Scheduling Routine Tasks and General Housekeeping

Once the data models and data flows have been created we need to build a schedule to load data. We also need to perform ad-hoc housekeeping tasks. There are many tools provided to support data loading and housekeeping. These tools are presented to the administrator using an easy-to-use, customizable interface called SAP BW/4HANA Cockpit.

SAP BW/4HANA Cockpit Overview

The SAP BW/4HANA Cockpit is an intuitive, web-based SAP Fiori user interface, it provides a central entry point for the administration, monitoring, and modeling of an SAP BW∕4HANA system.

The SAP BW/4HANA Cockpit contains various SAP Fiori apps, organized in groups. Some apps for some of the most important key operations related to SAP BW/4HANA are listed here:

1. Modeling

• Process Chain Editor:

  The system displays a list of all process chains in the system. You can create, change, and delete process chains here.

  Learn more about Process Chains later in this lesson.

• Analysis Authorizations Editor:

  You can create and change analysis authorizations.

  Learn more about analysis authorizations later in this lesson.

2. Monitoring

• Process Chains - Display Dashboard:

  The system displays various charts with an overview of important statistical analyses of process chains and process chain runs.

• Process Chains - Display Latest Status:

  The system displays a list of all process chains with status information.

• Process Chain Runs:

  The system displays a list of all process chain runs in the system with status information. You can repair a run here or call the log of a run in order to analyze errors.

3. Data Management

• DataStore Objects - Manage Requests

  The system displays technical information about the content of the DataStore Object.

• InfoObjects - Manage Requests

  The system displays technical information about the content of the InfoObject.

• DataStore Objects - Manage Data Tiering

  The system displays an overview of all DataStore Objects and their temperatures. In addition, you can change and manage the temperature for the partitions of the DataStore Objects.

  Learn more about data tiering later in this lesson.

4. Data Display and Maintenance

• InfoObject Master Data Maintenance

  You can display and update InfoObject attributes and texts in a very user-friendly way.

• InfoObject Hierarchies Maintenance

  You can display and maintain hierarchies of InfoObject Characteristics.

• Query Data Preview

  You can preview BW Query data and enhance it with charts, conditions and exceptions.

You can watch the following demo to explore the SAP BW/4HANA Cockpit:

In SAP BW/4HANA there are many processes that need to be performed, such as loading master data, loading transaction data, activating data, deleting old data, etc. Although these processes could be executed on-demand by an administrator, it is more efficient to automate these processes.

In order to automate the processes, a Process Chain is created. A Process Chain defines a sequence of processes and is scheduled to run in the background. Process Chains can even trigger other Process Chains.

A Process Chain consists of three types of processes:

• start process
• application processes
• collector processes

A Process Chain always includes one start process, at least one or more application processes, and optionally one or more collector processes.

Process Chains are created in the Process Chain Editor app of SAP BW/4HANA Cockpit.

You define the start condition of a Process Chain with the start process. All other processes in the chain wait until their time has come to execute. Application processes are the actual work processes that you want to run. These represent activities typically performed in the operation of SAP BW∕4HANA, for example load processes. Collector processes allow you to define which previous processes must have completed before the next process can start.

The following slide includes examples of SAP delivered process types that you can use in your Process Chain:

In the Start Process, you define the start condition of a Process Chain.

You can start the Process Chain immediately, at a specified time, or after a particular system event. These three choices are referred to a direct scheduling

Indirect scheduling options are also available. For example. you can trigger the start of the Process Chain using an API (Application Progamming Interface). Or you can trigger the start of a Process Chain using a metachain. A metachain is a special Process Chain containing only Process Chains. The idea is that the metachain orchestrates all Process Chains.

With the app for Process Chain monitoring, you can monitor the last run of selected Process Chains in an SAP BW/4HANA system. You can use the app for Process Chain monitoring, to check the status of Process Chains, analyze errors, and repeat any failed processes or send e-mails about errors.

In the log view, you can see information about the time of creation, change, or activation of the process chain. You can also see how many times the process chain has run and when. Symbols display the status of each of the runs of the Process Chain. Yellow indicates that the chain is active, green that the chain ended successfully, red indicates that the chain ended with errors, or was terminated.