Setting up SAP BW Bridge

To use the full range of SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge, you need three different environments:

BW bridge project in "BW Modeling" tools (an Eclipse-based UI) for object design
BW bridge cockpit in a SAP Fiori (web-based) UI for administrative tasks and monitoring
BW bridge space in the SAP Datasphere (web-based) UI for user assignment, object import, and model transfer.

This is a screen captures of the three parts of SAP BW bridge: The eclipse-based BW modeling tools with a SAP BW bridge project with BW objects, the SAP BW bridge cockpit which monitoring and Data Management apps, and the SAP BW bridge Space which defines resources in SAP datasphere.

To set up the working environment for SAP BW bridge, follow five steps as documented in the Getting Started Guide available in the SAP Help portal of SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge (help.sap.com/bwbridge):

Step 1: Log In to SAP Datasphere

When a new SAP Datasphere, SAP BW bridge tenant is provisioned, the system owner receives a welcome email. In this message, there is an Activate Account button to connect to the server and set a password to access SAP Datasphere. Create and add additional users and assign modeler roles to them as you need.

Navigate to Connections, validate that the BW bridge connection (BWBRIDGE) works well. You will need a SAP BW Service Key to access SAP BW bridge from BW Modeling tools.

This is a screen captures of the three parts of editing the SAP BW bridge connection in the SAP Datasphere web page. The steps to get the SAP BW Service key are highlighted. 1. Edit local BWBRIDGE connection, 2. Copy SAP BW Service Key.

Choose edit and copy the SAP BW Service Key to the clipboard.

Step 2: Create an SAP BW bridge user

In addition to the SAP Datasphere user that is activated in step 1, another user for the SAP BW bridge is also required. Both users are required! SAP BW bridge uses the Identity Provider of SAP Datasphere. So, both users share the same password. Use the SAP BW bridge Cockpit app Maintain Employees for creating a new user for SAP BW bridge.

Step 3: Prepare BW Modeling Tools and ABAP Development Tools

This image shows screen captures of the steps to create a project: 1. The New project wizard, 2. including a BW service key, 3. step open logon page in the browser

Before you can start with modeling objects, you need to install the latestSAP BW Modeling tools (BWMT) in your local SAP HANA Studio or Eclipse installation. The configuration steps and how to find the service key is documented in detail in the SAP BW Bridge Welcome Guide. Establish a connection between the BWMT and SAP Datasphere by setting up a new so-called BW bridge project. Enter the service key from Step 1.

The same approach is required to set up the ABAP Development Tools (ADT). This Eclipse perspective is required to work in ABAP development objects. Very similar to the BWMT above, a new ABAP Cloud Project has to be created to connect this UI to the SAP BW bridge tenant. More details are available in the SAP BW Bridge Welcome Guide under Create an ABAP Cloud Project.

Step 4: Prepare Connection to SAP BW bridge Source Systems

This image shows that the Data Center and SAP BW bridge are connected via RFC with a cloud connector on source side and SAP BW bridge connectivity service. You need SAP BW bridge modeling tools to create an ODP source system, and SAP BW bridge Cockpit to create a communication user, communication system, and a communication arrangement.

Connecting an SAP on-premise system to SAP BW bridge requires a few more steps than connecting the same system to an on-premise system. In general, RFC is used as a protocol for the data exchange and a Cloud Connector serves as a link between the on-premise source system and the SAP BW bridge tenant. The on-premise source system must be configured as communication system. And last but not least, the source system itself needs specific properties.On a high-level, the following activities are required to set up this connection. Refer to the Welcome Guide for more details.

Add the SAP Datasphere subaccount in the Cloud Connector.
Create the on-premise source system in the Cloud Connector.
Add the relevant resources to the source system.
Add a service channel to the SAP BW bridge tenant in the Cloud Connector.
In the BW bridge cockpit, create a communication system in the SAP BW bridge tenant.
In BW Modeling tools, create the source system in the SAP BW bridge project.

Step 5: Set up the transport request and default package

This image shows a screen capture of the transport organizer view of BW modeling tools. Moreover, it shows a preference setting for the default package instead of $TMP

You need to set up a software component in the BW bridge cockpit. In SAP BW bridge, it is not possible to assign objects to a "local" $TMP package. This means that all objects have to be assigned to an ABAP Development Package. Therefore, open the Transport Organizer view in ADT and create a new transport request.

Hint

To automatically assign the new transport request to all models, choose Window → Preferences → BW Modeling and define a Default Package in the Transport Settings area.

For each modeling topic, we recommend that you create an InfoArea (folder in SAP BW bridge project) and a dataflow object as a starting point to model the objects.

Launch the following video to see most of these steps.

If all previous tasks are finished properly, SAP BW bridge is ready to run.

In the following units, you will learn how to create objects, load data to SAP BW bridge, share data to SAP Datasphere, and consume it in SAP Datasphere models.

Setting up SAP BW Bridge

Setting Up SAP BW Bridge