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Partitioning in BW

Partitioning in SAP BW 7.3

BW, by its virtue has to handle a huge amount of data. Over a period, the data is bound to increase and in most of the case, this data can’t be deleted, because, they play a very important role in the decision making of a company.

From the perspective of a BW consultant/developer, it is important that the data is kept organized and made available for reporting without much delay. The role of the data partitioning comes to fore here.Partitioning is an activity that happens at the database level (logical partitioning is not discussed here) and with 7.3; this comes with a gamut of features on the BW side. Here, we’ll look at the partitioning of various BW objects such as DSO, Infocube and Semantically partitioned objects (SPO).

Features of Partitioning:

  1. 1.       This feature is dependent on the database and is not supported by all the databases available in the market. ORACLE, Informix, IBM DB2/390 (this has range partitioning) and IBM DB2 (LUW) (Hash partitioning) support partitioning as of now.
  2. 2.       The database table is actually divided into smaller parts when the partitioning is carried out.
  3. 3.       The partitions on the database actually remain transparent to the user.
  4. 4.       Partitions enable the parallel processing of the queries. The partitions are accessed simultaneously during the query processing and then the result is consolidated to provide the final output.

In SAP BW, automatic partition of the F-table of the infocube, PSA table and change log table of the DSO takes place based on the request.This has also been taken up towards the end of the document.

   

DSO Partitioning:

With 7.3, the DSO can also be partitioned. However, following points should be noted:

  1. 1.       DSO with data cannot be partitioned.
  2. 2.       The partition can be created only if a time characteristic is present as the key of the DSO.

The DB partitioning option can be accessed from the EXTRAS->DB Performance->DB Partitioning as shown below:

                   

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Once you select this option, you’ll get the following window showing the time characteristics.

/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/scn_333801.png

After selecting the required time characteristic and clicking ok, you get the following screen asking to enter the time interval.

/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/scn_333801.png

Creation of Partitions:

Let us suppose that the time characteristic used is 0Calmonth and the range of month given is 01.2013 to 12.2013.

Total number of months = 12.

Therefore, number of partitions = 12+2 = 14.

Two extra partitions are created to accommodate the data which is less than the time selection given and the data which lies beyond the given time selection.

/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/scn_333801.png

INFOCUBE Partitioning:

The partitioning in the infocube also is done exactly in the same way as the DSO.

Semantically partitioned objects:

With the Launch of the BW 7.3, the new concept of SPO has been launched and this has added a host of features taking the partitioning capability of BW to another level. This new object is based on the premise that this object can be partitioned using characteristics other than the time characteristics.

/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/scn_333801.png

1. SPO based on DSO:

    A. the following is the maintenance screen for the Semantically partitioned DSO:

    /wp-content/uploads/2013/11/scn_333801.png

/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/scn_333801.png

B.   Clicking on “ MAINTAIN PARTITIONS” opens up the following window:


/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/scn_333801.png

Kindly note that only the key fields of the DSO are available for partitioning.


C. We select the billing document number as the portioning criteria:

/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/scn_333801.png     

D. Clicking on OK leads to the following screen:

/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/scn_333801.png

Here the various parameters can be edited.

E. Once a partition has been created and the object activated, this is reflected under the “components” tab to show the data flow:

/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/scn_333801.png

F.  The next step is to create transformation, clicking on the create transformation button, throws the following screen:


/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/scn_333801.png

G.    Click on OK to further come to this screen and continue creating transformation:

/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/scn_333801.png


H.  When you click on the create DTP, you get the following screen, this can be used to create a new template for the DTP or use and existing one.

/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/scn_333801.png

I. This screen shows the complete data flow of the SPO:

/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/scn_333801.png

J. Data flow after creating two partitions in the SPO:

/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/scn_333801.png

2.       SPO based on cube:

A.       The following is the first screen that you get when you create SPO based on a cube:

/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/scn_333801.png

B. All the characteristics of the cube are available for the partitioning:

/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/scn_333801.png

C. The following screen shows two partitions created based on the company code and the 0calmonth.

/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/scn_333801.png

D. Transformation created for this SPO:

/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/scn_333801.png


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      19 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Good and detailed presentation

      regards

      Raj

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Thnx a lot Parimi.

      Regards,

      Saurabh

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Very informative and consolidated article. Thanks for sharing.

      Author's profile photo Manna Das
      Manna Das

      informative doc.

      KR,

      Manna Das

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Thanx a lot.

      Author's profile photo GANAPATHI .
      GANAPATHI .

      Thanks for sharing info in a concised form

      '

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      thanx a lot Ganapathi

      Author's profile photo Raman Korrapati
      Raman Korrapati

      Thanks for your efforts. But always check on google before making doc. if you post the doc which was not available then it would be more useful.

      See here which we have same cocnepts.

      http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/50e09876-d902-2f10-1db6-ce161ab7fbf2?overridelayout=true

      http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/70c8f741-c9f0-2d10-ac90-c8d9f2075e8b?overridelayout=true

      http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-34893

      Thanks

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Point noted raman 🙂

      Regards,

      Saurabh Ojha

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Very good article Saurabh.

      I really appreciate.

      Regards

      Bhushan

      Author's profile photo ramesh vankudoth
      ramesh vankudoth

      Very informative 🙂

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member
      Blog Post Author

      Thnx a lot.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      good explanation

      Author's profile photo Satendra Mishra
      Satendra Mishra

      Nice information...... 🙂

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thanks Saurabh for sharing this..

      I was not aware of this semantically partitioned concept.

      Regads,

      Priyanka

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Very good document on semantic partitioning 🙂 .

      Author's profile photo Tejal Govila
      Tejal Govila

      Very informative document.. But I have one quetion:
      Can you advice me if we have any table which maintains SPO name and it's corresponding partitioned criterias?

      Author's profile photo David, Choong Poey Yee
      David, Choong Poey Yee

      This is indeed helpful for BW Developer to start thinking about partitioning that helps improve report performance. Kudos!!!

      Author's profile photo Kamal Nath
      Kamal Nath

      I have partitioned my cube with 0Calmonth and I wanted to UNDO or Deactivate it ....

      Is this Possible ???