In This video blog we look at five steps that helps you automate many of the tasks of moving SAP BW to HANA, including sizing, pre-checks, cleanup, ETL automated checks and HANA migration options. By Dr. Berg
INTRODUCTION
Many organizations that are currently using SAP BW and BI on relational databases are struggeling with the first steps in planning and executing their BW to HANA migration efforts.
In this video blog we look at what is new in the 2nd edition of the SAP HANA book from SAP Press, and also dives into the new automated programs that can assist you in your migration project with practical advice and examples.
5 key steps on How to Execute your BW to SAP HANA Move
(select high resolution if you are using a big-screen and turn on sound).
Meanwhile, I am preparing a demo with 420+ million rows with 3 dashboards, WebI, Analysis, Crystal Report and more that I will be sharing on this blog later this week after Sapphire.. Stay tuned :-)
Many experienced developers are not aware that moving BW to HANA can in some cases result in slower transformations during data loads. Thankfully, SAP is providing a tool to identify areas in your ABAP code that may benefit from an optimization. In this blog we take a quick look at this valuable tool.
By Dr. Berg
Background
During development of SAP BW Extract Transforms and data Load (ETL) there are many options to create transformations in DTPs in BW 7.x and in older Update and Transfer rules in BW 3.x. Unfortunately, depending on your developers, some of the custom transforms may have sub-optimal ABAP coding can have impacts on how SAP BW ETL performs after the migration to HANA.
Thankfully, SAP’s talented developer Marc Bernard provides an automated tool to help you identify potential coding issues. This program is called the “SAP NetWeaver BW ABAP Routine Analyzer”, or technically ZBW_ABAP_ANALYZER.
Figure 1: Input Screen for SAP NetWeaver BW ABAP Routine Analyzer
Overall, the tool looks for and suggests the following fixes:
a. Select for all entries (SFAE) statements without HANA DB hints --> add hints
b. Select * --> specify fields to select
c. Database access in the field routines --> move to start routine
d. Loops which do not assign field symbols --> use field symbols
e. Selects from master data tables --> Use the read master data rule
f. Selects from DSOs --> Use the read DSO rule
g. Direct updates to BW object tables --> Do not update tables directly
h. and many more areas...
You can run this program either as on-line, or as a background job. If you run the program on-line (only recommended for a small selection), you can click a link in the output to edit the transformation, transfer rule or update rule.
Figure 2: On-Line Output for SAP NetWeaver BW ABAP Routine Analyzer
If you run in the background, you can save a log to SLG1 and also create a spool list for further analysis.
Figure 3: SAP NetWeaver BW ABAP Routine Analyzer - On-Line Spool list
For organizations that have slow data loads where most of the time is used on transforms and loads, this is a key program that should be run as part of the BW HANA migration planning. The tool should be available for general access in April this year.
Some Observations
The last six weeks in this HANA blog series we have looked at many of the HANA migration tools that Marc and SAP has provided, and I continue to be amazed at both the quality and the speed at which SAP is rolling out tools to make any HANA migration as easy as possible.
In the next blog we will look an in-depth look at some of the ways you can balance the load on the nodes in a HANA system when working with a scale out environment.
SAP has released an ABAP based tool that generates a report significantly better for sizing than using just the SAP QuickSizer. This program takes into consideration existing database compression, different table types, and also includes the effects of non-active data in the SAP HANA system. In this blog we take a quick look at this valuable tool.
- By Dr. Berg
Sizing Tool Background and Settings
This program is attached to SAP Note 1736976 and can be downloaded from SAP Marketplace and run on a production system to get very accurate sizing information.
This includes sizing for RAM and dynamic runtime memory, log space and disk space. It even provides details on items such as data sizes with corresponding dynamic runtime memory for row store and column stores, as well as the calculated size and the estimated size in HANA memory for each table in your BW system. Technically, the program uses sampling of the database for sizing, so you should refresh the database statistics before running the program.
Figure 1: HANA Sizing Program for SAP NetWeaver BW
The higher precision you run the estimate at (selected by radio buttons in Figure 1), the longer the program is going to run. With 14 parallel processors and 8Tb data warehouse, it is not unusual to see 45-75 minutes run time. To increase speed, you can also suppress analysis tables with less than 1 MB size.
In addition, since timeouts are common when running this sizing program, you should temporarily change the parameter in rdisp/max_wprun_time to 0. You can do this in BW Transaction RZ11. Finally, you estimate the growth for the system over a time period. This can be done as a percentage, or as absolute growth in GB.
After all this is done, you have downloaded and installed the program, and selected the parameters above, you can go to Transaction SE38 and run SDF/HANA_BW_SIZING as a background job.
Figure 2: SAP HANA Sizing Results
The output is stored in the file you specified and the file can now be emailed to to hardware vendors for sizing input and hardware selection.
Need more Information?
If you have any questions, just stop by my sessions at SAP BI 2013 Conference in Las Vaegs next week (March 19-22); Amsterdam (June 11-13) or inSingapore in September where I will cover more on these timely topics and also do a HANA book signining event with SAP Press...
There are many tasks and technical requirements to migrate a BW system to HANA. This includes BW technical settings and software levels required to start the process. Thankfully, SAP has provided a checklist tool for SAP NetWeaver BW powered by HANA. In this Blog we take a quick look at the key features. By Dr. Berg
Automated HANA Readiness Tool
In version 2.x of this tool available since December 2012, hundreds of checks are done automatically in the BW system. This includes platform checks on database and application and system information.
There are even basis checks for support packs, ABAP/JAVA stacks, Unicode, BW releases, and add-ons to your system. The program is found in SAP Note 1729988, and the tool provided automatic check programs for both the 3.5 version and the 7.x version of BW
FIGURE 1: INPUT FOR SELECTING READINESS CHECKS FOR BW TO HANA MIGRATION
First you enter the checks you want to perform to see if your system is ready for a HANA Migration. This should include most of the options seen in the figure above, such as basis and database, but you also can choose to ignore customer objects or checks you are planning to run at a later time.
The idea of the checklist tool from SAP is that you run it several times throughout the project. Once before you start, then periodically as you resolve issues and upgrade requirements, and then finally when the system has been migrated to HANA. This last step is important, since the checklist tool also has specific checks for the HANA system that can help you identify any issues before turning over the system to end users. If the tool shows a ‘red’ flag, you should resolve this before starting your HANA migration, or if a new red flag shows up, fix it before completing the migration.
FIGURE 2: BW READNIESS RESULTS FOR HANA MIGRATION
The output results in a list of actions that should be undertaken before the migration starts. In our example, we can see that for our system database patch 110 should be applied as part of our preparation steps.
Getting Started
If you want to try this program in your system, simply install the latest version from SAP Marketplace in note 1729988 and then execute the program using ZBW_HANA_CHECKLIST for those on a BW 7.x system, or ZBW_HANA_CHECKLIST_3X for those on older BW 3.x systems. The tool even allows you to download any recommended SAP notes to fix issues found in the check through the automated transaction call of SNOTE. This program should be executed by anyone who is in the planning stages of a BW to HANA migration.
More Information at SAP BI 2013 in Las Vegas
Next month at BI 2013 in Las Vegas, I will be showing more tools and give a detailed presentation on how to create “Strategies for budgeting, planning, and sizing your SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA project”. The session will be at the MGM on Tuesday, March 19, from 12:00 to 1:15 pm.
During the conference I will also be signing copies of the SAP HANA Book I wrote for SAP press with Penny Silvia and you can stop by to see me at the ‘meet-the-expert’ session and get your HANA questions answered…
In this blog we look at the details of the new iPad and HTML-5 support in SAP Dashboards in service pack-5. We look at limitations, our experiences in ComeritLabs and what is planned for SP06, SDK and BI 4.1.
By Dr. Berg
SP-5 for iPad Mobility in Dashboards
As you may know SAP's dashbaord tool has received some updates in ServicePack-5 that was released a few weeks ago. Most importantly was the support for mobile dashboard elements for deployment using HTML-5 on non-flash compatible devices such as Apple's iPad.
There are currently a limited number of mobile dashboard elements supported, but they are the most commonly utilized elements. This means that many of your current dashboards can be converted to mobile with minimal effort. SP-5 also use a new mobile only preview mode. This shows dashboards as they will appear on the iPad before your deploy them. We found very helpful during our devlopment and design efforts. In addition to these items, all standard data connections work on mobile dashboards including BEx and Universe connections.
Figure 1: Supported Objects in SP-5 for Mobile
This week we took a client's flash based dashboard and re-hosted it using the new mobile solution in less than 8 hours, so it can be done fast...
So What is Missing Today?
Some important things to note about the current SP05 are the exclusion of some key elements such as the lack of a prompt selector. There are also no calendar controls and HTML text for labels isn’t supported. Connections in the Data manager are only currently available in the pre-query panel and only the “Nova” theme is supported on mobile devices. We also have no support for the prompt selector for hierarchies in SP05, nor is the 'reset' and the 'save senario' available.
Another major component that is not currently available in SP05 are spreadsheets tables, making tables harder to make. However, SAP supports the use of the URL button in mobile dashboards, so we are making progress. The trick is to use the features supported today and find workaround of those missing as of now.
When converting we found that the new “Mobile Compatibility” tab displays suggestions and warning for optimizing dashboard components for mobile deployment.
Figure 2: Warning messages when converting dashboards to Mobile
Warnings as in this picture, simply means that there are better ways of doing this. The dashboard still works. Error messages means that it will not work. We found this featrue to be very valuable.
We also liked the fact that mobile specific text fonts are marked with “iOS 5+” to show which fonts will work best on our dashboard.
Figure 3: Supported Fonts are Identified easily:
Our Mobile Dashboard and iPad Experience
We at ComeritLabs utilized these new mobile objects this week to create a set of mobile dashboards. We found that it is possible to convert existing dashboards relatively easily to the mobile platform. However, mobile deployment is not yet supported until SAP’s BI Mobile app is version 4.4 is released this month (4.3.11 is the current release).
While we found that our iPad dashboard's to execute fine, we noted that Internet Explorer have a few limitations due to the current HTML-5 support. This is important since future dashboards may be deployed simultaneously to both mobile and BI 4.x Launchpad environments. However, we expect all major browsers will have 100% support for all HTML-5 items in a very short time, and as of now that has not been any show-stopper for any dashbaords in our test. They simply works great on an iPad.
The Future in SP-6, DSK and BI 4.1
While there is no new mobile features planned for dashboards in SP-6, there is a lot of activity with incorporating an SDK in the mobile solution for dashboards.
Currently, SAP is working with Antivia, APOS, Centigon Solutions, and Graphomate in Germany on POCs for mobile enhancements using a SDK that may be incuded in the BusinessObjects 4.1 release (scheduled for the second quarter 2013). If this gets included, there will be significant step to sharing objects and it will open up a whole new set of mobile capabilities that can be added in a short timeframe.
I will keep updating this blog with more demos and screenshots as soon as I obtain a client's permission and SAP's new BI Mobile app is version 4.4 in a few days.
But the short story is that SAP is making mobile headways in a very short timeframe.
