Architectural Question - Random questions (made diagram also)

[Former Member]

I had few questions regarding the Architecture of HANA with it's environment:

1) Can you look at my diagram and tell me if it looks correct? If not please tell me what to change. Link--->[Click here|http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/zainzain11/hanaaaa.jpg]

2) Data loaded to HANA can be loaded from 3 sources; R/3, SAP BI, and non-SAP source (3rd party)? Am I correct?

3) Can data be loaded in HANA from SAP BI? If so, is this common practice or redundant (eliminate BI and store data in HANA directly)?

4) Replication is in 'near real time', what does that mean exactly, what exactly is the delay milliseconds, seconds, minutes?

5) Is it the responsibility of HANA developers to load data into HANA from non-SAP source? Or is it Basis, or 3rd party, or little involvement from HANA developers?

6) What are the options to load data from 3rd party into HANA? Flatfile? 3rd party software? Is there something built in HANA to connect to non-SAP sources?

7) Can HANA engine have both SSD and HDD? Or only one? If can have both, is that bad practice?

I really appreciate all of your help, I've learned more an this forum than any other place.

Thanks in advance

Edited by: Mickster on Aug 21, 2011 10:42 PM

[Vitaliy-R · Accepted solution]

1/ On the left side it should be:

SAP ERP -> SAP Business Suite Application (it can be SAP CRM too, not only SAP ERP)

SAP BI -> SAP BW (SAP BI is used not for SAP Business Objects, not for BW 7.0 anymore)

On the right side:

Business Objects -> SAP BusinessObjects BI (Business Objects is more than just BI tools, it oncludes as well EPM, EIM etc)

Note that this picture is only for HANA-based analytics scenarios, and not necessarly for HANA-based applications.

2/ Technicaly it can be loaded in batch modes from any sources to which you can connect SBO DataServices, and from any SAP application compatible with SAP LT Replicator.

3/ I assume you are asking about loading from SAP BW?

4/ ~2 secs

5/ It depends on the project composition and personal skills. SAP hasn't yet defined standard roles/skills for HANA.

6/ It is with SBO DataServices 4.0, but you can use flat files to to load directly into HANA database.

7/ Let's not mix terms - HANA engine is the database software component. HANA hardware server has both SSD (for log files) and HDD (for data files).

Regards,

-Vitaliy

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Vitaliy, follow up questions.

1) SAP ERP -> SAP Business Suite Application (it can be SAP CRM too, not only SAP ERP)

SAP BI -> SAP BW (SAP BI is used not for SAP Business Objects, not for BW 7.0 anymore)

On the right side:

Business Objects -> SAP BusinessObjects BI (Business Objects is more than just BI tools, it oncludes as well EPM, EIM etc)

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Got it, I've made the changes, can you look at the diagram now and tell me if it looks correct?

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/zainzain11/HanaArch.jpg

3/ I assume you are asking about loading from SAP BW?

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Yes...from SAP BW (sorry my mistake). Can you expand on question 3.

Thanks in advance.

Edited by: Mickster on Aug 23, 2011 10:22 PM

[Vitaliy-R · Accepted solution]

Thanks Vitaliy, follow up questions.
> 
> 1) SAP ERP -> SAP Business Suite Application (it can be SAP CRM too, not only SAP ERP)
> SAP BI -> SAP BW (SAP BI is used not for SAP Business Objects, not for BW 7.0 anymore)
> On the right side:
> Business Objects -> SAP BusinessObjects BI (Business Objects is more than just BI tools, it oncludes as well EPM, EIM etc)
> 
> -
Got it, I've made the changes, can you look at the diagram now and tell me if it looks correct?
> http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/zainzain11/HanaArch.jpg

On the right side the most proper would be to say SAP BusinessObjects BI, no listing EIM and EPM there. Again - it is only for Data Marts scenarios, because once you put some apps from SBO Apps protfolio on top of HANA, they may not use SBO BI tools at all.

> 3/ I assume you are asking about loading from SAP BW?
> -
Yes...from SAP BW (sorry my mistake). Can you expand on question 3.

Yes you can load SAP BW data, but you would do it using OpenHub functionality and SBO DataServices in between. Not BW raw tables replication. So in this sense the way to load BW and 3rd party data is pretty much the same. Technicaly if 3rd party data is in DB2 database, you can look at using real-time replication using Sybase Replication Server, but I would not expect this to go mainstream.

Regards,

-Vitaliy

Edited by: Vitaliy Rudnytskiy on Aug 23, 2011 3:44 PM

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

On the right side the most proper would be to say SAP BusinessObjects BI, no listing EIM and EPM there. Again - it is only for Data Marts scenarios, because once you put some apps from SBO Apps protfolio on top of HANA, they may not use SBO BI tools at all.

Got it. I just put SAP BusinessObjects BI. Can you check one last time. (sorry)

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/zainzain11/HanaArch-1.jpg

Yes you can load SAP BW data, but you would do it using OpenHub functionality and SBO DataServices in between. Not BW raw tables replication. So in this sense the way to load BW and 3rd party data is pretty much the same. Technicaly if 3rd party data is in DB2 database, you can look at using real-time replication using Sybase Replication Server, but I would not expect this to go mainstream.

So the ETL process that's used to move data from R/3 to BW (Extraction, Transformation, Loading) cannot be used for data going from BW to HANA?

[Vitaliy-R · Accepted solution]

> Got it. I just put SAP BusinessObjects BI. Can you check one last time. (sorry)
> http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y175/zainzain11/HanaArch-1.jpg

All right

> So the ETL process that's used to move data from R/3 to BW (Extraction, Transformation, Loading) cannot be used for data going from BW to HANA?

Those are different. You can use R/3 Extractors (not all of them) to connect to SBO DataServices and thefore loading this R/3 data into HANA i/o BW. Or you can use OpenHub destinations to prepare BW data for extraction, which will feed SBO DS and subsequently HANA db. As simple as that

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Vitaliy.

Questions solved.

Points given.

Thanks again.

[Former Member]

Please find the response below:

1) Can you look at my diagram and tell me if it looks correct? If not please tell me what to change. Link--->Click here

At High level, the diagram looks correct.

2) Data loaded to HANA can be loaded from 3 sources; R/3, SAP BI, and non-SAP source (3rd party)? Am I correct?

Yes

3) Can data be loaded in HANA from SAP BI? If so, is this common practice or redundant (eliminate BI and store data in HANA directly)?

Data can be loaded in HANA from SAP BI ( I guess you mean SAP BW). Based on my project experience, the client is keep data redundant in short term. In long term, plan is to store data in HANA directly and reporting off BOBJ BI reporting tools.

4) Replication is in 'near real time', what does that mean exactly, what exactly is the delay milliseconds, seconds, minutes?

My understanding is it should be less than a second however it depends on numerous other factors.

5) Is it the responsibility of HANA developers to load data into HANA from non-SAP source? Or is it Basis, or 3rd party, or little involvement from HANA developers?

Based on my HANA project experience and information on few HANA POC, there is a separate role for data loads as it requires understanding of either Data Services, SLT or Sybase replication server.

6) What are the options to load data from 3rd party into HANA? Flatfile? 3rd party software? Is there something built in HANA to connect to non-SAP sources?

To the best of my knowledge, the only supported way is to load from 3rd party or flat files is thru Data Services. The other technical ways are not supported by SAP.

7) Can HANA engine have both SSD and HDD? Or only one? If can have both, is that bad practice?

HANA is a pre-configured appliance and has software component called CALC engine for fast calculations. The appliance comes in various sizes and has both components for various purposes.

[Former Member]

Thanks Divya, couple of questions:

3) Data can be loaded in HANA from SAP BI ( I guess you mean SAP BW). Based on my project experience, the client is keep data redundant in short term. In long term, plan is to store data in HANA directly and reporting off BOBJ BI reporting tools.

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So your client is moving data from SAP BW to HANA (short term)? Also, from your experience, is HANA slowly going to take a bite out of SAP BW implementation? Am I making a good career decision to move to HANA from BW?

5) Based on my HANA project experience and information on few HANA POC, there is a separate role for data loads as it requires understanding of either Data Services, SLT or Sybase replication server.

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From your experience, can you list the responsibilities of HANA developer? (I am making a transition into HANA at work, and want to priorities HANA responsibilities).

Thanks in advance.