Business Trends
The Road to SAP BW/4HANA – Part 2
(Updated January 2019)
In the first part, we looked at the different paths to get to SAP BW/4HANA. Now let’s see which path makes the most sense for a given starting point of a customer’s landscape.
One or More Legacy Systems
Unless you are a brand-new enterprise, your landscape will most certainly contain some databases or systems that are collecting various kinds of data. Now you realize that you need a way to define common semantics, harmonize data values, establish a ‘single version of truth’, and provide a single, comprehensive source of current and historical information across all these sources. You need a data warehouse… SAP BW/4HANA. The obvious path is to install a new SAP BW/4HANA system, connect all your data sources, and either load the data (traditional ETL) or consume the data remotely (logical data warehousing). Of course, you want to put some thought into modeling and structuring your SAP BW/4HANA data warehouse, so we recommend defining a layered scalable architecture that suites your requirements best based on the LSA reference framework provided by SAP.
Instead of rebuilding your legacy system or data warehouse completely in SAP BW/4HANA, you could move some or all of it directly into the SAP HANA database that SAP BW/4HANA is running on (in a separate database schema or tenant). You can then leverage the content using mixed models between SAP BW/4HANA and SAP HANA views.
If you have a complex landscape, want to replace legacy data warehouse(s), or simply need help on your way to SAP BW/4HANA, please consider the path of using services offered by the SAP’s Digital Business Services group. We will setup a project that will lead you to a successful implementation of SAP BW/4HANA.
SAP BW 7.5 powered by SAP HANA with SAP BW/4HANA Starter Add-on
If you are running this release of SAP BW, are exclusively using objects compatible with SAP BW/4HANA (Advanced DataStore Objects, Open ODS Views, CompositeProviders, etc.) as well as using SAP BusinessObjects or SAP Analytic Cloud as a front-end (or a supported third-party tool), then your system is mighty close to being ready for transitioning to SAP BW/4HANA. In-place Conversion is the way to go. Perform a system pre-check using the SAP BW/4HANA Transfer Cockpit. If you get all green lights, your system can be converted to SAP BW/4HANA! A few hours of downtime over the weekend will do the trick.
If you get some yellow lights during the check, then there are some objects left in your SAP BW system that need to be transferred to compatible objects using one of our tools. Should you get some red lights, you will have some to-dos: The object won’t work with SAP BW/4HANA and so far, there’s no tool support. The check will point to the corresponding Simplification Item and SAP Note, which documents options and next steps.
Although new installation or landscape transformation are possible paths, it’s quite unlikely that you would go this way because the system is just one step away from SAP BW/4HANA.
SAP BW powered by SAP HANA
About 4,000 customers are running this release. Go, BW on HANA! If you started your SAP BW implementation recently or have kept your system up-to-date with release upgrades to 7.5, then you are in a comparable situation as customers who already use the SAP BW/4HANA Starter Add-on. If not, the In-place Conversion path still makes a lot of sense. Upgrade slightly older systems to release 7.5 and install the “SAP BW/4HANA Starter Add-on”. If necessary, transfer classical to HANA-optimized data models and data flows. This might be the case, especially if you did technical upgrades and a straight migration from another database in the past and continue to use InfoCubes and classic DSOs i.e. you haven’t fully transitioned to Advanced DSOs, CompositeProvider and Open ODS Views. The SAP BW/4HANA Transfer Cockpit and its Scope Transfer Tool will do this job for you.
If your system is still on release 7.3 and you are upgrading to 7.5, then you might have to adjust some of your custom code due to the change that came with 7.4. Please review SAP Note 1823174.
Generally, we recommend the system conversion path but in some cases, you might want to consider a new installation approach. SAP BW powered by SAP HANA systems can be over five years old (yes, SAP HANA has been around that long). If you don’t want to go through the steps described above, you could go for a new SAP BW/4HANA instance, and perform a Shell Conversion. With this approach you transport objects and configuration. Data models and flows will be converted to SAP HANA-optimized versions at import into SAP BW/4HANA. You can then at your convenience load data from your source systems or the original SAP BW (until you decommission it). This will give you a clean start into the SAP BW/4HANA world.
Going one step further, a Remote Conversion will also transfer existing master and transaction data to your new SAP BW/4HANA system and keep it in sync with the original SAP BW.
SAP BW on Any Database (other than SAP HANA)
The most challenging scenario can be a SAP BW system still running on other databases than SAP HANA. To convert the complete system to SAP BW/4HANA will require a database migration, release upgrade, transfer to HANA-optimized objects, and custom code adjustments. A Unicode conversion will be required as well for non-Unicode systems. Still the In-place Conversion path is an option especially if you are very happy with what you have on SAP BW today. We have done migrations to SAP HANA many times now, so overall the process is well understood and can be executed smoothly. It comes down to the SAP HANA-optimization which is what the SAP BW/4HANA Transfer Cockpit will help with.
However, if your system is on release 7.3 or higher, the better choice is to go for a Remote Conversion. It lets you “jump” from SAP BW systems that haven’t been upgraded for years or run on clunky disk-based database platforms to SAP BW/4HANA and the in-memory SAP HANA database! You choose which data models and flows you like to convert and our tools will transfer them to a new SAP BW/4HANA system, including all required master and transaction data. And the best: We SAP HANA-optimize the models automatically.
For systems on the old 7.0x release, the Shell Conversion is the only option. Such old systems often need a rebuild, for example, to properly implement a layered scalelable architecture (LSA++). The Shell Conversion will help to take over the essential data models.
Multiple SAP BW Systems
We certainly see a trend to simplify landscapes and consolidate several SAP BW systems into a global instance running on SAP HANA. If you have multiple production SAP BW systems – typically split by region or line of business -, then we recommend checking out the Landscape Transformation path. It’s best suited for customers, who want to consolidate their landscape or carve out selected data models and data flows into an existing SAP BW/4HANA system. SAP Digital Business Services offers packages in order to setup a customer-specific migration and conversion project. This will include re-using standard tools for example to compare the configuration and security of your SAP BW systems.
Alternative is to treat the situation the same way as described in the “One or More Legacy Systems” chapter.
SAP BW/4HANA – Which Path is Right for You?
Summary
We understand our customers are starting their journey to a modern data warehouse from various places. That’s why we have created three distinct paths, complete with distinct services and tools, to help you achieve your goals in the most direct fashion, with the least disruption.
For a presentation style version of this blog (“The Road to SAP BW/4HANA”) and many more details on SAP BW/4HANA, please visit the SAP Community Network and check out the FAQ document.
A complete end-to-end documentation of the transition process from SAP BW to SAP BW/4HANA is already available in the SAP BW/4HANA Conversion Guide.
Continue reading “The Road to SAP BW/4HANA – Part 3“.
Best,
Marc Bernard
@marcfbe
Hi Marc,
Thanks for sharing the part 2 with great info and inputs on different paths. Your blogs and documents has been the source and motivation for many of my articles including the recent BW/4HANA one - http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-75213.
However, I still have slight confusion regarding when the role of SUM comes into play?
As per my understanding, here's the process:
Step 1. First, upgrade to BW 7.5, edition for HANA. This is done by installing an Add-on using SUM tool.
Step 2. Then, convert your stnd objects to new HANA-optimized objects, with conversion tool (RSB4HTRF).
Step 3. Then, switch to BW/4HANA (by executing report RS_B4HANA_CHECK_ENABLE with B4H as the new mode and choosing "Save New Mode".
But as per your inputs, the SUM tool will come at step 3.
So, is my understanding incorrect w.r.t the 3 steps mentioned for the process?
Reg
Deb
Hello Deb,
you got it almost right. The purpose of Step 3 is to check the prerequisites. Switching the system isn't really important as long as the check comes back "green". Step 4 would then use SUM to convert the BW system to SAP BW/4HANA.
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Hi Marc,
In compatibility mode, we can still reverse back to BW powered by HANA by removing the BW4HANA add-on. But once we convert to BW4HANA using SUM, is this action reversible?
Thanks,
Nicholas Chang
Hello Nicholas,
the system conversion is not reversible (same as a release upgrade).
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Hi Marc,
Your blog is very helpful. We would like to go for BW/4HANA Greenfield implementation. Does it support Sybase IQ for NLS to archive BW data?
I found in OpenSAP course for BW/4HANA, that initial release does not support IQ NLS solution and the release in Q2 - 2017 would do.
Please clarify this point...
Best Regards,
Ganesh
Hi Ganesh,
yes, SAP BW/4HANA does support SAP IQ (formerly known as Sybase IQ) as a NLS solution. http://help.sap.com/saphelp_bw4hana10/helpdata/en/60/cf63e1bbbb49429ee6c35e6ad03a45/content.htm
Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW
wonderful and thanks for your confirmation Marc
Hi Marc,
Thanks a lot for your blog. It answers all my questions.
May I ask about the License? I am now using BW 7.3 on SQL Server. Do I need to purchase a license to upgrade to BW 7.5 Powered by HANA? How about BW/4 HANA?
Best Regards,
Donald
Hello Donald,
SAP BW/4HANA does require a new license (it's a new product). Please discuss license details - also for SAP BW powered by SAP HANA - with your account executive.
Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Marc, Thank you for your excellent blog. Are Virtual characteristics & Virtual key-figures supported in BW/4 HANA? am doing an assessment for a customer to get them to BW/4 HANA and is an open question. It is possible to re-model some of them using HANA-views but I have to give them a least-disruptive option in addition to this.
Hello Arvind,
yes, virtual characteristics and key figures still exist. However, the classic CMOD customer exit does not exist anymore. So if you are still using this you will have to move the logic over to enhancement spot RSROA. Also keep in mind that InfoCubes will be converted to Advanced DSOs which might have an impact on your "virtual logic".
Overall, we recommend to implement such custom logic as HANA views on top of the generated HANA views provided by SAP BW/4HANA (i.e. no custom code).
Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Hi Marc,
Following your comment on CMOD, could you please tell me if BEx Variables are still available? if yes, how to manage customer exit variable? if no, how to migrate to new solution?
Kind Regards
Olivier
Hi Olivier,
exit variables still exist. CMOD coding will have to be converted into the corresponding enhancement spot (BADI) which will be pretty easy.
Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Hi Marc, this convertion that you mention, does exit any document or guide to do it?
Hi Marc,
First of all, thanks for your very quick answers, it is good to get feedback so quickly as we are currently evaluating BW/4 Hana for a customer (PoC).
About hana views, as per my understanding, when you are using a BW on Hana you have to get specific licence to be able to create Hana calculation views using Hana modeler (I may wrongly understood). Now with BW/4 Hana, is licence including Hana Modeler features especially create Hana Calculation View (and enhance HanaLive built-in views)?
Hi Olivier,
in any case you are allowed to create HANA views for your BW or SAP BW/4HANA data models and you can extend them using HANA Studio. Working with data in other HANA schema requires the correct license. Please check with the SAP Account Executive.
Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Dear Marc,
We have bought license for BW/4HANA and could see BW/4HANA media in SMP to download.
We would like to proceed with BW/4HANA Greenfield implementation. However, like other SAP installations, I don't find specific SWPM Installation guide and Media list document in service market place. I could see only Master guide for BW/4HANA in help.sap.com. Please throw me light, where can I refer BW/4HANA installation & media list guides.
Best Regards,
Ganesh
Hello Ganesh,
sorry, I was on vacation and could not reply earlier. You probably figured it out already. If not, all required installation media is available in the following folder:
https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/softwarecenter/template/products/_APP=00200682500000001943&_EVENT=NEXT&HEADER=Y&FUNCTIONBAR=Y&EVENT=TREE&NE=NAVIGATE&ENR=73554900100800000681&V=INST&TA=ACTUAL/SAP%20BW4HANA
Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW
hi Marc,
in one scenario, there are a lot of sophisticated queries in a legacy BW system. Thus, the recommendation is to start a new BW/4HANA and fill it with data step by step. Regarding the old queries, we would like to use them as data providier for the new BW/4HANA. Is this possible? If queries are not accessable directly, could we use APDs to fill some DSO in the legacy system anth then use the DSO as a data source?
Cheers!
Neven
Hello Neven,
assuming your legacy system is not on HANA, then APD is a good option. However, why not bring over the existing queries to the new SAP BW/4HANA system?
Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Hi Mark,
Thanks fo nice blog
One clarification on APD, as with BW4HANA APD's are not supported and for HAP separate license is required ( for PAL library) ,so can we consume generate HANA view on BW query as a source to Advance DSO ?
Thanks,
Priyanka
Hello Priyanka,
PAL usage via HAP is included in the runtime license. Please check with your SAP Account Executive for details. In any case, I believe the answer to your question is yes.
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Thanks for confirmation,
Was thinking of alternate way of using Query output as a source to ADSO as we can use transformation rules between HANA generated BW query CAL view and ADSO ( to achieve similar functionality of APD) Will check with SAP executive regarding run time license for PAL.
Thanks Again.
Hi Marc,
Thanks for the blog. A couple of questions:
1. Is there a dependency of BW4HANA to S/4 HANA? Would S/4 HANA on the ERP side make BW4HANA implementation easier as compared to SoH or Suite on AnyDB?
2. My company has BPC build on top of BW 7.40 on HANA. Would BPC still supported by BW/4HANA? With S/4 HANA, S/4 HANA finance and BW/4HANA, what the future of BPC?
Thanks,
Mike
Hello Mike,
1) It's easier since data acquisition has been standardized using ODP. There are also new options like logical data warehousing and integrating S/4HANA data remotely. This can simplify your DW footprint as well. Please have a look at the Positioning document at http://sap.com/bw4hana10.
2) BPC is not supported yet with SAP BW/4HANA. It's planned for second half of 2017.
Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Hi Marc,
As BCS support is ending in 2017. is there any plan for including consolidation tool (ie like BFC and not BPC)?
Kind Regards
Olivier
Hello Olivier,
consolidation is planned to be included in the new BPC solution of top of SAP BW/4HANA. For SEM-BCS you will have to ask the SEM team.
Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Dear Marc,
In our company we have plenty of BEx queries reports and we built WAD(web application designer) documents on the queries. For the above explanation we understand WAD is no longer supported on BW S/4 HANA. However for the BEx queries reports we have, should we create new queries using Eclipse BW modeling tool, or these Bex queries can be transported from legacy BW system to BW S/4 HANA seamlessly?? Kindly advise. Thank you.
Best Regards,
Eric
Hello Eric,
you can continue to use your BW Queries as they are. There's no need to create new queries of change them.
Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Dear Marc,
No changes needed for Bex queries, that is a good news for us and maybe for many other companies. But for the WAD reports we have, they are not supported in BW S4HANA or still supported? If not supported anymore, we have to convert them. Currently our reports are mainly WAD reports.
Best Regards,
Eric
Web Templates are not supported with SAP BW/4HANA. We understand the need to provide a tool for converting to Design Studio, Lumira, or BusinessObjects Cloud, but there's no timeline available at this moment.
Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Thanks for the information. I think that will mean we need afforts of conversion from WAD to other frontend reports before we can move to BW/4HANA.
Best Regards,
Eric
Hi Marc,
As I understand, BEx Analyzer & Web Template are not supported anymore. As BW was known as fully integrated (ie bringing reporting tool), that it means Analysis for Office & DesignStudio are offered/packed with BW/4Hana licence or that it means we have 2 licences (one for BW/4Hana and 1 for reporting tools)?
Hello Olivier,
you will need two licenses or use a 3rd party solution for reporting. We plan to offer SAP BW/4HANA together with BusinessObjects as a bundle.
Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW
hi mike
I'm curious to understand what happens to active BI content being used in an existing system.
thanks
glen
Hi Glen,
active BI content needs to be handled the same way as any other active objects: You have to transition it to the simplified objects of SAP BW/4HANA.
Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW
hi mike
in RS_B4HANA_CHECK_ENABLE, if we "save" in "B4H mode", is that it?
or do we have the ability to revert back.
Hi Glen,
the B4H mode is an intermediate step. There's not much of a point to reverse it since you system will be "simplified" and ready for doing the system conversion to SAP BW/4HANA. (But if you must, the add-on can be removed).
Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Hi Marc,
Do we have to convert ABAP in the routines of transformations to AMDPs or can we still use ABAP in routines of transformation?
Also are customer exit variables still be supported in bex queries?
Thanks and best regards,
Vikram
Dear Marc,
We have a question on how the BW4HANA data can be consumed by external application.
BW4NANA increased openness on the SQL access perspective. BW objects are generated in HANA DB as views, these views can be easilly consumed by SQL API.
For the BEx queries, in the classific BW world the BEx queries can be consumed by BEx query function modules, is it still available in BW4HANA?
And is there any MDX API available, so that the BW4HANA queries can be called by MDX?
I think it is important for users to get a MDX or Query access which supports the multi-dimensional way, only the SQL access is not enough.
Thanks in advance,
Best Regards,
Eric
If you mean BICS functions, yes, those are still available. MDX APIs exists as well: http://help.sap.com/saphelp_bw4hana10/helpdata/en/48/f318b441213697e10000000a42189b/content.htm or you can use oData queries for external access.
Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Hi Marc,
Thanks for the both article part 1 and 2, I wondering if I can translate this information to spanish. Keeping the author right and copyright.
Thanks in advance,
Hi Luis,
feel free to translate it. This would be great! Just include a link back to the original blog.
Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW
hi marc
i am struggling to figure out how to use RSB4HTRF. i am getting "Valid target provider name could not be determined for /B4H/ZDCTQ04" for my object.
is there any documentation or how-to for this transaction
thanks
g
Hi Glen,
the issue is typically related to incorrect settings for namespaces. Please create an incident report so SAP support can check your system.
Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Hey Glen, We had the same issue and resolved the namespace issue by setting the "/B4H" namespace to "Modifiable" as the default was "Not Modifiable" in the sandbox.
Thanks,
Sundeep
Update: The namespace prefix is "/B4H/" and we also had to make some other namespace prefixes listed with a prefix as /BAx/ to be "Modifiable". The 'x' could be 6,7, etc.
hi marc, i have found the two documents in the SAP note 2238220, but it does not help my situation, thanks
Hi Marc,
what happens to TRFNs with Start- and Endroutines that are not HANA-optimized?
By now TRFNs are still maintained in the Backend and the Routines ars still in ABAP as they were before, I assume. But I heard it will be shifted. What will happen to the ABAP-coding then?
Thanks, Eva
Hi Eva,
Transformations will be taken over as they are i.e. ABAP routines will remain the same. You might have to adjust them, if you use for example direct SELECT statements against BW data tables since the transfer from classic DSO or Cubes to Advanced DSO will change these DB tables (better to use APIs instead!).
Alternatively, you have the option to replace ABAP transformations with HANA script (i.e. ABAP-managed database procedures).
https://archive.sap.com/documents/docs/DOC-70169
Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Dear Marc,
I must say its an excellent blog !! And it is very helpful for us.
We have couple of questions?
We are running SAP BW 7.3 on Oracle (its very small system with db size of 450 GB) My question is instead of performing upgrade , migration and conversion can we directly go with fresh installation of SAP BW/4HANA and transport all the require objects by this way our original system is not getting impacted as suggested in your blog, kindly give your thoughts.
Recently we have taken SAP HANA and currently we are in process of migrating our ERP system in to sap hana database and s4hana, my second question is do we have to take additional license for SAP BW/4HANA??.
Thanks
Tabrayz
Hello Tabrayz,
yes, you could start with new install today and transport objects. However, you can't transport objects like InfoCubes or classic DSO that are not supported in SAP BW/4HANA. This will limit the usefulness of this approach a lot.
We are working on a new solution - a so called remote conversion - which will let you move to a new SAP BW/4HANA installation directly. I will blog about this soon.
Best,
Marc,
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Hello Marc,
During the upgrade between BW 7.4 (Powered by HANA) -> BW 7.5 (Powered by HANA), the BW/4 HANA Starter should be implemented as an add-on? Apologies on being a little cautious, but would like to be sure before beginning the final leg of the journey.
BTW, this blog was well done & much appreciated.
Thank you for your time and attention.
Angela
Hello Angela,
yes, in order to do an in-place conversion, the SAP BW/4HANA Add-on needs to be installed on top of SAP BW 7.5 powered by SAP HANA.
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Thanks! Angela (I look forward to more on this subject as it evolves.)
Hi all,
I have a doubt in B4Hana,
1.how will we convert or replace existing query customer exit variable or user exit variable in B4HANNA.
2. How to avoid clash if I we a build an BO report which combines flow from BW4 and SoH and if each of them have their own Hierarchy object and if the structure of hierarchy are different
Thanks,
Shyamala Valeti.
Hello Shyamala,
queries remain the same. Variables remain the same. If you use exit variables based on CMOD (ZXRSR.. includes), then you will have to move the code to the corresponding enhancement spot for variables.
The second question is not related to SAP BW/4HANA. It would be the same problem with SAP BW or 3rd party DW software. Please post to the community.
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Hi Marc,
quick question concerning migration of Infocube to DSO.
We run BW Powerded by HANA 7.5 SP4.
We havn't yet implemented the edition for HANA ad--On.
Is there any way (cause the migration tool comes with edition for HANA) to convert basic Infocubes to ADSO except creating copies with template as described in this Blog?
We'd like to convert as much as possible of the old world without having copies of the existing world.
If that's not possible, what are the side effects of implementing the add-on "Edition for HANA" (running in compatibility mode)
WE'd primarily like to convert cubes step by step ( vai application areas)
TIA
Joerg
Hello Joerg,
the "In-place Conversion" can be used but will indeed require the SAP BW/4HANA Starter Add-on. It will support a conversion of InfoCube to Advanced DSO including the data. There will be a new option - so called "Remote Conversion" - to perform this conversion into a newly installed SAP BW/4HANA system. For more details, please check https://www.sap.com/documents/2016/08/5ccf0908-877c-0010-82c7-eda71af511fa.html. I will blog about it soon as well.
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Hello Marc, we're still on 7.4 but plans are to start moving towards BW/4HANA in the near future. We haven't used SPOs yet but were thinking about using them for new dataflows for a timezone scenario. I understand that a SPO is a collection of Cubes/DSOs. Once we start moving towards BW/4HANA, what would be the implication for the SPO? Keeping our roadmap in mind, does it make sense to start using SPOs or would you recommend to skipping them and waiting for an aDSO SPO in the future? Thanks!
Hello Jan,
SPOs are not supported in SAP BW/4HANA. It's replaced by a more powerful and flexible concept called "Semantic Grouping". There's currently no conversion tool so you would have to do it manually which might or might not be much work depending on the extend you use classic SPOs and logic surrounding it. If SAP BW/4HANA is already on your radar, probably better to skip SPOs.
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Dear Marc,
How many customers (approximately) so far moved from BW on HANA or BW on other database to BW/4 HANA from the release (7th Sep'16) - Kindly share the information or the source to look into. Appreciate your response. This really boosts the clients to move forward to BW/4 HANA.
Hi Marc,
Really great blog and amazingly prompt responses...
if a customer is using EP for accessing reports , what would be the possible migration approach when they move from 7.x to BW4HANA as the B4H has no JAVA stack?
Hello Debashu,
BEx Web Templates are not available with SAP BW/4HANA. Alternative solutions are SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio or Lumira, or SAP BusinessObjects Cloud. Customers also have the option to use a 3rd party BI tool. Any of these solutions can then be served from or embedded into the customer's Enterprise Portal.
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Another question - We see that BW is getting more and more closer to HANA...and HANA also has an additional option called 'DataWarehouse Foundation'. So, if we see these trend..can we conclude that BW will eventually be merged with Native HANA?
Reg
Deb
Hi Deb,
the goal is certainly to move them closer together over time. See http://sap.com/bw4hana10 > SAP Data Warehouse Strategy (link under Related Resources).
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Hi Marc,
According to SAP Note 2397520, it is written that the HANA Views and CompositeProviders for the SD Backorder and the HANA Views and CompositeProviders for FI Accounts Receivable (Real Time) are not delivered with SAP BW/4HANA Content. But it is working for BI CONT 7.57. So I wonder that why SAP did not put the new implementations for BW4 Hana product. When I link to SAP BW4 Hana content page, it says real time reporting will be available but I still can not see any enhancements about it. In future is it planned to make standart content objects in real time format ?
Thanks
Hello Görrkem,
your question is not related to the blog. Please post on answers.sap.com.
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Hi Marc, Thanks for a great blog as always. We are in process of implementing BW/4 HANA using greenfield approach with Analysis for Office as the frontend. Currently we are on BW 7.4 with BEx as the frontend. We have thousands of workbooks, reports etc. In your blog, you responded that BW queries are not impacted and can be migrated. Just to confirm that BEx queries / reports can be migrated from BW 7.4 to BW/4 HANA as long as other BW objects such as multiproviders, infoCubes, etc. are migrated using BW/4HANA based Transfer Tool.
Thanks for your reply in advance.
Jas
Hello Jas,
correct. When you use the Transfer Tool, BW queries are automatically taken over to SAP BW/4HANA data models. You might be interested in the migration service for BEx Workbooks: https://blogs.sap.com/2017/07/12/automated-mass-migrationconvertion-of-bex-workbook-to-ao-2.x/
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Hi Marc,
Thanks for blog to help customer to adopt BW/4 HANA smoothly. I would like to have question for you.
We are BW customers around 10+ years, currently on BW 7.4 on HANA and planning to upgrade BW 7.5 SP n-1 and need to clarify shall we install BW/4 HANA Starter Add-on or not because of below concern.
1- if install BW/4HANA Starter add-on then can't do any enhancement/changes in our existing Classic flows (LSA). The add-on can tolerate old objects (Cubes, classic DSO, multiproviders...etc) but not allowed any changes/modifications these classic flows.
since migration (SYSTEM conversion Path) from Classic to HANA optimized flows take some time, most likely there is possible business needs to enhance Classic flows while migration to LSA++ model in-progress, or might be some customer need sometime prior to upgrade to BW/4HANA.
Doesn’t it mean once install “Starter Add-on”, it’s freeze period for development/changes for Classic flows.
2- Please clarify if this is the case and what would you suggest .
Reference:
https://blogs.sap.com/2016/09/19/demystifying-the-difference-between-bw-on-hana-bw-edition-for-hana-bw4hana/
Regards
Nawab
Hello Nawab,
there's no need for a full freeze. As described in part 3 (https://blogs.sap.com/2017/06/06/the-road-to-sap-bw4hana-part-3/), the add-on has a "BW mode" that allows your to change anything. Alternatively, you can use the "Compatibility mode" and add objects to the whitelist.
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Thanks Marc, the Part 3 overcome my concerns and really helpful to take appropriate approach.
Here is my understanding and tentative Plan (In-Place Conversion ) for your alignment & comments.
Once installed Starter Add-on, comes with Transfer tools and multiple Modes
1- BW Mode - run as normal BW without any restrictions.
a. Transfer Tools not available at this stage
2- Compatibility Mode – with Transfer tool to convert Classic to HANA optimized objects
a. “While List” – provision of classic flows modification for certain flows as per business needs
b. Proceed with conversion from Classic - LSA to new HANA optimized – LSA++
c. Custom code adjustment
3- BW/4 HANA Mode:
a. No imports of unsupported objects
b. White list is irrelevant here
c. Ready for technical upgrade – system run as usual
4- Ready for conversion – downtime start for actual Technical upgrade
a. Now ready for System-component upgrade to BW/4HANA
Regards
Nawab Siddiqui
Correct
Marc,
For in-place conversion, follow-on question to Nawab's post. (Nawab, good summary of steps)
Say, have 5 data flows. Now, say we have converted 1 data flow (in compatibility mode) to BW4HANA relevant in Dev environment but not yet transported the scope to QA & prod. So does this mean, will have to freeze the development for this 1 data flow ?
Also, is it recommended to consider small chunk of scope and complete the conversion up to Production (in compatibility mode)?
Hello Sohil,
you can make changes to the converted data models and flows in development and collect them in a separate transport (for example, adding a field to an ADSO). However, you can't import this transport to QA and Production until the conversion is completed there (since there will still be classic DSO and InfoCubes).
Currently we recommend smaller scopes since there's limited parallel processing of the conversion tools. However, for smaller BW systems or systems that are mostly HANA-optimized already, you might "convert and test everything" and have a big bang go-live. Really depends on the complexity and age of the system.
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Thanks for the clarification Marc. So, is the following sequence possible (and recommended?):
1. Set the Dev, Q and Prod all in Compatibility mode
1.1 Select couple of data flows in Dev and use in-place conversion tool
1.2 Transfer the scope to Q and run the conversion tool in Q
1.3 After Q testing, transfer the scope to Prod and run the conversion tool
2. Repeat step 1 (1.1 to 1.3) for remaining data flows
3. Once everything is done, set the B4H in Dev and run the post conversion steps
3.1 Repeat it in QA
3.2 Repeat it in Prod
4. Set the "Ready for conversion" and run the post conversion steps in D
4.1 Repeat it in Q
4.2 Repeat it in Prod
Yes, this is the typical option for in-place conversions. Step 4 includes the system conversion to SAP BW/4HANA (after R4C mode). This is described in "The Road to SAP BW/4HANA" presentation:
https://www.sap.com/documents/2016/08/5ccf0908-877c-0010-82c7-eda71af511fa.html#
(slide 31, and slide 85).
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Thank You very much Marc for the clarification.
Hi Marc, I was wondering if there is a clean migration path from an embedded BW system on S/4 Hana to BW/4HANA. Thanks
Hello Sinead,
good question. Some of the conversion tools might work also for Embedded BW, however such scenario is currently not supported by SAP. The in-place and remote conversion tools are built and tested based on stand-alone SAP BW systems.
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Hi Marc,
Thanks for your blog. How can we migrate BEx workbooks to AFO 2.0 using Remote Conversion methodology ? Does blow mentioned tool supports remote conversion ?
https://www.sap.com/documents/2016/08/5ccf0908-877c-0010-82c7-eda71af511fa.html#
Regards,
Nirav Shah
Regards,
Nirav Shah
Hi Nirav,
the current version works only with a single system. Best to get in touch with the developer of the tool but you already initiated that with the comment in his blog. I'm sure he will get back to you.
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP HANA DW
Dear Mark,
Great blogs for someone who has started exploring ways to BW/4HANA. Big thank you for that.
I have one question – In remote conversion, a new SID (System ID) is created and we transport objects from existing system to new system. What happens to Native HANA objects in such case? Do we need to migrate/move them to new SID? For ‘In Place’ conversion it won’t matter I think as the Native HANA objects will stay in the same system.
Could you please share your view on this?
Thank you.
Regards,
Yogesh
Hello Yogesh,
HANA native objects have to be handled manually i.e. using HANA related functionality (CTS+, export/import).
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP DW
Hi,
is there any possibility to automatically migrate an BW analysis process designed in the APD to a HAP one (HANA Analysis Process) ? Can the transfer tool box help out here ?
Hello Franziskus,
currently APDs have to be manually redesigned. See SAP Note 2444220 for recommendations. However, an analysis and redesign tool is on our roadmap for later this year.
Best,
Marc
Product Management SAP DW
Hi Marc,
thank you for your articles. I would like to ask you a question about the installation of BW/4HANA.
Is it preferable that BW/4HANA is installed on the same server as the HANA Database or on two separate server? Are there technical differences between the two roads?
Thank you
Regards
Matteo
Hello Matteo,
it's technically possible and supported to run the application server on the same hardware as SAP HANA for single node (scale-up) systems. However, there are several things like sizing to be considered. See SAP Note 1953429.
Best,
Marc
SAP HANA Competence Center
Hello,
We are on SAP BW on Hana 7.4, What if we decided not to move to BW4HANA? Will you stop the support on 7.4 or 7.5 in future?
Hello Abhishek,
SAP BW continues to be supported. You can see the end of maintenance date in the Product Availability Matrix https://service.sap.com/sap/support/pam. For SAP NetWeaver 7.4 that's end of 2020.
Best,
Marc
SAP HANA Competence Center
Hello Marc,
Thank you for sharing BW/4 Details, I am looking for information regarding Green Field Implementation fr BW/4 from non-SAP BW system.
Hi Marc, can you please advise, how to create a datasource based on sap hana cal view- for SAP BW on HANA. Cheers.