BI 7 – New features

New features in BI 7

- Flexibility

-Transformation Concept

- DataStore object

- Data Transfer Process

- Real-Time Data Acquisition

- Administration Cockpit

- High Performance Analytics

- Near-line Storage

- Enterprise Reporting, Query, and Analysis

Query, Reporting & Analysis – Designing a Query

Query, Reporting & Analysis – Designing a Report

Query, Reporting & Analysis – Designing a Web Application

- BEx Web Printing

- Information Broadcasting – Enhancements

- Business Planning and Analytical Services

- Further Enhancements

- The Administrator Workbench is now called Data Warehousing Workbench.

- The ODS object is now called DataStore object.

- The transaction ODS object is now called as direct update DataStore

- The transactional InfoCube is now called real-time InfoCube.

- The RemoteCube, SAP RemoteCube and virtual InfoCube with services are now referred

to as VirtualProviders.

- The monitor is now called the extraction monitor, to distinguish it from the other monitors.

New terminology in BI 7

BI 7 provides additional flexibility for implementing new data models and changing

existing ones :

Remodeling Toolbox

Changing InfoCubes without rebuilding them from scratch – improved flexibility. As of

now applicable only for infocube. To access re-modeling option select InfoCube->right

click Additional function->Remodelling

Note: During (dictionary-based) conversion process it is not possible to get data in

queries, aggregates will be automatically deactivated and need to be rebuilt.

Transporting remodeling is not possible

(formerly: ODS objects)

Improved performance and flexibility. New DataStore type: Write-optimised (without

change-log, no activation queue)

Enhanced Info Sets

Improved flexibility

Integrate InfoCubes into join condition, can have join between infocube and master data

(outer join between master data and InfoCube).

Modeling the EDW – Flexibility

Remodelling

InfoSet with master data and InfoCube

BI 7 significantly improves transformation capabilities.

Improved performance, flexibility and usability

Graphical UI

Unification of transfer and update rules

Grouping (Ex. Sales agent and his manager)

New rule type: end routine – Data after transformation

New rule type: expert routine (pure coding of transformation)

Transformation directly links from source Infoprovider

(Datasource) to target Infoprovider (Infosource usually not

required)

Data transfer process

BI 7 improves and streamlines the data flow definition and process chain set-up. In addition,

it provides new real-time data acquisition capabilities that facilitate operational reporting:

Data transfer process (DTP)

Data distribution within SAP BI (from PSA or Info Providers to Info Providers)

Improved transparency of staging processes across data warehouse layers

(PSA, DWH layer, ODS layer, Architected Data Marts)

Improved performance

Separation of delta mechanism for different data targets (Ex: Daily/Weekly load)

Enhanced filtering in dataflow

Data Transfer process (Filter option)

Enhanced real-time data acquisition capabilities

XML Web service

Direct push into PSA (instead of Service API/Delta Queue)

Near-real-time InfoPackage & DTP

Daemon-based update from delta queue (BW Service API)

Daemon-based update of DataStore objects

(ODS layer) – including lean staging (with minimized logging)

Real time data acquisition

- Enhanced real-time data acquisition capabilities

High performance Analytics

BI 7 provides various tools to increase the data load and query performance

Significantly – among them the innovative high performance analytics approach.

Thus, the implementation of large enterprise data warehouses is facilitated.

High performance analytics (HPA) / BI Accelerator (BIA)

A new paradigm for high performance data access.

- Query performance is improved by factor 10 – 100

- HPA is used in connection with KM search engine TREX

- TREX indexes – Vertical indexes in which stored data in column wise not row wise

- No need of change run in aggregates

Near-line storage

Administrator cockpit

Enterprise Reporting, Query and Analysis

Query , Reporting and Analysis.

Query design takes place in the Business Explorer (BEx) Query Designer,

a Visual Basic .NET-based Unicode-compliant tool.

State-of-the-art UI concept, providing for example:

Available tasks for a selected object presented via a

task pane

Message panel shows warnings and error messages in context 

helps to avoid or

correct errors

Enhanced application menus, toolbars and context menus

Extended visualization of status and user actions

Support of multi-selected objects – drag&drop, properties

Options for BI-integrated Planning

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Report designer

Designing a Report

Report design takes place in the Business Explorer (BEx) Report Designer – a new,

VB .Net-based tool that allows to create formatted, print-optimized reports.

Standard formatting: Font styles (e.g. bold, italic) and colors, etc.

Group level changes with individual formattings

Layout options, for example

Height of rows, width of columns

Multiline column headers

Flexible positioning of fields

Merger of cells

Support of hierarchies

Integration of texts, pictures, and charts

Header and footer for reports and pages

Web application designer

Model-driven BI application building

Wizards for charts, maps, command editing

Wizard for layout elements (e.g. buttons)

Intellisense“ support for Web API developers

Easy integration of native HTML commands

New layout elements (Tab strips etc.)

New Web items

New chart types, e.g. GANTT chart, MTA (Milestone trend analysis) chart

Design of planning aware business applications

Web printing

Comfortable PDF based BEx Web printing

Any type of BEx Web query, Report or Web Application can be converted to PDF and printed

Leveraging the SAP NetWeaver AS integration with Adobe Document Service

Adobe Acrobat Reader required, no plug-ins necessary

Printing options can be maintained globally or individually by an end-user

Business planning and analytics services (BI integrated planning)

Open and flexible planning framework for all SAP applications

Fully integrated with BI and analytics services

One user interface, one design environment, one engine

Shared services and persistency and integrated meta data

Further enhancement

Modeling the EDW

Data Warehousing Workbench

New infocube maintanence UI like ODS

Contains process chain maintanence,monitor, delta queue etc.

Display complete dataflow from source to target

PSA mandatory

Running the EDW

Process Chains

Display-only mode, copying of process chain

Additional functionality(interupt process,workflow, and process types (condition),

choosing background user for execution process

New Analysis Authorization concept

Higher flexibility and simplified modeling

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Process chain enhancement

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Data warehouse workbench

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InfoCube maintenance

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Distinction between 3.X and BI 7 objects

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BI 7 vs. 3.x DataSource

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Migration

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DataSource Migration

Why Load Balancing  for BW

Load balancing provides the capability to distribute processing across several servers in order to optimally utilize the server resources that are available. An effective load balancing strategy can help you to avoid inefficient situations where one server is overloaded (and thus performance suffers on that server), while other servers go underutilized. The following processes can be balanced:

• Logon load balancing (via group login): This allows you to distribute the workload of multiple query/administration users across several application servers.

• Distribution of web users across application servers can be configured in the BEx service in SICF.

• ODS Object Data Activation is definable for specific server groups (BW 3.x).

• Process Chains can be processed on specified server groups (BW 3.x).

• Extraction in the mySAP source system can be processed on specified server groups: RFC destination in BW to source system must be defined accordingly (transaction SM59).

• Data load in BW can be processed on specified server groups: RFC destination in source system to BW must be defined accordingly (transaction SM59).

• Data staging via XML over HTTP/SOAP can be processed on specified server groups (BW 3.x).

You can define logon server groups in transaction SMLG and RZ12 and assign these groups to the mentioned processes; the data packages are sent to the servers included in the server group.

IT Landscape and Configuration

A BW environment can contain a DB server and several application servers. These servers can be configured individually (e.g. number of dialog and batch processes), so that the execution of the different job types (such as queries, loading, DB processes) can be optimized. The general guideline here is to avoid hot spots and bottlenecks.

Be sure that enough processes (of a certain type) are configured.

A BW application server does not need a UP2 process and at most would use 2 UPD processes.

Operation modes can be switched to affect the allocations for dialog and batch processing for different application servers.

For optimizing the hardware resources, it is recommended to define at least two operation modes: one for batch processing (if there is a dedicated batch window) with several batch processes and one for the query processing with several dialog processes.

Note that the data load in BW for extraction from R/3 runs in dialog processes.

An important point here is that sufficient resources should be available in order to distribute the workload across several application servers. Monitor the activity on different app servers to determine a strategy for optimizing the workload distribution (using load balancing). Also, if the database server is “tight” on resources, consider moving the central instance away from the database server, in order to allocate maximum resources to database processes. Note that database processes may utilize a significant number of CPUs, and thus you should carefully monitor CPU utilization in the DB server.

Different application servers have separate buffers and caches. E.g. the OLAP cache (BW 3.x) on one application server does not use the OLAP cache on other servers

Hardware Impact

The capacity of the hardware resources represents highly significant aspect of the overall performance of the BW system in general. Insufficient resources in any one area can constraint performance capabilities

These include:

• number of CPUs

• speed of CPUs

• memory

• I/O-Controller

• Disk architecture (e.g. RAID)

The hardware sizing should be done according to the recommendations of SAP’s hardware partner. The number of CPUs is dependent on the required number of parallel processes (e.g. upload processes, queries). In the end, better hardware will certainly improve your system performance and should be considered, if all other optimizing activities were not satisfactory.

A reasonable sizing is the prerequisite for satisfactory performance. If your BW system is likely to grow, be sure that the hardware is scalable. We recommend to have a five year growth projection that takes into account a long term near line storage and archiving plan, as well as granularity size goals – for example maintaining two years of detail level data, and five years summary data. You also need to account for your PSA size – Do you delete an old load after the next successful load? Or do you manage PSA at all?

See QuickSizer in SAP Service Marketplace for more details.

The client hardware has also significant impact on the query response time. You can improve rendering time of web applications or BEx Analyzer queries significantly by supplying a better frontend client hardware

Strategic Performance Management

Performance is a very difficult and interdependent topic. In complex scenarios it is not possible to optimize all single processes. The objectives must be defined and prioritized in advance. We recommend the approach of Strategic Performance Management.

Strategic Performance Management (SPM) is an emerging discipline that is becoming widely recognized as the next evolution in performance management by META Group, GartnerGroup, Bill Inmon and forward-thinking industry leaders. Unlike tactical performance management, which operates from a bottom-up approach, SPM views performance from a top-down approach. SPM addresses questions such as:

• Who are your most critical users?

• How is the system being used?

• What data is being most frequently accessed?

• How is that data being used or consumed?

• How is my IT infrastructure being used by different lines of business (LOBs)?

• Is my IT infrastructure performance being maximized on an ongoing basis?

• Can I measure the ROI of my investment?

• Is my organization able to make their most critical decisions in a timely fashion?

• When will I run out of capacity and what are the financial implications?

• What are my alternatives – both in terms of performance and financial implications?

Tactical products don’t provide these answers because they focus on discrete elements (CPU, disk, network, SQL, data, etc.). SPM takes into account all of these elements and provides a correlated view or systemic approach to performance improvement. SPM understands that improving and managing performance must be encompassing.  SPM empowers the organization to focus on the root cause(s) of bottlenecks.

Use

By using partitioning you can split up the whole dataset for an InfoCube into several, smaller, physically independent and redundancy-free units. Thanks to this separation, performance is increased when reporting, or also when deleting data from the InfoCube.

Only certain database providers support this function (for example, ORACLE, INFORMIX). If you use a database that does not support this function, then this function is not provided by the BW system.

Integration

Prerequisites

You can only partition a dataset using one of the two partitioning criteria ‘calendar month’ (0CALMONTH) or ‘fiscal year/period (0FISCPER). At least one of the two InfoObjects must be contained in the InfoCube.

If you want to partition an InfoCube using the fiscal year/period (0FISCPER) characteristic, you have to set the fiscal year variant characteristic to constant.

Functions

When activating the InfoCube, the fact table is created on the database with one of the number of partitions corresponding to the value range. You can set the value range yourself.

You choose the partitioning criterion 0CALMONTH and determine the value range

from     01.1998

to         12.2003

6 years * 12 months + 2 = 74 partitions are created (2 partitions for values that lay outside of the range, meaning < 01.1998 or >12.2003).

You can also determine how many partitions are created as a maximum on the database for the fact table of the InfoCube.

You choose the partitioning criterion 0CALMONTH and determine the value range

from       01.1998

to         12.2003

You choose 30 as the maximum number of partitions.

Resulting from the value range: 6 years * 12 calendar months + 2 marginal partitions (up to 01.1998, from 12.2003) = 74 single values.

The system groups three months at a time together in a partition (meaning that a partition corresponds to exactly one quarter); In this way, 6 years * 4 partitions/year + 2 marginal partitions = 26 partitions are created on the database.

The performance gain is only gained for the partitioned InfoCube if the time dimension of the InfoCube is consistent. This means that all values of the 0CAL* characteristics of a data record in the time dimension must fit each other with a partitioning via 0CALMONTH.

In the following example, only record 1 is consistent. Records 2 and 3 are not:

Activities

In the InfoCube maintenance choose Extras ® Partitioning, and specify the value range. Where necessary, limit the maximum number of partitions. Note: You can only change the value range when the InfoCube does not contain any data.

Creating Process Chains 

Prerequisites

If you want to include a load process in the process chain, you need to have already created an InfoPackage.

You cannot load flat file data from a client workstation in the background. For this reason, you have stored your data on an application server.

Creating Process Chains

You have the option of creating a process chain in the process chain maintenance screen directly or by using a maintenance dialog for a process:

Creating a Process Chain Directly in the Process Chain Maintenance Screen

You are in the BW Administrator Workbench.

…

       1.      Click on the  Process Chain Maintenance icon in the AWB toolbar.

The Process Chain Selection dialog window appears.

       2.      Choose Create.

       3.      Enter the technical name and a description of the chain, and confirm your entry.

The Add Start Process dialog window appears.

       4.      Create a variant for a start process.

1.     a.       On the Maintain Start Process screen, choose whether you want to schedule the chain directly or whether you want to start it using a metachain.

2.     b.       If you choose to schedule the chain directly, enter the start date value for the chain under Change Selections and save your entries.

The Maintain Start Process screen appears again.

3.     c.       Save your entries, return to the previous screen and confirm your entries in the Add Start Process dialog window.

You are taken to the  Plan View of the process chain maintenance screen.

In the left-hand area of the screen, a navigation area is displayed. In the right-hand area of the screen, the process chain is displayed.

       5.      Use the drag-and-drop function to add the relevant processes into your process chain.

You use the  Process Types function to select the processes. This sorts the process types according to different categories. You can also call up InfoPackages and processes for the data target from the separate  InfoSources and  Data Targets navigation trees.

If you insert into the chain a process that is linked to additional processes, the respective process variants are generated and inserted into the process chain automatically. These variants are suggestions and can be changed, replaced or removed from the chain if required.

Only if the attribute realignment run is inserted automatically, do you also arrive at the variant maintenance screen.

If you want to specify yourself the processes that are to be included in a chain, choose Settings ® Default Chains, and select the Do Not Suggest Processes option. As a result, the system does not suggest, generate, or insert automatically any processes into the chain. This setting is user-specific.

If the chain that you create does not correspond to the standard, the system displays a warning. You can ignore these warnings if you are sure that you are creating a chain that meets your requirements. Warnings do not affect how the chain operates during runtime.

Your chain is checked in the checking view and during activation. The system tells you if it discovers any errors.

Creating a Process Chain Using the Maintenance Dialog for a Process

You are in the maintenance dialog of a process that you want to include in a process chain.

…

       1.      Choose the Process Chain Maintenance pushbutton and create a process variant.

       2.      Save the variant and go back to the previous screen.

A dialog window appears in which you enter a technical name and a description of the chain that you want to create.

       3.      Confirm your entries.

The Add Start Process dialog window appears.

       4.      Create a variant for a start process.

1.     a.       On the Maintain Start Process screen, choose whether you want to schedule the chain directly or whether you want to start it using a metachain.

2.     b.       If you choose to schedule the chain directly, enter the start date value for the chain under Change Selections and save your entries.

The Maintain Start Process screen appears again.

3.     c.       Save your entries, return to the previous screen and confirm your entries in the Add Start Process dialog window.

You are taken to the  Plan View of the process chain maintenance screen.

The various process categories, the application processes, and collection processes are displayed in the left-hand area of the screen. In the right-hand area of the screen, the process chain is displayed.

If the process that you used to create a chain is linked to additional processes, the respective process variants are generated and inserted into the process chain automatically. These variants are suggestions and can be changed, replaced or removed from the chain if required.

Only if the attribute realignment run is inserted automatically, do you also arrive at the variant maintenance screen.

If you want to specify yourself the processes that are to be included in a chain, choose Settings ® Default Chains, and select the Do Not Suggest Processes option. As a result, the system does not suggest, generate, or insert automatically any processes into the chain. This setting is user-specific.

If the chain that you create does not correspond to the standard, the system displays a warning. You can ignore these warnings if you are sure that you are creating a chain that meets your requirements. Warnings do not affect how the chain operates during runtime.

Your chain is checked in the checking view and during activation. The system tells you if it discovers any errors.

       5.      Use the drag-and-drop function to insert any additional relevant processes into your process chain.

You use the  Process Types function to select the processes. This sorts the process types according to different categories. You can also call up InfoPackages and processes for the data target from the separate  InfoSources and  Data Targets navigation trees.

Additional Steps to Creating a Process Chain

       6.      When you add a process, you need to select a process variant or create a new variant. For collection processes, the system determines the variants.

Various functions for working with the process are available from the context menu:

       7.      Hold down the left mouse button to connect the processes through events.

Before you do this, select the process underneath the process type row, and position the cursor over the required process. When you select the process type row, the whole process is moved into the plan view.

From the context menu of a link, you can display the event or remove the link again. To do this, highlight the link and right-click with the mouse.

       8.      If necessary, specify whether you want the event to be triggered after the previous process has been completed successfully or unsuccessfully or whether you want the event to be triggered independently of the outcome of the process that precedes it.

       9.      Under Attributes ®Display Components assign a display component to the process chain.

   10.      Maintain additional process chain attributes if necessary.

   11.      Check your process chain in the  Check View and make any necessary corrections.

The  Legend explains the meaning of the different colors used to display the processes and links.

From the context menu for a process, you can display the messages resulting from the check.

   12.      Save your process chain if it does not contain any errors.

Process Chains 

A process chain is a sequence of processes that wait in the background for an event. Some of these processes trigger a separate event that can start other processes in turn.

Use

In an operating BW system there are a multitude of processes in addition to the loading process that occur regularly.

If you use process chains, you can

• automate the complex schedules in BW with the help of the event-controlled processing,
• visualize the schedule by using network applications, and
• centrally control and monitor the processes.

Fundamental principals of the process chain concept are:

• Openness

The abstract meaning of a process as any schedule with a defined beginning and end enables openness with regard to the type of process that can be integrated into a process chain. The principle of openness is applied to the theory behind process chains, in that both user-defined programs and processes can be implemented. In addition, you can include process chains in other process chains, so-called meta chains. In doing so you have the option of integrating process chains from the BW system, in which the meta chain is found, or from other BW systems. In this context, local or remote process chains are concerned.

• Security

Using process chains offers a high amount of schedule security, which is based on the principals of background management:

•  
  • Processes are scheduled before your run and can be monitored with the standard batch monitor
  • You start subsequent processes by using background events.
  • Short dumps and terminations are recognized and handled respectively.

Responsibility

The subsequent process is responsible for getting all the information from the predecessors that is needed for a correct run. This enables the integration of new process types without having to be suitable for the existing types.

You can call up process chain maintenance centrally from the BW Administrator Workbench using Process Chain Maintenance in the toolbar. Use the corresponding pushbutton to access process chain management from the maintenance dialogs in the BW-supported processes.