The following is a list of tools developed by me to make the migration of SAP BW systems to the SAP HANA platform a more beautiful experience (the sizing tool was implemented by SAP development). Follow this document to get notified of changes and updates.

Marc Bernard

Product Management SAP EDW (BW/HANA)

SAP First Guidance

The First Guidance documents are the beginning of a series of documents that should help to better understand the various concepts of SAP BW powered by SAP HANA.The documents are still “work in progress”, so these guides are not intended to be exhaustive.. The purpose of these documents is to deliver additional information besides SAP Help and blogs to get a better understanding of the concepts of SAP BW on SAP HANA.

Replacement of the retired "SAP HANA Cookbook": End-to-End Implementation Roadmap for SAP BW

This document provides a central starting point for planning the technical implementation of SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW) running on the SAP HANA database. It specifies what needs to be considered when deploying SAP BW on the SAP HANA database. It also provides an end-to-end view of recommended implementation scenarios, outlines the steps required for implementation and guides you to more detailed information on the processes you need to complete the necessary tasks. See also the Customer Adoption Journey Map

SAP First Guidance - Business Warehouse on SAP HANA Installation
(Updated version: reflects now the 7.31/7.40 releases as well, the usage of the SL toolset (SWPM, SUM, etc.) and the current SAP HANA 1.0 SP08 release and there actual revisions.) After BW on HANA is already available since mid April 2012 this document was enhanced a few times since the first version.

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 an successful implementation.

For more information please contact roland.kramer@sap.com

SAP First Guidance - complete functional scope (CFS) for SAP BW 7.50 SP03

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 SP03 and higher.

For more information please contact roland.kramer@sap.com

New Version 1.7x available using the latest SUM/DMO SP13/14 Features and the new UI

SAP First Guidance - Using the new DMO to Migra... | SCN

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@sap.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, PSA). The classic InfoProviders are of course still supported and do co-exist with the advanced DSOs.

For more information, please contact roland.kramer@sap.com

SAP First Guidance - SAP NLS Solution with Sybase 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 seconday database for data reallocation.

For more information, please contact roland.kramer@sap.com

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 successfull 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@sap.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 Houskeeping 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 BW ALM Page.

For more information please contact roland.kramer@sap.com

SAP First Guidance - SAP BW 7.40 / 7.50 on HANA - Inventory Handling and Non-Cumulative Key Figures

One of the key differentiators of SAP BW are the various easy-to-consume options to model business semantics without the need to care for their technical implementation. The delta capability of DataStores, hierarchies, elimination of internal business volume, and non-cumulative key figures are just a few examples. This document focuses on inventory handling and non-cumulative key figures in SAP BW.

SAP First Guidance - Using SAP HANA SQL Script in SAP BW Transformations

Are you looking for a way to define custom transformation rules which cannot be implemented using standard BW functionality and want to leverage the power of the SAP HANA database platform? This First Guidance document describes the option to defined custom transformation rules with SAP BW powered by SAP HANA, which are processed completely on the SAP HANA database effectively eliminating the need to move data over the network between database and the application server. Not only does this option provide maximum performance, but also allows to leverage many of the powerful capabilities of the SAP HANA platform.

SAP First Guidance - SAP BW 7.40 on HANA - HANA Analysis Processes

Starting with SAP BW 7.4 SP5 on HANA a new feature to analyze data from certain perspectives, for example to calculate ABC classes or to calculate scoring classes, is introduced. This new feature is called SAP HANA Analysis Process and enables the data warehouse modeler to analyze the data using different predefined or own written functions or scripts. HANA provides the integration numerous specialized libraries like PAL, AFL, R to understand the correlation of the data in the existing EDW.

SAP First Guidance - SAP BW 7.40 on HANA - View Generation

The focus of this document is the exposure of BW data natively in HANA as HANA views that point directly to the data and tables managed by BW. This enables HANA-native consumption of BW data.

SAP First Guidance - SAP BW 7.30 on HANA - Inventory InfoCubes

This SAP first guidance document describes the handling of non-cumulative InfoCubes on SAP HANA. As the handling of Inventory InfoCubes changed within SAP BW 7.30 based on SAP HANA, this document wants to briefly describe the differences. for better understanding it is recommended to read How to Guide based on previous release How to Handle Inventory Management Scenarios in BW.

SAP First Guidance - SAP BW 7.40 on HANA - OpenODSView

In SAP BW 7.4 SP05 on HANA the new metadata object Open ODS View is introduced, which provides the data warehouse modeler with a flexible, easy to use tool to integrate external data in the EDW Core Data Warehouse.

SAP First Guidance - SAP BW 7.40 on HANA - CompositeProvider

A CompositeProvider is an InfoProvider in which you can combine data from BW InfoProviders such as InfoObjects, DataStore Objects, SPOs and InfoCubes, or SAP HANA views such as Analytical or Calculation Views using join or union operations to make the data available for reporting. This paper explains how to create a CompositeProvider in SAP BW 7.4 SP5 using the BW modeling tools in SAP HANA Studio.

First Guidance: Using Advanced DataStore Objects in SAP BW powered by SAP HANA

The advanced Data Store Object (aDSO) is a new object type introduced in SAP BW 7.4 SP8 powered by SAP HANA. The aDSO simplifies data persistency consolidating the InfoCube, Data Store Object (write-optimized, standard and direct update) and PSA tables of prior releases. When implementing the aDSO, it is important to understand the configuration options available and the scenarios in which they are designed to be used.  It is the aim of this first guidance’s document to provide this information as well as general guidance for the use of the aDSO.

First Guidance: LSA++ and BW on HANA Dynamic Dimensional Modeling

The paper describes the SAP BW on HANA Dynamic Star Schema, which is a new modeling pattern partitioning Dimensions (master data) of fact-table InfoProvider using Composite Providers or Open ODS Views of type fact. With the Dynamic Star Schema and partitioned Dimensions we achieve a new degree of dynamics and flexibility implementing a LSA++ without losing the business orientation of SAP  BW.The scenarios discussed in this paper were verified on SAP BW on HANA version 7.5 SP2.

How to implement virtual integration of external data with SAP BW powered by SAP HANA

SAP BW 7.4. on HANA provides new ways to flexibly integrate non SAP data in a virtual way. This paper discusses technical options as well as architectural considerations and provides guidance for the implementation of such scenarios.

Introduction

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. For many customers it has become the entry point for their SAP HANA roadmap. Customers will benefit not only from phantastic 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. At the same time data layers are reduced and with the new virtualization capabilities BW can also serve as the “Logical Data Warehouse”.

HANA Data Warehousing: The HANADW

With this blog Thomas Zurek sheds some light into the direction that SAP is taking towards a unified offering for building a data warehouse on top of HANA. The unofficial working title is the HANA DW. The blog is divided into 3 sections, each addressing the most pressing questions  from customers who have already seen flavours of this. Read more about SAP's overall Data warehouse strategyand find out about the highlights of SAP BW 7.5 with SP04 in the SAP BW 7.5 SP4 powered by SAP HANA Overview and Roadmap .

Release of SAP BW 7.5 SP4

SP4 comes with various new features:

Check out yourself in the SAP BW 7.5 SP4 powered by SAP HANA Overview and Roadmap .

For further information and Release dates seeSAP BW 7.5 ABAP Support Packages

Additional Information

• Find the SAP BW 7.5 topics on the TechEd page.

• Install and Configure SAP BW Installation/Configuration (also on HANA)

• Plan your update to SAP BW 7.50 -  Update to SAP BW 7.50

• Implement the Support Packages: SCN Support Package page 
  

Migration to HANA made easy with DMO

DMO – Intro

Prerequisites

•    The SAP system has to be a single ABAP stack, so a dual-stack split may be required before.
•    For non-unicode systems, the procedure will include a Unicode-conversion which is planned to be implemented in SUM1.0 SP10.
•    Source system release has to be based on SAP NetWeaver 7.0 SP17 or higher.
•    Target system release has to be based on SAP NetWeaver 7.31 (or higher).
•    Regarding the source database, all versions listed in the PAM of the source release are supported.
•    Regarding the operating system, all version listed in the PAM of the target release are supported.

SAP First Guidance - Migration BW on HANA using the DMO option in SUM

Related SAP Notes

SAP Note 1813548: Database migration option (DMO) for Software Update Manager

Overview of Steps involved in the process

Below is the step by step screenshot of the DMO flow to Upgrade and Migrate your system to HDB. First extract the SAP Host Agent sar file

Install it as below and configure the host agent

 

The DMO UI needs to be started as below. On the OS level command prompt execute SUMSTART.BAT

 

 

On your client or in the OS, invoke the DMO UI by using the URL as below.

http://<hostname>:1128/lmsl/upgrade/<SID>/doc/gui

Login using ‘sidadm’ user and password

 

The Initial screen asks for stack.xml file which was generated from your MOPZ transaction in the Solution Manager.

 

The rest of the screens of the DMO procedure are all self-explanatory and provides enough information for the consultant to carry out the migration process successfully.

 

Most of the screens are self explanatory and resembles the usual migration procedure.

In the above screen, the option of Migration to HANA DB is available.

The Upgrade and Migration of the system to new release of NW 7.40 running in HANA DB is completed now. DMO process offers intersting features like estimation of time to complete, Errors and Infos, the individual list of steps in each phases of the Migration procedure. The screenshots of these features will be uploaded in the next version of the document.

This document shows you the differences between SAP BEx Query Designer and the eclipse based BW Query on BW 7.4 and should help you to understand how query design works with the eclipse based BW-Query if you have worked long time with the SAP BEx Query Designer. As the SAP BEx Query Designer is a known tool there won’t be screenshots for each topic.

Versions which were used for this comparison:

• SAP BEx Query Designer 7.4, Support Package 3, Revision 760
• Mars.2 Release (4.5.2)

1. Overview

In the BEx Query Designer you have a view which is separated in 3 different parts – at the left side the InfoProvider section with key figures, global structures, global filters and characteristics, in the middle you can switch between Filter tab and Rows/Columns tab and at the right side the Properties pane with its different tabs depending on the object you select.

The new query designer based on eclipse has a totally different look and feel than the BEx Query Designer.

First of all, you have five tabs you can switch between:

- general

- filter

- sheet definition

- conditions

- exceptions

(- cells *this one appears as soon as you are using two structures)

In the top right corner there is from left to right the preview button, the info provider button where you can switch to the info provider view, the history view with last change information and the delete button.

One impression at a first look is that you have a better overview in the old BEx Query Designer. 

2.      Structure and formula handling

For adding new elements to a structure in the BEx Query Designer you have the possibility to create a new selection or a new formula or you use drag and drop from the info provider section to add the elements to your structure.

Beside the known functionalities in eclipse there is a third option available, which offers you to add key figures, characteristics or reusable components by right clicking in the rows or columns section and selecting from a popup window.

If you want to create a formula in eclipse you can use the content assistance in the formula section for choosing the elements and there is also a filter option for the formula elements but it works only when you filter on content of one topic on the left side. If you want to use for example a sum function you have to select the data functions to see the different options.

3.      Create variables

In the BEx Query Designer variables are created by choosing the characteristic the variable should be for in your query. By choosing restrict on clicking on the characteristic in your query on the filter or the rows/columns tab and then selecting variables in the drop down menu, you can select the blank sheet icon and create a new variable. Reference characteristic is automatically the one you’ve chosen.

For creating a new variable in eclipse BW Modeling there are two possibilities. For the first one you need to go in your project explorer, right click and then select New --> Variable…. Then a new window opens where you need to select the variable settings. Compared with the BEx Query Designer variable creation you also need to fill the reference characteristic. The second possibility is the one known from BEx Query Designer.

4.      Create restricted or calculated key figures, global structure or a global filter

BEx Query Designer:

For the creation of new calculated or restricted key figures you have to go to the InfoProvider section and click on Key Figures and then select New Restricted Key Figure or New Calculated Key Figure.

Global structures and global filters are created the same way. You need to click on the top node of your filter or structure and select Save As… to make it a global element. Afterwards it will show up in the InfoProvider section.

Eclipse BW Modeling:

In the project explorer, go to your MultiProvider and choose New --> then you can select Restricted or Calculated Key Figure. You will also find the possibility for creating a new Global Structure or a Global Filter here.

The creation of a Global Filter or a Global Structure is possible in two different ways. You can build them from the scratch, starting with the name and then adding your required objects. For this a separate editor is opening. Or you decide to save your local filter or structure as a global one, like it is known from BEx Query Designer.

5.      Exception cells and help cells

If you have two structures in the BEx Query Designer and would like to use the cell functionality you need to select the cells icon in the query header to get the cells tab. In eclipse the system adds automatically the cells tab as soon as the query contains two structures. 

Another point is the display of the cells tab. In the BEx Query Designer it is not that flexible as the cells tab in eclipse. The section for help cells has only a very small part at the bottom of the tab whereas in eclipse you have as default both parts shown in the same size and you may switch between the cells and the help cells part to show only one of them.

6.      Result Preview

The preview in BEx Query Designer only shows a frozen example of your query drill down.

In eclipse BW Modeling you find the data preview button in the top right corner of your query tab and there you have two possibilities for the result preview.

The first one called BEx Web Analyser (7.x) shows the known Web Analysis display:

The second one is called Analytics List UIBB and offers a real data preview with navigation options on the report you build.

In this point the eclipse BW Modeling is much better because you can see the result of your query without much extra effort during your development phase.

If the result preview is not working initially check if the application server is active (also see SAP Note 2212389) and if the FPM_BICS_OVP service in transaction SICF is enabled.

For further questions the eclipse help content might be helpful.

Go to Help --> Help Contents --> SAP BW Modeling User Guide --> Tasks --> Defining Queries

Summary

The start would be not that easy but after some time you will get used to the new environment of building your queries. I think the content assistance in the formula editor is a nice feature because it makes searching one special element in a large list much easier. Another positive impression is that the performance of restricted and calculated key figures seems better in eclipse. To sum up I'd like to say there are in my opinion really some advantages which make creating a query easier in eclipse and I'm really looking forward using it more often in the near future, but you should make your own experience...

We faced an intriguing issue after our BW on HANA migration, wherein the Inventory InfoCubes conversion to HANA-optimized, failed.

This issue can, most likely, occur in other BW on HANA migrations and that is what prompted me to put forth this document which aims to

provide a way out for such scenarios, for my fellow BW consultants.

Context:

Converting Inventory Stnd InfoCubes to HANA-optimized InfoCubes.

Scenario:

Migration already completed to a HANA multi-node appliance.

Inventory InfoCubes still contain uncompressed, delta movement, requests.

Compression doesn't work anymore, after migration, for multi-node (scale-out) systems.

Conversion process (RSMIGRHANADB) fails for these Inventory InfoCubes due to uncompressed requests.

InfoCube:

ZMIM_C001 - Inventory InfoCube.

The current state is that the system is already migrated to BW 7.4 on HANA SP10 and the Inventory InfoCube still contains few uncompressed requests.

These are delta movement requests. No historic movements requests.

Although the system is migrated, the InfoCube is still not converted to HANA-optimized.

We also made sure that this is an Inventory InfoCube with non-cumulative measures (Key figures):

First attempt to convert to HANA-Optimized InfoCube:

System issues an error message stating that the Inventory InfoCube must be fully compressed before the conversion:

Therefore, we attempted to compress the requests in the InfoCube:

Unfortunately, compression is no longer possible and system issues an information message that

No compression possible for Stnd InfoCubes in scale-out (multi-node) HANA systems:

Upon searching, we found the SAP Note confirming this limitation in a BW on HANA scale-out landscape

Therefore, even though the job completed successfully, it didn't compress the request.

After perusing through multiple documents and notes, we found the panacea in the form of a tweak which needs

to be done in the RSADMIN table to force the compression to work.

Source: SAP Inventory - First Guidance doc for BW 7.4/7.5 on HANA

As per this document, we found the following important points, relevant to our scenario:

Post-migration, if you want to convert the Inventory InfoCubes without compressing the open delta movement requests* then:

Set the RSADMIN parameter FORCE_NCUM_CUBE_CONVERSION to value 'X'

* If you have uncompressed Historic movements requests, you have to mandatorily compress them before the conversion.

Best Practice:

Post-migration, if you want to compress all the open requests and then convert the Inventory InfoCubes (which we should) then:

Set the RSADMIN parameter FORCE_NCUM_CUBE_COMPRESSION to value 'X'

Don't forget to:

Remove these RSADMIN parameters after the conversion/testing is done.

We followed the second (best practice) approach of first compressing the requests and then converting the

Cube to HANA-optimized.

First, we checked if the entry already exists in the RSADMIN table or not:

To insert the parameter, execute pgm: SAP_RSADMIN_MAINTAIN

Set the below parameters:

FORCE_NCUM_CUBE_COMPRESSION

value 'X'

Confirmation

Now, we attempted to compress all the requests, one by one, and it completed successfully !

All requests successfully compressed:

Lastly, we attempted to convert the Infocube to HANA-optimized and it completed successfully !

We checked and found that the InfoCube is now HANA-Optimized:

As expected, the backend InfoCube tables structure confirms that only F table (No E table ) and Package Dimension table exist after conversion

Conclusion:

This tweak comes as a savior for the Inventory InfoCubes in scenarios depicted in this documented.

However, we should always try to compress the Inventory InfoCubes as part of pre-migration activities. This saves a lot of hassles.

Remodelling of Advanced DSO works little different. I did not find any content on SCN so writing in this document. I am just sharing steps to activate advance dso to take effect of changes once remodelling id is created. There are plenty of documents that covers how to create / change advanced DSOs so not duplicating.

When any Advance DSO is created and data is loaded to the ADSO; and then later if it requires to remove any field or change partition criteria (like I did - changed the Hash Partition criteria in Advanced DSO); the advanced DSO does not get activated and a message shows as "Remodelling rule <rule number> <dso name> has been created instead of activation".

See below where I tried to change to Advanced DSOs ZGLD_AD24 and ZGLD_AD37 and got below warning messages.

- hash definition has been changed

Remodelling rule 20160822  ZGLD_AD24 has been created instead of activation

- hash definition has been changed

Remodelling rule 20160822  ZGLD_AD37 has been created instead of activation

Now to run the remodelling rule - go to transaction RSCNV_MONITOR.

Here in transaction - you will see all the remodelling rules and their steps will be marked as "Step  not started".

Select the Modelling Rule and "Start Request" - this will start the processing and the step status will be changed to "Step  running". Once all the steps completed under one Advanced DSO - it will be active again and step will be marked as "Step  completed successfully".

Following are the steps under the remodelling:

     Checking InfoProvider

     Saving InfoProvider

     Converting InfoProvider

     Activating InfoProvider

     Cleaning up

Once the remodelling job is completed all the steps will be marked green. As in below screen shot - remodelling for ZGLD_AD24 is completed where as ZGLD_AD37 is still running at process of converting infoprovider.  

Introduction

• Attractive, flexible and simplified BW modeling tools
• Harmonization BW and HANA modeling environments
• Integration of BW and HANA models in one modeling approach

• CompositeProvider
• Open ODS View

• Advanced DataStore Object

• Query in Eclipse

• First Guidance for implementing the BW - Modelling Tools
  
• Note 1954169 - BWMT - Installation Details

• Tips & Tricks using SAP BW Modeling Tools (BWMT) in Eclipse

Accessing documentation in the BW Modeling Tools

How to Install SAP HANA Studio with ABAP-BW Tools - Part I

DATA WAREHOUSING -REDEFINED FOR THE MODERN WORLD

SAP BW/4HANA…

is a new data warehouse solution which provides:

• Simplicity: Get up and running sooner and keep running at lower cost
• Openness: Easily manage non SAP data and integrate with SQL based DW approache
• High Performance: Leverage huge amounts of data in real time for competitive advantage
• Modern Interface: Simplify access for all professionals: Business Users, BW modeler and BW administrator

The transition from classic SAP BW to SAP BW/4HANA can be compared with the transition of the SAP Business Suite to SAP S/4HANA. As part of this transition, SAP BW/4HANA will drastically reduce the number of data objects to be stored and maintained, similar to the elimination of aggregates in SAP S/4HANA.

SAP BW/4HANA will be released to customers on September 7, 2016. At this time a thirty day trial will be available on AWS.

Getting Started

• Watch the Livestream of the launch event on September 7th at 10:00 am PST.

• Read the blog from Thomas Zurek "What is SAP BW/4HANA?"

• Explore SAP BW/4HANA 1.0 in the Help Portal (available after RTC)

• Watch the announcements on the SAP Customer Experience Platform
• Find answers to the most frequently asked questions in the "SAP BW/4HANA FAQ"
• Check out the "SAP BW/4HANA Roadmap"
• Explore the SAP S/4HANA and SAP BW/4HANA Positioning
• See the technical presentation about SAP BW/4HANA
• Read about the Road to SAP BW/4HANA
  

Please post your questions in the SAP Data Warehousing Forum and use "SAP BW/4HANA" in the title to ensure timely processing.

Greetings,

On August 31st , a new BW Avatar is born:

This is not BW on HANA….rather, this is BW especially and exclusively 4 HANA.

A great deal of ink has already been spilled enumerating its might and bright..but I still feel that there are lot of questions people are asking which warrants for a perusal over multiple sets of documents to kind of have an overall picture and although there are umpteen resources available in terms of great documents such as SCN FAQs, SAP Guides etc, a one-stop-shop kind of a document might help provide a consolidated reference point.

All I have tried to do, in my humble effort here, is to go through the myriad sites and documents (BIG DATA..for me) related to BW/4HANA, and have given a consolidated picture...similar to what a Datawarehousing tool, such as BW/4HANA, intends to do..

So, here we go...

Discussion Points	Insights | Comments
What is it	Just like S/4HANA, it's a new DataWarehousing product, created only to work with SAP HANA
What it's not	It's not the next version of BW on HANA
Launch Date	31 August' 2016     https://news.sap.com/sap-modernizes-data-warehousing-with-the-launch-of-sap-bw4hana
General Availability	7th September' 2016     Keynote: http://events.sap.com/sap-amazon-web-services/en/home https://influence.sap.com/BW4HANA10
Central SAP note	SAP Note: 2347382     https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2347382
Minimum HANA Version required	SAP HANA SPS12 Revision 122 or higher     SAP Note: 2347382 https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2347382
Is this separate from NetWeaver Stack	Yes, SAP BW/4HANA is a separate product which is not part of and does not depend on a NetWeaver delivery. The underlying platform consists of the ABAP application server and SAP HANA.
Old Versioning	BW 3.x, 7.x. Latest being 7.5, Edition for SAP HANA (BW 7.5, SP04)     http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-66052
New versioning	BW/4HANA 1.x Latest being BW/4HANA 1.0
The Journey so far
Software Components	BW/4HANA is built on Application Server for ABAP and comprises only the following software components: SAP_BASIS SAP_ABA SAP_GWFND SAP_UI DW4CORE
What happened to the BI Content	Traditional BI Content will not be supported (software components BI_CONT and BI_CONT_XT). New SAP BW/4HANA business content on top of the Business Content DataSources will be delivered in Q4 2016. Also, all Business Content Datasources (extractors) that are released for Operational Data Provisioning (ODP) will be supported (the ODP Source System is replacing the SAP Source System in SAP BW/4HANA).   SAP Note: 2232584 https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0002232584 FAQ http://go.sap.com/documents/2016/08/c4458a08-877c-0010-82c7-eda71af511fa.html
Clients required	SAP GUI SAP NetWeaver Business Client ABAP Development Tools for SAP NetWeaver (ADT) - for HANA Studio Modeling Tools for SAP BW∕4HANA (BW Modeling Tools) - for HANA Studio SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, Edition for Microsoft Office (Sep License) SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio(Sep License)
Any pictorial depiction of the landscape
Is it only on-premise or Cloud-based	Both. Cloud Providers: HEC | AWS (as of now).
Any change in Modeling	A big change. No more RSA1 !   The new modeling paradigm is…Data Flow Modeler
Do I still need to have SAP GUI installed and use Datawarehouse workbench	Yes. SAP GUI is still required. Datawarehouse Workbench will be used for the following activities DataSource still maintained in DataWarehousing Workbench. Administrative tasks are still performed in the DataWarehousing Workbench such as: Defining Process chains Authorization Maintenance Transports Workspace Administration DBA Cockpit based monitoring NLS-IQ administration Tracing the query execution via RSRT   Note: Web-based administration & monitoring is already work-in-progress and will soon be delivered in next few quarters.
What happens to BW on HANA versions (7.x on HANA)	SAP BW 7.5 powered by and edition for SAP HANA will still be supported release options and will move into maintenance, receiving little development or new functionality moving forward. SAP BW/4HANA will receive the majority of the new innovation being developed moving forward.
Difference between 7.5, edition for HANA and BW/4HANA	No more RSA1 in BW/4HANA. The new Data Flow Modeler takes over. The future innovations will be for BW/4HANA. The integration with Hadoop offered with BW/4HANA via HANA Vora. Out-of-the-box deployment to HANA Enterprise Cloud and Amazon Web Services (AWS)
How long will BW 7.3, 7.4 and 7.5 on HANA be supported	It follows the NW 7.x release timelines. Therefore: BW 7.0 -> Maintenance ends on 31.12.2017 BW 7.3 -> Maintenance ends on 31.12.2020 BW 7.4 -> Maintenance ends on 31.12.2020 BW 7.5 -> Maintenance ends on 31.12.2022   PAM: https://apps.support.sap.com/sap(bD1lbiZjPTAwMQ==)/support/pam/pam.html?smpsrv=https%3A%2F%2Fwebsmp203.sap-ag.de#s=sap%20netweaver%20&o=most_viewed%7Cdesc&ts=8&st=l&rpp=20&page=1
What happens to Bex	The SAP Business Explorer (BEx) are not supported any more.
How will I create my Query now	Queries are now defined in BW/4HANA in the BW Modeling tools (HANA Studio) via the perspective - 'BW Modeling'.
What about front-end	Here's the mapping: BEx Web - > SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio Enterprise Reporting -> Crystal report via BOE BEx Analyzer/Workbook -> SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, Edition for Microsoft Office BEx Information Broadcasting -> BOE Broadcasting Dashboards (previously Xcelsius) -> SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio Crystal Report -> Crystal report via BOE WebI -> WebI Explorer -> Lumira Mobile -> RoamBI
What are new objects corresponding to old ones	Here's the mapping: DataStore object (classic) - > DataStore object (advanced) InfoCube (all types) -> DataStore object (advanced) MultiProvider -> CompositeProvider Infosets -> CompositeProvider VirtualProvider based on the data transfer process -> Open ODS View VirtualProvider based on a SAP HANA Model -> Open ODS View or CompositeProvider VirtualProviders with Function Modules -> SAP HANA View (in Open ODS View or CompositeProvider) Transient Provider -> Open ODS View SPO -> SPO based on Advanced DSO Infoobjects - > Infoobjects (enhanced) InfoObject with master data access via SAP HANA View -> Open ODS View CompositeProvider (object type COPR) - > CompositeProviders(Note: 2080851) HybridProvider (InfoCube + DataStore object (classic)) - > DataStore object (advanced) Analysis process ->  SAP HANA analysis process and transformation PSA -> DataStore object (advanced)
Any changes in process chain monitoring	Process chains can be monitored via the traditional ABAP Workbench. However, now the new UI5 based monitoring capabilities can be leveraged:
What about Openhubs	They are still relevant and will be supported in BW/4HANA. No separate license required.
How to migrate	For greenfield: Implement from scratch Implement from scratch and transport objects (only new ones such as aDSO, Composite provider) from your existing BW on HANA to BW/4HANA.   For brownfield: The process goes something like this: First, upgrade to BW 7.5, edition for HANA. This is done by installing an Add-on using SUM tool. Then, convert your stnd objects to new HANA-optimized objects.That means, for example, no more InfoCubes and MultiProviders but Advanced DataStore Objects for persistency and CompositeProviders for modeling joins and unions of your persisted or maybe even remote data.  To make this conversion as easy as possible, a transfer tool is provided. This transfer tool is only available after you upgrade to BW 7.5, edition for HANA. The transfer tool will automate the conversion from old to new object types. A “Conversion Guide” documenting the complete end-to-end process for transitioning to SAP BW/4HANA is in the works. Then, switch to BW/4HANA (by executing report RS_B4HANA_CHECK_ENABLE with B4H as the new mode and choosing "Save New Mode".   For consolidation brownfield: This is a scenario wherein, several local BW datawarehouses and legacy warehousing systems needed to be consolidated to BW/4HANA. For this, we can contact SAP to design a tailor-made migration path.   https://blogs.saphana.com/2016/09/07/the-road-to-sap-bw4hana-part-1/
Which option is best for my case, any recommendations from SAP	https://blogs.saphana.com/2016/09/18/the-road-to-sap-bw4hana-part-2/
How about going from BW on xDB (Oracle, DB2 etc) directly to BW/4HANA	Not supported
Transfer tool	SAP Note: 2238220 Tcode: RSB4HTRF   https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0002238220 https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0002080851
I hear terms like compatibility mode and B4H mode..what's the deal	To move to BW/4HANA, first BW has to be upgraded to BW 7.5, edition for SAP HANA (7.50 SP04 or higher) - This is called Compatibility mode. This mode still supports old object types (InfoCubes, Multiprovider etc.)   Then you need to use the "Transfer tool" to convert all your old object types to new objects types (aDSO, Composite Provider etc.)   Then you move to BW/4HANA using SUM - This is called B4H mode. This mode doesn't support the old object types anymore.   https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2246699
Still confused between BW on HANA, BW, Edition for HANA and BW/4HANA	Answers here: Difference between BW on HANA, BW, Edition for HANA and BW/4HANA
How will virtual access be designed now	Using EIM - SDI (Smart Data Integration) framework Using Open ODS Views   http://scn.sap.com/community/developer-center/hana/blog/2014/11/27/hana-sp9-data-provisioning--overview
How will LSA++ look like in BW4HANA	Report at any layer of the Data Warehouse with speed and flexibility
What about 3.x flow	No more supported and must be migrated.
Any new sizing exercise introduced	No, the same sizing process used for SAP BW powered by SAP HANA applies to SAP BW/4HANA.   SAP Note 2363248 https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0002363248   SAP Note 2296290 https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0002296290
What are the changes in Archiving and hot, warm and cold data	With BW/4HANA, relocate cold data, based on extended time slice partitions per persistence object, either to SAP IQ Near-line Storage (near-online) OR to SAP Hadoop NLS (near-offline) - using tool called DLM (DataLifecycleManagement)
What about automatic HANA view generation
Any changes in SAP source systems Vs non-sap source system integration	Number of Source System Types reduced from 7 to 3. ODP Source System (For SAP sources such as ECC, SRM , CRM etc, including SLT) HANA Source System (For non-SAP sources, including Hadoop data lakes | using EIM - SDI) Flat File
Change in Load Administration	BW/4HANA will have a new request ID concept: tsn Manage loads by a unique ID, called request TSN (transaction sequence number) More details here...#TSN - The new face of BW Request ID
What about BPC	BPC 10.1 is supported with BW/4HANA. However, only Embedded model is supported. Standard model not supported.   SAP Note: 2189708: List of supported and Not supported Add-Ons https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0002189708
Any customer tried this	3 of them so far: Fairfax Media Interview: https://www.facebook.com/HANAbySAP/videos/1263550880335403/ ConAgra Colgate customers Faifax early adoption of BW/4HANA: http://www.asugnews.com/article/early-adopter-fairfax-media-on-running-sap-bw-4hana-on-aws
What's the Licensing framework for BW/4HANA	Licensing will be driven by the factor that how is BW/4HANA deployed. We have 2 options:   1. Cloud-based: Licensing will be based on subscription and Instance type selected (AWS/CAL)   2. On-premise: Licensing will remain as the existing stnd process for SAP Applications.   Excerpt from BW/4HANA Master Guide:   BW/4HANA Master Guide:   http://help.sap.com/download/bw4hana10/SAP_BW4HANA_Master_Guide_en.pdf
Can I get a look and feel	Couple of "Try Now" versions are available on AWS: BW/4HANA XL edition BW/4HANA 1.0 Developer Edition XL Edition: https://cal.sap.com/subscription?sguid=0ebabe2b-6da4-40cb-905b-00a4d5ba281a   Developer Edition https://cal.sap.com/subscription?sguid=217bd04e-53c2-453c-80a9-40fefe0137f8
Any online demo I can see this product in action	SAP BW/4HANA Demo by Ian Kimbell and Ulrich Christ       http://events.sap.com/sap-amazon-web-services/en/home   -> Video Highlights        -> SAP BW/4HANA Demo by Ian Kimbell and Ulrich Christ
Does it have Early Adopter Pgm to help transition to this brand new product?	Yes. SAP provides an Early Adopter Pgm. Salient features of this pgm: Early Adoption expiry: March 7, 2017 Direct access and interaction with Development Team. A dedicated Project Coach will also be assigned at no additional cost   How to register:  Go to https://influence.sap.com/BW4HANA10 Register   http://scn.sap.com/blogs/BW4HANA_EAC/2016/09/14/early-adopter-care-program-for-sap-bw4hana-nomination-period-open
Planned features	Q3/2016: Multi-temperature data management. Cloud deployment on either HEC or AWS. Copy complete data flows Automatic generation of HANA optimized BW objects Conversion of DB Connect Source Systems to HANA Source Systems Q4/2016: New HANA optimized business content. New ODP DataSources. Interoperability with Big Data (such as Hadoop) Q2/2017: Transformation modelingWeb-based process chain monitoring HANA Vora integration with HAP “1-Step” conversion based on tool support and AGS service   Future: Tighter integration with Big Data Power Designer Integration Further Cloud Integration
How is Big Data & IoT supported	IoT is supported in BW/4HANA via Smart Data Streaming (part of EIM) Big data is supported in BW/4HANA via Smart Data Integration (part of EIM)
Certification for BW/4HANA	Not yet available
Pictorial Summary
How does it fit together with S4HANA	Firstly, SAP BW/4HANA is completely independent of and not a prerequisite for SAP S/4HANA and vice versa. S4HANA - Primary use case is operational reporting on current data from single SAP system. BW/4HANA - Primary use case is Datawarehousing which provides consolidation (SAP + non-SAP + Big Data) and historical analysis
What about Stnd extractors from S/4HANA flowing into BW/4HANA	The following will apply : All new planned SAP standard content extraction from SAP S/4HANA to SAP BW/4HANA or SAP BW , powered by SAP HANA will be based on CDS delta extraction technology New Business content in SAP BW/4HANA and SAP BW , powered by SAP HANA will be aligned with SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics virtual data model structures (VDM) All extractors not blacklisted (SAP Note 2333141 -SAP S/4HANA 1610: Restriction Note) are enabled for SAP BW, powered by SAP HANA and SAP BW/4HANA (restrictions applicable) All custom developed objects for extraction have to be verified and adapted to the new SAP S/4HANA relevant structures
The future	Behold !

It would be a good idea to follow the BW/4HANA SCN Space for all the future updates and Information:

http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-74554

Happy Learning !

-------------------------------------

Source|Referenced Links:

We are proud to announce SAP BW/4HANA, a next-generation data warehouse application for running a real-time digital enterprise!

In addition to traditional on-premise deployment, the new solution will soon be available on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and the SAP HANA® Enterprise Cloud service so companies can conveniently modernize their data warehousing environments and accelerate their digital journey into the cloud.

SAP BW/4HANA was released to customers on September 7, 2016. For more information, visit SAP BW/4HANA on SCN, SAP BW/4HANA on www.sap.com and the SAP News Center. Follow SAP on Twitter at @sapnews.

Support Package 4 for SAP Business Warehouse 7.5 is released!

Check out the new features delivered, read the SAP BW 7.5 SP4 powered by SAP HANA Overview and Roadmap. For further information and release dates see SAP BW 7.5 ABAP Support Packages.

Update – Data LifeCycle Management for SAP BW powered by SAP HANA

In his latest blog Klaus Nagel talks about a new option to handle the “warm” data in your SAP BW powered by SAP HANA system.

SAP's Overall Data Warehousing Strategy

SAP HANA Data Warehousing summarizes SAP's offering for highly flexible and agile Data Warehousing. It mainly consists of an application driven approach based on SAP BW powered by SAP HANA and in addition of  an SQL driven approach also based on SAP HANA and additional SAP tools like SAP Power Designer, SAP DW Foundation, SAP Information Steward etc. Of course both approaches can also be combined with each other.

HANA Data Warehousing: The HANADW

With this blog Thomas Zurek sheds some light into the direction that SAP is taking towards a unified offering for building a data warehouse on top of HANA. The unofficial working title is the HANA DW. The blog is divided into 3 sections, each addressing the most pressing questions  from customers who have already seen flavours of this.

Using SAP HANA SQL Script in SAP BW Transformations

Are you looking for a way to define custom transformation rules which cannot be implemented using standard BW functionality and want to leverage the power of the SAP HANA database platform? This First Guidance document describes the option to defined custom transformation rules with SAP BW powered by SAP HANA, which are processed completely on the SAP HANA database effectively eliminating the need to move data over the network between database and the application server. Not only does this option provide maximum performance, but also allows to leverage many of the powerful capabilities of the SAP HANA platform.

New Document Tips & Tricks using SAP BW Modeling Tools (BWMT) in Eclipse

Eclipse provides a great set of features out of the box which can used with the SAP BW Modeling Tools. This document summarizes the most important and most valuable tips you should be aware of and will be constantly updated!

Increasing the SAP NLS Performance

With the introduction of smart data access (SDA) especially between SAP HANA and IQ, the data provisioning process can be optimized for the usage of SAP nearline storage as well. This blog consolidates the existing corrections and settings to increase the overall performance of the SAP-NLS connection used by SAP BW.

New: FAQ -SAP BW & Operational Data Provisioning Framework (ODP)

Checkout the new Blog from Marc Hartz "FAQ: SAP BW & Operational Data Provisioning Framework (ODP)" that broaches the basic topics like use cases, source system sizing, supported releases, existing extractor handling and more.

Unified Solution – SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics & SAP Business Warehouse powered by SAP HANA!

Read about the best-of-breed suite of analytical services and how it enables you to drive your business in real-time on the next generation of platform, SAP HANA. In particular get an overview of the different SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics & SAP BW Data Integration scenarios and understand how to implement them.

Ramp-Up SAP BW 7.5, edition for SAP HANA- nomination is open now!

You like to be in the front row and experience the new features firsthand?
We have now opened up nominations for customers, who want to participate in the Ramp-Up for SAP Business Warehouse 7.5, edition for SAP HANA. For more information please see the Ramp-Page for SAP BW 7.5, edition for SAP HANA

FC Bayern Munich meets IT demands with ERP and BW on HANA in the Cloud

Learn from FC Bayern Munich (FCB), one of the most prestigious soccer brands in the world, how migrating their SAP ERP and SAP BW solution to the SAP HANA platform and deploying them in the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud helps FCB to meet the complex IT demands of a growing midsize business.

SAP BW powered by SAP HANA - Modeling Tools in Eclipse

Since SAP BW 7.4 powered by SAP HANA, we introduced a new modelling experience for BW using eclipse. This toolset provides a common user experience via a central, unified, modeling environment. Learn more about this with the new Video Learning Series on the SAP BW powered by SAP HANA - Modeling Tools in Eclipse page

How to check the SAP BW Query push down to SAP HANA

You would like to know which parts of your BW Query execution is pushed down to SAP HANA and executed in the application layer?
Read this blog from Marc Hartz, who  describes how to detect these runtime improvements in your query execution.

Converting DataStore objects and InfoCubes into advanced DataStore objects

The advanced DataStore object is available since SAP BW 7.4, SP8.
You are eager to use it for new data models and also for existing data flows?
Read this document from Tanja Wingerter about  the conversion of existing DataStore objects and InfoCubes into advanced DataStore objects.

Data Warehousing Survey

The SAP Business Warehouse team is conducting a survey to learn more about our customers data warehousing initiatives and future plans. It would be great if you could participate in this survey (which has the option to be anonymous or not) to share your insights from your experiences using SAP BW and implementing data warehousing solutions. The survey will take approximately 5-10 mins to complete.

The Wienerberger Story

The world's largest producer of bricks and the European leader in clay roof tiles, Wienerberger's business is characterized by strong seasonal fluctuations in demand. But slow IT performance, lack of functionality, and high support costs were making it difficult to improve sales planning, forecasting, and budgeting processes.
The central deployment of the planning applications kit for the SAP® Business Warehouse application powered by SAP HANA® allows Wienerberger to take a more granular, bottom-up approach to sales planning. The solution enables the business to make better, more-aligned decisions and IT to reduce support costs by up to 70% and accelerate the rollout of solution enhancements.

Increasing DMO performance

Since the availability of the DMO functionality within the SUM framework at lot of things happened under the hood as well. Beside the availability of the SAP First Guidance - Migration BW on HANA using the DMO option in SUM (which is updated constantly ...), it is also worth to have a look to the official Database Migration Option (DMO) of SUM 1.0 SP12 Guide for some performance improvements right out of the box of DMO.
Especially Oracle RDBMS based Systems which covers the majority of our customer base need to addressed with some performance improvements right from the beginning to ensure a stable and performant migration to BW on HANA. March 2015

Release of SAP BW 7.4 SP8/9

SAP BW 7.4 SP8/SP9  powered by SAP HANA is the next milestone for enterprise data warehousing with BW on HANA and provides major enhancements in the area of running SAP BW on HANA as the Virtual Data Warehouse with the next level of Open ODS Views and additional CompositeProvider scenarios. In order to provide further simplification the Advanced DataStore object will consolidate DataStore Objects and InfoCubes.  Data modeling as well as query design will be supported via a common user experience. Big Data scenarios will be supported by SAP HANA dynamic tiering and performance enhancements will be provided for data staging as well as for OLAP analysis. Customers focusing on the planning capabilities will benefit from the enhanced Planning application Kit  and FOX usability. March 2015

Simplified: SAP BW 7.4 Release Notes

Read this blog from Marc Bernard to find out about the  changes with a new SAP BW release or what features were introduced with certain support packages. Feb 2015

Updated: How To - Delta Merge for SAP HANA and SAP NetWeaver BW powered by SAP HANA

This document provides an overview of the SAP HANA delta merge process and the specific operations that affect applications such as SAP NetWeaver BW powered by SAP HANA. In order to provide further insight on this topic, the document will cover the following: - Updating the column store - Delta merge concept - Delta merge process - Monitoring the merge process - Configuring the merge process - Implications for applications like SAP NetWeaver BW powered by SAP HANA. Jan 2015

Prototyping Your Scenarios with SAP BW7.4-on-HANA in the Cloud  – Piece of Cake with SDATA

You  heard about the exciting new functionality that is offered by BW-on-HANA especially with the latest feature package SAP BW 7.4 SP08(SCN or openSAP course).! And of course, you know of the easy way to get a free trial version of SAP BW7.4 SP08 on HANA! Now the big question is: how can you test your reporting scenarios with your data in such an environment? With the SDATA tool we have made exactly this extremely easy and comfortable!Read More...Jan 2015

New Query Designer in Eclipse with SAP BW 7.4 powered by SAP HANA
SAP BW 7.4 SP9 powered by SAP HANA comes with a first version of a query designer integrated in the BW-Modelling Tools (BWMT) in eclipse. With this feature it is now possible to define not only the InfoProviders of SAP BW 7.4 (Advanced DataStore Object, CompositeProvider, OpenODS View), but also queries with specific functionality in eclipse. Read the details in this blog from Marc Hartz. Jan 2015

Open Online Courses Delivered by SAP
How can you balance your busy work schedule, while learning how SAP innovations could potentially transform your business? With openSAP, of course! Whether you’re an SAP professional, developer, consultant, entrepreneur, professor or student you can keep up to date with the latest innovations from SAP.

Extended Storage and Dynamic Tiering

In his blog Thomas Zurek resolves the confusion around the terminology of extended storage and dynamic tiering within HANA. Further details can be found in a presentation attached to SAP Note 1983178.(SMP Login required) Sep 2014

Simplified Real-Time Replication using Operational Data Provisioning

Check out this new page to get a summmary of the Simplified Real-Time Replication using Operational Data Provisioning with  SAP BW 7.40. June 2014

References LIVE SAP BW on HANA, EPM suite 10.0, MDM and BI 4.0 @ Shell, 3rd June 2014

Shell is going to present their experience of SAP BW on HANA, EPM suite 10.0, MDM and BI 4.0 on 3rd June via a ReferencesLive webinar.
WHEN: 3rd June 2014
15:30 – 16:30 (CET) 
LANGUAGE:  English 
Discover how Shell Achieved faster integrated Financial Close, Consolidation, and Enhanced Cross-Divisional Financial and Management Reporting.

Shell is one of the largest BI/BW customers live today who will share their experience about their implementation of the EPM suite together with BI4, supported BW on HANA during this call. The EPM suite relates to Shell’s Top Quartile Finance MI (Insight to Win) program where components are implemented such as BOFC, BPC Netweaver, FIM, and EPM Add-in. BW on HANA is a key component of Shell’s Group Enterprise Data warehouse supporting Shell’s longer term MI strategy. In this call you can listen to the main benefits of this implementation like Real-time data replication capabilities using SLT, improved data volume handling with less solution optimization. SAP BI4  is established as the main MI reporting platform at Shell with multiple tools being deployed such as Webi, Crystal, Analysis for Office and OLAP, Lumira, and Design Studio. In summary, there are many reasons to join this call to obtain key insights and best practices.
ABOUT REFERENCESLIVE
ReferencesLive calls are one-to-few reference calls with up to 20 participating companies. The host company provides a 30-minute overview of their successful SAP project, and then the phone lines are opened for each participating company to ask questions. Please kontact yout local account executive or assigned sales person to register. June 2014

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

Read about the best-of-breed suite of analytical services and how it enables you to drive

your business in real-time on the next generation of platform, SAP HANA.

In particular get an overview of the different SAP HANA Live & SAP BW data

integration scenarios and understand how to implement them. May 2014

Workshop - Migrate your BW System database to SAP HANA

Don't miss our new offering WDEUMH - Workshop - Migration SAP BW to SAP HANA!

Roland Kramer will be your host for that 4 day workshop. The participants will learn to migration an existing SAP BW System to SAP BW powered by SAPHANA using the BW-PCA Method and the database migration option (DMO). April 2014

Embedded Business Warehouse

This presentation  explains what an embedded BW is and the difference to MCOD. April 2014

Three  Major Reasons To Migrate To SAP BW 7.4 on SAP HANA

Read the latest blog from Thomas Zurek and see why migrating to  SAP BW 7.4 on SAP HANA can make things simpler, more flexibel and faster. April 2014

Live from the SAPinsider Studio: Dan Kearnan Moderates a Panel on SAP NetWeaver BW 7.4 on HANA Launch:

Dan Kearnan of SAP (far right) moderates a panel at SAPinsider's BI-HANA 2014 event on the launch of SAP NetWeaver BW 7.4 powered by SAP HANA. Joining Kearnan are (from L to R) Lothar Henkes of SAP, John Appleby of Bluefin Solutions, and David Théroux-Bénoni and Pawel Mierski of Molson Coors. April 2014

SAP BW 7.4 Launch Event

The SAP BW 7.4 launch event took place during the HANA and BI Conference in Orlando, FL. There was an exciting line up of SAP BW and data warehousing experts including; Ken Tsai, Neil McGovern, Stefan Sigg and Juergen Hagedorn from SAP, Noel Yuhanna from Forrester and Molson Coors discussing their recent SAP BW 7.4 deployment. This full day event did discuss how SAP is re-inventing the data warehouse vision and the exciting new features in SAP BW 7.4.  Investigate the summary page...SAP Business Warehouse 7.4 - Data Warehousing Re-InventedApril 2014

SAP First Guidance – SAP NetWeaver BW 7.40 on HANA View Generation

Read about the exposure of BW data natively in HANA as HANA views that point directly to the data and tables managed by BW. This enables HANA-native consumption of BW data! March 2014

Migration SAP BW on SAP HANA - Update 2014

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. This presentation consolidates the updates in various areas around the database migration option, post copy automation and migration paths for on Premise and HEC. February 2014

SAP First Guidance - SAP Netweaver BW 7.40 SP5 on HANA OpenODSView

In SAP BW 7.4 SP5 on HANA the new metadata object Open ODS View is introduced, which provides the data warehouse modeler with a flexible, easy to use tool to integrate external data in the EDW Core Data Warehouse. February 201

Overview SAP BW 7.4 SP5 on SAP HANA and Further Roadmap

SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA continues to be the cornerstone of SAP’s strategic vision for enterprise data warehousing providing organizations a solid data foundation to capture, store, transform and manage data in a scalable, enterprise-ready data warehouse. And as new challenges arise in the market (exploding data volumes, new data sources, the need for real-time information access, etc), SAP BW on HANA continues to evolve in order to meet the growing challenges imposed on IT by these ever changing market forces. The release of SAP BW running on SAP HANA is a great example of how SAP BW has evolved to ensure organizations continue to leverage their investment in SAP BW to meet these new challenge.

See this presentation to learn what SAP is doing next to evolve SAP BW on SAP HANA with SAP BW 7.4., SP 5 on SAP HANA. Update March 2014

Migration SAP BW on SAP HANA - Update 2014

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. This presentation consolidates the updates in various areas around the database migration option, post copy automation and migration paths for on Premise and HEC. February 2014

Workshop: WDEUMH - Migration to BW on HANA using DMO - Special Edition  2014

With the workshop WDEUMH the participants learn to migration an existing SAP BW System to SAP BW on SAP HANA using the BW-PCA method and the database migration option (DMO).Read more...February 2014

Preliminary delivery of Support Package 6 for SAP NetWeaver BW 7.4

The planned delivery of the regular of SAP NetWeaver BW 7.4 SP 6 is scheduled for middle of March as announced on the official SMP delivery schedule.

Due to a high amount of requests a preliminary version of this SP 6 was released. Please read SAP Note 1978179 - Early delivery of NW 7.40 SP06 (ABAP) to learn about the implied restrictions and the download instructions. February 2014

SAP First Guidance - SAP Netweaver BW 7.40 SP5 on HANA OpenODSView

In SAP BW 7.4 SP5 on HANA the new metadata object Open ODS View is introduced, which provides the data warehouse modeler with a flexible, easy to use tool to integrate external data in the EDW Core Data Warehouse. February 2014

Big Data:2.5 PB in #BWonHANA - Dashboard Demo

Read Thomas Zureks latest blog containing the FKOM Demo "Big Data:2.5 PB in #BWonHANA - Dashboard Demo" and significant links. January 2014

BW is there to Stay! - Listen to Dr. Vishal Sikka, Member of the SAP Executive Board!

In this interview from SAP Teched in Bangalore, he is talking about SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA. Watch this video from SAPTechEd India showfloor. January 2014

(Click to start video)

Three Things to Know when Migrating SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA

To ensure a smooth migration of the existing NetWeaver BW system from release 7.0 (including SEM, BPC and IP) and onwards the following three must be considered. Read more...November 2013

Announcing SAP BW on HANA Trial Offer -- Dan Kearnan (Senior Director, SAP HANA Marketing) and Vijay Vijayasankar talk about the importance of a new trial offering.

How to Create Dynamic Analytic Privileges in SAP HANA Based Upon Analysis Authorizations in SAP Netweaver BW

This paper intends to describe a holistic solution for creating dynamic analytic privileges in HANA with filters based upon lookup procedures referring to a simple Authorization Model that exists and is maintained within BW. November 2013

Overview SAP BW 7.4 SP5 on SAP HANA and Further Roadmap

SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA continues to be the cornerstone of SAP’s strategic vision for enterprise data warehousing providing organizations a solid data foundation to capture, store, transform and manage data in a scalable, enterprise-ready data warehouse. And as new challenges arise in the market (exploding data volumes, new data sources, the need for real-time information access, etc), SAP BW on HANA continues to evolve in order to meet the growing challenges imposed on IT by these ever changing market forces. The release of SAP BW running on SAP HANA is a great example of how SAP BW has evolved to ensure organizations continue to leverage their investment in SAP BW to meet these new challenge.

See this presentation to learn what SAP is doing next to evolve SAP BW on SAP HANA with SAP BW 7.4., SP 5 on SAP HANA. Update January 2014

New Business Content Optimized for BW on HANA

This presentation shows the details of the new Business Content optimized for BW on HANA: The main design considerations and the patterns for mixed Scenario BW and HANA. It desribes also the delivered Business Content and shows an example for sales & distribution and the futher road map. September 2013

The Support Package Stack 10 for SAP NetWeaver 7.3 is released!

See BW specific information on the page SAP NetWeaver 7.3 BW ABAP Support Packages - News. September 2013

How NOT to size a SAP NetWeaver BW system for SAP HANA

Marc F. Bernard, Chief CSA Architect at SAP Labs Canada has been involved in many sizing activities for SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA. Read the collection of some valuable lessons learned to understand better what common mistakes to avoid and how the sizing works in more detail. September 2013

What Makes SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA So Unique!

A number of years after SAP’s innovative introduction of columnar, in-memory engines, most major database vendors are now following suit. While this clearly shows that SAP took the right decision (early on) the question is how these offerings differ from HANA and what the right choice is for a customer. This blog from Klaus Nagel emphasizes and summarizes what makes BW-on-HANA so unique and invites you to simply compare the different solutions for yourself. August 2013

IBM and HP BW-EML Benchmark Result Analysis

In this blog Boris Gelman is comparing the results in the SAP NetWeaver BW Enhanced Mixed Load benchmark from IBM and HP.

CSA Know-How Network Webinar on September 4, 2013:
SAP NetWeaver BW / SAP HANA Mixed Scenarios
Attend the next Webinar to get a general understanding of the key elements around the mixed scenarios feature for SAP NetWeaver BW and SAP HANA

How to Consume SAP HANA Models in SAP NetWeaver BW from Remote HANA Instances

This paper's focus is the use case when BW consumes the data or information models of a remote SAP HANA system (e.g. standalone/native SAP HANA, Accelerator). Read about loading the data from HANA into BW via ODP (Operational Data Provisioning) and a direct access solution leveraging the BW VirtualProvider (modeling options for direct access). The BW system could be running on any database.

SAP EDW Positioning

Check out this presentation that is positioning EDW based on the SAP Real-Time data platform.

Analytics Powered by SAP HANA and SAP NetWeaver BW

SAP NetWeaver BW powered by HANA and data analysis in operational systems using SAP HANA as the database are two approaches that nicely complement each other.  After a summary of typical characteristics of traditional business intelligence systems, the basic architecture of an in-memory based analytic platform built on SAP HANA and SAP NetWeaver BW is introduced and discussed.

BW on HANA and Very Large Tables

This blog from Klaus Nagel provides a short overview of the requirements and best practices regarding table sizes and partitioning of tables in the SAP HANA database and SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA.

The HANA EDW

Read the new blog from Thomas Zurek about the HANA EDW.

New How To Guide available: How To...Realize Easy In-Cell Calculations in SAP BusinessObjects Analysis for Office

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis for Office can be used as an Excel planning front end (in conjunction with BW-IP or PAK). When planners change their plan data they do not only want to enter the absolute number in the systems. Sometimes they want to raise the value in a certain cell by say 10% or want to raise the existing value by a certain increment. As PAK and BW-IP expect absolute numbers the user has to calculate the number in a little side calculation. In this paper we show how a simple solution can be realized where the planner can enter a simply formula and apply this to one or several cells in the worksheet. This functionality is often referred to as 'pocket calculation'.

Real-time Data Warehousing with SAP LT Replication Server (SLT) for SAP NetWeaver BW

Learn more about the present possibilities to achieve real-time replication into SAP NetWeaver BW 7.30 powered by SAP HANA.

The HANA EDW

Read the new blog from Thomas Zurek about the HANA EDW.

Scale Out - Best Practices

Check out this latest comprehensive overview on the delta information for scale out implementations by Marc Hartz.

How to... Log Changes in Plan Data when using the SAP NetWeaver BW Planning Applications Kit

In the How to Paper - Log Changes in Plan Data Using DataStore Objects (see http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-16124) we have given an example how to use the Logging BAdI in SAP NetWeaver BW-IP. This paper is building on this How to Paper and describes how the logging functionality can now also be used in conjunction with HANA and the Planning Applications Kit (in memory planning on SAP NetWeaver BW).

SAP HANA-Native Reporting on BW Data in SAP NetWeaver BW powered by SAP HANA  – Positioning

An important part of the whole SAP NetWeaver BW powered by SAP HANA story is the option to create scenarios with interaction between data owned and modeled in SAP NetWeaver BW and data owned and modeled in native SAP HANA tools. These are what we call mixed scenarios. The interaction can take place in both directions, from SAP HANA to SAP NetWeaver BW and vice-versa, and there are options to physically move the data or to virtually expose it. Read more in this position by Klaus Nagel and Thomas Zurek

Automatic Test of Queries with RS Trace Tool

Queries that run quickly and produce the right results are crucial for customers. With the trace tool environment, it is now possible to set up test scenarios for the key queries of your BW solution and to re-execute and evaluate them whenever required. Read aboutpossible use cases presented by Lars Breddemann and check out Tobias Kaufmann’s detailed description of how this tool can help to prepare your upgrade to SAP NetWeaver BW 7.30 on SAP HANA and ensure proper quality of your queries before and after applying SAP Notes and support packages.

Check your SAP NetWeaver BW system for SAP HANA Readiness – free Checklist tool!

Use the Checklist Tool developed by SAP Customer Solution Adoption (CSA) and SAP Development to automate the check of best practice guidelines for operations and prerequisites for migration of an existing SAP NetWeaver BW deployment to the SAP HANA platform. Please see SAP Note 1729988 to get detailed how-to documentation and the corresponding ABAP code to run the check on your own system.

The OLAP Compiler in SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA

Read in this blog from Thomas Zurek about the limitations of SQL and BW's OLAP as sophisticated compiler for HANA's calculation engine.

How to.. Consume HANA Models with Input Parameters in BW Virtual Providers

Input Parameters in SAP HANA Models enable user-specific parameterization of the model execution. This paper describes how such models can be consumed in SAP BW (using the VirtualProvider interface) thereby allowing BW Users to provide inputs to the models at runtime.

SAP TechEd 2012 Sessions for SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA

Find for your convinience the summary of SAP NetWeaver BW sessions from the SAP TechEd 2012 conferences on this page

The OLAP Compiler in SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA

Read in this blog from Thomas Zurek about the limitations of SQL and  BW's OLAP as sophisticated compiler for HANA's calculation engine.

How to.. Consume HANA Models with Input Parameters in BW Virtual Providers

Input Parameters in SAP HANA Models enable user-specific parameterization of the model execution. This paper describes how such models can be consumed in SAP BW (using the VirtualProvider interface) thereby allowing BW Users to provide inputs to the models at runtime.

SAP TechEd 2012 Sessions for SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA

Find for your convinience the summary of SAP NetWeaver BW sessions from the SAP TechEd 2012 conferences on this page

Join our CSA Know-How Network Webinar: Migrating to SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA on December 12, 2012!

With post copy automation functionality supported by SAP NetWeaver Landscape Virtualization Management software, you can quickly and easily migrate to SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse (SAP NetWeaver BW) on SAP HANA. During the next Customer Solution Adoption (CSA) Know-How Network Webinar "New Tools to Ease Migration to SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA", we’ll take an in-depth look at using post copy automation to migrate your existing BW system, while enabling parallel delta loading from your ERP system.

Join Sara Hollister from the CSA team  to learn about: Migration paths to SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA, improved migration with automated task lists and dual delta queue creation for side-by-side BW loading

SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA: Introduction & Experiences

Get introduced into SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA and learn the advantages and concepts which are behind this solution. Furthermore you can get experiences from several SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA  projects in different areas like data staging, reporting and modeling.

SAP Strengthens In-Memory Computing Leadership

Read about  how SAP Strengthens In-Memory Computing Leadership in the Events Newsroom on SAP.com  (November 09, 2011)

The better Choice - SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA

Want to know why you should choose SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA? Watch this video!

New FAQ Area for SAP NetWeaver BW Powered by SAP HANA on Experience SAP HANA

The purpose of this knowledge repository (FAQ) is to provide a central place for SAP NetWeaver BW on HANA links, providing detailed information and the possibility to directly engage with the subject matter experts in their individual linked-in blogs. It should also serve as a platform for the SAP NetWeaver BW on HANA community, where all customers, prospect and partners can actively engage, ask questions, answer questions and provide feedback and comments.

For introduction read the blog from Scott Shepard.

Easier Migration to SAP NetWeaver BW powered by SAP HANA with ABAP Post-Copy Automation for SAP NetWeaver BW

To reduce downtime in your production landscape, one of the recommended migration paths from SAP NetWeaver BW to SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA comprises a system copy of your SAP NetWeaver BW system. Using the post-copy automation for SAP NetWeaver BW (BW PCA), this process can be shortened by weeks and becomes easier, faster and more reliable.

Support Package 8 for SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA-Overview

SAP NetWeaver BW Support Package 8 mainly serves the aspect to include enhancements based on customer feedback during RU BW 7.3 on HANA. In this context additional integration scenarios between BW on HANA and HANA Data Mart scenarios for further flexibility will be provided as well as the “Not-active” data concept for optimized RAM sizing and lower TCO.

Content archived.