Volume and Archiving

When planning a conversion from SAP Netweaver BW 7.5 to SAP BW/4HANA and/or SAP Datasphere it should be seen as an optimal time to plan a data volume management strategy.
SAP BW/4HANA provides an important feature; Data Tiering Optimization (DTO).
This enables customers to perform data tiering, transferring data to HOT, WARM and COLD tiers respectively for the given InfoProvider, based on the data temperature.

When customers are looking for SAP BW/4HANA conversion from their existing BW system (SAP HANA or non-HANA), it has always been a requirement to reduce the HOT HANA footprint, pushing it to the WARM/COLD tier.

This is feasible for Shell conversion or Greenfield implementation but has been challenging to achieve the same using the Remote Conversion.

Watch our webcast recording to learn about this topic and best approaches.

We also have a Continuous Quality Check for Data Volume Management

The CQC for data volume management determines the type and amount of data that can be archived or deleted, as well as the corresponding archiving objects or deletion reports.
It considered as a technical blueprint that can be used as a basis for the definition and
implementation of a data volume management strategy in your company

For more details read the infosheet.

Further Support and Empowerment via SAP Enterprise Support Value Maps

Value Maps are a support and empowerment program from SAP Enterprise Support and are available to you via the SAP Learning Hub. A one-time sign in with your S User is required, and everything thereafter is free as part of your entitlements. We provide:

Prescriptive Guidance
Empowerment
Social Collaboration
Expert Access

For Data and Analytics we provide all of the services and support outlined above, and much more, as part of our Learning Journeys.
We have a dedicated Learning Journey for BW Modernization enabling you to plan out your data warehousing transformation including integration with SAP Datasphere and BW Bridge.

It also includes several other best practices including related topics of how to handle BPC aspects during the conversion.

Check out the SAP Enterprise Support value maps landing page for more and start engaging today!

Quicklinks

Integration of SAP Readiness Check for SAP BW/4HANA with Cloud ALM Project and Task Management

2024-03-05T13:06:00.306000+01:00

Dear All,

When using SAP Readiness Check in your own SAP Cloud ALM tenant, you can now set up references between findings in SAP Readiness Check for SAP BW/4HANA and project and task management within SAP Cloud ALM.

With this integration functionality, you can create new and assign existing follow-ups to your SAP Readiness Check analysis findings and manage these follow-ups in the specified SAP Cloud ALM project.

As with my similar SAP Cloud ALM integration announcements, this capability leverages the SAP Readiness Check Integration app in SAP Cloud ALM. My recent blog entitled “Integration of SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA to CALM Project and Task Management (PTM)” (link) provides step-by-step guidance on how to use the SAP Readiness Check Integration app.

Within the SAP Readiness Check for SAP BW/4HANA, the following analyses allow the assignment of findings to an SAP Cloud ALM project:

Object Compatibility
Source System Readiness
Custom Code Compatibility
Add-On Compatibility

In the analysis details, you can create follow-ups per finding or assign findings to existing follow-ups.

When you create a new follow-up, you select a target project to assign the follow-up and provide a follow-up title.

Clicking on the Create button completes the assignment of the follow-up item to the project.

The link created in the follow-up column within the SAP Readiness Check analysis results opens a detailed view of the user story or requirement in the assigned SAP Cloud ALM project. You can edit the follow-up, for example, assign a responsible team or person, add test cases, create sub-tasks, and track the progress of each assigned item.

For further details, you may also refer to the online help portal:

SAP Cloud ALM Application Help - Integration between SAP Readiness Check and SAP Cloud ALM

How to Debug DTP Filter Routine

2024-03-08T15:56:55.611000+01:00

Dear SCN Community ,

I have been going through the SCN Blogs for Debugging DTP Filter routines where I found to put a BREAK-POINT in code which is not possible in a Production Environment where a complex routine needs to be simulated . For this case I have followed an approach which will be helpful :

Here we will discuss a simple approach to debug a DTP filter routine which doesn’t need a hard coded break point.

1. Go to the DTP and in Execute Tab select Processing Mode as Serially in the Dialog process (for Debugging) – Expert Mode (To make sure no data gets loaded once debugging is completed).

2.Now go to class CL_RSBC_FILTER_CMD and method PROCESS_SEL_ROUTINE. We will see a standard piece of code with LOOP AT l_t_varseltab . Put a debug point at the line .

3.DTP filter routines are a type of Form with naming convention C_<FIELD_NAME>.In the above snip put a debug point on the PERFORM statement. PERFORM Key word is used to call the form.

4.Now in DTP screen, put /H in the Transaction screen and press enter. Now click on simulate.

5.If there are multiple filter routines in the DTP, debugger will call routines 1 by 1. Once the variable is picked up by debugger for which we need to debug the code, go inside the perform statement. We will be landed on the DTP filter code which we wanted to debug. Hence we can debug the code in a Production Environment in a simple and easy approach.

Assign points if its useful for you ! 🙂

Best Regards,

Suraj Grewal

Handling Cutoff Dates during BW transition to SAP Datasphere

2024-03-15T20:12:15.860000+01:00

In this blog, we will describe how SAP Datasphere can handle the "automatic handling of Cutoff Dates" from multiple attributes of the same Entity. More specific, on a recent engagement the customer wanted to migrate its current SAP BW infrastructure to SAP Datasphere one, but there was no direct solution regarding this specific situation.

Business Case

On this scenario, the Employee Entity could be described by many different attributes, such as "English Level" / "Employee Category" / "Division" and so on. During time, it was possible to have different values which could unique identify the Employee Entity.

For example, if we want to describe the Employee Category during time, we can easily conclude that for a period T1 the employee can has the value "Junior" and then for the upcoming or current period T2 can has a different value,such as "Senior". If we extend this, to all the required attributes, we conclude to numerous possible transitions which can overlap among them or not, during time. SAP BW is able to handle this kind of request directly but SAP Datasphere not yet.

Demo on SAP Datasphere

Two local tables created on Data Builder for the Employees attributes regarding "English Level" and "Category". Each one, had the different "picture" of Employee for a specific period. Then, by using the "Analytical View" option of Data Builder we create a sql-script which constructs the final result. Each combination of possible attributes per Employee should be unique per period.

This is a limited demo, on a real scenario the number of the possible Attributes could be dozens. Furthermore, a concern regarding the performance of this implementation came up from the customer. SAP Datasphere is able to provide two approaches on this question. Either by materializing the Result set on a Table either by using the Data Persistence option of Data Builder (materialize the ResultSet in memory).

Following is a generalised sql script which can be adapted to any scenario. Comments are provided on the script how to extend it.

SELECT DISTINCT 
EMP_ID,ENGLISH_LEVEL,CATEGORY
,min(x)over(partition BY EMP_ID,ENGLISH_LEVEL,CATEGORY/*HERE  I HAVE TO ADD AND ALL THE ADDED DIMENSION ATTRIBUTES  */ ) AS VALID_FROM
,min(xx)over(partition BY EMP_ID,ENGLISH_LEVEL,CATEGORY/*HERE  I HAVE TO ADD AND ALL THE ADDED DIMENSION ATTRIBUTES  */ ) AS VALID_TO

--STEP 4 I APPLY THE RULE USING THE ROW_NUMBER =1 (MIN AND MAX) AND THEN I REDUCE 1 DAY ON THE VALID_TO CLM  , EXCEPT THE LAST ONE PERIOD--
FROM (
SELECT 
EMP_ID,ENGLISH_LEVEL,CATEGORY,
VALID_FROM,VALID_TO
,CASE WHEN RN_FROM = 1 THEN VALID_FROM END AS x

,CASE WHEN RN_TO = 1 THEN CASE WHEN VALID_TO = TO_DATE('2999-12-31') THEN TO_DATE('2999-12-31') ELSE VALID_TO END  END AS xx

--STEP 3 OUR GOAL IS TO GROUP IN ONE ROW "SIMILAR GROUPS". BECAUSE I HAVE THE INFO IN MORE THAN 1 ROW. SO I HAVE TO ADD A ROW_NUMBER
-- ON ON THE VALID_FROM AND VALID_TO COLUMN IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO TAKE THE MIN AND MAX COUPLE PER GROUPS
---
FROM (SELECT 
EMP_ID,ENGLISH_LEVEL,CATEGORY,
VALID_FROM,VALID_TO,
ROW_NUMBER()over(partition BY EMP_ID,ENGLISH_LEVEL,CATEGORY/*HERE  I HAVE TO ADD AND ALL THE ADDED DIMENSION ATTRIBUTES  */ ORDER BY VALID_FROM) AS RN_FROM,
ROW_NUMBER()over(partition BY EMP_ID,ENGLISH_LEVEL,CATEGORY/*HERE  I HAVE TO ADD AND ALL THE ADDED DIMENSION ATTRIBUTES  */  ORDER BY VALID_TO desc) AS RN_TO

FROM (
SELECT EMP_ID,ENGLISH_LEVEL,CATEGORY,/* CONTINUE TO ADD THE ATTRIBUTES FROM THE REMAINING DIMENSIONS */
VALID_FROM,VALID_TO
FROM (
SELECT a.EMP_ID,a.VALID_FROM,a.VALID_TO,
b.ENGLISH_LEVEL
,c.CATEGORY
/* CONTINUE TO ADD THE ATTRIBUTES FROM THE REMAINING DIMENSIONS */

from
------------------------STEP 2
(SELECT * FROM 

(SELECT 
EMP_ID ,DATE_ AS VALID_FROM ,add_days(lead(DATE_)over(PARTITION BY EMP_ID ORDER BY DATE_),-1) AS VALID_TO

--STEP 1  , UNION ALL THE VALID FROM AND VALID TO FROM DIFFERENT_DIMENSIONS
FROM (
 SELECT EMP_ID ,VALID_FROM AS DATE_ FROM ENGLISH_DIMENSION
 UNION 
 SELECT EMP_ID ,VALID_TO FROM ENGLISH_DIMENSION
 UNION 
 SELECT EMP_ID ,VALID_FROM FROM CATEGORY_DIMENSION
 UNION 
 SELECT EMP_ID, VALID_TO FROM CATEGORY_DIM	ENSION
 /* UNION  SELECT EMP_ID, VALID_TO FROM DIMENSION_x ...... */
  )
 )WHERE VALID_TO  IS NOT null --EXCLUDE THE LAST DATE (DO NOT CREATE PERIOD)
 )a
----------------------STEP 2 , FROM THE PERIOD CREATED I WILL JOIN TO ALL AVAILABLE DIMENSIONS 
 
inner JOIN ENGLISH_DIMENSION b 
ON a.EMP_ID = b.EMP_ID
AND a.VALID_FROM BETWEEN b.VALID_FROM AND b.VALID_TO

inner JOIN CATEGORY_DIMENSION c 
ON a.EMP_ID = c.EMP_ID
AND a.VALID_FROM BETWEEN c.VALID_FROM AND c.VALID_TO

/* CONTINUE TO ADD THE INNER JOIN  FROM THE REMAINING DIMENSIONS 
inner JOIN CATEGORY_DIMENSION_x x
ON a.EMP_ID = x.EMP_ID
AND a.VALID_FROM BETWEEN x.VALID_FROM AND x.VALID_TO
...
...
inner join ...
*/
)
)
)
)
ORDER BY VALID_FROM

Getting Started with SAP BW Request Housekeeping

2024-03-17T20:18:34.718000+01:00

Hi BW enthusiasts!
In this blog post, I would like to dive deeper into Housekeeping, an area sometimes a bit neglected in BW-systems. The focus here is actually on BW Request Housekeeping.

To start with, it is important to understand which kind of request management concepts are available and which one applies for your specific SAP BW environment:

1) The classic one: Request Status Management (RSSM) is the original concept from SAP NetWeaver BW and there in use for a long time already for all classic InfoProviders CUBE, ODSO, IOBJ and DEST.
The RequestID is based on a prefix and a following 25 characters long randomly generated unique identifier. Typical prefixes are REQU_* for InfoPackage requests, DTPR_* for DTP requests, and ODSR_* for ODSO activation requests.

2) The new one: Request Status and Process Management (RSPM) is the revised concept for ADSOs in SAP NetWeaver BW 7.50 on HANA. In SAP BW/4HANA RSPM is used for all InfoProviders (ADSO, IOBJ, DEST) and RSSM is decommissioned.
The Request ID is now called Request TSN (Transaction Sequence No), which is a timestamp and is derived from the ODQ Transaction ID.

As a first summary the focus of your individual BW request housekeeping concept is either on RSSM processes/tools or RSPM processes/tools. OR, in case you run BW on HANA, then often both approaches apply as classic objects and ADSOs often coexist side-by-side.

WHY bothering with BW request housekeeping?
In general, request meta information (all details your find in a request monitor like timestamps, runtime, package sizes, record amount, warnings etc) is stored in BW backend tables. These tables grow continuously based on the daily data processing activities. If housekeeping is not done, it will have a negative impact on the…

overall system size,
data management performance (loading, activation, delta determination etc.),
waiting time for InfoProvider administration in Tr. RSA1/RSMNG, or BW/4HANA Cockpit, or
preparation of a move to BW/4HANA or BW Bridge. Leveraging the SAP transfer tools (BW/4HANA inplace or remote approach / BW Bridge remote approach) requires the number or requests in classic InfoProviders to be reasonable (<1.000), see also warnings in your Readiness Check.

WHAT is done during BW request housekeeping?
Request Housekeeping deletes the request details (meta data) from the core runtime BW backend tables. This means, details of the request history will be removed which is older than a customer specific number of days. However, no need to be afraid: The real BW data is not deleted - master data and transactional data residing in the InfoProviders is NOT affected! Housekeeping only shrinks the request history behind them!
Also, good to know: During the housekeeping process, the objects are not locked, and they are available for loading/reporting without restrictions. Still, it is clear it is better to run the cleanup not during business hours.

As you see in the figure below, the housekeeping process removes the detail data from the original tables and moves it to housekeeping tables in a compressed form. If that is not enough (normally however this is not the case), you can even move all to an external archive (RSSM details here, for RSPM see SAP notes 2867347 and 2980697).

HOW to analyze the status quo?
RSSM: Tr. RSREQREDUCE provides the full list of InfoProviders with critical no of requests.
The same information is provided by table RSMDATASTATE_EXT.

RSPM: In SAP BW/4HANA, leverage the Cockpit apps for Request Management in ADSOs, InfoObjects or Open Hub Destinations and sort the column of 'Successful Requests' properly.

In SAP BW on HANA it is a little more challenging as these apps are missing. You can either use the new CDS-based technical content (aka "statistical analysis"). In Tr. RSRT following sources are available which both provide a key figure "No of successful requests" per ADSO:
2CRVCREQUEST/!2CRVCREQUEST or 2CRVCREQUEST/2CRVCREQQRY

The second BW on HANA option is to run following SQL statement (e.g. in Tr. DB02-SQL Editor) to get the ADSOs in most requests in descending order:
SELECT DATATARGET, COUNT(*) NUM_OF_REQUESTS
FROM RSPMREQUEST
GROUP BY DATATARGET
ORDER BY NUM_OF_REQUESTS DESC

HOW to run BW request housekeeping?
RSSM Request Housekeeping can be triggered and scheduled from Tr. RSREQREDUCE based on the two reports RSSM_REDUCE_REQUESTLIST and RSSM_AUTODEL_REQU_MASTER_TEXT. Thorough documentation here.
For RSPM, SAP provides report RSPM_HOUSEKEEPING which can be scheduled via Process Chains (in BW 7.5 as ABAP variant, in BW/4HANA there is a new dedicated variant). Thorough documentation here.

WHICH Requests can be removed?
You can clean up a request if it is not available as physical entity. This means, it is not stored in an InfoProvider table anymore (e.g., in an ODSO/ADSO inbound queue to change log table).

To start with, all deleted requests can be removed from all InfoProviders.
In general, all requests can be removed from following InfoProviders: ODSO/ADSO (type direct update), IOBJ and DEST
Requests can also be removed if they meet following prerequisites:
- ODSO/ADSO (type standard), CUBE/ADSO (type data mart)
  DTP loading requests can be deleted from the inbound queue if they are activated / compressed already.
- ODSO/ADSO (type standard):
  Change log requests can be removed if they have been deleted from Change log. This is only possible if the delta has been provisioned to all connected data targets.

Finally, HOW to set the whole process up properly?

Define your individual housekeeping strategy. This means you have to make a decision how many days of request history should be kept in your BW landscape.
For RSPM: Depending on your SP-level, check whether some recommended SAP corrections need to be installed (see SAP note 3137171).
Test housekeeping on a few objects (e.g. 1 ODSO/ADSO, 1 IOBJ, 1 DEST).
Run housekeeping once for the whole DEV-system (e.g. with > 1000 days).
For RSPM: Transport SAP notes (2) to the next system.
Run housekeeping in tiers until you reach the defined limit of of days (1), depending on the age of the system, for example 1st run > 1500 days, 2nd one > 1000 days, then >800 days… In a large system each run could take a few hours.
When the defined limit (1) is reached: Schedule housekeeping, e.g. for RSPM in a weekly process chain like the following one:

Useful sources:

RSSM Housekeeping https://help.sap.com/docs/SUPPORT_CONTENT/bwdabc/3564975514.html
RSPM Housekeeping
- SAP note 3137171 - Housekeeping for Request Administration tables (RSPM* tables)
- Help https://help.sap.com/docs/SUPPORT_CONTENT/bwdabc/3361383396.html
- BW/4HANA release notes

SAP BW Bridge In SAP Datasphere : Connectivity Between S/4HANA System & BW Bridge

2024-03-19T17:43:39.356000+01:00

This blog is in continuation of my previous blog on SAP Datasphere please find the following link - SAP Datasphere Connectivity With S/4 HANA System &... - SAP Community

Introduction:

SAP BW bridge is a functional enhancement of SAP Datasphere and enables ABAP-based data extraction and staging capabilities within SAP Datasphere. It provides customers who are running SAP Business Warehouse or SAP BW/4HANA with access to the public cloud as it offers SAP BW capabilities directly in SAP Datasphere.

SAP BW Bridge for SAP Datasphere is a feature that makes certain elements from the on-premise SAP BW system available in the cloud. In order to transfer these elements to SAP Datasphere, SAP also supplies the appropriate conversion tools. SAP BW Bridge is a cost-effective and simple way to switch from an on-premise SAP BW system to SAP Datasphere.

Provisioning the SAP BW Bridge Tenant:

We need to define SAP BW Bridge Storage before creating SAP BW Bridge Tenant. Configure the size of your SAP BW bridge tenant in the Tenant Configuration:

From the side navigation, go to System =>Configuration =>Tenant Configuration

Choose the size & Save

Now create SAP BW Bridge instance
Go to System -> Configuration -> SAP BW Bridge and create

Provide the Instance name and description
For Development system: Select enable system for development
For Production system: Deselect enable system for development

A SAP BW Bridge Space has been created automatically as given below-
We just need to add users in the BW Bridge space.

Activate BW Bridge Tenant:

When a new SAP BW bridge tenant is provisioned together with a new SAP Datasphere tenant, the system owner receives a welcome email. Click the Activate Account button to connect to the server and set your password.

When a new SAP BW bridge tenant is provisioned to an already existing SAP Datasphere tenant, the first login to the SAP BW bridge tenant must be done by the user who was system owner of the SAP Datasphere tenant when the SAP BW bridge tenant was provisioned.

System owner needs to create the other users in the BW Bridge Cockpit.

After activating it get activated:

Open SAP BW Bridge Cockpit:

From the side navigation, choose Data Integration Monitor -> Choose BW Bridge space

Now we can see the BW bridge cockpit, Click Open SAP BW Bridge Cockpit

Preparing Connectivity for ODP Source Systems in SAP BW Bridge:

Connecting an SAP on-premise system to SAP BW bridge requires a few more steps than connecting the same system to an SAP BW on SAP HANA or SAP BW∕4HANA system.

We will required a Cloud Connector which serves as a link between the on-premise source system and your SAP BW bridge tenant which is technically based on an ABAP Platform in SAP BTP. RFC is used as a protocol for data exchange between on-premise source systems and SAP BW bridge.

System needs to be added in the cloud connector with RFC protocol.

The on-premise source system must be configured as communication system in BW Bridge Cockpit.

The source system connectivity is established following these procedures:

Add the SAP Datasphere subaccount in the Cloud Connector.
Create the on-premise source system in the Cloud Connector.
Add the relevant resources to the source system.
Add a service channel to the SAP BW bridge tenant in the Cloud Connector.
Create a communication system in the SAP BW bridge tenant.
Create the source system in the SAP BW Modeling Tools.
Optional: Select and activate preconfigured SAP BW bridge Content objects.

Steps 1 to 3 already done before in my previous blog post please find the following link – SAP Datasphere Connectivity With S/4 HANA System &... - SAP Community

Add a Service Channel to the SAP BW Bridge Tenant in the Cloud Connector:

The on-premise source system must be able to call the SAP BW bridge tenant via RFC. Therefore, a service channel must be added in the Cloud Connector.

Procedure:

Log in to the Cloud Connector
In the left-side menu of the administration UI, select On-Premise To Cloud
In the Service Channels section, click (Add) to add a new service channel.
In the Add Service Channel dialog, use the following values:
1. Type: ABAP Cloud System
2. ABAP Cloud Tenant Host: For SAP BTP ABAP based systems like SAP BW bridge, the tenant host is <serviceinstanceguid>.abap.<region>.hana.ondemand.com . The region is, for example, eu10 or us10.

To retrieve the host name:

Log on to SAP Datasphere.
From the side navigation, choose Space Management.
Select the space BW Bridge.
Navigate to the section Connections.
Mark the local connection BWBRIDGE and choose Edit.
Under HTTP Access copy the host name to the clipboard (without https://).

In the same dialog window, define the Local Instance Number under which the SAP BW bridge system is reachable for the source system(s). The <Local Instance Number> will later be used when maintaining the RFC destination in the on-premise source system pointing to the SAP BW bridge system (i.e. in the so-called callback destination).
Leave Connections set to 1.
Leave Enabled selected to establish the channel immediately after choosing Finish. Unselect it if you don't want to establish the channel immediately.
Select Finish.

You can now see that Service channel is enabled.

Create a Communication System in the SAP BW Bridge Tenant:

The on-premise source system must be configured as communication system in the SAP BW bridge tenant. A communication system is a specification of a system that represents a communication partner and the technical information required for the communication (inbound/outbound), such as the host name and user information (inbound/outbound).

Procedure:

Log on to the SAP BW Bridge Cockpit.
In the Communication Management section, select the app Communication Systems.
Click New to add a new Communication System.
In the New Communication System dialog, enter a System ID and a System Name and choose Create.

Under Technical Data, maintain the following values:
1. Enter the virtual host name maintained in the Cloud Connector as Host Name.
2. Fill in the port number 33<instance number> as Port, e.g. 3301 if the instance number is 01.
3. Switch on the property Cloud Connector.

Under RFC Settings, maintain the following values:
1. Set Load Balancing if the on-premise source system was created with the option With load balancing (system ID and message server) in the Cloud Connector.
2. Maintain the client of the source system as Client.
3. If Load Balancing was set, maintain a logon group of the source system as Group. Enter the virtual system ID maintained in the Cloud Connector as Target System. Enter the virtual message server maintained in the Cloud Connector as Message Server.
4. If Load Balancing was not set, enter the virtual instance number maintained in the Cloud Connector as Instance Number. Enter the virtual application server maintained in the Cloud Connector as Target Host.
5. Maintain the location ID of the Cloud Connector as SCC Location ID. In case you did not specify a location ID in the Cloud Connector, you can leave SCC Location ID blank.

Under Users for Inbound Communication, click (Add) to maintain the user that is used in the SAP BW bridge tenant for the inbound communication. Select an existing user or click New User to create a new user.
Under Users for Outbound Communication, Enter the username and password of an existing user in the on-premise source system.
Save the new communication system.

As a result, you have created the on-premise source system as communication system in the SAP BW bridge.

Maintain Communication Arrangement:

You need to maintain communication arrangement for the communication system that we have created in the BW Modeling tool.

You need to choose the predefined communication scenario SAP_COM_0692. And enter the required details like –

Use the technical name of the source system as Arrangement Name
User for Inbound Communication
User for Outbound Communication

Maintain Callback Destination:

Create a RFC in S4H system(Standard Name Given in Communication systems):

Log in to the on-premise source system.
Call transaction SM59.
Choose Create to create a new RFC connection.
In the Create Destination dialog, enter the name of the Callback Destination shown in the BW Modeling Tools as name of the Destination and choose RFC connection to ABAP system as Connection Type.
On the Technical Settings tab, enter the hostname of the Cloud connector (without https:// and without port number) as Target Host and the local instance number you defined in the Cloud Connector for the service channel as Instance Number.
On the Logon & Security tab, enter the Language, 100 as Client and User and Password of the user you defined as User for Inbound Communication.

ODP_INBOUND User which is created in BW bridge cockpit, User for inbound communication

Connection test:

Authorization test:

Create an SAP BW Bridge Project:

To test the connection between we will create a project in BW modeling tool using service key.

For service key we need to go to BW Bridge Space => Choose Connections and select the BW Bridge space => Choose Edit => Copy the SAP BW Service Key

Now Create an SAP BW Bridge Project in BW modeling tool with the system details

Logical destination and callback destination(which we have created in backend S/4 HANA system) should have status green as below -

Now the connection has been established successfully between S/4HANA and BW Bridge cockpit.

With SAP BW Bridge for SAP Datasphere, SAP has created an attractive and cost-effective way for companies to move from their SAP BW on - premise system to SAP Datasphere. SAP BW Bridge is particularly interesting if companies do not want to do a greenfield implementation but want to take existing content with them into the cloud.

Redwood RMJ Architecture, Integration and Interface review with SAP S/4 HANA and ECC Job execution.

2024-03-26T00:07:16.040000+01:00

There are many tools available today to schedule, execute and monitor jobs in SAP. However today we will look at Redwood RMJ (RunMyJobs), its Architecture and user interface.

Please note: Redwood RMJ is a higher version of Redwood BPA and CPS which were traditionally installed and used on-prem. Redwood RMJ is offered as a SAAS solution to its customers using SAP.

Background About Redwood RunMyJobs

Redwood RunMyJobs is an SAAS automation suite that can be used to streamline business processes. Industry-standard protocol support allows you to integrate with REST and SOAP (webhooks), RFC (SAP R/3), SAP S/4, JDBC (databases), OS interpreters (PowerShell, Bash, Python, Perl, etc.), Oracle EBS, IBM I, Z (Platform Agent-less), and more.

Architecture: On-Prem vs Cloud

RunMyJobs consists of:

A central system that runs the user interface and server software.
A database that stores static data, definitions, and operational data.

Onsite Deployment Architecture

I believe this is no longer offered by Redwood for RMJ.

SaaS Deployment Architecture

Please note: If you are using Cloud to host your SAP application and have firewalls in place then the architecture might be a little different as shown below where you would need another server in the middle which will act as a Secure Gateway.

The Secure Gateway is a technology invented by Redwood that allows a single, secure channel for all application connections that do not depend on Platform Agents. It is a designated Platform Agent that enables software inside the customer network to securely communicate with the server-based components of RunMyJobs. The Secure Gateway runs inside the customer network, behind the customer firewall, and communicates with the RunMyJobs server components via HTTPS. All traffic between the customer network and the RunMyJobs server processes passes through the Secure Agent. All communication is initiated from inside the customer network, for additional security.

One example is SAP HEC/ECS support where your SAP server is hosted and Supported by SAP HEC/ECS, Here they wont allow installation of any platform agent on to the SAP server due to Security risks and in that case you would need a Secure Gateway in the middle to communicate between Redwood and SAP server in HEC/ECS.

Redwood RMJ Access

The access to this tool can be via UserId and Password or even via SSO using OKTA, Azure AD etc.

Landing Page:

After selecting the required system, it takes you to a dashboard with the Navigation bar on the left and Home screen showing Queues, ProcessServers and other Icon's mentioned below.

1 - Home: Displays the Home tab if it is closed, or selects it if it is open.

2 - Submit: Submits the selected Process Definition.

3 - Processes: Displays the Processes tab.

4 - Settings: Displays the Edit User Settings pop-up window.

5 - Catalog: Displays the Catalog.

6 - Refresh: Refreshes the display.

7 - Object Search: Displays the Object Search pop-up window.

8 - Product Information: Displays a drop-down list with the RunMyJobs build number and other support-related links.

9 - Log Out: Logs the active user out of RunMyJobs.

Queues:

Queues are used to manage Groups of processes. Queues distribute processes to process servers, where the processes actually run. You can use queues to limit the number of processes that can run simultaneously, distribute workload across multiple systems and provide fail-over facilities. One queue can be attached to multiple process servers, in which case Redwood Server decides which process server to run the processes at when the process starts. One process server can be attached to multiple queues, in which case it can run processes from any of those queues.

ProcessServers:

Process servers are responsible for running and monitoring processes, watching for file events, and monitoring system performance. They run processes in local and remote systems. Process servers host services, which allow processes of different types to be run. Redwood allows users to schedule processes/jobs as part of a Chain or Queue of processes. These tasks are then handled by our Process Servers that securely communicate with your target systems to complete them.

Monitor jobs in a particular Queue

You have the option of putting the Queue on hold which will pause all jobs related to that Queue until you release it.

To monitor/view jobs in a particular queue you would need to Right Click on the Queue and select Monitor related Processes as shown below.

Here you can see the job name, Job Id, Start Time, Status of the jobs etc.

To see the details of a particular job execution you would need select the job and expand the section at the bottom of the screen which is a separate frame that specifies all the delatils related to that specific job like Job name, Chain name (if its part of a Redwood chain), Spool, job log, System Queue, SAP Client, ABAP Program, Variant etc.

You would be able to see the same job executed in SAP in SM37. You can even download the spool output of that jobs from here to analyze it instead of downloading it from SAP.

Conclusion:

I hope with this article I was able to share some background about the Redwood RMJ Architecture and its user Interface as to how the Interface looks and its easy to operate. I will be publishing other blogs on Redwood RMJ Security, Job creation, Alert mechanism, System connection, etc. I would love to hear back suggestions, feedback and questions that you might have. Please do share the article with your Team members, Colleagues and Friends working in SAP and who use or plan to use Redwood for SAP background jobs orchestration. Also, don’t forget to like and share the blog and follow me on SAP blogs to not miss more content: maheshsinghmony

References & Related Links: https://documentation.runmyjobs.cloud/runmyjobs-2024.1/Content/Home.htm

Applies to:

SAP ECC, SAP BW, SAP S/4 HANA, SAP BW on HANA, SAP BW4HANA, SAP BODS, Redwood etc.

How to collect hardcoded values, ABAP routines & OLAP variable values used in DTP filters

2024-04-03T10:51:25.366000+02:00

Introduction

This blog talks about how to collect selections or filter details used in a DTP by using some standard tables in both BW on Hana & BW4HANA systems.

Especially In migration projects (SAP BW on Hana to BW4HANA), it’s very hard to collect hardcoded values or ABAP routines or OLAP variable details used in DTPs manually for ‘n’ number of DTPs. So, to overcome from this issue, below steps will help us to collect DTP filter details by using the tables RSBKREQUEST, RSSELDTP, RSBKSELECT.

1. DTP filters in BW on Hana

As we know, in a DTP filter we can maintain hardcoded values, ABAP routines & OLAP variables to restrict data while loading into Target objects. Below steps will help us to get the selection details used in a DTP for n number of DTPs.

a) Hardcoded values used in a DTPs.

Here, taking one example DTP DTP_4G4QWVRDA3L500T4AN4PBQYQA to explain the below steps.

Step 1: Use the table RSBKREQUEST and enter the DTP id in DTP field as shown below.

Screenshot1: Initial screen & input to the table RSBKREQUEST

Step 2: After executing the table, search for the field TSTMP_START and consider latest time stamp (descending order) and take the first request name as shown below.

Screenshot2 : Output of RSBKREQUEST table

Step 3: Use the table RSSELDTP and enter the request name in RNR field and execute the table.

Screenshot3: Initial screen & input to the table RSSELDTP

Screenshot4: Output of RSSELDTP

Conclusion: The table RSSELDTP holds the hardcoded values used in a DTP as shown in above screen shot.

Note: Follow the same process for n number of DTPs.

b) ABAP routines used in a DTPs.

As we know, in a DTP we can use ABAP routines to derive CALMONTH value or any logic to filter data while loading into Target. Below steps help us to identify an ABAP routine details used in a DTP.

Step 1: Use the table RSBKREQUEST and enter the DTP id in DTP field as shown below.

Screenshot5 : Initial screen & input to the table RSBKREQUEST

Step 2: After executing the table, search for the field TSTMP_START and consider latest time stamp (descending order) and take the first request ID value as shown below.

Screenshot6: Output of REBKREQUEST table

Step 3: Use the table RSBKSELECT and enter the ‘*’ symbol followed by REQUID value in REQUID field and enter value 6 in SEL_TYPE filed and execute the table as shown below.

Screenshot7: Initial screen & input to the table RSBKSELECT

Screenshot8: Output of RSBKSELDTP

Conclusion: The table RSBKSELECT holds the ABAP routines details used in a DTP as shown in above screen shot.

Note: Follow the same process for n number of DTPs.

C) OLAP Variables used in a DTPs.

Follow the steps 1 & 2 explained in above section b.

Here, to get the OLAP variable details, Use the table RSBKSELECT and enter the ‘*’ symbol followed by REQUID value in REQUID field and enter value 7 instead of 6 in SEL_TYPE filed and execute the table as shown below.

Screenshot9: Initial screen & Input to the table RSBKSELECT

2. DTP Filters in BW4HANA

As we know, BW4HANA is an advanced version of BW. In older BW systems, it was quite easy to check DTP filter settings in standard tables but in BW4HANA, we don’t have any straightforward tables to get DTPs filter details.

We can get some partial details from the standard table RSPMDTASELECTION but not useful and also SAP provided the standard program RSBK_DTP_SHOW_FILTER, with this program we can display the filter criteria for a single DTP.

In addition to DTP filters, this blog also talks about how to handle exclusion filters in BW4HANA for ODP data sources.

How to handle exclusion filters in BW4HANA for ODP data sources

If there is a requirement to load data from classic BW/BW on HANA 7.5 system to another BW4HANA system with some exclusion filters, then we cannot apply the exclusion filters directly in DTP because exclusion filter criteria doesn’t work in BW4HANA for ODP data sources.

To overcome from this scenario, we can create an ABAP program with logic to fetch exclusion filters from control table (exclusion filters should be maintained) and apply the same program in DTP filter routine and also we can reuse the same include program for exclusion filters in other ODP data flows by maintaining a control table. Please find the sample ABAP code in below screenshots.

SAMPLE ABAP CODE

Screenshot10 : Sample ABAP code

Screenshot11 : Continuation of Screenshot 10

Control Table

In control table, we must maintain exclusion filters details. So, that extraction for exclusion filters will work properly from classic BW/BW 7.5 system to BW4HANA system for ODP data sources. Please find the parameters details in below.

Let's take an example, we have a COMP_CODE = C1,C2,C3 in Source but I want only C1 & C2 into my target system.

PARAM = DTP ID --> (DTP ID, in which we wanted to apply exclusion filters)

SUB_PARAM = COMP_CODE –(Field name)

SIGN = E ------> (E indicates Exclude)

OPT = EQ ---->(EQ indicates Equal)

Low = C3 -->(exclusion company code)

Screenshot12 : Sample data in Control table

Happy learning 🙂

Exploring Integration Options in SAP Datasphere with the focus on using SAP extractors

2024-04-04T19:03:57.411000+02:00

Overview of the blog series

The main reason for this blog series was the realization that with the Introduction of SAP Datasphere there seems to be so many integration options when it comes to leveraging SAP Extractors (SAPI Data sources & ABAP CDS view extractors).

I wanted to illustrate options in a graphical way which can be useful as a starting point for implementing new use cases. From experience, besides determining the appropriate SAP Extractor to be used, another important factor to highlight is the capability of full versus delta load when it comes to data persistency.

Introduction to this blog

SAP Datasphere provides numerous integration possibilities when utilizing SAP Extractors.

As some of you might have already experienced, there are numerous factors and aspects to be considered when it comes to the decision whether you are going to leverage SAPI (Service API) extractors (also known as SAP Data Sources) or SAP ABAP CDS (Core Data Services) views or potentially both.

My intention with this post is to summarize and graphically present the Integration Options in SAP Datasphere utilizing SAP Extractors - this could then serve as a starting point for a project or implementation of new use cases or enhancements of existing use cases.

Most likely there will be many factors and aspects to be considered when it comes to the decision which SAP extractor to use, but in this post the emphasis will be on the possibilities of full and delta data load capability into SAP Datasphere.

As a side note, I highly recommend the creation of a design decision paper to document your options, considerations and reasons why particular design decisions were eventually chosen (or not). Especially as options might change over time, it is always great to be able to go back and look why certain things were done in a certain way at the time.

Scenario Overview:

The following 4 Integration scenarios are being covered during this blog series:

Direct Integration into SAP Datasphere [Blog 1 – focus within this Blog post]
Leveraging SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge [part of a future Blog post]
Leveraging SAP BW/4 Model transfer option [part of a future Blog post]
Leveraging ABAP connection integration with SAP BW systems [part of a future Blog post]

For each of the scenarios, I will be exploring integration option into SAP Datasphere by using Remote Table, Data Flow and Replication Flow functionality.

Please note that the following elements will not be included in this blog:

Comprehensive explanation of the three integration alternatives (remote table, data flow, replication flow).
Additional modeling options such as developing Dimension views, Fact views or Analytic Models on top of the remote or local table within SAP Datasphere.

Important Facts

Before looking at specifics of any of the scenarios it is important to highlight a few key facts for both types of extractors related to:

Availability
Operational Data Provisioning (ODP)
How to check: Primary Keys
How to check: Extractor Delta Capability
LIS Extractor specifics

Note:
Information in below Table 1 to Table 5 is relevant for the entire blog series.

Availability

SAPI Extractor

SAPI Extractors are available in SAP On-premise Business Suite systems (such as SAP ECC) as well as in SAP S/4HANA systems.

It is important to know that not all SAPI extractors have been released for SAP S/4HANA (see SAP note 2500202) and in SAP S/4HANA cloud there are no SAPI extractors at all.

ABAP CDS view Extractor

SAP ABAP CDS view are only available in SAP S/4HANA On-premise (including PCE) as well as SAP S/4HANA Cloud systems, but not in any of the SAP Business suite systems (e.g. ECC).

To be able to use SAP ABAP CDS views for exaction requires data extraction annotations (see SAP Help - CDS Views Enabled for Data Extraction)

Table 1: Important Facts – Availability

Operational Data Provisioning (ODP)

SAPI Extractor

SAPI Extractors can be leveraged via the ODP framework.

ODP enablement (see SAP note 2232584) is prerequisite for using SAPI Extractors in SAP BW/4HANA or SAP Datasphere (with and without SAP BW Bridge) via the ODP context for SAPI extractors (ODP_SAPI).

ABAP CDS view Extractor

ABAP CDS view extractors can be leveraged via the ODP framework.

If the ABAP CDS view contains the required annotations for analytics, they can be used for extraction via the ODP context for ABAP CDS_VIEWS (ODP_CDS).
See SAP Help - Transferring Data from SAP Systems via ODP (ABAP CDS Views)

Table 2: Important Facts - Operational Data Provisioning (ODP)

How to check: Primary Keys

SAPI Extractor

There are different ways to find out whether the SAPI extractor has primary keys in the SAP source system:

1. In your Source system- use transaction RSA2 for SAPI Extractor and check tab “fields” for key fields.
OR
2. a) In your Source system- use transaction SE16 / table ROOSOURCE and OLTPSOURCE equals SAPI Extractor(s):
Use ROOSOURCE-EXSTRUCT and Run Transaction SE16 for table DD03L and TABNAME = ROOSOURCE-EXSTRUCT. Check KEYFLAG is ‘X’ for primary key(s).

2. b) In your Source system- use transaction SE16 / table ROOSFIELD and OLTPSOURCE equals the SAPI Extractor. Check KEYFLAG_DS is ‘X’ for primary key(s).

ABAP CDS view Extractor

Following Blog describes steps on how to analyse ABAP CDS views:
Finding the right CDS Extractor in SAP S/4HANA

Example (S/4HANA on premise):
1. In Eclipse – display ABAP CDS view:

2. In Source system – transaction SE16:

Table 3: Important Facts - How to check: Primary Keys

How to check: Extractor Delta Capability

SAPI Extractor

In your Source system – use Transaction SE16 / table ROOSOURCE and OLTPSOURCE equals SAPI Extractor. Check that field DELTA is not empty.

ABAP CDS view Extractor

Following Blog describes steps on how to analyse ABAP CDS views:
Finding the right CDS Extractor in SAP S/4HANA

Example (S/4HANA on premise):
use Transaction SE16: Table IXTRCTNENBLDVW (as mentioned in above blog)

Table 4: Important Facts - How to check: Extractor Delta Capability

LIS Extractor specifics

SAPI Extractor

Standard SAP SAPI Extractors starting with the “2” in the technical names are commonly known as “Logistics Cockpit extractors.” (e.g., 2LIS_02_ITEM – Purchasing Line item).

As preparation for a data load initialization as well as for a full data load, application specific setup tables need to be filled.
Before filling the setup tables, it is recommended to delete the existing setup tables before executing new setup runs to avoid duplicate records for the same selections.

Table 5: Important Facts – LIS Extractors

Let’s now focus on getting into the details of Scenario A, while the other scenarios will be covered in future blogs.

Scenario A: Direct Integration into SAP Datasphere

Direct integration using SAP Extractors with SAP Datasphere Native offers the capability for both - FULL and DELTA data load integration -provided certain prerequisites are met.

Direct Integration into SAP Datasphere using SAPI Extractors

As a general remark – please keep in mind that the SAPI Extractors have been developed for the purpose of data extraction into a BW system. As you can see below, it is possible to use these extractors directly for data extractions into SAP Datasphere but be mindful of prerequisites and possible limitations.
As an alternative you can either explore the option of leveraging an equivalent or similar ABAP CDS view extractor (Standard or custom) or use the SAPI extractor via the SAP BW bridge functionality [more details about SAP BW bridge functionality in the next Blog post].

As shown in Figure 3 – LIS extractors have the following limitations and therefore considered not suitable to be used for direct integration into SAP Datasphere:

Federation and Full load would be using LIS Set-up tables, but these are usually are not updated on a regular basis.
2LIS extractors do not have primary keys defined.

The Recommendation for scenarios using LIS-Extractors [as per Figure 3] is therefore to leverage SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge functionality [more details about this scenario in the next Blog post].

In the following Table 6 (column “No.” refers to equivalent number in Figure 4) I have summarized the most relevant information/prerequisites. As functionality is changing and evolving, please check mentioned references for updates.

No.	Prerequisites & References
	Overall Prerequisites for SAPI Extractor: SAPI Extractor is ODP enabled. References: see SAP note 2232584 Release of SAP extractors for ODP replication (ODP SAPI)
[1]	Prerequisites: SAPI Extractor allows virtual access: In your SAP source system: Check table ROOSOURCE (via transaction se16): If Field VIRTCUBE has either entries 1 (without preaggregation) or 2 (with preaggregation), virtual access is generally available. References: SAP Help Portal: Import Remote Tables See Data Integration for ABAP Source Systems –> section: S-API DataSources / Extractors - Virtualization Recommendation (as mentioned in Data Integration for ABAP Source Systems ) Due to limited push-down capability of SAP extractors and related performance implications, Virtualization via S-API extractors is generally not recommended – hence persistency should be considered.
[2]	Prerequisites: SAPI Extractor allows virtual access – same as [1] References: SAP Help Portal: Import Remote Tables See Data Integration for ABAP Source Systems –> section: S-API DataSources / Extractors - Extraction / Data Replication Recommendation (as mentioned in Data Integration for ABAP Source Systems ) Certain S-API Data Source / Extractors (e.g. FI-AA Business Content) may send duplicate records during snapshot replication or real-time initialization. As the Remote Table replication runs with an optimized INSERT processing on Data Source key level this will lead to “unique constraint violation” errors. For these cases, it is recommended to use Data Flow [4] with the Remote Tables as source and the target table set to Mode "APPEND" with the flag "Update Records By Primary Key (UPSERT)” enabled.
[3]	Prerequisites: SAPI Extractor allows virtual access - same as [1] Real-time Replication prerequisites for ODP_SAPI (see link) SAPI Extractors are delta enabled (delta method ADD* not allowed) SAPI Extractor must have primary key(s). References: SAP Help Portal: Import Remote Tables SAP Help Portal: Replicate Data Changes in Real-Time See Data Integration for ABAP Source Systems –> section: S-API DataSources / Extractors - Extraction / Data Replication See Table 3: How to check: Extractor Delta Capability See Table 4: How to check: Primary Keys
[4]	Prerequisites: See overall prerequisites for SAPI Extractor References: SAP Help Portal: Creating a Data Flow
[5]	Prerequisites: SAPI Extractor must have primary keys. References: SAP Help Portal: Creating a Replication Flow SAP note 3297105 - Important considerations for SAP Datasphere Replication Flows Blog post https://blogs.sap.com/2023/11/16/replication-flow-blog-series-part-1-overview / See Table 4: How to check: Primary Keys
[6]	Prerequisites: SAPI Extractor must have primary key(s). SAPI Extractors must be delta enabled. References: Same references as mention in [5] See Table 3: How to check: Extractor Delta Capability

Table 6: Prerequisites and References for SAPI Extractors

Direct Integration into SAP Datasphere using SAP ABAP CDS view Extractors

In the following Table 7 (column “No.” refers to equivalent number in Figure 5) I have summarized the most relevant information/prerequisites. As functionality is changing and evolving, please check mentioned references for updates.

No.	Prerequisites & References
	Overall Prerequisites for ABAP CDS view Extractor: ABAP CDS view must include the annotation: @analytics.dataExtraction.enabled: true. ABAP CDS view must include the annotation for a data category. References: SAP Help Portal Analytics Annotations Check blog Finding the right CDS Extractor in SAP S/4HANA
(7)	Prerequisites: See overall prerequisites for ABAP CDS view Extractor References: SAP Help Portal: Import Remote Tables See Data Integration for ABAP Source Systems –> section: ABAP CDS Views - Virtualization Recommendation (as mentioned in Data Integration for ABAP Source Systems ) Known limitation (that could lead to performance degradation in virtual access (e.g. group by statements are either not pushed down by SAP Datasphere or not applied by the extractor) – hence persistency should be considered.
(8)	Prerequisites: See overall prerequisites for ABAP CDS view Extractor References: SAP Help Portal: Import Remote Tables See Data Integration for ABAP Source Systems –> section: ABAP CDS Views - Extraction / Data Replication
(9)	Prerequisites: Real-time Replication prerequisites for ODP_CDS (see link) ABAP CDS view must have a primary key. ABAP CDS views must be delta-enabled. References: SAP Help Portal: Import Remote Tables SAP Help Portal: Replicate Data Changes in Real-Time See Data Integration for ABAP Source Systems –> section: ABAP CDS Views - Extraction / Data Replication See Table 3: How to check: Extractor Delta Capability See Table 4: How to check: Primary Keys
(10)	Prerequisites: See overall prerequisites for ABAP CDS view Extractor References: SAP Help Portal: Creating a Data Flow
(11)	Prerequisites: ABAP CDS view must have primary keys. References: SAP Help Portal: Creating a Replication Flow SAP note 3297105 - Important considerations for SAP Datasphere Replication Flows Blog post https://blogs.sap.com/2023/11/16/replication-flow-blog-series-part-1-overview / See Table 4: How to check: Primary Keys
(12)	Prerequisites: ABAP CDS view must have primary keys. ABAP CDS views must be delta-enabled. References: Same references as mention in [11] See Table 3: How to check: Extractor Delta Capability

Table 7: Prerequisites & References for SAP ABAP CDS view Extractors

Conclusion

As initially stated, this post is not intended to provide a comparison or firm conclusion on which option is best (or worst). Numerous factors come into play in any specific implementation or project – such as the version of the source system, availability and use of Business content, development guidelines, prerequisites of each extractor type, preference of integration functionality.

As a result, there might not be a one-size-fits-all integration option in your situation, and you may find yourself implementing several different options tailored to specific use cases.

Please let me know, if you have any detailed question regarding the integration options into SAP Datasphere.

Stay tuned for the next integration scenario post.

Regards, Claudia

Installation of Sales cube (0SD_C03) in BW 7.5 version

2024-04-05T16:34:48.854000+02:00

An Infocube is defined as a multidimensional dataset, and we can add data from one or more infosource or infoprovider. These can be used for analysis and reporting purposes.

0SD_C03 is related to Sales Overview, it meets the need of client. And it contains both header data sources like 2LIS_11_VADHR and item data sources like 2LIS_11_VAITM.

Let’s start with the process of installing and loading the data into infocube. Here we are using BW Netweaver 7.5 version and ECC system.

The following are the steps needed to be done in the ECC system and in the BW system for installing the infocube which includes activating the data source and checking whether they contain the data or not in the ECC.

Step:1

Open the ECC system and go to the t-code RSA5.

Drop down the SD for sales and select each data source, then click on the Activate Data Sources.

The data sources are: 2LIS_11_VAHDR, 2LIS_11_VAITM, 2LIS_11_V_ITM, 2LIS_12_VCHDR, 2LIS_12_VCITM, 2LIS_13_VDHDR and 2LIS_13_VDITM.

Step:2

Go to RSA6 and check whether the activated data sources are listed or not.

Step:3

Go to LBWE and drop down which are related to sales like SD sales BW, LE shipping BW and SD Billing BW (the respective numbers are 11, 12 & 13 respectively) and activate them.

As per the requirement, if we need to add few custom fields in the data source, click on the maintenance of the relevant data source. Select the fields from source table (right side) then click on the choose icon , so that the selected fields will be added to the target table (left side)

Now, to have the transactional data to be in the data sources, we need to do the job control. For that click on the Job Control which is against each logistics number.

Select the Start Date

Click on the Immediate, then select the period values as Hourly then check and save it. In the same way check and save the start time, but before that make sure that you enabled Periodic Job.

Finally click on the schedule job so that for every one hour the job will run to update the transactional data.

Likewise check for the other logistics number and schedule the job.

Step: 4

Go to the t-code: LBWG to delete the records which are loaded before which may not be the latest records.

Give the application number(Logistic number 11,12, & 13) and then click on the execute it. Then you will get a confirmation text regarding the deletion of set up tables in the down of the SAP screen.

Once we delete the setup tables, we have to load the latest records of data for that go the t-code: SBIW. Drop down as show in the image for sales data.

11 - SD sales Order

12 - LE Deliveries

13 - SD Billing Documents

Once you enter into the page give the name of run and termination date (give one day future date) as shown below.

Now click on the Program -> Execute in Background to start filling the relevant setup tables. And we can also check the job in the SM37 t-code.

Once you finished filling all the setup tables, check the RSA7 t-code whether you have delta queues, if so delete them and also RSA3 t-code check whether data is getting loaded into the data source.

Note: For each logistic number we have to check the relevant data sources in the RSA3 t-code.

Step: 5
Open the BW system.

Go to the t-code: RSA1 -> BI Content -> select the required info cube and drag it to the right side for installing.

Note: Click for selecting the proper source system.

Select all the necessary data source and the transformation and then click on the install in background and looking into the job in the t-code: SM37.

Step: 6

Go to the RSA1 t-code -> DataSource, make sure all the data source are activated and object info is showing the proper source system.

For activating the data source, double click on the data source and change it to edit mode and then activate it.

Step: 7
Go to the t-code: RSDS for replicating the data sources one by one. Give the data source name and select the source system from where you want to fetch the data.

In order to map the additional fields into the cube 0SD_C03, we should create a info objects for them or we can make use of the standard info object. Double click on the cube name and drop down as shown below and right click on the sales area, add the info object and activate the cube.

And once that is done, map the additional fields to the respective info objects at both the TRCS and RSDS transformations of the respective data source.

Then activate all the transformation.

Step: 8
We will be having a 2 info packages one is init and the other is delta, if not create the info packages.

Here in the IP level, we have proceeded with initialize with Data Transfer first and then enable the delta to capture the transactional data.

Open the init info package cross check all the tabs and choose Initialize with data transfer and go to the schedule tab and click on the start button.

Do the same with other init info packages of all data sources. With this step the sales data will be fetched into the PSA level from ECC source system.

Step: 9

Create the Data Transfer Process for each individual data sources.

When we are doing for the first time have extraction mode as full in the DTP extraction tab, then activate it and execute the DTP, so that the data will be loaded into the cube. Later after enabling the delta info package, change the extraction mode to Delta in the DTP extraction tab.

The DTP with extraction mode as Delta after enabling the delta info package.

Once loading of the data is done into the cube (DTP). Right click on the cube name -> manage, where we could see the infocube requests.

With this step we have successfully loaded the data from ECC system to BW system.

Note: If you install the BW system newly, then make sure along with the info cube install the info objects related to master data. For to do changes in the data, BW provides the privilege to write routines.

Output: Data Preview of both the cubes. Right click on the cube name -> Display data.

Why Don't We Use Data and Analytics Group on SAP Community?

2024-04-18T18:28:14.375000+02:00

Hey Data and Analytics Folks! Why Don't We Use Data and Analytics Group on SAP Community instead of Technology?

Of course, it does not matter at the end. As long as if you tag your posts with SAP Managed tags everybody can find your posts. But there is a really one huge difference for usability that here in Interests Groups we can reply-the-reply but under Products and Technology we cannot! Check out this blog post SAP Datasphere is ready to take over the role of SAP BW by @kenneth_dalvik and all responses that are very all boring sequential --there is no reply-the-reply option! 🙃

So let's start using this group Here is already available Data and Analytics. The group will be definitely a perfect fit for SAP Analytics Cloud SAP Datasphere SAP Analytics Cloud, hybrid analytics SAP HANA Cloud, SAP HANA database SAP Analytics Cloud, connectivity SAP Analytics Cloud, analytics designer SAP S/4HANA Cloud, extended edition SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics SAP Business Planning and Consolidation, version for SAP NetWeaver SAP Business Warehouse Accelerator BW (SAP Business Warehouse) SAP BW/4HANA BW SAP BEx Analyzer BW SAP BEx Web SAP ASE - BW Enablement BW SAP HANA Data Warehousing SAP Data Services SAP Data Intelligence SAP Data Custodian SAP Big Data Services SAP BusinessObjects - Platform Administration SAP BusinessObjects - Semantic Layer SAP BusinessObjects Mobile SAP BusinessObjects - Semantic Layer - SDK SAP BusinessObjects - Web Intelligence (WebI)

These are welcome too SAP Master Data Governance SAP NetWeaver Master Data Management SAP Data Quality Management for SAP NetWeaver MDM

One thing I've noticed we cannot submit the blog posts directly. We need to "Submit for Review" only. You can still post discussions aka questions directly.

Thanks owners @ColinC, @meganhoy, @moshenaveh, @caroleighdeneen, @craigcmehil for their support!

Regards,
Tuncay Karaca

Quick & Easy Datasphere - When to use Data Flow, Transformation Flow, SQL View?

2024-04-26T13:51:23.154000+02:00

Disclaimer

This blog is based on my experience and current limitations of Datasphere (as of 23.04.2024) and shouldn't be considered as the standard.

Introduction

In SAP Datasphere we can "enhance" a data set using different development artifacts like data flow, transformation flow or SQL view (Query/Table Function). In this blog article, I'll share my point of view and decision process for development artefact selection.

Datasphere Technical Limitations/Design Considerations

Let's first cover the most important factor; persistent data tables performs better than views. (For the sake of clarity, persistent data is pre-computed data set derived from a query or a data flow and stored in a table.). So, if we face sql view performance problems, we should consider writing the results to a table.

1- The choice between "SQL View - SQL Query" and "SQL View - SQLScript (Table Function)" is done regarding 2 factors: The complexity of the requirement and the readability of the code. If a requirement can be coded using one select statement in a readable manner, "SQL View - SQL Query" should be the one.

2- In native Hana developments, graphical views' execution plans are optimized automatically. So, theoretically graphical views should perform better than SQLScript views. I couldn't find a noticeable difference myself...

3- Data Flow Limitation 1: The script operator doesn't allow us to read other tables within the code. We can only use the data of the input of the operator.

4- Data Flow Limitation 2: The script operator (Python) has an unexpectedly poor performance. In my experience it's 40-50 times slower than local Jupyter Notebooks and even slower than SQLScript/SQL view option. As Christian Willi explained in his blog article, python code we write in DS doesn't run within the same Hana instance and this affects performance.

5- Data Flow Limitation 3: Local tables with delta capture capability are currently unavailable as target of Data Flow. Also, surprisingly we can only read active data table of these table as source.

6- Data Flow Limitation 4: We cannot use views with a parameter as source.

7- Local Table Limitation; we cannot turn on or off delta capture capability of a local table.

8- Local Table Property: The delta capture fields (Change_Type, Change_Date) are updated automatically only if data is updated using excel upload or via Data Editor. For data flow or transformation flow updates, these fields should be updated within the data/transformation flow.

9- Even if script operator in data flow has poor performance, in case we are not concerned about long running data loads, we can use data flow for tasks which are much easier to do in python like NLP, Data cleaning, time series analysis and so on.

So, my "decision tree" for choosing one of these artifacts is as seen below. Bear in mind that the code that we write in the node 3 or 4 will be used in a data flow or a transformation flow as source. So, it's not lost time...

Example Scenario

The idea of writing this blog article came to me with this question: "What should I use for a material master self-transformation?". We wanted to flag materials in the material master data table (it's a table with delta capture capabilities) which have not been moved within last 365 days to identify obsolete materials. For this example we'll use 2 tables; Material Movement Data (IT_TR_MM_DOC_DEMO) and Material Master (IT_MD_MATERIAL_DEMO). So, here we are!

Steps/Explanations

1- You can find the material master data and material movements table data screenshots below. As it's pretty straight forward, I'll not walk through data loads. You can load csv files for testing following official documentation.

2- For our scenario, we'll read the material movement data table for each material in material master and change the valıe of material master "Obsolete" field to 'X' if there's no entry for the material in question. According to screenshot above, materials 10000001 and 10000002 are not obsolete but 10000003 is.

3- Go to Data Builder -> Select the space -> Click on "New Transformation Flow" -> Click on "View Transformation" and click on SQL View Transformation icon or the button.

4- Select "SQLScript (Table Function)", copy-paste the code in the appendix.

5- Click on the Columns button and create the output table.

6- Validate the code using the button at the right top of the SQL View Editor, see that the SQL Code is valid and go back.

7- Search for the target table name, drag and drop it on the target box

8- Do the mapping of source and target fields by dragging and dropping them in the Properties Panel.

9- Click on an empty space of the canvas, rename the transformation flow, deploy it and wait for the deployment finished notification.

10- Run the transformation flow, refresh the run status until the status turns to "Completed".

11- Go to data builder, open the target table, click on view data , filter the data for 3 materials we had in the material movements table and validate that none of the "Obsolete" values is null and 10000003 is marked as obsolete because latest movement was on 16.01.2022 which is more than 1 year before at the time of writing this article (22.04.2024).

Conclusion

In SAP DataSphere, creating a self-transformation is very easy using a transformation flow and pretty straight forward for BW/4HANA developers experienced in AMDP transformations (or anyone who codes SQLScript) but this method should only be considered for scenarios where we cannot achieve the desired result using a SQLView (Query or Table Function) due to complexity or performance reasons.

Hope the provided information is useful. Any suggestion and feedback for improvement will be much appreciated.

Appendix

-- Creating an "internal table" for non-obsolete materials
nonObsoleteMaterials = Select distinct 
                        MATERIAL 
                        from IT_TR_MM_DOC_DEMO
                        where DOC_DATE >= To_varchar(add_days(Current_Date, -365), 'YYYYMMDD')
                        ;

-- Deriving OBSOLETE FLAG, assigning delta capture related fields.
return select 
            mm.PRODUCT as MATERIAL,
            case when nom.MATERIAL is null then 'X'
            else ' ' end as OBSOLETE_FLAG,
            'U' as "Change_Type",
            CURRENT_UTCTIMESTAMP  as "Change_Date"
            from IT_MD_MATERIAL_DEMO as mm
            left outer join :nonObsoleteMaterials as nom
            on mm.PRODUCT = nom.MATERIAL
            ;

More Information/Sources

Official documentaiton for limitations: Acquiring, Preparing, and Modeling Data with SAP Datasphere
Blog article by @christian_willi : Data Flows - The Python Script Operator and why you should avoid it

SAP BW/4 - revamp and true to the line 2024

2024-04-26T16:00:06.920000+02:00

last changed: 16th of May 2024

SAP BW/4 - revamp and true to the line 2024

Blog Content

as the rudimental HTML anker functionality is not available anymore in the current SAP Blog capabilites, I had to deactivate the TOC.

where (my) the cool stuff happens ...
SAP First Guidance
SAP BW NLS Solution
SAP BW/4HANA
SAP BW Upgrade
SAP BW Installation/Configuration on/for HANA
SAP BW and BI-JAVA Installation
SAP BW Migration to BWoH
SAP BW System Copy
Event Presentations
Additional Topics

SAP BW/4HANA

SAP Community - SAP BW/4 HANA Community - Application Lifecycle Management
SAP BW? - three things to know...
why SAP BW/4HANA?
Analytics with SAP | SAP HANA 2.0 – An Introduction
SAP Product and Solution Roadmaps
Overview SAP Business Warehouse (legacy Information)
SAP BW(/4) on HANA Features -
Features 7.40 SP05 - Features 7.40 SP08/SP09 - Features 7.50 SP00/SP01 - Features 7.50 SP04/SP05 - Features BW/4HANA SP00 - Features BW/4HANA SP04 - Features BW/4HANA SP08 (FP01) - Roadmap BW/4HANA 2.0 - What's new with SAP BW/4HANA 2.0 SP04 - TechEd-2020 SAP Analytics Q/A Summary (SAP DWC, SAC, BW4HANA) - Day 1 - What's new with SAP BW/4HANA 2.0 SP07 - What’s new with SAP BW/4HANA 2021 - What's new with SAP BW/4HANA 2021 SP04 new!

SAP BW Upgrade

Information for the Upgrade to SAP BW 7.50 and BW/4HANA:

Presentation: Upgrade to SAP BW 7.50 (Last Update: 14th of December 2020)
SAP BEx Community Page
SUM for ABAP - Troubleshooting Guide
Blog: Upgrade BW/4HANA 2.0 - the time is now ...

Additional Information about the former BW release upgrades:

Presentation: Upgrade to SAP BW 7.40
the Legend is back, "the Upgrade Bible": Upgrade to SAP BW 7.0x
Good News - Easier Modeling of the SEM Add-On in Solution Manager

SL related BLOG's:

ASU Toolbox (incl. BW Specific Content) and BW Upgrade pre/post Task List

With the ASU (application specific upgrade) toolbox, customers get one single truth for all pre/post upgrade steps regarding the technical upgrade to SAP BW 7.0x and all following releases.

More detailed information about the ASU toolbox can be found in note 1000009. This tool has been available since 2008 and has been enhanced and allows application specific and technical resources to work together for a successful upgrade to SAP BW 7.50 and higher. Together with the BW Housekeeping Task List, there are also additional Task Lists available to simplify preparation of the application-specific part.

Note 1734333 - BW Pre and Post Upgrade and Migration Tasks
See also the - SAP First Guidance - BW Housekeeping and BW-PCA

SAP BW/4 and BI-JAVA legacy Installation

In addition the SAP BW Installation/Configuration (also on HANA) includes the complete SAP BW basis customizing settings, together with an example configuration of the system parameter.

The technical configuration is an elementary part of setting up and operating SAP system landscapes. For example, you have to perform initial technical configuration to bring a newly installed system into operation. But also during the lifecycle of an SAP system, technical parameters have to be set and adapted.

Blog: BI-JAVA, BEx Web and EP: the real connection...

As a successor for most scenarios, we offer the combined export of the Java system, de-installation of the Java Add-In and installation of a new Java system using the dual-stack split tool available as part of the SL toolset 1.0 (SP05). For more information, see "Dual-Stack Split".

With SAP NetWeaver 7.50 JAVA the Functional Unit Configuration UI (former CTC BI-JAVA Template) is available.

In Advance check the WebAS/SSO Settings after the Upgrade to NetWeaver 7.3x.
The settings are almost identical to NetWeaver BW 7.0x

Migration to SAP BW on SAP HANA (BWoH)

Database Migration Option (DMO) of SUM - Introduction

DMO is an option of SUM (Software Update Manager) for a combined update and migration: update an existing SAP system to a higher Software Release and migrate to SAP HANA database including the unicode conversion of the source database. The procedure is only available for systems based on AS ABAP, hence the executable SAPup is used in background. DMO migrates from an existing relational database type (“anyDB”) to SAP HANA. Software Update Manager (SUM) is the tool for system maintenance: Release upgrades, EHP implementation, applying SP stacks.

Blog: optimizing system downtime is timeless ...

Blog: HANA 1.0 vs HANA 2.0 - plan your Migration wisely ...

Please Note that since Q1/2014 the Presentation -
Migration to BW on HANA - First Guidance concludes all of these manual efforts now.
=> Updated January 2020

SAP First Guidance - Using the new DMO to migrate to BW on HANA

More flexibility with SAP BW Post-Copy Automation

To achieve this, SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management offers preconfigured "task lists" used by the ABAP task manager for lifecycle management automation.

SAP Note 886102 (SMP login required) thus becomes obsolete. Using the post-copy automation for SAP BW (BW PCA) in the migration process of SAP BW to SAP BW on SAP HANA, this process can be shortened by weeks and becomes easier, faster and more reliable.

The former presentation TechEd 2014 - Session ITM206 still illustrates the migration to SAP BW on SAP HANA from an end-to-end perspective.

SAP BW System Copy

PDF help: User Guide for SAP BW Note Analyzer
Note 2743291 - PCA for BW/4HANA
Note 2570363 - Availability of BW PCA for BW/4HANA
Note 1707321 - BW System Copy: Post Copy Automation (BW-PCA)
Note 1614266 - System Copy: Post-Copy Automation (PCA) / SAP Landscape Management (LaMa)

Since Release 7.30 SP05, it is now possible to perform a heterogeneous system copy (including unicode migration) to migrate existing systems based on SAP BW 7.30 SP05 and higher to SAP BW on SAP HANA (HDB) based systems.

With this major step forward, a new procedure called "Post Copy Automation (BW PCA)" now supports customers with what can often be complex post-steps before and after the homogenous/heterogeneous BW system copy. This presentation is the delta information to the existing document "SAP NetWeaver 7.30 - BW Systemcopy ABAP" shown above. The technical Improvements with the leaner data model provides advantages with BW on HANA too.

You can also refer to the SAP First Guidance Documents
- SAP First Guidance – SAP BW on HANA – Edition 2021
- SAP First Guidance - BW Housekeeping and BW-PCA

Blog - System Copy Automation for SAP Business Warehouse System Landscapes
Blog - New Note Analyzer for SAP BW PCA and Housekeeping
Blog - System Copy Automation for SAP Business Warehouse System Landscapes (BW PCA)

Note 2534288 - HEC Service "Homogeneous System Copy / System Refresh (ABAP)
Note 2681701 - System Copy: Task Content (12.1 Improvements)

Updating to the minimum level of the mentioned Support Stacks is recommended to minimize the manual effort. For both cases the BW-PCA Task lists support the customer together with the software provisioning manager 1.0 (SWPM) in these software lifecycle management tasks. BW-PCA is embedded in the SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management

Event Presentations

Presentation - Hitchhiker’s Guide to NetWeaver or “thank you for the fish …” (simply timeless)

Presentation - Upgrade S/4HANA Version 2020 -Basis View

Additional Topics like References, Experiences, etc.

Product Availability Matrix (PAM) for Business Warehouse Accelerator 7.20 (BWA)
Note 1845809 - Latest Revision for BWA 7.20
Note 2495501 - BWA 7.20: Revision 41
Note 2665383 - BWA 7.20: Revision 42
Note 2887737 - BWA 7.20: Revision 44 (05.02.2020)
Note 3284562 - BWA 7.20: Revision 49 (30.12.2022)

This is a collection of resources from the former SCN Network and its content is not reflecting the findings from this document of future upgrade and enhancements.

Blog - IE11 will no longer be supported by various SAP UI technologies in newer releases
Blog - SAP BW Upgrade: Pre and Post upgrade activities with answer to why?
Blog - SAP BW 7.4 Powered by HANA -- Promising Features (Part 1)
Blog - ABAP CDS in SAP BW
Blog - SAP BI4.x Installation/Update/Patching
Blog - Removal of only Time Dependent Attribute added Accidentally
Blog - Some interesting Facts of Compatibility Views in SAP BW/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA - SAP Cloud Integration into SAP BW/4HANA - further Content from frank.riesner1 (SAP)
Blog - How to load Flat Files from MS Office 365 to BW/4HANA using SDI / DP-Agent

DSAG Forum: "TG Road 2 BW/4HANA" => (DSAG-ID requested) share your experience with other DSAG members.

Roland Kramer, SAP first-guidance
@RolandKramer

“I have no special talent, I am only passionately curious.”

SAP Datasphere + SAP S/4HANA: Your Guide to Seamless Data Integration

2024-04-29T20:33:46.737000+02:00

Introduction:

Achieving seamless data integration between SAP S/4HANA, your core operational ERP system, and SAP Datasphere, the business data platform is a critical requirement for most SAP customers. This integration unlocks powerful reporting capabilities across various business functions.
This technical article aims to empower you with expert tips and strategies to simplify and enhance your SAP S/4HANA integration for operational reporting, analytical insights, and planning & forecasting purposes. You are following the best practices and knowing what is supported and when to use what. you can streamline data integration unlock the full potential of this integration and bring more time to value.

SAP S/4HANA Data Integration Explained:

This diagram illustrates various methods for integrating data with SAP S/4HANA, covering both data federation and replication scenarios.

Source Object Types:

ABAP CDS Views: It provides business data along with semantic(context) information (hierarchies, text, etc.), security, associations, and improved performance.
ODP Extractors: Specialized tools designed to extract specific datasets from SAP S/4HANA.
ABAP Tables: The traditional SAP master and fact tables are used for raw business data storage.

Delta Handling Mechanisms During Data Replication:

Database Trigger-based CDC Delta: This method leverages database triggers to capture changes in real-time. It utilizes the well-established SAP Landscape Transformation Replication Server (SLT) technology.ABAP Pipeline Engine (APE): This framework provides flexibility for building custom CDC pipelines suited to specific needs.
Generic Timestamp/Date-based Delta: This approach relies on a designated timestamp/date column within your ABAP CDS views to identify data modifications.

ODP Technical Infrastructure:

Operational Data Provisioning (ODP) Framework: This is the modern framework for CDC, replacing the older RSA7 (BW Delta Queues) approach. It simplifies data extraction and management.
Operational Delta Queue (ODQ): This queue stores changes made to data until they are replicated.

Data Builder Objects in SAP Datasphere facilitate your integration with SAP S/4HANA:

Remote Tables: Enable access to SAP S/4HANA data in real-time or through snapshots.
Replication Flows: These define the path for data replication from source to target system.
Data Flows: These specify the transformations applied to the data during replication.

Model Import Wizard:

This tool imports valuable metadata, context, and semantics from your CDS views, including associations, logic, and security information. Convert the SAP S/4HANA CDS semantics to SAP Datasphere data and business builder entities using the wizard, take a quick look at the below image for the I_PRODUCT CDS view same can also be done for the Sales Order, and Purchase Order CDS views. It is automatic, and you can imagine how much time/effort is required to build something similar to a standalone. This is something you will only get with Datasphere.

Now you may have a question what is the benefit of getting a data model available in SAP S/4HANA into SAP Datasphere? Let's look at the use case, I strongly believe one will apply to your organization's data platform needs.

Integrate with Non-SAP Data, It is obvious that you want to keep your SAP ERP clean for business transactions while needing a data platform to combine the SAP ERP business data with other business data segments with the context.
Strategic or Historical Reporting, over time you may plan to achieve the data from SAP S/4HANA hence for the historical data along with the business semantics for the reporting needs.
Leverage the Hyperscalar capabilities like ML/AI, with SAP Business data with semantic information.

Source Object Types Support and Compatibility:

The top diagram conveniently highlights which source object types are compatible with specific data integration objects within the SAP Datasphere.

Prerequisites and Additional Software Components (Middleware):

The diagram also indicates any prerequisites or middleware components needed for specific functionalities. For instance, Remote Tables require installing, configuring, and setting up the SAP Data Provisioning (DP) Agent with the ABAPAdapter. Refer to the help guide on Preparing Connectivity for Connections and filter based on the Connection Type = SAP S/4HANA.

Optional Components:

SAP BW bridge: This component (optional) creates a data staging layer specifically for supporting SAP S/4HANA ODP extractors. This is mainly for the existing SAP BW and BW/4HANA customers to enable a path towards conversion with SAP Datasphere, BW bridge, or Hybrid use case
- Transferring Data using ODP Options
SAP Landscape Transformation Replication Server (SLT): This server replicates tables from SAP S/4HANA to the SAP Datasphere and can be integrated into your Replication Flow.

Further Resources:

For a deeper understanding of ABAP CDS delta mechanics and the ODP framework, refer below:

Recommendations for choosing the right approach for SAP S/4HANA Data Federation and Replication into SAP Datasphere:

Recommended option is ABAP CDS Views: If the ABAP CDS is available with the desired data needs then establish a direct connection between SAP Datasphere and the source system. Leveraging the available CDS views is the BEST and RECOMMENDED Approach. Recommend to use released CDS views as they are upgrade stable.
- Individual C1-released CDS views across various business areas.
- SAP Business Accelerator Hub List of Released CDS Views. Here you can filter based on the capabilities of Data Source for Data Extraction to find extraction-enabled released ABAP CDS views.
- Finding the right CDS Extractor in the SAP S/4HANA System. In SAP S/4HANA On-Prem or Private cloud >=2020, You can use Tcode SE16N with CDS SQL View: IXTRCTNENBLDVW (I_DataExtractionEnabledView) or View Browser Fiori App.
  - How to find the released Sales Document Item CDS view using SE16N GUI Tcode?
  - How to find the released Sales Document Item CDS view using the View Browser Fiori App? You will need the business role: SAP_BR_ANALYTICS_SPECIALIST. Tcode /UI2/FLP -> View Browser -> Released Views for Cloud Development
- Recommended using standard CDS views with extension capabilities, and pre-built business contents over creating custom CDS views as long-term custom CDS may not be a sustainable option with the upgrades and may lead to performance implications. However, all requirements cannot be met with the standards hence only create custom CDS when it becomes business required and no standard alternative is available.
- Unavailable CDS Views: The required CDS views haven't been released yet. Missing Data Extraction Settings: The data extraction settings are not configured even if the CDS views are available. There are two approaches to resolving these issues:
  1. Customer Influence Request: Raise a customer influence request or upvote the existing one at SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, CDS View Extraction Enablement. OR Open a Product Support Ticket For High Priority Request: A ticket can be submitted to the relevant component for a long-term solution. Be aware that this process may take some time.
  2. Build a Custom CDS View: Create a custom CDS view replicating the missing one. You can then enable data extraction on this custom view for your use. How to Create a Custom ABAP CDS View with Change Data Capture Delta Mechanism.
  3. How to deal with “Not released” predefined VDM in S/4HANA.
- DATA FEDERATION FIRST THEN DATA REPLICATION, The approach for using the CDS view as a data federation goes back to the basics 🙂
  1. Select the required columns from the projection. e.g. CDS view may have 200 columns however business may require 75 columns. hence select only 75 columns.
  2. Filter the data as early as possible based on attributes like company code, sales org, plant, dates, or periods.
  3. Business logic and data aggregation can be handled in the source CDS view, you do not have to do it on SAP Datasphere, unless required.
  4. Use the view persistency option intelligently to get optimized data and high performance.
  5. Middleware components like DPAgent need to be sized properly S-M-L, go with a higher side like 16GB, 32GB memory vs 4GB default and 8 cores CPU.
- Restrictions: 2890171 - SAP Data Intelligence / SAP Datasphere - ABAP Integration
  1. Not supported for data transfer if the CDS view not having the "dataExtraction" annotation.
  2. CDS view for the delta load requires the "dataExtraction" and "changeDataCapture" annotations.
  3. CDS Views having parameters and a table function are not supported.
  4. CDS Views include Tables with a client field as a key, not a client-dependent field.
  5. Data extraction halts with an error if the structure of a table or CDS view changes mid-load or replication. Unfortunately, resuming after such an error isn't currently possible, requiring a full restart of the data extraction process.
An alternative option is ODP extractors: If the ABAP CDS view is unavailable then prefer ODP objects over the direct ABAP table replication. A direct connection can be established provided SAP S/4HANA has the DMIS add-on.
The discouraged option is Direct ABAP Table Access and Replication: Bypassing CDS views to replicate tables into SAP Datasphere directly is not recommended. This approach involves replicating raw data (master and transactional) without its inherent business context and relationships. Essentially, you'd be replicating the data and then manually recreating the associations, logic, and hierarchies – a time-consuming and error-prone process. The preferred approach is to leverage the existing, comprehensive CDS data models whenever possible. However, if replicating tables is unavoidable due to specific business or compliance requirements, then the recommendations below should be followed.
1. Standalone SAP LT Replication Server: For replicating tables, the recommended approach.
2. Embedded(Add-on) SAP LT Replication in SAP S/4HANA: This option is discouraged because it's tightly coupled with the SAP S/4HANA version. Upgrading the server requires a complete SAP S/4HANA upgrade, limiting flexibility. Downporting new functionalities to older versions is also not feasible.
3. Restrictions:
  1. Replicating tables with redirect views (e.g., MBEW, MARD, COEP) from your SAP S/4HANA source system is not supported.
  2. Declustering of INDX-like tables (e.g. STXL, PCL1, ...) during the transfer is not supported.

SAP S/4HANA Connection Supported SAP Datasphere Integration Features:

	Supported Objects Types	Delta Load Supported?	Prerequisite Connectivity Components?
Remote Tables	ABAP Tables Extractors: ABAP_CDS ODP_BW ODP_SAPI Model Import	YES - Real-time data replication. The object in the source has to be enabled for change data capture (CDC). For source views, ABAP Dictionary tables real-time replication is not supported. For ABAP ODP sources, real-time replication is supported in the following cases: ODP-BW: InfoProviders with a change log.object type ADSO), Standard DataStore objects (classic) (object type ODSO), InfoObjects ODP-CDS: For all ABAP CDS views with primary key and that are delta-enabled ODP-SAPI: For all extractors that are delta enabled (delta method ADD* not allowed) and have a primary key. For an overview of all S-API extractors released for ODP replication. refer: 2232584 - Release of SAP extractors for ODP replication (ODP SAPI) For remote tables using an SAP HANA smart data access connection (SAP HANA on-premise via Cloud Connector or SAP HANA Cloud), you can replicate your data changes in real-time but with some restrictions as some remote object types are not supported: The remote object needs to be a table of type "COLUMN TABLE" (other table types like Row Tables or Virtual Tables are not supported) Some data types and SAP HANA table features are not supported. For more information, see Unsupported Data Types and Other Limitations. Note You can’t pause the replication for connections if SAP HANA smart data access is used. For remote tables connected via an SAP HANA smart data integration Cloud Data Integrator (CDI) adapter, we recommend that you use a DP Agent with the latest version.	DP(Data Provisioning) Agent
Replication Flows	CDS_EXTRACTION (ABAP CDS Views Enabled for Data Extraction) ODP_BW ODP_SAPI SLT (add-on DMIS )	YES - Load type: Initial and Delta The default delta load interval is 60 minutes. You can change the integer between 0 and 24 for hours and 0 and 59 for minutes, respectively. If you enter 0 hours and 0 minutes, the system replicates any source changes immediately. Performance Issues: 3360905 - SAP Data Intelligence / SAP Datasphere - ABAP Integration - Performance when using RMS / Replication Flows	SAP S/4HANA On-Premise: Cloud Connector SAP S/4HANA Cloud: None
Data Flows	CDS_EXTRACTION SLT (add-on DMIS )	NO SAP Note: 3335277 - Datasphere - No Delta or Init in Data Flow	SAP S/4HANA On-Premise: Cloud Connector SAP S/4HANA Cloud: None
Import Entities	ABAP CDS Views Entities. e.g.: I_PRODUCT, I_BillingDocumentItem etc.	N/A Even though this object already exists from a prior import, any changes to its structure or meaning within the source system will be automatically detected, triggering an update and redeployment within your system. By default objects created will be as data is federated (remote tables), you can switch to replication when required.	SAP S/4HANA On-Premise: DP(Data Provisioning) Agent, Cloud Connector SAP S/4HANA Cloud: None

Further Resources:

For a deeper understanding of the SAP S/4HANA and ECC integration scenarios with persistence options: Exploring Integration Options in SAP Datasphere with a focus on using SAP extractors

Pre-built Business Content for SAP S/4HANA:

Overall, SAP Datasphere Business Content for SAP S/4HANA helps you unlock the full potential of your data by providing a faster, easier, and more reliable way to access, integrate, and analyze your business information. e.g. Finance Foundation for SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Sales Analysis for SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud, etc.

Faster Time to Value: Pre-built dashboards, data models, tables, and views with pre-defined business context eliminate the need for extensive development and configuration from scratch.

Simplified Data Integration: Business Content streamlines the process of integrating data from SAP S/4HANA with other applications and data sources. This allows you to create a unified view of your data for more comprehensive analysis. With minimum effort, you will only have to replace the SAP S/4HANA server details in the connection placeholder and you are ready to consume the continent or if you want to replicate the data then just create the required replication flow and you are done. all details are provided as a part of the help guide.

Preserved Business Context: Business Content captures the business meaning of the data, including units, hierarchies, and other relevant information. This ensures that users understand the data in its proper context and can make informed decisions.

Alignment with Industry Standards: Business Content is often aligned with industry best practices and key performance indicators (KPIs), allowing you to benchmark your performance against industry standards

Key Takeaways:

This breakdown highlights the various options in SAP Datasphere for data federation, extracting, transforming, and replicating data from SAP S/4HANA.The most suitable method(feature) depends on factors like real-time data federation or real-time updates vs. snapshots, data type, data volume, and the desired level of data transformation or conversions.
The data source object recommended precedence is ABAP CDS View > ODP Extractors > ABAP Tables. ABAP CDS view object type from SAP S/4HANA is the first-class citizen as a data source or provider from the ERP system. Customers can also prefer to create a custom CDS view with CDC capabilities even for the master data where date or timestamp columns are unavailable.
SAP S/4HANA real-time operational reporting can be done based on the Remote tables, and master data (smaller data sets) with Snapshot. For Mass data replication from SAP S/4HANA into SAP Dataspher Prefer, use the New Replication Flow.
The import model wizard provides the capability that scans the semantically rich CDS data model with associations and automatically creates the data builder and business builder objects with the default data federation scenario.
SAP S/4HANA Business Content provides time to value and quick win use case that can be enhanced.
Optional components like the BW bridge and SLT server can further enhance data integration capabilities and Safeguard existing on-prem investments and skillsets.

revamped SAP First Guidance Collection

2024-05-03T17:26:18.581000+02:00

last changed: 3rd of May 2023

SAP First Guidance Collection - revamped

Page - where (my) the cool stuff happens …

I will add additional Documents with the time, reflecting the new design.
SAP First Guidance – SAP BW on HANA - Edition 2022 Last Changed:	Implementation
SAP First Guidance - complete functional scope (CFS) for SAP BW 7.50 Last Changed:	Implementation
SAP First Guidance - complete functional scope (CFS) for SAP BW/4HANA Last Changed:	Implementation
SAP First Guidance - Implement SAP BW/4HANA in the Azure Cloud Last Changed: 19th of May 2022 - Version 1.45	Implementation
SAP First Guidance - Using the new DMO to migrate to BW on HANA Last Changed:	Software Logistics
SAP First Guidance - Implementing BW-MT as the new SAP BW Modeling Experience Last Changed:	BW-MT

SAP First Guidance - SAP NLS Solution with SAP IQ 16.x
Last Changed: 14th of February 2024 - Version 2.70

SAP First Guidance - SAP-NLS with IQ 16.x - Edition 2021
Last Changed: 3rd of December - Version 2.50
This Version still contains all relevant Information prior to SAP IQ 16.1

SAP First Guidance - Q - the SAP IQ Database Installer
Last Changed: 14th of February 2024 - Version 1.71

SAP First Guidance - SAP-NLS with the PBS NLS Add-On
Last Changed: 14th of June 2017 - Version 1.02

SAP-NLS
ILM Software Logistics
NLS Partner Add-On

SAP First Guidance - SEM/BW Modelling in SolMan 7.x with MOPz/MP
Last Changed:

Software Logistics

SAP First Guidance - BW-PCA and Housekeeping Task Lists
Last Changed:

Software Logistics

The First Guidance Documents Collection, is a Series of Information that should help to better understand the end-to-end usage of SAP BW powered by SAP HANA and BW/4HANA. The Documents are still “work in progress”, as important updates will be added when needed. So these guides are not intended to be exhaustive.

SAP First Guidance - SAP BW on SAP HANA Installation/Systemcopy/HANA Revisions

This Document also reflects the released SAP HANA SP/Revisions so far and also contains details for selected HANA Revisions and the usage together with SAP BW.

On base of this information this “SAP First Guidance” document is released to support Basis administrators in running and configuring a Business Warehouse on a SAP HANA system. SAP First Guidance – Business Warehouse on SAP HANA installation provides answers to major questions and issues as well as workarounds and additional details to complement standard SAP Guides and SAP Notes. This SAP First Guidance document has no claim of completeness, but it is the most complete starting point for a successful implementation.
For more information please contact roland.kramer@first-guidance.com

SAP First Guidance - complete functional scope (CFS) for SAP BW 7.50

SAP BW powered by SAP HANA was the very first SAP application that ran completely on top of SAP HANA and has meanwhile reached a great adoption. Customers will benefit not only from performance improvements for data load, query runtime and planning functions but also in simplified data modeling as the number of InfoProviders are highly reduced and all modeling is done within in a new, modern UI that is unique across all modeling tools.
This SAP First Guidance Document put´s is emphasize to the complete functional scope (CFS) to ensure the full functionality right from the start of the Implementation of SAP BW 7.50 SP04 and higher. For more information, please contact roland.kramer@first-guidance.com

SAP First Guidance - complete functional scope (CFS) for SAP BW/4HANA

SAP BW/4HANA is a new SAP product that replaces SAP Business Warehouse in a logical way. BW/4HANA runs only on HANA platform and will be the foundation for a new lineage of data warehousing solutions from SAP.

Furthermore it optimizes and simplifies a customer’s BW environment and experience (similar to S/4HANA). BW/4 HANA 1.0 (DW4CORE) is a new code-line on which all future BW enhancements will take place. Classic BW goes into maintenance mode.
This SAP First Guidance Document put´s is emphasize to the complete functional scope (CFS) to ensure the full functionality right from the start of the Implementation of SAP BW/4HANA 1.0 SP00 and higher. For more information, contact roland.kramer@first-guidance.com

This SAP First Guidance Document concludes the necessary Steps to implement SAP BW/4HANA to the Azure Cloud and also considers the additional tasks to connect the on-premise Systems to the Cloud Infrastructure.

SAP First Guidance - Implement SAP BW/4HANA in the Azure Cloud

SAP First Guidance - Using the new DMO to migrate to BW on HANA

The database migration option (DMO) is an option inside of the software update manager (SUM) for combined update and migration: update an existing SAP system to a higher software release and migrate to SAP HANA database in one technical step. As the technical SUM steps are the same, this “SAP First Guidance” document should make all customer-specific documentation obsolete. It is the complementary documentation to the existing Notes and SUM/DMO Upgrade Guides.

DMO can be used with every BW Release starting from 7.0x and onwards. It makes the two-step approach (upgrade/migration) and the usage of the BW post copy automation (BW-PCA) obsolete. It can also be used within a Release, e.g. to go from 7.40 SP06 on anyDB to migrate to 7.40 SP07 on HANA. For more information, please contact roland.kramer@first-guidance.com

SAP First Guidance - Implementing BW-MT as the new SAP BW Modeling Experience

SAP BW 7.4 SP08 powered by SAP HANA is the next milestone for enterprise data warehousing with BW on HANA and provides the next level of simplification for BW .In addition, SAP BW on HANA Virtual Data Warehouse capabilities have been enhanced for even more flexibility. In midterm the advanced DSO shall replace the main BW InfoProviders with persistency (InfoCube, DSO, and PSA). The classic InfoProviders are of course still supported and do co-exist with the advanced DSOs. For more information, please contact roland.kramer@first-guidance.com

SAP First Guidance - SAP NLS Solution with SAP IQ

This “SAP First Guidance” document provides all the necessary information to help quickly implement this newly released option: Store historical BW data on an external IQ server to optimize the system size when preparing to migrate to SAP BW powered by SAP HANA. The SAP NLS solution with Sybase IQ also helps to keep down the TCO for investing in the SAP In-Memory when historical (“frozen”) data is stored on a less sophisticated device, which acts like a “BW Accelerator on Disk”. SAP Sybase IQ is therefore the perfect smart store for this kind of data. Please note that the SAP NLS solution can be used with all database versions supported by SAP BW 7.3x. SAP HANA is not necessary. The document is a “work in progress” and is not intended to be exhaustive. It does however contain all information required for successful implementation of the SAP-NLS solution with Sybase IQ. SAP-NLS can be used with every SAP supported database, where SAP IQ will be the secondary database for data reallocation.
For more information, please contact roland.kramer@first-guidance.com

SAP First Guidance - combining SAP-NLS with the PBS NLS Add-On

The SAP-NLS solutions offers core functionalities for the usage of the SAP IQ database for the storage of historical data, despite if you are using SAP HANA or any other supported RDBMS together with SAP BW.
However, when it comes to the implementation several functionalities are not delivered by SAP itself, as by the development Partner PBS. Furthermore, some of the additional capabilities developed sine Q1/2013 are only available with the latest SAP BW Releases 7.40/7.50. This is where the additional capabilities from the PBS NLS Add-On come into place as almost all of them are available from SAP BW 7.0x onwards.

SAP First Guidance - SEM/BW Modelling in SolMan 7.1 with MOPZ

Due to constant Questions about the Upgrade to NetWeaver 7.3x and 7.40 including SEM Add-On Components, we created a SAP First Guidance Document which describes the successful Definition of a SAP BW 7.0/7.01 System with the SEM Add-On Installed on top. With this Information you will be able to integrate the stack.xml in the SUM (software update manager) process and the DMO (database migration option) DMO process included in SUM as the first input is the location of the stack.xml which defines the download directory for SUM. Furthermore, the interaction of the stack.xml in the upgrade process enables you a smooth Integration into the Upgrade Process included in DMO. For more information, please contact roland.kramer@first-guidance.com

SAP First Guidance - BW Housekeeping and BW-PCA

The system copy procedure of SAP BW systems and landscapes is complex for a number of reasons. There is a large number of configuration settings (such as connections and delta queue handling for data loading) and system copy scenarios of SAP BW (each with different landscape aspects). These have to be handled as part of every system copy, regardless of whether the system copy is part of the migration to SAP HANA or if you want to perform regular system copies of your SAP BW landscape. BW-PCA can be used from SAP BW 7.0 onwards depending on the SPS level.

Additionally see the usage and implementation of the BW Housekeeping Task List and the Pre/Post Task Lists for Upgrade/Migration. These are Included in the database migration option (DMO) as part of the software update manager (SUM). Additional Details also can be found on the revamped SAP BW ALM Page. For more information, please contact roland.kramer@first-guidance.com

if the TechEd Cat would know this earlier ...

Roland Kramer, SAP first-guidance
@SAPFirstGuidance

“I have no special talent, I am only passionately curious.”

Watch the SAP BW Modernization Webinar Series

2024-05-13T15:49:24.460000+02:00

Step into the future with our SAP Business Warehouse Modernization Webinar Series. Designed with the goal of revolutionizing the way you approach your SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW) with SAP Datasphere, this series provides you with an unparalleled opportunity to learn, grow, and take your SAP BW environment to the next level.

Each session comes packed with valuable information, transformative guidance, and real-life insights from seasoned SAP BW and SAP Datasphere experts. The series includes:

Industry-Expert Guidance: Our sessions are hosted by technical experts from SAP, offering you the unique opportunity to learn from those shaping the future of business data technology.
Practical Tools and Applications: We'll demonstrate the SAP Readiness Check, the SAP Expert Evaluation Tool, and SAP BW Bridge to ensure you have a robust toolbox.
In-Depth Case Studies and Demonstrations: We’ll share how other customers have successfully modernized their SAP BW environment. Each session concludes with thorough demonstrations that you can apply in your practice.

Access the webinar series

The overall length of the seven units is close to 7 hours. We have divided the recordings into several parts of 2 to 20 minutes for ease of use. Find the materials below:

Unit 1: Modernizing SAP Business Warehouse, Explore Your Options

Lesson 1: Exploring Transition Option to SAP Datasphere – part 1 , PDF |part 2 , PDF
Lesson 2: Embedded Analytics in SAP S/4HANA Cloud - video , PDF
Lesson 3: Modernization Customer Stories - video , PDF

Unit 2: Preparation for Modernization – Your Source System

Lesson 1: Preparation for Modernization - video , PDF
Lesson 2: Exploring the Transition from BW7.x and BW4 HANA Systems to BW Bridge Conversion - video , PDF
Lesson 3: System Analysis Tooling - video , PDF
Lesson 4: Additional Resources - video , PDF

Unit 3: Using SAP Tooling for a Smooth Transition

Lesson 1: Exploring Tools for Evaluating SAP BW System Readiness for Transition to SAP Datasphere - video , PDF
Lesson 2: Understanding the Conversion Paths to SAP Datasphere and SAP Datasphere, BW Bridge - video , PDF
Lesson 3: Leveraging SAP Services for Successful Deployment of SAP Datasphere - video , PDF
Lesson 4: Expert Evaluation Report - video
Lesson 5: Assessment Tools by SAP Partners - video , PDF

Unit 4: Sizing Matters for the Cloud

Lesson 1: tools and methods for sizing of SAP Datasphere - video , PDF

Unit 5: Preparation for Modernization: Your target system

Lesson 1: SAP Datasphere, BW Bridge as your target system - video , PDF
Lesson 2: Strategic Directions and Options for Data Warehousing Solutions - video , PDF
Lesson 3: Exploring the Value and Features of SAP Datasphere - video , PDF
Lesson 4: Additional Resources - video , PDF

Unit 6: A Deep Dive on Transition Approaches

Lesson 1: Remote conversion and shell conversion options - video , PDF
Lesson 2: Metadata and Business Data Transfers in SAP Datasphere BW Bridge - video , PDF
Lesson 3: Transition Approaches - Demo - part 1 | part 2
Lesson 4: Additional resources - video , PDF

Unit 7: BW Modernization Series - Working with SAP Business Warehouse Elements in SAP Datasphere

Lesson 1: Best practices for working with SAP Business Warehouse elements in SAP Datasphere - video , PDF

Get Started

We’ve designed the series to offer a comprehensive overview, from the basics of starting your SAP BW modernization journey to successfully implementing the transition.

Don’t miss the opportunity to prepare your operations, strategies, and mindset for the future with the SAP BW Modernization Webinar series. Take the first step towards empowering your business' digital transformation journey with the first lesson.

SAP Community - SAP BW/4HANA

SAP BI Asset Extraction Architecture in S4/ECC

How to replace RRW3_GET_QUERY_VIEW_DATA

function to be replaced

replacing with LBA

changing query desingtime setting at runtime

Release Info:

Reporting daily material stocks using CDS views

Enhancing BW datasources based on ODP_CDS – useful for Datasphere too!

Safeguard your SAP BW conversion with SAP Enterprise Support services

CONVERSION GUIDANCE

SUPPORT SERVICES

Technical Performance Optimization (TPO)

Business Process Performance Optimization (BPPO)

Implementation Service

Data Volume and Archiving

Further Support and Empowerment via SAP Enterprise Support Value Maps

Quicklinks

Integration of SAP Readiness Check for SAP BW/4HANA with Cloud ALM Project and Task Management

How to Debug DTP Filter Routine

Handling Cutoff Dates during BW transition to SAP Datasphere

Getting Started with SAP BW Request Housekeeping

SAP BW Bridge In SAP Datasphere : Connectivity Between S/4HANA System & BW Bridge

Redwood RMJ Architecture, Integration and Interface review with SAP S/4 HANA and ECC Job execution.

Background About Redwood RunMyJobs

Architecture: On-Prem vs Cloud

Onsite Deployment Architecture

SaaS Deployment Architecture

Redwood RMJ Access

Landing Page:

Monitor jobs in a particular Queue

Conclusion:

Applies to:

How to collect hardcoded values, ABAP routines & OLAP variable values used in DTP filters

Introduction

1. DTP filters in BW on Hana

a) Hardcoded values used in a DTPs.

b) ABAP routines used in a DTPs.

C) OLAP Variables used in a DTPs.

How to handle exclusion filters in BW4HANA for ODP data sources

Exploring Integration Options in SAP Datasphere with the focus on using SAP extractors

Overview of the blog series

Introduction to this blog

Scenario Overview:

Important Facts

Availability

Operational Data Provisioning (ODP)

How to check: Primary Keys

How to check: Extractor Delta Capability

LIS Extractor specifics

Scenario A: Direct Integration into SAP Datasphere

Conclusion

Installation of Sales cube (0SD_C03) in BW 7.5 version

Why Don't We Use Data and Analytics Group on SAP Community?

Quick & Easy Datasphere - When to use Data Flow, Transformation Flow, SQL View?

SAP BW/4 - revamp and true to the line 2024

SAP BW/4 - revamp and true to the line 2024

Blog Content

SAP BW/4HANA

SAP BW Upgrade

SAP BW/4 and BI-JAVA legacy Installation

Migration to SAP BW on SAP HANA (BWoH)

SAP BW System Copy

Event Presentations

Additional Topics like References, Experiences, etc.

SAP Datasphere + SAP S/4HANA: Your Guide to Seamless Data Integration

Introduction:

SAP S/4HANA Data Integration Explained:

Source Object Types:

Delta Handling Mechanisms During Data Replication:

ODP Technical Infrastructure:

Data Builder Objects in SAP Datasphere facilitate your integration with SAP S/4HANA:

Model Import Wizard:

Source Object Types Support and Compatibility:

Prerequisites and Additional Software Components (Middleware):

Optional Components:

Further Resources:

Recommendations for choosing the right approach for SAP S/4HANA Data Federation and Replication into SAP Datasphere:

SAP S/4HANA Connection Supported SAP Datasphere Integration Features:

Further Resources: