BI Security Consultants, what to study?

[Former Member]

Dear Experts,

As I am supporting my first SAP system with the new BI 7 Analysis Authorization security model, I am quickly finding that having a solid BI background makes life a lot easier (at least the terminology, etc.). Therefore, I am looking for some books/study materials on building a more solid BI base in terms of security but would like some advice.

Basically, I found 2 books for sale on Amazon. As I am not sure of the linking policy, you can copy and paste the names into amazon.com and get detailed contents/description:

Data Warehousing with SAP BW7 BI in SAP NetWeaver 2004s: Architecture, Concepts, and Implementation

- Architecture

- Metadata Repository

- Data Models

- Use of DWWB for Data Modelling

- Analytical Engine

- ETL

In short, sounds a lot like the BW310 course.

SAP Business Information Warehouse Reporting: Building Better BI with SAP BI 7.0

- BI Overview

- BEx Analyzer

- Query Designer

- Report Designer

- Formatting Reports/Design/Use of Characteristics

In short, sounds a lot like the BW305 course.

Both of them seem beginner-friendly while containing a lot of detail, but as time (and money) are very limited I would like to know which would be better to give build my BI knowledge in regards to Security/Analysis Authorizations. The first book would give a more technical background on BI whereas the second book could be useful as Analysis Authorizations do center around queries/reporting.

Remember, my BI knowledge is very rudimentary. Let me know you opinion - thanks!

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Checkout this links before you order any of these books

https://service.sap.com/securityguide

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/media/uuid/ac7d7c27-0a01-0010-d5a9-9cb9ddcb6b...

http://sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/e0a93c0e-3a98-2b10-55ae-8dbcbad61f8e

/people/kamaljeet.kharbanda/blog/2009/02/26/step-by-step-sap-bi-security

Looks like the books you have mentioned will provide knowledge about BIW in general, but nothing specific to just security.

There is lot of material available on-line free of charge, i dont think buying a book is necessary. Atleast thats how i updated my BI security skillset and i am doing fine

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

SG: Thanks very much for those helpful links. The 2nd link provided is especially useful for reference to the administrator authorizations.

However, my main concern is with the new concept where we are restricting InfoObjects, Hierarchies, etc. For example, I had to do some research on basic BW terminology to begin understanding some of the online help documentations due to my lack of BI knowledge. This was what lead me to the BI books where I was hoping to get more of an insight into BW fundamentals.

Did you ever have to touch any BW learning material to be proficient with analysis authorizations?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

My story was a little different, i had previously worked on BW 3x security.

Though the authorization concept is different, i was able to learn quickly.

Will you have some time to learn on the job or do you have to learn and start working quickly ?

Because once you lay your hands on the system, it will not be very hard to learn.

Sit with your BI resource and build one simple role and rest of all will be the same.

I agree that knowledge in BI is definately a plus, the second book looks a little better in that sense.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

SG: Thanks again for your prompt reply. I am "hitting the ground running" in that the project has gone live and I am supporting at the current moment. I do feel after a couple weeks that I am starting to get the hang of things (thanks to additional research on basic BW fundamentals) - I guess it just takes time. The 2nd book does seem to apply more I guess as analysis authorizations really center around queries/reports and that's what I need to know (versus some of the pure BI administration).

If I had the time and money, I wouldn't hesitate to get both but perhaps I will check the 2nd book then.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

What you can also do is read through [SAP Note 964905|https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/964905] and [SAP Note 820183 |https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/820183] and then search for references to them here on SDN (forum threads, blogs, articles) in the hope of finding gems of information which have done their homework.

Tip: The "Send me the docs" type threads and resulting link farms are mostly an overkill and not usefull or well researched.

Cheers,

Julius

ps: From BI consultants I know they also categorize themselves into those who understand ABAP and those who dont

Edited by: Julius Bussche on Jun 10, 2009 9:42 PM

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Julius: Thank you very much for the informative note. A colleague I am working with also recommended this one and your idea of searching any threads related to this note is quite interesting - I will give it a try for sure! In my previous searches, it seems most BI Security documentation is very general and literature is scarce on the topic.

Regarding your tip, I am unsure if it was directed at this thead or not so I will clarify. The purpose of this thread is indeed for me to start my own research and not seek resource links, etc. As noted in my original post, there seems to be two "streams" of BW documentation - the more technical BW310-like stream and more Query/Reporting-oriented BW305-like stream. I was therefore inquiring on which of those areas I should be concentrating my studying on to get the most relevant BI background needed to administer BI security effectively. The two books I noted in my post were the ones I dug up after looking online and would function as the base for further studying/research in that area.

Thanks for yours and everyone's help/opinion once again.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

The tip was just a general comment for you about using the search on SDN.

In earlier days (threads still exist) detailed questions where literally "spammed" with link farms and promises of "cook books" sent via mail.

I try to use some technical terms when searching. Same goes for the service.sap.com search, where the message number and the function name is very usefull to filter with...

Cheers,

Julius

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Excellent, thanks for the search tips! Hopefully I can avoid those link farms as you mentioned as I did chance upon a few and it ended up leading me through various hoops and closed ends.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Yes, they are a pain. Long story

Another search term worth keeping an eye on is "bex AND migration" if you use the BEX Explorer. There are newer technologies for data mining.

Also take note that with SAP's acquisition of BusinessObjects ("BO"), "BI" is now "BW" again. So "BI" is both "BO" and "BW" for newer publications.

Probably this is because "BOBJ" sounded a bit silly, but I guess it will be a usefull search term for a while still as well...

Cheers,

Julius