Technical Articles
What’s New – SAP HANA Cloud Jan 2021 (QRC 4)
With this blog post series we provide an update with the latest information about SAP HANA Cloud on the SAP Business Technology Platform.
For the blog post series about getting started, see For a comparison between SAP HANA and SAP HANA Cloud, see Questions? Post as comment. Useful? Give us a like and share on social media. Thanks! Latest Update:
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In a Nutshell
QRC 4
Earlier this month, SAP HANA Cloud Quarterly Release Cycle (QRC) 4 was released. In this blog post you will find most of the highlights for the service, the database, and the tools with references to the documentation and other resources.
Related Services
The SAP HANA Cloud service comprises a database and a data lake but also several related services and components with sometimes a different release schedule.
- SAP Cloud Platform cockpit (service management UI)
- SAP HANA cockpit and SAP HANA database explorer (administration)
- SAP Business Application Studio (development)
- SAP HANA client
For this reason, we may find some features already available (self-service scale-up), while others are may require a bit more patience (self-service enablement for the JSON Document Store).
Below we cover both SAP HANA Cloud and the related services.
SAP HANA Journey
For the blog post with highlights from the SAP HANA Journey microsite, see
Documentation
For the documentation, see
Road Map Explorer
Q4 – 2020
For the Road Map Explorer view, see
The Road Map Explorer lists 29 innovations for Q4 2020 SAP HANA Cloud categorised as
- Administering and Monitoring Databases (6)
- Application Development (3)
- Cloud Availability Assurance (7)
- Cloud Data Integration (1)
- Data Anonymization (1)
- Data Privacy and Protection (2)
- Graphical View Modeling (3)
- Managed Data Lake (3)
- Multi-Model Data Processing (3)
- Multi-Tier Storage (2)
- Other (1)
Some innovations have been available for some time, as mentioned in the previous blog post What’s New – SAP HANA Cloud | November 2020.
Multi-Cloud
Other innovations concern cloud availability (see Data Centers for the list of locations).
Administering and Monitoring Databases
This category lists the innovations of the database explorer and database cockpit “tool-as-a-service” which come with SAP HANA Cloud like support for Apache Parquet, Alibaba Cloud Object Storage Service, and Esri shapefiles.
More about this below, under SAP HANA Cockpit and SAP HANA Database Explorer.
Application Development
Under application development we find new features of the SAP HANA client to provide additional options to connect to SAP HANA Cloud and the new SQL Analyzer extension for Microsoft Visual Studio Code.
We can also mention SAP Business Application Studio as the new IDE with support for native SAP HANA development (categorised under multi-cloud).
More about this below, under SQL Analyzer, Business Application Studio, and SAP HANA Client.
Cloud Data Integration
Cloud data integration innovations concern the enhanced replication tooling support from on-premise to SAP HANA Cloud.
Security
Data Anonymization and Data Privacy and Protection mention support for the unmasked privilege and support for X.509 certificate-based authentication.
More about this below, under security.
Data Lake
Under Managed Data Lake we find support for larger machine sizes, support for EFS as storage option, and SAP-managed backups.
More about this below, under SAP HANA Cloud Data Lake.
Multi-Model Data Processing
QRC 4 introduces an embedded JSON document store, new predictive and forecasting algorithms, and ESRI ArcGIS geodatabase certification.
More about the document store and algorithms below.
For more information (e-books and webinars) about the geodatabase, see
- Esri and SAP | GIS for Business Intelligence
- Esri ArcGIS Pro & SAP HANA – Upload, Visualize and Process Spatial Data by Mathias Kemeter
Multi-Tier Storage
This concerns the innovations for configurable storage provisioning for SAP HANA native storage extension and self-service resizing of the storage allocation for native storage extension.
As documented
- SAP HANA Native Storage Extension | SAP HANA Cloud Administration Guide
Other
Amongst the remaining innovations we can mention the connection process between SAP HANA Cloud and SAP Analytics Cloud and Integration for user-friendly reporting on calculation views with SAP Analytics Cloud.
Q1 – 2021
For information about future developments, see.
SAP HANA Cloud Service
JSON Document Store
The document store is a dedicated, but fully integrated binary store in SAP HANA Cloud to store and process data in JSON format natively in the database while providing a seamless SQL integration.
As documented in the (new) guide on the topic,
- Introduction to SAP HANA JSON Document Store | SAP HANA Cloud JSON Document Store Guide
A NoSQL store for JSON documents was introduced with SAP HANA 2.0 platform edition SPS 01 in 2017 but initially not available for SAP HANA Cloud. The QRC 4 release add the DocStore as additional persistence besides column and row store.
The Document Store is enabled using the SAP Cloud Platform cockpit SAP HANA Cloud management tool, similar to the script server for AFL (shared services are enabled from the system database for the instance managed by SAP).
For the Spotlight article from the UA development team,see
SAP HANA Cloud Database
Administration
SAP Cloud Connector
You can enable the SAP Cloud Connector (SCC) for a database instance. Use the SAP Cloud Connector to extend your existing SAP HANA on-premise system with SAP HANA Cloud.
As documented
- Set Up the Cloud Connector | SAP HANA Cloud Data Access Guide
- Cloud Connector | SAP Cloud Platform Connectivity
For the Spotlight article from the UA development team,see
Instance Sizing
You can change the disk storage space independent of the memory size of an instance.
As documented
- Change the Size of an Instance | SAP HANA Cloud Getting Started Guide
Import / Export
You can now use SQL commands to import and export data directly from AliCloud Object Storage Service (OSS). This complements AWS S3 and Microsoft Azure introduced with QRC 2 and the IMPORT FROM and EXPORT INTO statements.
IMPORT FROM CSV FILE
'oss://<access_key_id>:<access_key_secret>@<region>.aliyuncs.com/<bucket_name>/My_lineitem.csv'
into MySchema.LINEITEM with field delimited by ',' threads 4;
As documented
Table Management – Partitioning
It is now possible to create dynamic range partitions which are time-based.
CREATE COLUMN TABLE T
(A NVARCHAR(5) NOT NULL, NUM INTEGER NOT NULL)
PARTITION BY RANGE (A AS INT)
(PARTITION OTHERS DYNAMIC THRESHOLD 3000000);
A table consistency check has been added for illegal non-numerical data.
CALL CHECK_TABLE_CONSISTENCY
('CHECK_PARTITIONING_DYNAMIC_RANGE', 'MYSCHEMA', 'MYTABLE01,MYTABLE02')
You can improve performance by using time functions with the TIMESTAMP data type to prune partitions based on the value returned by the function.
create table t(col timestamp)
partition by range(month(col)) (
partition '2020/01' <= values < '2020/07',
partition '2020/07' <= values < '2021/01',
partition '2021/01' <= values < '2021/07',
partition '2021/07' <= values < '2022/01',
partition others);
You can use the SQL TRUNCATE statement to delete the content of specific partitions.
TRUNCATE TABLE T1 PARTITION (2,3);
As documented
Table Management – Table Replication
Table groups can be applied to replica tables and partitions so that you can manage replicas in groups in a SAP HANA scale-out landscape.
CREATE COLUMN TABLE "SYSTEM"."T1" (A INT, B INT)
WITH REPLICA
GROUP NAME GROUPB
GROUP TYPE type1
GROUP LEAD AT LOCATION 'MyHost:31340’;
As documented
Workload Management – Workload Classes and Admission Control
Two new workload class properties have been introduced to apply admission control thresholds so that if the current workload level is too high, statements can be queued and executed later (the reject clauses were already available).
create workload class "MyWorkloadClass" set
'ADMISSION CONTROL QUEUE CPU THRESHOLD' = '70',
'ADMISSION CONTROL QUEUE MEMORY THRESHOLD' = '80',
'ADMISSION CONTROL REJECT CPU THRESHOLD' = '100',
'ADMISSION CONTROL REJECT MEMORY THRESHOLD' = '100';
As documented
Plan Cache
You can now delete individual plans from the Plan Cache.
-- ALTER SYSTEM REMOVE SQL PLAN CACHE [ WHERE <condition> ]
ALTER SYSTEM REMOVE SQL PLAN CACHE WHERE EXECUTION_COUNT < 5;
ALTER SYSTEM REMOVE SQL PLAN CACHE WHERE IS_VALID = ‘FALSE’;
ALTER SYSTEM REMOVE SQL PLAN CACHE WHERE ACCESSED_TABLE_NAMES LIKE ‘%AAA%’ ;
As documented
Development
JSON Document Store
Described above under SAP HANA Cloud service.
Predictive Analysis Library (PAL)
New PAL functions have been added like Attention and Unified Regression with others enhanced like Accelerated K-Means and MCMC Sampling. For those interested, best to consult the What’s New with filter on Machine Learning as the list is fairly long and rather unintelligible for the non-initiated.
- SAP HANA Cloud Database | Filter on Machine Learning
As documented
Automated Predictive Library (APL)
New aliases, some (minor) syntax changes, new samples, and a JavaScript runtime.
As documented
For the documentation portal, visit
Security
Authentication using X509
The identity of users accessing the SAP HANA database from ODBC client applications can now be authenticated by X.509 client certificates issued by a trusted identity provider.
This includes SSO support and complements the SAML and JWT authentication mechanisms for SAP HANA Cloud.
-- Create provider
CREATE X509 PROVIDER MyProvider
WITH ISSUER 'CN=DigiCert Global Root CA, OU=www.digicert.com, O=DigiCert Inc, C=US';
-- Create (or alter) user
CREATE USER JOHN
WITH IDENTITY 'CN=JOHN, OU=SAP SE, C=DE' FOR X509 PROVIDER MyProvider;
As documented
SAML and JWT Provider Management (New)
SAML and JWT providers are now database objects that follow standard ownership and authorization principles. They can be authorized using the new object privileges ALTER, DROP, and REFERENCES.
As documented,
- 3002049 – Ownership of JWT and SAML providers
- ALTER JWT PROVIDER Statement (Access Control) (DROP)
- ALTER SAML PROVIDER Statement (Access Control) (DROP)
- GRANT Statement (Access Control) (REFERENCES)
Previously, these objects could only be managed from the system database using SYSTEM procedures.
SAML and JWT Provider Management (Changed)
Collections (PSEs) with purpose SAML, JWT, or X509 must now be qualified.
As documented
- Certificate Collections | SAP HANA Cloud Security Guide
User management
Stored procedures are available to resolve a situation in which a user group cannot be managed because no user has the USERGROUP OPERATOR object privilege on the user group.
As documented
- GRANT_USERGROUP_OPERATOR (SYSTEM) (REVOKE)
SAP HANA Cloud Data Lake
Administration: Backup and Recovery
Two new features
- AWS EFS Storage Provider
- Backup and recovery of data lake data
Storage Service Type
When creating a new instance, you can now choose between the types SAP Native (backed by NetApp) or AWS Elastic File System (EFS).
Ticket-based Recovery
Recovery is performed from automatic database backups for data lake instances. The recovery point objective is 3 hours. To initiate a recovery, open a service request with SAP Support.
As documented
- Data Lake Backup and Recovery | SAP HANA Cloud, Data Lake Administration Guide
For the differences between the cloud and on-premises versions, see
See also
SAP HANA Cockpit and SAP HANA Database Explorer
For administration, SAP HANA Cloud uses the latest version of the SAP HANA cockpit and the SAP HANA database explorer.
SAP HANA Database Explorer
New features for the SAP HANA database explorer were released mid-December 2020.
- Ability to filter and group database connections
- New import and export functionality
- New import type: Esri shapefiles
- New import/export sources: Amazon S3, Azure Storage, and Alibaba Cloud OSS
- New formats: Parquet and Binary
As documented
For a step-by-step guide, see
The tutorial video from product management highlights the new features.
SAP HANA SQL Analyzer
The SAP HANA SQL Analyzer extension for Microsoft Visual Studio Code provides graphical analysis of SQL execution plans as successor of the SQL Analyzer tool of the SAP HANA cockpit and the HANA Plan Visualiser (PlanViz) of SAP HANA studio.
The tutorial video from product management highlights the new features.
SAP HANA SQL Analyzer in action.
SAP Business Application Studio
New Extension: SAP HANA Native Application
SAP Business Application Studio, also AppStudio or BAS, was made generally available in February 2020.
New is the support for “native” SAP HANA database development.
As documented
- SAP HANA Cloud and SAP Business Application Studio
- SAP HANA Cloud Developer Guide for Cloud Foundry Multitarget Applications (SAP Business App Studio)
- SAP HANA Cloud Modeling Guide for SAP Business Application Studio
Learning Tracks and Missions
For the SAP HANA Journey tutorials, see
Video Tutorials
For the video tutorials from Digital Partner Engineering / SAP HANA Academy, see
SAP HANA Client
2.7
For the latest features of the SAP HANA Client 2.7, released December 2020, like X.509 authentication support for SQLDBC-based clients, SQLDBC Tracing to stdout and stderr, and a 32-bit Python driver for the Microsoft Windows platform, see
How To
Update Available
When an update is available, a notification appears in the SAP HANA Cloudmanagement tool. For the elipsis (…) menu, you can update the instance. This takes a few minutes and requires a restart.
As documented,
- Update a Database to a Newer Version, SAP HANA Cloud Getting Started
SAP HANA Cloud
Free Trial
For detailed information about how to get started with the trial, including native database development with SAP Business Application Studio, working with SAP HANA Graph, HDI, SDI, PAL, APL, data masking and data anonymization, the HANA Analytics Adapter (HAA) and more, see
To signup for the trial, go to:
The trial period is valid for 30 days but you have the option to extend your trial for an entire year.
Learning Track
For the learning track, visit
SAP HANA Academy YouTube Playlist
The YouTube video tutorial series has grown to 40+ videos with views approaching 30K. Thanks for watching!
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Thanks!
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For the author page of SAP PRESS, visit
Over the years, for the SAP HANA Academy, SAP’s Partner Innovation Lab, and à titre personnel, I have written a little over 300 posts here for the SAP Community. Some articles only reached a few readers. Others attracted quite a few more.
For your reading pleasure and convenience, here is a curated list of posts which somehow managed to pass the 10k-view mile stone and, as sign of current interest, still tickle the counters each month. |
For the SAP HANA Cloud e-bite, see
Wow, there are tons of exciting new features, thanks Denys.
Regards.
Hi Denys, there is also partial MDX support that support could activate upon request. That's useful for compatibility with third party tools such as Power BI.
Thanks, Remi
For the reader, concerns
Hi Denys,
When migrating from HANA Service to HANA Cloud in BTP, we're required to purchase HANA Cloud entitlements in order to execute the migration.
Once the migration to HANA Cloud is complete, what happens to the HANA Service entitlements that are no longer being used? There is no mention of this in any documentation or notes.
Any idea?
Thanks!
Hi Jayson,
I am not familiar with the commercial fine print. You will need to take this up with your account manager.
SAP support can help you find the right person.