SAP HANA Overview

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SAP HANA OVERVIEW

INTRODUCTION

The Term HANA stands for High Performance Analytic Appliance.

SAP HANA is a flexible, data-source-agnostic appliance that allows customers to analyze large volumes of SAP ERP data in real-time, avoiding the need to materialize transformations.

SAP HANA is a hardware and software combination that integrates a number of SAP components including the SAP In-memory database, Sybase  Replication technology and SAP® LT (Landscape Transformation) Replicator.

SAP HANA is delivered as an optimized appliance in conjunction with leading SAP hardware partner

The business in general are evaluating different technological options to analyze large volumes of data ( gega and tetra bytes) in real time. HANA is a hardware and software combination which is able to to rapidly create  extremely flexible analytical reports, based on real-time data originating from your current information fortress, without impacting your production environment. While the focus for SAP HANA is within the SAP ecosystem, its openness also enable other usage scenarios. Data replication from third-party applications for BI purposes, or even

the use of SAP HANA as a database for analytical applications completely unrelated to SAP is possible.

Benefits of implementing SAP HANA with SAP ERP

1 Performance optimization for operational recording

2 Processing of large volumes of data

3 Provision of real-time analytics

4 All the Calculations are done in data base and only results are     transferred which make it faster.

5  Usage of Column Store . . If you to want to fill the table with huge  amounts of data, that should be aggregated and analyzed then a column store is more suitable

6 Compression of Data

7 Portioning

8 The SAP HANA Information Composer is a new web-based environment that allows business users to upload data to the SAP HANA database and to manipulate data by creating Information views.

9 Rapid Deployment System ( Start Deploy and Run)

10 HANA as a accelerator. Example, CO-PA Accelerator, Cash

11 Forecast Accelerator

12 HANA STUDIO

Different Views which can be maintained in HANA Studio

1. 1  Attribute Views, for eg master data
2. 2  Analytic Views, has one fact table and multiple Dimension or Attribute view
3. 3 Calculation Views, for calculations and uses a SQL Script
4. Analytic Privileges for Security

Load data into SAP HANA (different data provisioning scenarios)

The four methods are:

• SAP Landscape Transformation
• SAP Data Services
• Sybase Replication Server
• Flat file upload

Direct Extractor Connection (DXC)

General Overview

The physical tables are the only storage area for data within SAP HANA. Allthe information models that will be created in the modeler result in database

• views.

Therefore SAP HANA does not persist redundant data for each model and doesnot create materialized aggregates.

SAP HANA Scenarios

Agile Data Marts: Agile data marts generally don’t have time critical data

Operational  : Data Marts Real time replication of time critical data. Real time Reporting on Operational Data

SAP In-Memory Database

 The SAP in-memory database is a hybrid in-memory database that combines row-based, column-based, and object-based database technology. It is optimized to exploit parallel processing capabilities of modern multi core/CPU architectures. With this architecture, SAP applications can benefit from current hardware technologies.

 The SAP in-memory database is at the heart of SAP offerings like SAP HANA that help customers to improve their operational efficiency, agility, and flexibility.

SAP® In-Memory Computing Engine (IMCE)

The IMCE is the in-memory, column-oriented database technology and powerful calculation engine at the heart of SAP HANA. In-memory processing pushes data into RAM, providing highly accelerated performance compared to systems reading data off of disks. The IMCE administration tools are provided by the SAP in-memory computing studio.

SAP® In-Memory Computing Studio

This is an Eclipse-based interface that provides SAP in-memory computing engine administrators with easy-to-use, data management tools (Administration Console) and business-centric data modeling tools (Information Modeler).

Administration Console

The SAP in-memory computing studio administrator console allows technical users to manage the SAP in-memory computing engine (and the devices) as well as create and manage user authorizations.

Information Modeler

The SAP in-memory computing

SAP HANA database

The heart of the SAP HANA database is the relational database engines. There are two engines within the SAP HANA database:

The column-based store, storing relational data in columns, optimized holding tables with

huge amounts of data, which are aggregated and used in analytical operations.

The row-based store, storing relational data in rows, as traditional database systems do.

This row store is more optimized for write operation and has a lower compression rate,

and query performance is much lower compared to the column-based store.

The engine used to store data can be selected on a per-table basis at the time of creation

of a table1. Tables in the row-store are loaded at start up time, whereas tables in the

column-store can be either loaded at start up or on demand, during normal operation of the SAP HANA database.

Both engines share a common persistence layer, which provides data persist ency consistent

across both engines. There is page management and logging, much like in traditional databases. Changes to in-memory database pages are persisted through save points written to the data volumes on persistent storage, which is usually hard drives. Every transaction committed in the SAP HANA database is persisted by the logger of the persist ency layer in a log entry written to the log volumes on persistent storage. The log volumes use flash

technology storage for high I/O performance and low latency.

The relational engines can be accessed through a variety of interfaces. The SAP HANA

database supports SQL ( JDBC/ODBC), MDX (ODBO), and BICS (SQL DBC). The calculation

engine allows calculations to be performed in the database, without moving the data into the

application layer. It also includes a business functions library that can be called by

applications to do business calculations close to the data. The SAP HANA-specific SQL

Script language as an extension to SQL that can be used to push down data-intensive

application logic into the SAP HANA database.

SAP HANA appliance

The SAP HANA appliance consists of the SAP HANA database, as described above, and adds  components needed to work with, administer, and operate the database. It contains the

installation files for the SAP HANA Studio, which is an Eclipse-based administration and data-modeling tool for SAP HANA, in addition to the SAP HANA client, a set of libraries required for applications to be able to connect to the SAP HANA database. Both the SAP HANA Studio and the client libraries are usually installed on a client PC or server.

The Software Update Manager (SUM) for SAP HANA is the framework allowing the automatic

download and installation of SAP HANA updates from SAP Marketplace and other sources

using a host agent. It also allows distribution of the Studio repository to the users.

The Lifecycle Management (LM) Structure for HANA is a description of the current installation

and is, for example, used by SUM to perform automatic updates.

SAP HANA delivery model

SAP decided to deploy SAP HANA as an integrated solution combining software and hardware, frequently referred to as the SAP HANA appliance. As with BW Accelerator, SAP

partners with several hardware vendors to provide the infrastructure needed to run the SAP

The storage type can be selected during and changed after creation.

SAP In-Memory Computing on IBM eX5 Systems

HANA software. IBM was among the first hardware vendors to partner with SAP to provide an

integrated solution.

Infrastructure for SAP HANA needs to run through a certification process to ensure that certain

performance requirements are met. Only certified configurations are supported by SAP and

the respective hardware partner. These configurations have to adhere to certain requirements

and restrictions to provide a common platform across all hardware providers:

SAP HANA use cases

In a typical SAP-based application landscape today, you will find a number of SAP systems like ERP, CRM, SCM, and other, possibly non-SAP, applications various types of usage scenarios.

                                           SAP HANA QUESTIONS

1. 1. What are the benefits of implementing SAP HANA with SAP ERP?

a) Performance optimization for operational recording

b) Processing of large volumes of data

c) Reduction of Business Suite process steps.

d) Provision of BI content.

e) Provision of real-time analytics

1. 2. What are the reasons for building a calculation view with SQL script rather than the graphical interface?

a) To reuse standard SQL functions not provided within the modeler

b) To create custom reusable calculation functions

c) To query existing attribute and analytic views.

d) To perform projections on tables.

e) To perform joins between column and row store tables.

1. 3. Which tool can you use to preview calculation view data?

a) SQL Preview.

b) Export Model.

c) Data Editor.

d) Data Preview

e) SQL Editor

1. 4. You have created a balances report with data from SAP HANA and want to check that the values on the report are correct.

With which of the following would you compare the balances on the report?

a) With the balances stored in the SAP BusinessObjects universe.

b) With the calculated measures stored in SAP HANA.

c) With the aggregate values stored in SAP HANA

d) With the sums of the individual values stored in SAP HANA or in the source system.

1. 5. Which technology supports true real-time replication of SAP ERP Pool and Cluster tables in an SAP HANA database?

Please choose one(1) correct answer.

a) Sybase Replication Server

b) SAP Landscape Transformation (SLT or LT)

c) SAP BusinessObjects Data Services

d) SAP BusinessObjects Information Steward

1. 6. Which of the following settings are mandatory for configuring the import server in the SAP HANA studio? Please choose the correct answer.

a) Repository name

Logon credentials.

b) Type of objects

SAP HANA target object.

c) Server address

Repository name

d) Type of objects

Source connection.

1. 7. Which component of the Execution Control module breaks the query into executable parts? Please choose the correct answer.

a) SQL script.

b) Calculation engine.

c) MDX.

d) SQL Parser

1. 8. What are the components of SAP IMCE Clients 1.0

a) IMCE ODBO 1.0

b) IMCE ODBC 1.0

c) IMCE JDBC 1.0

d) IMCE SQLDBC 1.0

e) All of the above

1. 9. SAP HANA Software is available in the following editions

a) Platform edition

b) Enterprise server edition

c) Enterprise edition

d) Enterprise extended edition

a) Options (a),(b) & (c)

b) Options (a),(c) & (d)

c) Only (b) & (d)

d) All of the above

1. 10. Semantic Layer (UNX) is available for reporting by which of the following reporting tools

a) Crystal Reports Enterprise, Dashboards & WebI

b) Explorer, Dashboards & WebI

c) BI BO Analysis v1.1

d) MS-Excel & Crystal Reports 2011

1. 11. Calculation View can contain the following:

a) Database tables

b) Attribute views

c) Analytic views

d) Calculation views

e) All the above

1. 12. Which is the default perspective of IMCE Studio?

a) Information modeler

b) Administrator console

c) Life cycle management

d) Documentation overview

1. 13. How many types of Exports/Imports can be performed from HANA studio?

a) 2 (Client & Server)

b) 1 (Content)

c) 3 (Client, Server & Content)

d) 0

1. 14. Which is the default schema for activated views?

a) _SYS_BI

b) _SYS_REPO

c) _SYS_BIC

d) _SYS_VIEWS

1. 15. List out the ETL based replication?

a) Sybase Replication

b) SBO Data Services

c) SLT Replication