SAP BW Transport

SAP BW Transport Best Practices

 In this entry I will be discussing how to properly migrate your SAP BW objects from one environment to another.  Migration errors are extremely frustrating to both the developer and the basis team who is moving the transports.  It requires a good amount of rework and explanation as to why your objects went in with errors to another environment.  In this article we will go into detail as to how transports can effectively be migrated without issues from a lower environment to a test or production environment.

Tip #1 – Transports in the BW environment can only contain like objects. 

Transport #DKR0001 contains two InfoObjects and no other object types that could potentially cause an error.

Transport #DKR0002 contains two InfoObjects AND a transformation object.

The second transport #DKR0002 will fail during migration due to mixed object types contained in the same transport.  Because this migration failure occurred, we will need to create an additional transport request and place the transformation in there by itself.  Don’t forget to keep all like objects together!
Don’t upset the basis team.  You will always want them on your good graces to help you out in a pinch!

Tip #2 – SAP BW Object Migration Order

Ask yourself, “Does this object rely on another object in order to function?” You can’t have an active DSO without InfoObjects assigned, so why would you ever migrate a DSO before the InfoObjects have been migrated? When migrating objects out of the development environment to a test environment, objects must enter the upper environment in the descending sequence indicated below.

• InfoArea
• InfoObject
• InfoProvider
• InfoSet
• Roles
• DataSource
• OpenHub
• InfoSpoke
• Transformation
• DTP [DO NOT MIGRATE] – Manually create in target environment
• InfoSource
• Transfer & Update Rules
• InfoPackage [DO NOT MIGRATE] – Manually create in target environment
• Process Chain [Can be migrated, however, we recommened to manually create in target environment]
• Queries & Query Variables

Tip #3 – Don’t Release That Transport…Until You Double Check Everything!

• Make sure that additional objects were not added accidentally (business content, other user error, etc.)
• If the object already exists in the Target environment, ensure that communications have gone out to discuss the impact of the modified object.

If the object is brand new:

• Review the data model
• Look over performance testing documentation
• Review load testing
• Regression testing complete?
• Is there a MultiProvider?
• Are there any indexes built?

If you follow these helpful tips we discussed today, you will save yourself countless hours of rework and headaches.  Remeber to use correct naming conventions and always double check your transports.  It helps to have a detailed migration plan containing all objects, transport numbers, migration order, and migration instructions so the Basis team can easily migrate your objects from one environment to another without issue.

 

Layers of SAP NetWeaver BW

The SAP Business Warehouse has different layers that are responsible for reliable data acquisition and information processing along with robust analytical capabilities.  Based on the functions and applications in the solution, the different layers in SAP BW are:

A) Extraction layer
B) Staging layer
C) Transformation layer
D) Loading layer
E) Reporting and analysis layer

The extraction layer is the collection of data from source systems.  It aims to guarantee the integrity of data while eliminating reporting burdens on the source systems.  Data can be extracted from an array of different sources.

A) Extraction layer:

SAP NetWeaver BW offers predefined, customizable extractors for application data from the entire SAP Suite.  You can also design extractors for customized SAP applications.  Most extractors for SAP application transaction data are delta-enabled, which means that transactions can be written to a delta queue at the time of posting. They are then extracted from this delta queue into SAP BW.
Direct extraction from databases based on table or view definitions using DB Connect and UD Connect extraction interfaces. DB Connect (Database Connection) permits the extraction from and direct access to data lying in tables or views of database management systems. This feature is available only for some specific databases. UD Connect (Universal Data Connect) permits the extraction
from and direct access to both relational and multidimensional data.
Web services allow you to push data to the SAP  BW system with external control.
Flat file interface enables extraction from flat files in ASCII and CSV format.
Staging BAPIs (Staging Business Application Programming Interfaces) are open interfaces from which third-party tools can extract data from older systems.  The data transfer can be triggered by a request from the SAP BW system or by a third-party tool.
Data is acquired from SAP BW using a pull mode, through objects called InfoPackages.  Parameters for the data acquisition can be set in the InfoPackage.

B) Staging layer:

Extracted data is received and temporarily stored in the staging layer of SAP NetWeaver BW.  The data staging layer stores source data from different operational sources.  When data is inside of the staging layer all needed transformations can then occur without interfering with the operations in the source systems.  Data is also preprocessed for cleansing before calculation and/or aggregation based on business requirements.  This layer is mostly represented by the persistent staging area (PSA), where data is stored in SAP BW after it’s extracted.  The technical structure of a PSA depends on the structure of the DataSource.

C) Transformation layer:

The transformation layer of SAP BW facilitates the consolidation, cleaning, and integration of data into the warehouse.  Data gets converted from the source format into the desired destination data format.  Data transformation can involve data mapping and formulas.

D) Loading layer:

The actual process of pushing data through the transformation layer into the data targets.  A data transformation process (DTP) transforms the data based on the parameters defined between the DataSource and the data target.

E) Reporting and Analysis layer:

Within the reporting and analysis layer, reports and dashboards are created to display data in a format where analysis can be done.  The components that represent the reporting and analysis layer are grouped together in the SAP business explorer (BEx) toolset and more recently the Business Objects toolset.

SAP BI Info Object