Go Hybrid - SAP HANA Live & SAP BW Data Integration!

[matthias_kretschmer]

SAP HANA Live together with SAP BW provides the best-of-breed suite of analytical services and enables you to drive your business in real-time on the next generation of platform, SAP HANA.

Whether you need: consolidated, de-normalized reporting on data collected from several SAP / non-SAP applications and for data governance OR

real-time reporting on data from one single SAP Business Suite component.
Whether you need: aggregated reporting or on historical data, that might not be online in the underlying SAP Business System OR

bringing reporting within ERP to the next level.

Analytics services provided on the SAP HANA platform will meet and exceed your requirements:

Now let us have a closer look at the data perspective!

When a BW system is running on SAP HANA database, the BW data is stored in a special schema known as the BW-managed schema and is exposed via InfoProviders (e.g. DataStore Objects, InfoObjects etc.). In other SAP HANA schema, data can be stored in SAP HANA tables and accessed via HANA views. You can make data available from any SAP HANA database schema of your choice in BW. You can also make BW data (data from the BW-managed schema in the SAP HANA database) available in a different SAP HANA schema. To do so you can use virtual access methods and data replication methods.

In this blog we will focus on integrating data from the SAP HANA Live schema with corresponding data in BW using the example of ERP – Sales & Distribution. And with that we will also answer the following core questions:

• Will SAP HANA support all my operational, tactical, and strategic reporting requirements?
• How can I get the reporting functionality I need by combining the strengths of SAP HANA Live and SAP BW on HANA?

Overview of Scenarios:

Scenario A:
Transactional data provisioning via HANA Live Query View in BEx Query

(Consumption of SAP HANA Live query views in BW via ODP Transient Provider)

Demo: http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-58995

Scenario B:
Transactional data provisioning via HANA Live Reuse View enriched by BW master data
(Consumption of SAP HANA Live reuse views in BW adding BW master data features using Composite Provider)

Demo: http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-59444

Scenario C:
BEx Query with key figures based on historical/plan BW data and most current SAP HANA Live data
(Consumption of SAP HANA Live views and BW DataStore Object by CompositeProvider in BW)

Demo: http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-61041

Scenario 😧

Transactional and master data via SAP HANA Live consumed by BW
(Consumption of SAP HANA Live transactional and master data views by Open ODS Views in BW)

Demo: http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-61042

Other possible scenarios:

• Historic BW data virtually accessed via HANA Calculation View which combines HANA Live and BW data (Custom built HANA
  Calculation View combines data from HANA Live view and BW generated HANA views)
• Loading of data into BW using Reuse Layer of SAP HANA Live as data source (Extract data from HANA Live reuse views into BW)

The following guide gives an overview of the different SAP HANA Live & SAP BW data integration scenarios and shows how to implement them. The focus is on integrating data from the SAP HANA Live schema with corresponding data in BW using the example of ERP – Sales & Distribution.

https://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-55312

[Mark63]

Excellent blog Matthias. Thanks for posting.

Markus

[Former Member]

How the roadmap looks like for the TransientProvider? Will it remain or will it be completely replaced by the OpenODS-View (=> what to rely on in new customer roll-outs?).
Besides this: what is the recommended way to materialize SAP HANA view data in SAP BW? Via ODP datasource or datasources generated out of OpenODS-View ("dataflow" button?) (also concerning LSA DataAcquisition Layer)

[Former Member]

Hi Emanuel Wiehler, Transient provider features will be replaced by open ODS or composite provider. Thanks & Regards A.Dinesh

[matthias_kretschmer]

Hi Emanuel and Dinesh,

The TransientProvider will not really be replaced with another object in BW 7.40. This is related to the fact that a TransientProvider is no “modeled” object but an object which determines its metadata at runtime. See also: http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw73/helpdata/en/11/69442974eb49aaa08ee5c225766858/frameset.htm

-> “A TransientProvider is generated on this analytic index. A TransientProvider
based on an SAP HANA model is suitable for ad hoc data or scenarios that change
frequently.”

And therefore for standard EDW modeling in BW 7.40 we would integrate HANA models as follows:

Virtual Access

• HANA (Virtual) Tables or DB Views > Open ODS View (which can also be used in a CompositeProvider)
• HANA Analytic or Calculation Views > CompositeProvider

Data Load

• From HANA (Virtual) Tables or DB Views > e.g. via an Open ODS View which is first of all virtualized and then materialized
• From HANA (Virtual) Tables or DB Views > directly per DB Connect DataSource, if right from the beginning it is clear that the source will be always loaded and persisted in BW
• From HANA Analytic or Calculation Views > ODP Source System DataSource (subtype “HANA Information Views”)

Best,

Matthias

[Former Member]

Hi Matthias

thanks very much for this Information. However, I'm wondering why the transient Provider is then not mentioned anymore in the InfoProvider overview of the SP8 release notes:

http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-58173.

Besides this, I'm wondering what is the "better" Scenario: integrating SAP HANA models into SAP BW data consumption or the other way round? (integrating SAP BW data models into SAP HANA).

Maybe you can provide some Guidelines for this as well.

Thx & Regards

Emanuel

[o_baer]

Hi,

I was wondering whether it is possible to technically allow a scenario which integrates a BW 7.40 on AnyDB (with BWA) and a Hana DB (sidecar, ERP etc.)? That would mean to connect a BW object with a secondary DB (HANA!) and include  other BW objects (master and/or transactional data).

Would such a scenario be possible? What are probably current obstacles?

Best regards,

Oliver.

[matthias_kretschmer]

Hi Oliver,

first of all I have to tell you that BW modeling artifacts like an Open ODS View or
a Composite Provider are only available when BW is running on HANA.

What you can do to implement the scenario you are mentioning here, is to use a
VirtualProvider. For further details you can check chapter 5 of the following RDS
document:

http://service.sap.com/~sapidb/002007974700000536712013E/SAP_BP/BBLibrary/Documentation/H35_HANA10_B...

I hope this helps.

Best,

Matthias

[o_baer]

Great, thanks. For sure this helps.

Best regards,

Oliver.

[former_member181999]

Great info. Thank you

[Former Member]

Hello Matthias,

For BW on HANA, to create calculation views BW developers need to login to HANA studio. Does it support the SSO between BW and HANA so that one user id and password is maintained?

Also how does the security work in HANA studio? Does a different backend security role needs to created for the BW developers in HANA studio or BW?

Please advise.

Thanks

[matthias_kretschmer]

Hi Srini,

when you add an ABAP or a BW project in HANA Studio, then you can select one of the system connections defined in SAP Logon. And if you have activated SNC/SSO for such a system connection, this is also available in HANA studio when creating an ABAP or a BW project.

And here are the roles you need if you want to work properly with the BW Modeling perspective:

- S_RS_HCPR
- S_RS_ODSV
- S_RS_ADSO

I hope this helps.

Best,

Matthias

[Former Member]

Hi Mattias,
For a hybrid solution (BW on HANA – with ECC and Non SAP sources), what are the guiding principles when deciding when to use HANA artifacts or BW artifacts? What are the key guidelines that one needs to think through, consider before/during design ?
Regards John
 

[Sebastian_Gesiarz]

None of the links to DOCs work. Could you please tell if they are completely gone?

If so, would you be so kind and provide another source?

[Former Member]

Given a choice, would you go for a HANA Enterprise with Live data and a BW System as well?