Identifying SAP BW/4HANA Source Systems and Their Use Cases

With SAP BW/4HANA, you find the following source systems:

• SAP HANA source system types

  Use the SAP HANA-based source system types for sources that are accessed by using the underlying SAP HANA platform. You must specify if the source system refers to a local database schema, an SAP HANA remote source ("smart data access"), or a linked or Multitenant Database Connection (MDC).

  SAP HANA smart data access (SDA) and SAP HANA smart data integration (SDI) provide interfaces to many SAP and non-SAP applications. Many of these adapters support real-time replication (streaming) or direct access (virtual access) for real-time analysis. From an SAP BW/4HANA perspective, use the source system type HANA_SDA (even if you use SDI technology).

  Note

  For more information, see the SAP Help page for HANA source systems: https://help.sap.com/viewer/107a6e8a38b74ede94c833ca3b7b6f51/2.0.9/en-US/4771b53a261c49ebb4de370bdbce2f29.html

• Operational Data Provisioning (ODP)

  ODP is a context that is used to connect to other SAP sources. For example, another SAP BW application (SAP BW or SAP BW/4HANA), SAP ECC (SAP ERP Central Component), SAP S/4HANA, or SLT (SAP System Landscape Transformation Replication Server) as a source. Records are kept in sequence in an operational delta queue (ODQ).

  Note

  For more information, see the SAP Help page for ODP: https://help.sap.com/viewer/107a6e8a38b74ede94c833ca3b7b6f51/2.0.9/en-US/c6afacb707764885a6fb62f511c24f34.html

• Big Data

  The Big Data source system provides central and unified access to Big Data sources. Access is possible through SAP HANA smart data access and the SPARK SQL (DESTINATION) or SAP Vora (ODBC) adapter.

  Note

  For more information, see the SAP Help page for Big Data: https://help.sap.com/viewer/107a6e8a38b74ede94c833ca3b7b6f51/2.0.9/en-US/7a25a961b14846d09835a126c5fe1ea4.html

• File

  To test data, or if no other option works, use the slow, but easy-to-install file interface.

  Note

  For more information, see the SAP Help page for flat file sources: https://help.sap.com/viewer/107a6e8a38b74ede94c833ca3b7b6f51/2.0.9/en-US/4a181c192886044fe10000000a421937.html

Moreover, there are other options without a DataSource:

• You can use a CompositeProvider as a source of a transformation and a Data Transfer Process. If you include your source data through a virtual table or synonym into an SAP HANA calculation view, you load from many sources through a SAP HANA calculation view and CompositeProvider. The Data Transfer Process of this scenario works only as full Data Transfer Process.
• For simple cases, you can access any source using the DataStore Object (advanced) property direct update to delete data or push data into the active data of a DataStore Object (advanced).
• If you need quality management, a change log with rollback option and delta extraction to further targets, you can access any source using the DataStore Object (advanced) setting write interface enabled to push data into the inbound queue of a DataStore Object (advanced).
• Even without the setting write interface enabled, you can directly upload data from a flat file into the inbound table of a DataStore Object (advanced) using the SAP BW/4HANA Cockpit. A new request will be generated.

Note

These options without DataSource are not intended for mass data update. The standard recommendation for mass data load is a scheduled process chain or a streaming process chain (a streaming process chain does not work for all sources). Alternatively, SAP has developed another new transfer scenario through the REST(HTTP) API or through the RFC function RSO_PUSH_SEND_STRING with the optional parameter MESSAGING=X (Refer to SAP Note 3283799 https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/3283799).

You can perform maintenance of source systems with BW Modeling Tools or SAP GUI.

You can review and check the source systems using transaction RSA1. Choose Administration and expand the source systems folder Source Systems. Choose the Manage Source Systems link. In the Check Source Systems screen, you can see all of your systems, what type they are, and also if they are replicated or not. Choose Execute to see if the connection is OK.