SAP BW Mentor

This blog post will explain the new functionalities around real-time data acquisition and reporting in SAP BW 7.3. More particularly, I will explain the use case and benefits from HybridProviders based on Standard DSO with Real-Time Data Acquisition (RDA).

With BW 7.3 SAP introduced a new InfoProvider called HybridProvider, which aims to suit business scenarios that require real-time or near real-time fast access to information. Generally speaking, this new InfoProvider is somehow similar to a MultiProvider, because it does not store the data itself, but combines the data from underlying InfoProviders. However, the HybridProvider is designed to suit specifically two modeling cases and therefore could be one of the following combinations:

• Standard DSO with Real-Time Data Acquisition (RDA) and a standard InfoCube
• Virtual InfoCube and a standard InfoCube

I have to say that the modeling principle behind HybridProviders has been used in previous versions of BW as well. However, with BW 7.3 instead of doing the whole model by hand the system creates part of the necessary objects automatically and ensures consistency.

In this blog post we will concentrate on the HybridProvider, which is based on a standard DSO with Real-Time Data Acquisition (RDA).

The prerequisites for this type of HybridProvider is to have a delta capable datasource, which is real-time enabled.

Steps to create the HybridProvider:

1. Create a Standard DSO upon the business requirements.
2. Create a HybridProvider based on the DSO.

   Note that once you create a HybridProvider on top of the DSO, it can no longer be used standalone, but only in the context of the new HybridProvider.

   Note that SAP BW automatically generates the standard InfoCube, the transformation between the DSO and the InfoCube and the corresponding DTP. The system also automatically creates a process chain for the generated DTP.

3. Create a transformation between the DataSource and the DSO.
4. Create a DTP for Real-Time Data Acquisition for the loading to the DSO.
5. Create an Initialization InfoPackage for the RDA enabled DataSource and initialize the delta.

   Note that if you have initialized with data transfer, you will need to load this initial dataset with a normal DTP up to the DSO. To do this, you can change the previously created DTP to Standard and load the data. After the successful load, you have to change back the DTP to Real-Time.

6. Create an InfoPackage for the Datasource for real-time data acquisition.
7. Assign the RDA Infopackage and DTP to a daemon process.
8. Customize the daemon process and schedule it as required.

The monitoring of the loading process is done through transaction RSRDA, where you can see the status of the different processes assigned to your daemon and eventually repair any red processes. You can also check the last successful load to the DSO. And here comes the nice part. SAP BW ensures that once the request in the DSO is closed, the data will be loaded automatically from the change log table to the InfoCube through the generated process chain. Like this, the system takes away part of the administration work as it ensures consistency between the DSO and the standard Infocube.

There are also several additional features around the consistency of the data inside the HybridProvider:

• The transformation rules between a DataStore object and an InfoCube are of type direct assignment. This assignment cannot be changed.
• You cannot manually create additional DTP-s or transformations for the InfoCube. Data transfer to the InfoCube can only be performed using the generated objects.
• Changing the HybridProvider and reactivating it results in deletion of the related DTP and transformation and their regeneration.
• You cannot edit the DSO or the Infocube separately. They can only be edited in the context of the HybridProvider.

With all these cool new features HybridProviders are surely one of the best functionalities in SAP BW 7.3 and therefore should be used whenever the data model requires real time reporting.