SAP BW on SAP HANA Administration

As with all software systems, SAP HANA implementations require administration. Every software system has tools and functionality for operating, maintaining, and protecting those systems. SAP has made available a number of tools to make administering the system easier and more consistent, regardless of the database platform. The following list identifies the primary focus areas of most IT organizations:

1. Database Administration
2. High  Availability
3. Disaster Recovery
4. Backup/Restore 
5. Security

To assist organizations in readying the operations for SAP HANA, SAP  has provided a Technical Operations Manual (TOM) that contains a variety of topics for managing SAP HANA as an appliance (HTTP://HELP.SAP.COM/HANA_APPLIANCE). As a general rule, SAP HANA needs less administration than other databases. Regular administration duties include:

1. Regular backups (Database,  Bare-Metal software, and configuration backup)
2. Patches; usually on demand in case of problems or known issues  (DB,  OS)
3. Monitoring (automated or manual)

The appliance model breaks up the traditional roles that are housed primarily as part of the internal IT Operations. Many of the hardware tasks are provided, managed, and maintained by the hardware provider. Other areas are the customer’s responsibility.

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On the whole, SAP will assist customers in monitoring all areas to best support the solutions. The table below should provide an overview of where the various administration duties are defined.

                                                            

SAP has updated and enhanced its database management tools to provide a consistent and proactive interface for managing SAP HANA systems. For example, SAP has updated its SAP DBA Cockpit and SAP Solution Manager to support  SAP  HANA  and provide alerting and monitoring (Solution   Manager 7.1 SP4).

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Solution Manager SP8 will further extend the SAP HANA Support with End-to-End Workload Analysis. An Additional administration for SAP HANA is performed via the SAP HANA Administration/Modeling Studio. Database administrators have a selection of tools to choose from to manage the SAP HANA system. Within SAP BW, all support tools continue to operate normally independent of the underlying database.

High availability (HA) and disaster recovery (DR) scenarios are generally considered to be critical to production implementation. The SAP system includes functionality that provides these services. The implementation and details of these services are the responsibility of the hardware partner.

When sizing the system for implementation, the vendor should be taking advantage of the most up-to-date SAP-delivered enhancements (e.g., New with SAP HANA SPS5: SAP HANA synchronous system replication formerly known as a warm standby solution). Below is an overview of the current HA/DR solution.

                                         

Figure 12: SAP BW on SAP HANA Data Center Architecture

 SP7 offers new features supporting high availability/disaster recovery (HA/DR) deployment, such as replaying logs on snapshots as well as cascading system replication for up to three locations.

Backup and recovery are an area that customers will routinely test to ensure that all systems are protected. As with HA and DR, SAP provides the necessary system features and functionality within the software delivery.

Partners work with SAP to develop and deliver solutions that integrate with the SAP HANA system. Today, partners deliver agents and tools that provide for backup, recovery, monitoring, scheduling, antivirus, and more. Meanwhile, SAP is developing and delivering additional solutions as an ongoing initiative to meet the needs of the SAP customer base.

Related Article: SAP BW on HANA Interview Questions

Security is also a critical element in any system implementation. Many customers have to comply with both reporting and regulatory requirements. SAP has delivered additional security functionality in SAP HANA SP5. This latest support release contains the following additions:

1. Dynamic Analytical Privileges

• Reuse of Analytic Privileges for several users with customizable restrictions
• Support for Complex Logic and Situational Security

2. Roles as Design Time objects
3. New “Support Role”

• Used to secure and enhance compliance processes

4. Audit logging enhancements

• New Audit Events
• Data Access
• Audit Configuration via SAP HANA  Studio

Summary

SAP BW POWERED BY SAP HANA offers a number of advantages over traditional Relational Database Management Systems. SAP HANA provides a similar QUERY PERFORMANCE as the SAP BUSINESS WAREHOUSE Accelerator, and it extends that performance to data-loading and software add-on performance. It also reduces TCO by combining the RDBMS and the SAP BWA Appliance into a single platform. This architecture reduces redundancy and complexity in the system landscape.

As SAP BW is enhanced and extended to utilize the power and functionality of SAP HANA, SAP will continue to provide regular updates to its customers at regular intervals.

The most common channels for obtaining enhancement updates are through ASUG Webinars, SAP TechEd, SapphireNOW and ASUG Annual Conference, saphana.com, and the SAP Developer Network (SDN). The content delivered through each of these channels is updated regularly to be as current as possible.

FAQ area for SAP BW Powered by HANA

The purpose of this knowledge repository (FAQ) is to provide a central place for SAP BW on HANA links, providing detailed information and the possibility to directly engage with the subject matter experts in their individual linked-in blogs.

It should also serve as a platform for the SAP BW in the HANA community, where all customers, prospects, and partners can actively engage, ask questions, answer questions and provide feedback and comments.

                                     

Figure 13: SAP BW on SAP HANA Roadmap