New Features of DTP in SAP BW 7.4

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             Applies to:       SAP BW 7.4

             Summary:       This document describes the enhancements to DTPs(Data Transfer Process) in SAP BW 7.4.

             Author:           Sudeepti Bandi

             Company:       NTT DATA Global Delivery Services Limited

             Created On:    26th May 2015

             Author Bio  

             Sudeepti is a Principal Consultant at NTT DATA from the SAP Analytics Practice.

INTRODUCTION : SAP Netweaver BW 7.4 utilizes the SAP HANA as an underlying database. So, the enhancements in this version are built around the integration between SAP BW and SAP HANA. This blog is an attempt to demonstrate the new features available in SAP BW 7.4 DTPs. DTP's are used to transfer data from different sources of data to target objects.

Following are the options available in different tabs of Data Transfer Process(DTP) in SAP BW 7.4

• ‘Source object’ in the ‘Extraction’ tab has more options

     A query (QueryProvider) can be used as the source object in a DTP.

• ‘Target Object’ in the ‘Update’ tab has more options.

• Changes in Error Handling:

     Error handling has new descriptions.

The table below has a comparison of error handling options for DTP between SAP BW 7.4 and the prior versions.

         

The option ‘Track Records after Failed Request’ can be selected when error handling is set to ‘Terminate request; no record tracing; no  updating’, i.e. when error handling is deactivated. By choosing this we can enable tracing of erroneous records after a request fails. This setting (deactivating error handling) helps performance of data load as there is no tracking of error records during data load process.

• SAP HANA Processing mode

The DTP in 7.4 has a new processing mode – SAP HANA Processing. If the BW system is using HANA DB, this mode is seen in the DTP. We check for the availability of this processing mode by clicking on the button.

If the corresponding transformations can be processed in HANA DB, this option can be used provided the prerequisites listed below are met.

     Prerequisites:

• Error handling is deactivated.
• No existing requests in the DTP error stack.
• Semantic groups are not created
• If the target of the DTP is a DataStore object: On the Update tab, Subsequent Processing without Master Data is selected.
• If the target of the DTP is an open hub destination: The destination is a database table or a third-party tool.
• If the source of the DTP is a DataStore object: On the Extraction tab, the parameter for DeltaInit extraction from Active Table (with Archive) is not set.
• If the source of the DTP is a DataSource: The data extraction comes from the PSA, meaning that the option from From PSA is selected in the parametrs of the DataSource under Data Extraction on the Extraction tab.

If the requirements listed above are not met, check availability throws an error as seen below.

Delta Merge: There are two storages when HANA DB is used - the main storage and the delta storage (delta index). Changes to data are saved in the delta index.. When a read access happens (example- a query being executed), both the main storage and delta storage are read and the results are merged. These changes are updated to main storage through a delta merge. Only when a threshold value is reached, the delta merge is triggered.

The checkbox ‘Trigger Database Merge’ in the ‘Update’ tab of the DTP is selected to enable the delta merge after the data load happens. In case of multiple sources to the object, delta merge has to be performed as a step in process chain called ‘Trigger for database merge’ to avoid any inconsistency in load balancing. 

• Other features:

• We can only use the type DTP for Direct Access if the target of the data transfer process is a VirtualProvider
• The flag ‘Do not extract from PSA’; is used when data is directly accessed from source when source system is ODP.
• In prior versions, only delta DTPs were used for fetching data request by requestfrom the source was possible only in extraction mode Delta for hierarchies. This setting is now also supported for Full DTPs.
• The ‘Request Template’ field in the DTP Monitor is used to display the DTP version that the DTP was created with.

• When adding a DTP to a process chain, input help is now provided so that you can search by various criteria, for example by the DTP's source and target, the DTP type, status or processing mode.

• Master data activation post loading can be automated within DTP as seen in the setting below.

Conclusion:

This document is an attempt to highlight the enhancements to DTPs in SAP BW 7.4, by giving a look and feel of the new features. Please note that all the options were not explored to the fullest extent and there could be extension to few concepts and features mentioned here.

        Reference Links:     

http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-53527

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw74/helpdata/en/15/c4421e20e540b58cb7debe8656364d/content.htm