This Document is to provide information on some of the new features of SAP Data Services 4.2 and 4.1 which could be useful while working on the DS.
New Features of BODS 4.1:
The major improvement of the 4.1 version is its integration with SAP and NON SAP systems.
Enhanced extraction capabilities for SAP Business Suite:
- Data streaming in ABAP data flows: This version includes a new data transfer method option RFC, which lets us stream data from the source SAP system directly to the Data Services data flow process using RFC.
- SAP table reader in regular data flows: The Data Services SAP table reader in regular data flows can now fetch data in batch from an SAP system.
This new implementation allows the reader to process large volumes of data and mitigates out-of-memory errors. Also included are an Array fetch size option, which allows the data to be sent in chunks, avoiding large caches on the source side, and an Execute in background (batch) option, which lets us run the SAP table reader in batch mode (using a background work process) for time-consuming transactions.
- Parallel reading from business content extractors: Data Services now supports multithreading for
SAP extractors for improved performance.
- New ABAP functions for improved security: This version includes several enhancements to
functions, procedures, and authorizations that provide secure integration with
SAP systems.
- SNC authentication and load-balancing support in SAP data stores: All SAP data store types now include options for authentication using Secure
Network Communications (SNC). SNC provides a more secure and efficient method for moving data from ABAP executable programs directly to the Data Services Job Server engine.
Hadoop integration: Data Services now offers connectivity to Hadoop sources including Hadoop distributed file systems (HDFS) and Hive data warehouses.
Monitor log enhancements: Time-based sampling.
SAP Solution Manager Improvements: Alerting and Heartbeat monitoring lets us use the SAP Solution Manager to check whether a component such as a Job Server or Access Server is up and running. We can also get information about real-time services for Access Servers.
Improved XML support through the XML_Map transform: This version of Data Services adds a new XML_Map transform that simplifies support for hierarchical data structures such as XML and iDocs. The new XML_Map transform provides a simplified interface for nesting and un-nesting hierarchical data and converting from one hierarchical structure to another without an intermediate flattened-data step.
Enhanced SAP HANA support:
- SAP HANA repository support
- SAP HANA performance improvements
- Bulk updates enhancement
- Support for HANA stored procedures
Data Services Workbench: The Data Services Workbench is a new application that simplifies the migration of data and schema information between different database systems.The Data Services Workbench automates this migration process. Instead of creating many dataflow manually, we now provide connection information for the source and target databases and select the tables that we want to migrate. The Workbench automatically creates Data Services jobs, workflows, and data flows and imports them into a Data Services repository. We can execute and monitor these jobs from within the Workbench. In addition, the Workbench supports more advanced options such as bulk loading and delta loading.
In this version of Data Services, the Workbench supports migration from Data Services-supported databases and SAP applications to SAP HANA, Sybase IQ, and Teradata targets.
Design-Time Data Viewer: Previously in the SAP Business Objects Data Services Designer, we could view data for only static sources in the object library such as tables, files, XML, COBOL copybooks, and corresponding sources and targets. To view data going through transforms, you had to use the Debugger. Now, the Design-Time Data Viewer feature lets us view and analyze the input and output for a data set in real time as we design a transform. The dataflow does not need to be complete or valid, although it must use a valid, accessible source that contains data. We can display and configure Design-Time Data Viewer from the Debug menu.
New Features of BODS 4.2:
The major improvement of the 4.2 version is its usability. It’s highly simplified compared to the previous one.
A new Platform transform added in SAP Data Services 4.2 SP4:The Data Mask transform enables you to protect personally identifiable information in your data.
SAP LT Replication Server integration: Data Services has been enhanced to integrate with SAP LT Replication Server (SLT) by leveraging the new version of ODP API.
- The existing extractor interface in Data Services has been enhanced and replaced with ODP in the Object Library and Metadata browsing. ODP allows uniform access to all contexts provided by ODP API.
- A new option has been added to the SAP data store: “Context”. SAP data store in Data Services has been enhanced to support the SLT objects. The ODP context allows us to connect to both the extractors and the SLT.
- SLT enhances the CDC (Change Data Capturing) scenario in Data Services, because with the trigger-based technology SLT adds delta-capabilities to every SAP or non-SAP source table which then allows for using CDC and transferring the delta data of the source table.
Retrieving the time zone of a Management Console machine: The new Get_MC_Machine_Timezone operation allows us to retrieve the time zone of the Management Console machine.
There are some new Built-in functions added in DS 4.2.
Expanded Designer search capabilities: Using SAP Data Services Designer, now we can search for a text string in every part of the object, such as table name and variable name.
Native Microsoft SQL Server support on UNIX: Data Services 4.2 provides native Microsoft SQL Server support on UNIX as a source or a target. When using the UNIX job server or engine to access the MS SQL Server datastore, the following functionality is available:
- CDC support, which includes the Replication method for SQL Server 2008 and later and the CDC and Change Tracking methods
for SQL Server 2008 and later. - Bulk loading support.
- Allow merge or upsert option support for SQL Server 2008 and later.
- Linked data stores support, which provides a one-way communication path from one database server to another.
Batch Mode functionality added to the XML_Map transform: We can now use the XML_Map transform in Batch mode to accumulate data as a block
of rows instead of a single row. This block of rows is sent as a unit to the next transform.
Introduced Google Big Query application data store :
Included MongoDB support:
DS 4.2 supports HDFS data preview:
Additional database support for Replication Server real-time CDC: Replication functionality introduced
in SP03 has been extended in SP04 to include MS SQL Server, IBM DB2 and SAP ASE.
Harness the power of HANA:
Thanks,
Tanvi
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