Introducing ODP

For our scenario, data will be loaded from SAP S/4HANA, flat files and SAP HANA. SAP BW/4HANA offers different possibilities to load data from all kinds of sources. After a short overview of source systems in SAP BW/4HANA, we will first focus on Operational Data Provisioning (ODP), which is used in our scenario to load data from SAP S/4HANA.

You use source systems in SAP BW∕4HANA to set up the connection to a source for the data transfer. A source system is any system that is available to SAP BW/4HANA for data extraction and transfer purposes. As you can see on the picture above, SAP BW/4HANA offers many possibilities. For this course it's not important to know all the details, but we'll focus on the usage of ODP SAP Extractors and the File Source System.

All Source System scenarios on the picture above have the technology of the Operational Data Provisioning Framework in common. ODP is the abbreviation of Operational Data Provisioning. Let's explain the basics of ODP.

In SAP BW∕4HANA, Operational Data Provisioning is the central infrastructure for data extraction and data replication from SAP (ABAP) applications to SAP BW∕4HANA. Operational Data Provisioning (ODP) offers an unified technology for data provisioning and consumption in SAP BW/4HANA. It encompasses the Operational Delta Queue (ODQ).

The data in the source is available for extraction in the form of operational data providers. An operational data provider defines interfaces for transactional data and master data (attributes, texts, hierarchies). Once implemented for the repository in question, these interfaces make it possible to access data for SAP BW/4HANA. For the SAP repositories, there are corresponding providers for the operational delta queues. The SAP BW/4HANA system that the data is transferred to subscribes to these delta queues. For sources that can deliver data changes, the ODP framework also supports delta procedures. Once an SAP repository has implemented the relevant interfaces of the ODP framework, it is available for data transfer with Operational Data Provisioning.

Operational Data Provisioning supports extraction and replication scenarios for various target applications and supports delta mechanisms in these scenarios. In addition, it allows data transfer out, with a service for extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL). To support the delta procedure, the data from a source is automatically written to a delta queue using an update process or passed to the delta queue using an extractor interface. DataSources are currently supported as providers that make the delta queue data available. The target applications (referred to as subscribers) retrieve the data from the delta queue and continue processing the data.

Operational Data Provisioning (ODP) uses the Operational Delta Queue (ODQ). When using SAP S/4HANA as a provider for ODP, the ODQ is located on SAP S/4HANA. You can launch the transaction ODQMON in SAP S/4HANA to check the Operational Delta Queue.

The role of a provider is to provide one or more delta queues of a specific type. The BW DataSource is an example of a Provider. The target application of the delta queue is referred to as the Subscriber. A subscription can be defined as follows: a specific subscriber orders data changes from one or more queues and continues processing the transferred data. Subscribers are categorized by their subscriber type. A subscription occurs when the subscriber requests data. Every subscription has a unique transaction number (for example, 2022-09-02 08:53:26 000000 CET). A subscriber can have more than one subscription. A queue can also be in multiple subscriptions for the same subscriber.

The Delta Queue Monitor (transaction ODQMON) helps you to monitor delta queues in the following views:

• Queues: Here you see all the queues available in the system with the status of each queue, and the number of associated subscriptions and requests.

• Subscriptions: The detailed information for the subscription level is displayed here.

• Requests: The detailed information for the request level is displayed here.

• Units: The units in which the data from a request can be transferred jointly are displayed here.

A delta queue is a data store in the source system. Data records are either written automatically to the delta queue using an update process in the source system or retrieved using the extractor interface.

A delta request transfers data records from the queue to the subscriber. The data changes to a queue can also be requested by more than one subscriber.

The data, which is highly compressed, is retained in the delta queue for a specified time period in case the subscriber wants retrieve the data records again. The delta can be directly loaded to SAP BW/4HANA using the data transfer process.