Partitions in HANA for Performance Tuning

Using the partitioning feature of the SAP HANA database, you can partition tables horizontally into disjunctive sub-tables or “partitions,” as they are also known. Partitioning supports the creation of very large tables by decomposing them into smaller and more manageable pieces. Partitioning is transparent for most SQL queries and Data Manipulation Language (DML) statements. This means that you need not modify these statements to support partitioning.

The following are benefits of partitioning:

• Load balancing: Using partitioning, the individual partitions can be distributed over the landscape. This means that a query on a table is not processed by a single server but by all servers that the host partitions for processing.
• Parallelization: Operations are parallelized by using several execution threads per table.
• Partition pruning: Queries are analyzed to see if they match the given partition specification of a table. If a match is found, you can determine the actual partitions that hold the data in question. Using this method, you can reduce the overall load on the system, which typically speeds up response time.
• Explicit partition handling: Applications can actively control partitions, for example by adding partitions that will hold the data for an upcoming month.

Note: A non-partitioned table cannot store more than 2 billion rows. By using partitioning, you can overcome this limit by distributing the rows to several partitions.

The delta merge performance of the database is dependent on the size of the main index. If data is only being modified on some partitions, there will be fewer partitions that need to be delta-merged, and therefore performance will increase.

Note: Partitioning is typically used in distributed landscapes, but it may also be beneficial for single-host systems. Partitioning is available for column store tables only.

Single-Level Partitioning

You can distribute rows to partitions using different types of partitioning known as partition specifications. The HANA database offers hash, range and round-robin as single-level partition specifications.

1. Hash

Hash partitioning equally distributes rows to partitions for load balancing and for overcoming the 2 billion rows limitation. Usually, implementation does not require in-depth knowledge of the actual content of a table. Each hash partition specification requires columns to be specified as partitioning columns. The values of these fields are used when the hash value is determined. If the table has a primary key, these columns must be part of that key. This restriction comes with the advantage of a uniqueness check of the key which can be performed on the local server. You can use as many partitioning columns as required to achieve a good variety of values for an equal distribution.

Hash Syntax

CREATE COLUMN TABLE <table name>

(<column_1> <DATA_TYPE>, <column_2> <DATA_TYPE>, <column_3> <DATA_TYPE>, PRIMARY KEY (<column_1>, <column_2>))

       PARTITION BY HASH (<column_1>, <column_2>) PARTITIONS 4

• Creates 4 partitions columns a and b
• At least one column has to be specified
• All columns specified must be part of the primary key
• PARTITION BY HASH (<column_1>, <column_2>) PARTITIONS GET_NUM_SERVERS () - The number of partitions is determined by the engine at runtime according to its configuration. It is recommended that you use this function in scripts, etc.

Example:

CREATE COLUMN TABLE partition_HASH(

                SALES_ORDER NVARCHAR(2) PRIMARY KEY,

CUSTOMER NVARCHAR(4),

MATERIAL NVARCHAR(4),

CAL_DAY NVARCHAR(8),

QUANTITY DOUBLE,

PRICE DOUBLE,

TAX DOUBLE,

REVENUE DOUBLE)

PARTITION BY HASH(SALES_ORDER) PARTITIONS 4

2. Round-robin(Default)

Round-robin is similar to hash partitioning because it is used for an equal distribution of rows to parts. When using this method, you do not need to specify partitioning columns.

Hash partitioning is usually more beneficial than round-robin partitioning for the following reasons:

• The partitioning columns can be evaluated in a pruning step; therefore, all partitions will be considered in searches and other database operations.
• Depending on the scenario, it is possible that the data within semantically related tables resides on the same server. Some internal operations may then operate locally instead of retrieving data from a remote system.

Round-robin Syntax

CREATE COLUMN TABLE <table name>

(<column_1> <DATA_TYPE>, <column_2> <DATA_TYPE>, <column_3> <DATA_TYPE>)

PARTITION BY ROUNDROBIN PARTITIONS 4

Note: The table NEED not have primary keys

Example:

CREATE COLUMN TABLE partition_rr(

                SALES_ORDER NVARCHAR(2),

CUSTOMER NVARCHAR(4),

MATERIAL NVARCHAR(4),

CAL_DAY NVARCHAR(8),

QUANTITY DOUBLE,

PRICE DOUBLE,

TAX DOUBLE,

REVENUE DOUBLE)

PARTITION BY ROUNDROBIN PARTITIONS 4

3. Range

Range partitioning creates dedicated partitions for certain values or certain value ranges. Usually, this requires in-depth knowledge of the values that are used or are valid for the selected partitioning column. For example, you can choose a range partitioning scheme to create one partition per month of the year. Note: Range partitioning is not optimal for load distribution.

The range partition specification usually takes ranges of values to determine one partition ( e.g., 1 to 10). It is also possible to define a partition for a single value. In this way, a list partitioning, known in other database systems, can be emulated and also mixed with range partitioning.

When inserting or modifying rows, the target partition is determined by the defined ranges. If a value does not fit into one of these ranges, an error is raised. If this is not intended, you can define a “rest partition” where all rows that do not match with any of the defined ranges will be inserted. You can create or drop rest partitions on-the-fly.

Range partitioning is similar to hash partitioning in that the partitioning column must be part of the primary key. Range partitioning also has restrictions on the data types that can be used. Only strings, integers and dates are allowed.

Range Syntax

CREATE COLUMN TABLE <table name>

(<column_1> <DATA_TYPE>, <column_2> <DATA_TYPE>, <column_3> <DATA_TYPE>,PRIMARY KEY (<column_1>, <column_2>))

PARTITION BY RANGE (<column_1>)

       (PARTION 1 <= VALUES < 5,

        PARTION 5 <= VALUES < 20,

        PARTION VALUE = 50,

        PARTION OTHERS)

• Create partitions for ranges using <= VALUES < semantics
• Create partitions for single values using VALUE = semantics
• Create a rest partition for all values that do not match the other ranges using PARTITION OTHERS

Example:

CREATE COLUMN TABLE partition_range(

                SALES_ORDER NVARCHAR(2) PRIMARY KEY,

CUSTOMER NVARCHAR(4),

MATERIAL NVARCHAR(4),

CAL_DAY NVARCHAR(8),

QUANTITY DOUBLE,

PRICE DOUBLE,

TAX DOUBLE,

REVENUE DOUBLE)

PARTITION BY RANGE (SALES_ORDER)

(PARTITION '1' <= VALUES < '5',

PARTITION OTHERS)

Multi-Level Partitioning

For some tables, it is beneficial to partition by a column that is not part of the primary key. For example, if a date column is present, it is desirable to leverage it in order to build partitions per month or year.

Hash and range partitioning have the restriction of only being able to use key columns as partitioning columns. You can overcome this restriction by using the multi-level partitioning.

Multi-level partitioning is the technical implementation of time-based partitioning, in which a date column is leveraged:

The performance of the delta merge depends on the size of the main index of a table. If data is inserted into a table over time and it also contains temporal information in its structure (e.g., a date), multi-level partitioning may be an ideal candidate. If the partitions containing old, infrequently modified data, there is no need for a delta merge on these partitions; the delta merge is only required on new partitions, where new data is inserted. Therefore, its run-time is constant over time as new partitions are created and used.

Note: When using SQL commands to move partitions, it is not possible to move individual parts of partition groups. You can move only partition groups as a whole.

Hash-Range - Hash-range multi-level partitioning is most typically used. It is implemented with hash on the first level for load balancing and range on the second level to determine the time criterion.

Example

CREATE COLUMN TABLE <table name>

(<column_1> <DATA_TYPE>, <column_2> <DATA_TYPE>, <column_3> <DATA_TYPE>, PRIMARY KEY (<column_1>, <column_2>))

PARTITION BY HASH (<column_1>, <column_2>) PARTITIONS 4, RANGE (<column_3>)

(PARTITION 1 <= VALUES < 5,

PARTITION 5 <= VALUES < 20)

Round-robin Range - This is similar to Hash Range but with Round-robin on the first level.

Example

CREATE COLUMN TABLE <table name>

(<column_1> <DATA_TYPE>, <column_2> <DATA_TYPE>, <column_3> <DATA_TYPE>)           PARTITION BY ROUNDROBIN PARTITIONS 4, RANGE (<column_3>)

(PARTITION 1 <= VALUES < 5,

PARTITION 5 <= VALUES < 20)

Hash-Hash - This is two-level partitioning with Hash on both levels. The advantage is that the Hash on the second level may be defined on a non-key column.

Example

CREATE COLUMN TABLE <table name>

(<column_1> <DATA_TYPE>, <column_2> <DATA_TYPE>, <column_3> <DATA_TYPE>, PRIMARY KEY (<column_1>, <column_2>))

PARTITION BY HASH (<column_1>, <column_2>) PARTITIONS 4,

HASH (<column_3>) PARTITIONS 5

Explicit Partition Handling

For all partition specifications involving Range, it is possible to add additional ranges or to remove them at will. This causes partitions to be created or dropped as required by the ranges in use. In the case of a multi-level partitioning, the desired operation will be applied to all nodes.

If a partition is created and if a rest partition exists, the rows of the rest partition that match the newly added range are moved into the new partition. If the rest partition is large, note that this operation may take a long time; internally the split operation is executed. If a rest partition does not exist, this operation will be fast only as a new partition is added to the catalog.

Syntax -              ALTER TABLE <mytab> ADD PARTITION 100 <= VALUES < 200

ALTER TABLE <mytab> DROP PARTITION 100 <= VALUES < 200

It is also possible to create or drop a rest partition using the following syntax:

ALTER TABLE <mytab> ADD PARTITION OTHERS

ALTER TABLE <mytab> DROP PARTITION OTHERS

Moving Partitions

Partitions and partition groups can be moved to other servers. As mentioned before, when moving partition groups it is only possible to move an entire group. However, in the case of single-level partitioning, each partition forms its own group. To see how partitions and groups relate to each other, refer to the monitoring view M_CS_PARTITIONS. To see the current location of a partition, refer to M_TABLE_LOCATIONS.

Syntax-            ALTER TABLE <mytab> MOVE PARTITION 1 TO '<host:port>'

Where, port is the port of the target index server and not the SQL port.

Split/Merge Operations

You can determine how to partition a table either upon creation or at a later date. The split/merge operations can be used to transform a non-partitioned table into a partitioned table, and vice versa

Change table partitioning

• Change the partitioning specification e.g. from Hash to Round-robin
• Change the partitioning column
• Split partitions into more partitions
• Merge partitions into less partitions

The split/merge operation can be costly for the following reasons:

• Long run time (i.e., it may take up to several hours for large tables)
• Relatively high memory consumption
• Exclusive lock requirement (only selects are allowed)
• Delta merge performed in advance
• Everything written into the log, which is required for backup and recovery

It is recommended that you split tables before inserting mass data or while they are still small. If a table is not partitioned and reaches configurable absolute thresholds, or a table grows a certain percentage per day, an alert is raised by the statistics server to inform the administrator.

There are three types of re-partitioning:

1. 1. From n to m partitions where m is not a multiple/divider of n, for example from HASH 3 X to HASH 2 X.
2. 2. From n to n partitions using a different partition specification or different partitioning columns, for example HASH 3 X to HASH 3 Y.
3. 3. From n to m partitions where m is a multiple/divider of n, for example HASH 3 X to HASH 6 X.

In the first two cases, all source parts must be located on the same host. Up to one thread per column is used to split/merge the table.

For the third case, it is not required to move all parts to a common server. Instead, the split/merge request is broadcasted to each host where the partitions reside. Up to one thread per column and source part is used. This type of split/merge operation is typically faster, as it is always recommended to choose a multiple or divider of the source parts as number of target parts. This type of re-partitioning is called “parallel split/merge”.

Syntax -           ALTER TABLE mytab PARTITION BY...

This can be applied to non-partitioned tables and to partitioned tables.

Depending on the type of the split/merge operation (see above) it may be necessary to move partitions beforehand.

ALTER TABLE mytab MERGE PARTITIONS

Merge all parts of a partitioned table into a non-partitioned table.

All source partitions must reside on the same server.

Parallelism and Memory Consumption

Split/merge operations consume a high amount of memory. To reduce the memory consumption, configure the number of threads used.

The parameter split_threads in section [partitioning] in indexserver.ini can be set to change default for split/merge operations. If it is not set, 16 threads are used. In the case of a parallel split/merge, the individual operations use a total of the configured number of threads per host. Each operation uses at least one thread.

If a table has a history index, it is possible to split the main and history index in parallel. Use parameter split_history_parallel in section [partitioning] in indexserver.ini. The default is "no".

Delta Merge

The delta merge may operate in parallel on all available partitions. There are three parameters that control how the threading is handled. To configure the delta merge, use the following parameters of section [indexing] in hdbindexserver.ini:

• One thread per server (default): set parallel_merge_location to "yes".
• Configurable number of threads: set parallel_merge_location to "no"
• parallel_merge_part_threads: to the number of threads you wish to use. The default is 5.
• One thread per part: set parallel_merge_location to "no" and parallel_merge_part_threads to "0".

Note:  This may have a negative effect on the overall performance of the system if a table has a large number of partitions.

A delta merge thread is not necessarily shown during merges on the master server, as no dedicated thread per partition is started.

This document is prepared based on version SAP HANA 1.0 SPS 05 revision 46.

In part 1 of HANA Password security, we seen how to view the different password policy parameters and how to change them. Also for the parameter 9 of the password policy (password_layout) we can enforce the user to include one upper-case letter, one lower-case letter, one numeric and optionally one special character in his/her password. If you have not read this document before, I suggest you to have a look, as the part 2 document is related to my previous one. Here is the link: http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-41573 

Even though the user includes all these rules in his/her password, we can add some additional rules to password.

Scenario: The organization came up with certain rules to implement in password policy as mentioned below:

Rule 1:

• A password should not contain a specific word which are easy to guess for other users, like sap or hana.
• Also the above words should not be part of the password, like sapWorld1 or Spshana5
• Also should not be case sensitive of that restricted word, like SapWorld1 or SpsHana5

Rule 2:

• The password should not contain user name.
  

If any of these points of rule 1 and 2 gets satisfied, then the system should not accept the user password.

In this document, we will be implementing the above scenario.

If you have read my previous document then you might got some idea whether it is possible to implement at-least one of the above rules? The answer is no. With the help of password policy parameters ( of total 11), it is not possible to implement the above rule(s).

In HANA studio, SAP has provided some standard schema's and one of them which is relevant to our scenario is _SYS_SECURITY schema which contains only 1 table "_SYS_PASSWORD_BLACKLIST" and has three columns:

1. BLACKLIST_TERM
2. CHECK_PARTIAL_PASSWORD
3. CHECK_CASE_SENSITIVE

and when you do the data preview for this table, it will be empty by default for new instance as shown below, provided if you have the SELECT privilege on this table.

Now with the help of this table, it is simple to implement our rule(s) of password policy by just inserting our policy terms (or simply record).

In order to Insert into or Delete from this table, the user should have INSERT and DELETE privileges on either the table _SYS_PASSWORD_BLACKLIST or the entire schema _SYS_SECURITY.

Now we need two insert statements into this table. One to meet the requirement for the word sap and the other for the word hana.

INSERT INTO _SYS_SECURITY._SYS_PASSWORD_BLACKLIST VALUES ('sap', 'TRUE', 'FALSE');
INSERT INTO _SYS_SECURITY._SYS_PASSWORD_BLACKLIST VALUES ('hana', 'TRUE', 'FALSE');

In SQLEditor execute the above statements and do the Data Preview.

Now our new Rule 1 of password blacklist is in effective regardless of how the password layout and minimal password length are defined in corresponding parameters of password policy (part 1 document) . Lets test this rule by creating a new user, say USER1 and give password in such a way that it matches with our new policy password terms i.e. say enter password as sapTest1 (which contains the restricted word sap). When we try to save the new user, it should throw an error, something like this:

So far Rule 1 implemented successfully

Now coming to Rule 2 which says password should not contain the user name.

Before creating the user first we need to insert a record with user name in BLACKLIST table as

insert into "_SYS_SECURITY"."_SYS_PASSWORD_BLACKLIST" values('user1','TRUE','FALSE');

Now the Rule 2 is also in effective and lets test this by creating the user USER1 with password as User1234.

If you enter the password as User4321, it will accept as password does not contain the user name USER1.

Disadvantage: If you create another user, say USER2 then all the above rules we created will apply and USER2 will also not able to use password such as User1234, though the password User1234 does not contain the user User2

This can be made better if we can check the password blacklist against the particular user only, while creating the new user or modifying the password of existing user for Rule 2. If you have the solution for this then I would be glad to know.

That's it we are done with implementing password policy for a given simple scenario.

Thank You.

Backup and Recovery of HANA Database

For the need of optimal performance, the SAP HANA database holds the data in memory.

During normal database operation, data is automatically saved from memory to disk at regular SAVEPOINTS. Additionally, all data changes are recorded in the redo log. The redo log is saved from memory to disk with each committed database transaction. After a improper shutdown, the database can be restarted like any disk-based database, and it returns to its last consistent state by replaying the redo log since the last SAVEPOINT.

This SAVEPOINT consists of 3 Stages:

Stage A

• All modified pages are determined that are not yet written to disk. The

SAVE POINT coordinator triggers writing of these pages.

Stage B:

• The write operations for phase 3 are prepared.

• A consistent change lock is acquired → no write operations are allowed.

• All pages are determined that were modified during phase 1 and written

to a temporary buffer.

• List of open transactions is retrieved.

• Row store information for uncommitted changes made during phase 1 is

written to disk.

• Current log position is determined (log position from which logs must be

read during restart).

• Change lock is released.

Stage C

• All data is written to disk. Changes are allowed again during this phase.

• Temporary buffers created in phase 2.

• List of open transactions

• Row store check point is invoke

• Log queue is flushed up to the SAVEPOINT log position

• Restart record is written (containing e.g. the SAVEPOINT log position)

While SAVEPOINTs and log writing protect your data against power failures,

SAVEPOINTs do not help if the persistent storage itself is damaged.

Database backup can be done manually and also can be scheduled to run automatically

Manual backups are done through

                SAP HANA Studio

                DBA COCKPIT

                SQL COMMAND

Scheduling  can be done

                Using DBA Calendar in DBA COCKPIT

                Using script (though SQL Interface)

Performing Backups

You can specify whether data and log backups are written to the file system or

using third-party backup tools. The Backint for SAP HANA interface performs

all the actions needed to write the backup data to external storage. The backup

tools communicate directly with the SAP HANA database through the Backint for

SAP HANA interface.

Backint can be configured both for data backups and for log backups.

Data and logs can only be backed up when the SAP HANA database is

Online

Backup and recovery always applies to the whole database. It is not possible

to backup and recover individual database objects.

At the beginning of a recovery, all the data and log backups to be recovered

must be available.

The SAP HANA database software version used during the recovery must

always be the same or higher than the version of the software used to create

the backup.

When the data area is backed up, all the payload data from all the servers is backed

1. This happens in both single-host and multihost environments.

LOG Backup

Log backups are done at regular intervals to allow the reuse of log segments.

Log segment is backed up during these situations:

• The log segment is full

• The log segment is closed after exceeding the configured time threshold

• The database is started

Enabling and Disabling of Automatic log backup can be done by changing the value of the parameter enable_auto_log_backup.

Default: enable_auto_log_backup = yes

Maintain Parameter - log_mode

log_mode = overwrite

Log segments are freed by savepoints and no log backup is performed. For

example, this can be useful for test installations that do not need to be backed

up or recovered.

log_mode = legacy In legacy mode, no log backup is performed. Log segments

are retained until a full data backup is performed. This is to allow recovery from

the most recent full backup and the log in the log area. This was the default setting

for SAP HANA SPS 02.

FAQS are attached...

Security / Authorizations

Will all existing users get migrated to HANA DB with the correct authorizations?

Absolutely – The ERP database to HANA migration is a full database migration

Will the user administration in ERP on HANA change, how does this impact our security team? Does the Basis Team need to be involved in this HANA research work?

All ERP users / roles are defined through the ERP Application layer. The only change is for the users of the HANA data modeling studio in the HANA datamart, and that also applies to SHAF.

Yes, it is recommended to train the Basis team in SAP HANA, there are specific technical training classes available.

https://training.sap.com/us/en

Where can I find more details on the HANA security capabilities?

SAP HANA Security Guide

This guide describes how to enable security for SAP HANA appliance software and the SAP HANA database.

http://help.sap.com/hana/hana_sec_en.pdf

Is the authorization in the SHAF (SAP HANA Analytical Framework) rather comparable to the ERP on HANA security model, or to the HANA data mart security model?

The user privileges in the SAP HANA data mart security model are currently less granular than the authorizations in BW on HANA and in ERP on HANA.
If more complex security is required, the recommendation is to consume the HANA data models via BW Transient or Virtual InfoProviders.

In order to access SHAF in the sidecar scenario, the Business Suite users share the same technical database user for connecting to the HANA sidecar. This authorization check within Business Suite using PFCG & authorization check.
Once SHAF in the sidecar has been accessed,  HANA based Analytics (Access from reporting tools to HANA ) is utilized. Each HANA based Analytics user becomes a database user and the authorization check within HANA using privileges

Please see the link to the HANA security guide for more details:

http://help.sap.com/hana/hana_sec_en.pdf

SAP HANA database authorization mechanisms use the following privileges:

●System privileges
Perform system-level operations or administrative tasks

●Object privileges
Perform specified actions on specified database objects

●Analytic privileges
Allow selective access control for database views generated when modeled are activated

●Package Privileges
Allow operations on packages, for example, creation and maintenance. Privileges can differ for native and imported packages.

Database Replication Security Guides

These guides describe how to enable security for the data replication technologies related to the SAP HANA appliance software.

SAP HANA Security Guide - Trigger-Based Replication (SLT)

http://help.sap.com/hana/hana_slt_repli_sec_en.pdf

SAP BusinessObjects Data Services Administrator's Guide. Please see the chapters "Security" and "User and Rights Management:

http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/boexir4/en/xi4_ds_admin_en.pdf

In HANA development, if you happen to have a need to perform same modifications to the model multiple times in the same model or copy them over to different models, then XML editing would help you save a lot of effort.

In cases like, if your data is based on “Account model”, but the reporting requirement is “Key Figure model”, then you may end up creating a lot of Restricted Key figures and Calculated Key figures. Or consider a case, when the data model contains more than 70 – 80 key figures and you need to apply currency conversion to these Key figures, then the XML editing can help you reduce a lot of manual effort.

If your XML coding skills are advanced, then it can certainly help model large UNION operations, which in current eclipse editor can certainly be painful and may result in hanging the HANA studio.

And in case, if you don’t have any such requirement mentioned above, it would still help you look into the generated XML for the HANA information models to understand how different settings like Default schema, Default Client, Default Language, various input parameters, variables, data sources etc are mapped.

Steps to generate the XML model of the schema:

The XML file can be generated from the right hand side option as shown below, but I prefer the EXPORT functionality so that the same file can be imported back after editing.

The EXPORT / IMPORT option can be found in HANA Studio as shown below. A detailed document on how to use the EXPORT / IMPORT functionality can be found at http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-26381

For the demonstration purpose, let us consider a data model with

• one base Key figure with currency conversion applied (C_SALES)
• 3 base Key Figures which are currently modeled as "simple", but need to be modeled as "Amount with Currency" and also need to apply currency conversion (C_SALES_1, C_SALES_2, C_SALES_3)
• 1 Restricted Key Figure (SALES_2012) with C_SALES restricted to Year 2012
• 1 Calculated Key Figure (SALES_10PER_CC) with 10% of the Sales to be added to the Sales for further calculation.

The model can look like :

Case 1: Modify Key Figures from Simple to Amount with Currency and apply Currency conversion:

The Key Figure (C_SALES) has been defined as Amount with Currency with Dynamic Currency conversion as shown below. Such setting can be copied to the other Key Figures in the generated XML file. This can save considerable effort as compared to performing the modifications in HANA Studio, when the number of Key figures to be modified are significantly high.

Please note that the Schema for currency conversion has been hidden in the screenshot above.

The setting in the XML file can be seen in the following screenshot.

The changes to be done for the Key Figures C_SALES_1, C_SALES_2, C_SALES_3 are as follows:

• Change the measureType from "simple" to "amount" like for C_SALES
• Copy the code block highlighted in the screenshot between <descriptions> and <measureMapping> tab like for C_SALES
  

After the re-import of the XML file, the changes can be seen in the Key Figures C_SALES_1, C_SALES_2, C_SALES_3 as follows:

Please note that the Schema for currency conversion has been hidden in the screenshot above. The same technique can be used to create additional Key Figures in the model as mentioned below.

Case 2: Create additional Restricted and Calculated Key Figures:

Additional Key figures can also be created by copying the existing code blocks for Restricted and Calculated Key figures and modifying the technical name, description and filter / expression conditions. For simplicity, we can copy the existing RKF and CKF and modify the filter conditions and calculations.

To add a Restricted Key figure with Sales for 2013, the XML file can be modified as shown below. The <measure> block can be copied and modified as shown in the screenshot below:

The measure id, description and the restriction values (including the attributes) can be modified after copying. The same concept can be applied for the Calculated Key Figures as shown in the below screenshot. The <measure> block can be copied and modified for the new Calculated Key Figure.

After the modification to the XML file, it can be re-imported and the view can be VALIDATED and ACTIVATED in HANA Studio. The validation process can identify any error in the imported model and can be corrected. The generated model can look like:

Please note that the above mentioned process is an alternative approach to the development based on personal experience. It could be debatable, if this process is supported by SAP. But since the IMPORT of the XML file feature is provided in HANA Studio and the Re-imported model can be validated and activated in HANA studio, I believe the process does not have any negative impact.

Apart from the above mentioned use cases, there could be multiple other use cases, where the XML file modification can help you in the development.

So I leave it to your better judgement on the alternative approach, which can help you reduce your development effort.

TO CREATE SCHEMA Using SQL Editor

SYNTAX :  CREATE  SCHEMA <schema_name>

Ex: CREATE  SCHEMA  EXSCH

To Create Column Table Using SQL Editor

syntax :  create column table <schema_name>. <table_name> (Field_name1 Datatype ,Field_name2 Datatype,Field_name3  Datatype  ,.................)

EX : createcolumntable"EXSCH"."EMP"( "EID"INTEGERnotnull,"ENAME"VARCHAR (100)null, "ESAL"DECIMALnotnull,

       "ELOC"VARCHAR (100) null,primarykey ("EID"))

Store Procedure to insert value

Example

CREATEPROCEDURE EXSCH.EMP_INSERT_PROCS (IN EID INTEGER ,

       IN ENAME VARCHAR(100) ,

       IN ESAL DECIMAL ,

       IN ELOC VARCHAR(100) ) LANGUAGE SQLSCRIPT AS

BEGININSERT

INTO"EXSCH"."EMP"VALUES (EID,

ENAME,

ESAL,

ELOC)

;

END

;

Store procedure to Update Values in table

Example:

CREATEPROCEDURE EXSCH.EMP_UPDATE_PROC (IN EID INTEGER ,

       IN ENAME VARCHAR(100) ,

       IN ESAL DECIMAL ,

       IN ELOC VARCHAR(100) ) LANGUAGE SQLSCRIPT AS

BEGINUPDATE"EXSCH"."EMP"

SET   ENAME = :ENAME ,

ESAL =:ESAL ,

ELOC  =:ELOC

WHERE EID   =:EID

;

END

;

Store procedure to Delete Values in table

CREATEPROCEDURE EXSCH.EMP_DELETE_PROC (IN EID INTEGER ,

       IN ENAME VARCHAR(100) ,

       IN ESAL DECIMAL ,

       IN ELOC VARCHAR(100) ) LANGUAGE SQLSCRIPT AS

BEGINDELETE

FROM"EXSCH"."EMP"

WHERE EID =:EID

;

END

;

Regards

T SrinivasuluReddy

The 3 replication method of sap hana

1.Trigger base replication method

2.ETL based replication

3.Log based replication

Using SAP Landscape Transformation (LT) Replication Server is based on capturing database changes at a high level of abstraction in the source ERP systemTrigThis method of replication benefits from being database-independent, and can also parallelize database changes on multiple tables or by segmenting large table changes

ETL-based replication: Employs an Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) process to extract data from the data source; transform it to meet the business or technical needs, and then load it into the SAP HANA database.

ger-based Replicati

ETL based data replication uses SAP Business Objects Data Services(referred to as Data Services from now on) to load the relevant business data from the source system , SAP ERP, and replicate it to the target, SAP HANA database .
This method enables you to read the required business data on the level of the application layer.

Log-Based Replication
Transaction Log-Based Data Replication Using Sybase Replication is based on capturing table
changes from low-level database log files. This method is database-dependent

Data Flow for Initial Load and Update

Both the initial load of business data from the source system into SAP HANA database as well as
updating the replicated data (delta handling) is done using SAP BusinessObjects Data Services.

The initial load can be set up modeling a simple data flow from source to target.

For the update, in most cases, the data flow is enhanced by a delta handling element, such as Map_CDC_Operation or Table_Comparison Transform

July 26 - HSE24 Chose SAP HANA. Find Out Why

July 28 - SAP CodeJam Johannesburg (SAP HANA focus)

See the the full HANA Webcast Calendar.

SAP HANA Turns 2

Our groundbreaking in-memory platform is growing up. See how SAP HANA continues to transform and inspire business. June 21, 2013

Setting the Record Straight - SAP HANA vs. IBM DB2 BLU

Recently IBM announced BLU accelerator for DB2, which does query acceleration of manually selected tables in DB2 in batch mode using in-memory and columnar techniques. However, there were some unsubstantiated claims and over-reaching statements amid the excitement about BLU. SAP’s Ken Tsai provides his assessment in this blog. June 18, 2013

SAP HANA Commands, Command Line Tools, SQL Reference Examples for NetWeaver Basis Administrators

Andy Silvey set out on a massive undertaking to create a one-stop shop reference for HANA commands and command line tools, plus administrator's SQL queries. Lucky for us, he decided to share it here. June 18, 2013

SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud - Important step to... where?

SAP Mentor (and SAP HANA Distinguished Engineer)  Tomas Krojzl speculates on what the May 7 announcement of HANA Enterprise Cloud might mean for SAP in the future. His blog inspires more than a few opinionated comments. June 17, 2013

How Does It Work Together: BW, BW on SAP HANA, Suite on SAP HANA, SAP HANA Live

Part 3 of this solid blog series continues the discussion of how diverse customer landscapes can be efficient and synergistic. Posted by Ingo Hilgefort, Part 1 introduced the different landscapes and discussed a customer site without SAP as the backend. In Part 2, Ingo discussed an SAP ERP customer and how such a customer could leverage SAP BusinessObjects BI with and without SAP HANA Live. June 6, 2013

Get SAP HANA One Premium

SAP HANA One Premium is designed for users who want to run their SAP HANA instances 24x7. See the demo of SAP HANA on AWS (on the AWS blog) and learn about its ability to connect to source data from SAP Business Suite and SAP NetWeaver BW in the cloud, SAP Enterprise Support, and the Data Services component of SAP HANA Cloud Integration. Also read this related blog by SAP Mentor Richard Hirsch and this SAPInsider article. For more information and resources, visit the SAP HANA One page. June 6, 2013

Understanding the HANA Enterprise Cloud:  An Initial Whiteboard

If you want to better grasp SAP’s new HANA Enterprise Cloud offering, follow SAP Mentor Richard Hirsch as he diagrams his way to a better understanding in his recent blog.

SAP’s Bjoern Goerke provides additional clarity across the cloud offerings in his recent blog.

Follow the ‘hana_enterprise_cloud’ tag for related blogs. May 17, 2013

Introduction to Software Development on SAP HANA - Free Online Course

By now you might have heard about the launch of openSAP – a platform that offers free online learning opportunities. Who better to instruct the first course than SAP Mentor and eLearning expert (just check our library) Thomas Jung? But this, he says, is something different than “traditional” eLearning.... May 17, 2013

#NBA Sabermetrics 101 (Powered by #SAPHANA)

In the SAPPHIRE NOW keynote, SAP co-CEO Bill McDermott talked about how SAP is working with professional sports to create the next-generation fan experience. In his latest blog, SCN’s own Chris Kim discusses the value SAP can bring to the sports and entertainment industry. For more on SAP and sports, check out Proof of SAP’s evolution from a B2B to a B2C company. May 17, 2013

Enter SAP Enterprise Cloud

Last week, SAP announced the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud service. SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud empowers you to deploy SAP Business Suite, SAP NetWeaver BW, and custom HANA applications to support real-time business. Learn more in the blog by executive board memberVishal Sikka and watch the replay of the press event.Then read Siva Darivemula’s blog Adding a New On-Ramp to the HANA Highway for more insight. May 8, 2013

SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud: “Instant Value without Compromise”

SVP Mark Yolton describes what the new offering can do for customers, shares his take on the announcement as well as some early reactions from the media. His blog is also filled with HANA resources. May 8, 2013

SAP HANA Cloud Integration Now Available

SAP HANA Cloud Integration, now available for customers and partners, is an integration platform hosted in SAP HANA Cloud that facilitates the integration of business processes spanning across different departments, organizations, or companies. Mariana Mihaylova explains and provides resources in this document. May 8, 2013

Cloudy on the terminology? Check out the blog by Bjoern Goerke in which he clarifies recent branding around cloud.

New SAP HANA Development Platform Training as Massive Open Online Course (MOOC)

Register for a new online course: "Introduction to Software Development on SAP HANA." Over six weeks’ time, you’ll get an overview of the native programming capabilities of SAP HANA. Dr. Markus Schwarz, SVP SAP Education, says, "We want to give learners choice. With the new course we can reach even a broader audience." May 1, 2013

The Evolution of HANA One: More Than Just HANA Hosted in a Public Cloud

SAP Mentor Richard Hirsch comments on a recent SAPinsider publication about HANA One. May 1, 2013

SLT Suggestions for SAP HANA

In what he describes as a “brainstorming blog,” Thomas Krojzl writes about his ideas on how SLT replication could be improved. Don’t worry, he’s open to criticism. Seems like a good time to like it, rate it, and comment away! April 26, 2013

Bipedal Process and Data Intelligence.... Stop Hopping.... RUN!

The fact that we’re living in the age of big data is no surprise at this point, but according to Alan Rickayzen, “the age of process intelligence has just started.” Find out what he means, where HANA comes into the picture, and how solution experts and process operators and process owners are the big benefactors of SAP Operational Process Intelligence. April 26, 2013

Why Users Need SSO in SAP HANA

With Single Sign On (SSO), users can directly log in from any front-end application and access the SAP HANA database without providing login credentials again. Read more highly rated blogs on SAP HANA. This blog by Kiran Musunuru gives you details on setting up SSO with SAP HANA using Kerberos. April 26, 2013

New Publications from SAPinsider:

A Look Under the Hood of SAP HANA

Get look at some of the key components of the SAP HANA platform and the features and functions that make the it compelling for developers.

SAPinsider: SAP HANA One Illuminates New Possibilities

Learn about the instant deployment option that facilitates smaller SAP HANA projects and applications that are not easily accommodated by on-premise system procurement cycles. April 26, 2013

Pairing the Power of SAP HANA with the Innovative Agility of a Startup

Learn more about the Startup Focus program, how to get involved, and what it means for SAP customers. April 26, 2013

Best Practices for SAP HANA Data Loads

As SAP Mentor John Appleby says, “you can take the best technology in the world, create a bad design, and it will work badly. Yes, even SAP HANA can be slow.” With that in mind, check out his best practices for HANA data loading. April 10, 2013

Performance Guidelines for ABAP Development on the SAP HANA Database

If you’re an experienced ABAP developer, you’re probably familiar with the classic performance guidelines for using Open SQL. This begs the question of what changes are there to the guidelines in the context of SAP HANA. Eric Westenberger tackles that question.  April 10, 2013

Experience the Magic: How to Setup Your Own ABAP on HANA in the Cloud

Are you an ABAP developer who can’t wait to explore the intricacies of ABAP on HANA coding? Do you want to set up a sandbox environment where you can try out things such as consuming HANA Calculation Views or Stored Procedures from ABAP programs, and learn how to accelerate your ABAP applications with HANA or build entirely new ones? Then SAP Mentor Thorsten Franz wrote this for you. April 10, 2013

Tame BIG Processes with SAP Operational Process Intelligence, Powered by SAP HANA

Read the three-part series by Harshavardhan Jegadeesan, in which he walks through "big processes," the challenges they pose, and how SAP Operational Process Intelligence, powered by SAP HANA can help businesses overcome them. Then see how to test drive #SAPOPInt in this post. March 22, 2013

Get your hands on this HANA stuff:

• HANA One - Get $120 to start your experience with the SAP HANA platform, available in the cloud.
• HANA Academy - Watch more than 250 videos answering your what, why, and how questions about SAP HANA.
• SAP Operational Process Intelligence powered by HANA - Test drive it today.

March 13, 2013

Migrating Java Open-Source Application from Oracle to SAP HANA

The purpose of this document is to guide the process of migrating OLTP systems from a source ORACLE database to a target SAP HANA database. The Java Open-Source mvnForm is used in this guide to simulate the example of an OLTP system on the source Oracle database. March 7, 2013

When SAP HANA met R - What's new?

Last year’s ”When SAP HANA met R - First kiss” blog has some people wondering what’s new the integration of the SAP HANA database with R. Blag responds in his recent blog. March 4, 2013

Webinar: SAP Business Suite Powered by SAP HANA

On January 10, 2013, SAP announced the availability of the SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA – built to deliver an integrated family of business applications unifying analytics and transactions into a single in-memory platform. Join an exclusive webcast on March 14, at 15:00 CET and learn how to become a real-time business.

Engage with SAP HANA through Hours of Free Videos and Projects

Explore the SAP HANA Academy and watch more than 250 videos answering your what, why, and how questions about SAP HANA.March 4, 2013

Uncovering the Value of SAP BW Powered by HANA: Answering the Second Question

When Suite runs on HANA, BW runs on HANA, and assorted data marts run on HANA - what would be different for a business user? After talking to several customers, Vijay Vijayasankar thinks it’s the "ease of answering the second question" that is the most value adding scenario for a business user. What is your "second question"? March 4, 2013

Clear the Process Fog with SAP Operational Process Intelligence

Learn about this new SAP offering designed to improve your operational efficiency. Check out the overview video on YouTube and share your thoughts on therelated blog by Peter McNulty. February 21, 2013

Say cheese... on taking snapshots with SAP HANA

In this detailed blog, Lars Breddemann shows how to take a snapshot of your SAP HANA instance. February 21, 2013

Fast is Not a Number

You might call it a constructive rant, but why not ask the difficult questions? Jim Spath - SAP Mentor, SCN forum moderator, ASUG volunteer, employee of a company that runs SAP – does. February 21, 2013

The OLAP Compiler in BW on SAP HANA

Thomas Zurek blogs about a functionality he considers one of the “crown jewels” of BW on HANA.February 21, 2013

SAP HANA Certification Pathways

In this comprehensive blog, Vishal Soni shares his organization’s plans which outline paths to SAP HANA certification for technical consultants and application consultants.February 18, 2013

Harness Insight from Hadoop with MapReduce and Text Data Processing Using SAP Data Services and SAP HANA

This white paper, developed at SAP Co-Innovation Lab,  explores how IT organizations can use solutions from SAP and our partners to harness the value of large volumes of data stored in Hadoop, identify salient entities from unstructured textual data, and combine it with structured data in SAP HANA to leverage meaningful information in real-time. February 13, 2013

New SAP TV Videos on SME Customers Using SAP HANA

Michael Nuesslein of SAP TV announces two new SAP HANA game-changer videos worth checking out. January 28, 2013

SAP on HANA, and Pushdown for All: News about ABAP's Adventurous Relationship with the Database

Business Suite on HANA wasn't all news to this SAP Mentor, but the January 10 announcement came with some "extremely new and noteworthy" information to Thorsten Franz, such as a shift in the ABAP programming model. January 21, 2013

The Business Suite on HANA: The Announcement and What this Means for Customers

Besides providing an overview of the January 10 announcement, SAP Mentor and SCN Moderator Luke Marson outlines customer benefits and his thoughts on what it all means. Of course there are still questions, as summarized in Carsten Nitschke’s candidly-titled “What I did not learn” blog. Don’t miss the discussion that follows.

As far as what’s next, SAP Mentor Richard Hirsch“connects the dots” and suggests the next big play for HANA. January 17, 2013

2013 - The Year of the SAP Database

With the incredible success of SAP HANA over the last 18 months and a greatly expanded database and technology portfolio, SAP is poised to surge ahead in the database market. SAP Mentor John Appleby shares his thoughts on why 2013 will be a pivotal year. January 3, 2013

SAP TechEd Sessions on SAP HANA

What principles guide SAP’s platform and infrastructure decisions? Watch Introduction to Our Technology Strategy and Road Map to learn about the "big bets" that SAP is making in the technology game. Then learn about Integrating SAP HANA into Your Landscape through the intelligent use of in-memory technology. You’ll gain valuable insight with this interview: From ABAPer to MOBILEr: The Evolution of SAP Developers, where SAP Mentor DJ Adams talks about developer evolution with SAP HANA, Java, Eclipse, and Cloud. Watch more sessions on SAP HANA. January 10, 2013

It’s Here: SAP Business Suite, Powered by SAP HANA

SAP just announced availability of the SAP Business Suite powered by SAP HANA. SCN’s own Siva Darivemula summarizes the announcement, including a blog post by SAP CTO Vishal Sikka and overview video. January 10, 2013

What's New in SAP HANA SPS05

Following the model of his very successful "What's New" blogs from his SAP NetWeaver Portal days, Daniel Wroblewski summarizes the new features of SAP HANA SPS05 in this blog. See the related post by Lucas Sparvieri about the SAP HANA Text Analysis capabilities of SPS05. January 3, 2013

Meet the Distinguished Engineers

SAP HANA is the fastest growing product in SAP's history, with over 400 customers after just 12 months, and there will be an unprecedented demand for SAP HANA resources. With this comes the need to understand the level of experience of a HANA engineer and their areas of expertise. The Distinguished Engineer program is an SAP-sponsored, community-led effort to address this perceived skills gap in the HANA technical community, and to recognize those with a high level of technical skills, as well as embracing those who are learning and are on their way to gaining skills. Learn more. January 3, 2013

New from SAPinsider Magazine:

Optimizing ABAP for SAP HANA: SAP's 3-Step Approach - In this article, you'll learn SAP's three-step approach to optimize SAP NetWeaver Application Server (SAP NetWeaver AS) ABAP for the SAP HANA database.

Build Solutions Powered by SAP HANA to Transform Your Business - Read how the SAP Custom Development organization is helping customers build business-critical solutions powered by SAP HANA. January 3, 2013

2012

HANA Videos from SAP TechEd Live

Replay these interviews from Madrid for a variety of insights into SAP HANA:

• SAP HANA Petascale Perfomance Test
• Developer Deep Dive on SAP HANA, Part II
• SAP HANA Cloud - Where In-Memory Computing Meets the Cloud
• In the Cloud and on SAP HANA with SAP Business One
• How SAP HANA Helps Startups Achieve the Impossible
• How Startups are Transforming their Businesses by Building their Solutions on SAP HANA

Find more interviews in the catalog of HANA interviews from Las Vegas. November 28, 2012

SAP HANA One Innovative App Contest

Build your most innovative app on HANA One in AWS Cloud. Register by December 12, 2012. Learn more. December 3, 2012

More HANA from SAP TechEd Live!

Replay these interviews from Madrid for a variety of insights into SAP HANA:

• SAP HANA Petascale Perfomance Test
• Developer Deep Dive on SAP HANA, Part II
• SAP HANA Cloud - Where In-Memory Computing Meets the Cloud
• In the Cloud and on SAP HANA with SAP Business One
• How SAP HANA Helps Startups Achieve the Impossible
• How Startups are Transforming their Businesses by Building their Solutions on SAP HANA

Find more interviews in the catalog of HANA interviews from Las Vegas. November 28, 2012

New Space: SAP NetWeaver BW powered by SAP HANA

Follow the new space dedicated to releases of SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA. November 26, 2012

How to Configure SAP HANA for CTS

Learn how to use the Change and Transport System (CTS) together with SAP HANA. November 26, 2012

SAP HANA Installation Guide – Trigger-Based Data Replication

This guide details the installation and configuration of trigger-based replication for SAP HANA – the SAP Landscape Transformation Replication Server.November 26, 2012

The Road to HANA for Software Developers

Developer Whisperer Juergen Schmerder published this helpful guide for developers interested in HANA to help find their way through the jungle of documents out there. October 31, 2012

Preparing for HANA: How to Achieve SAP Certified Technology Associate Certification

How do you prepare for the actual certification? In this blog, SAP Mentor Tom Cenens provides some helpful information on the certification and how to pass. October 31, 2012

Hit “Replay” on SAP HANA! Visit SAP TechEd Online

The SAP TechEd Live studio in Las Vegas featured interviews about SAP HANA One (productive HANA on AWS), SAP HANA Academy, RDS for HANA, the HANA Distinguished Engineer program, how startups are using HANA, and a deep dive on SAP HANA development. Check outall these and more interviews. October 26, 2012

SAP HANA Academy: Watch, Follow, and Learn SAP HANA from SAP and Ecosystem Partners Experts

This week at SAP TechEd, we announced the launch of the SAP HANA Academy. Access videos and exercises about everything from security, to working with data in SAP HANA Studio and SAP BusinessObjects Data Services, to integrating SAP HANA with Mobile or Analytics. Also, see the related SAP TechEd Online video. October 23, 2012

Better Choice – SAP BW on SAP HANA

You think you know databases? Think again. Watch the short animated video to see how you can make a better choice with SAP BW on HANA. Learn how you can better handle your exploding data volume, and why your business can benefit from real time data analysis. October 23, 2012

Join the first Google+ HANA Hangout!

Hang out with SAP HANA experts on Monday, October 29 at 9 am PT for a live, streamed chat about SAP HANA and big data. Participants include Aiaz Kazi, Head of Technology & Innovation Marketing for SAP, and Amit Sinha, Head of Database & Technology Marketing at SAP and special guest Irfan Khan, CTO of Sybase. October 26, 2012

What Customers Say About SAP HANA

“Fujitsu and SAP’s  history of co-innovation and collaboration have now provided both very large and small customers with a scalable in memory appliance that can quickly be implemented to dramatically increase data processing and real time information analytics for decision making,” says Rolf Schwirz, CEO Fujitsu Technology Solutions. Read more in SAP In-Memory Computing - Procter & Gamble Customer Testimonial, SAP HANA Helps Federal Mogul to Improve Performance, SAP HANA Helps Booan Run Better, Hilti Customer Testimonial and Charite Improves Lives with SAP HANA. October 5, 2012

First Experience with ABAP for HANA – Evolution or Revolution?

Check out this excellent blog by SAP Mentor Tobias Trapp, and contribute to the new, dedicated ABAP for HANA space.

Read more about how co-innovation among SAP and SAP Mentors enabled optimization of the ABAP platform for HANA in Sanjay Khanna’sblogAll for One and HANA for All. October 3, 2012

With All the Facts and Information Readily Available, Why Is It So Tough for Some to Speak Truth About SAP HANA?

Mark Yolton, SVP Communities & Social Media at SAP, put together this nice collection of great blogs, videos, articles, and other content that will help you understand the essence and the truth about SAP HANA. Top picks include: What Oracle Won't Tell You about SAP HANA by Steve Lucas, EVP Database & Technology at SAP, and Puneet Suppal's SAP HANA and the Pretenders. October 3, 2012

Turbocharge Your Applications with SAP HANA (Webinar Recording)

In this recording, learn how to add new revenue streams and monetize in-memory computing with new services and offerings, turbocharge your applications with SAP for OEM Partners, and reduce administration costs and do ETL, materialization, aggregation, and summarizing in just one step.

Video Blog: The State of SAP HANA - Debating Killer Apps and Skills Needs

To commemorate the first year anniversary of HANA's General Availability, Jon Reed taped this special Google Hangout with fellow SAP Mentors John Appleby, Vijay Vijayasankar, and Harald Reiter. September 14, 2012

How to Analyze Who Has Access to Particular Objects

Following his blogs on how to analyze security relations in SAP HANA system, SAP Mentor Tomas Krojzl looks at authorization relationship between users and objects. September 14, 2012

New Publication: A Storage Advisor for Hybrid-Store Databases

This paper, published in the Proceedings of the VLDB Endowment by SAP Research, proposes a storage advisor tool that supports database administrators in deciding between row and column data management. September 14, 2012

Spotfire on HANA (and a bit of a comparison)

After a previous blog “Tableau on HANA,” Ronald Konijnenburg of Logica Nederland B.V. got curious again about how a similar third-party application would behave when connecting it to HANA. September 7, 2012

From Online Gaming to Genome Analysis SAP HANA Creates New Business Opportunities

Technology itself does not give your business an edge—how you use that technology does. In her latest blog post, SAP’s Ruks Omar introduces the SAP HANA Use Case Repository, where you’ll find numerous applications for SAP HANA, and a call to share your use case. September 7, 2012

SAPInsider: SAP HANA is a Journey, Not a Destination

Since its release in 2010, SAP HANA has rapidly evolved from an appliance for accelerating analytics to an application platform — and there's still more to come. In this SAPinsider Q&A, hear from Dan Kearnan, Senior Director of Marketing for Data Warehousing and SAP HANA, who discusses this in-memory technology's impressive growth and sheds light on where it's headed. September 7, 2012

Free Course on In-Memory Data Management

Gain deep technical understanding of a dictionary-encoded column-oriented in-memory database and its application in enterprise computing with this new offering from the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI).

The course, guided by Dr. Plattner himself, begins September 3, 2012 and requires about 3 hrs effort per week over 6 weeks. See the course overview on SCN and visit the openHPI web site for complete details. August 14, 2012

Webinar Replay Now Available

Transform Your Business with the Real-Time Power of SAP HANA - According to a study by Oxford Economics, companies that implement real-time systems see an average 21% increase in revenue, and a 19% reduction in IT cost.1 But what does real time really mean? August 24, 2012

Sign up for the August 16 Webinar: Transform Your Business with the Real-Time Power of SAP HANA

This 30-minute webinar focuses on how a real-time in memory data platform can give companies unprecedented and immediate insights into their customers, products, services and operations by enabling the analysis of huge volumes of data from virtually any source -- for improved agility and bottom line performance. August 14, 2012

I'm in a HANA State of Mind

Says SAP Mentor John Appleby, "...because once you start spotting opportunities for SAP HANA, you won't stop until you find ways to disrupt entire industries." August 1, 2012

SAP HANA Startup Forum Day - TLV 2012

Erez Sobol, Head of Technology Ventures at SAP Labs Israel, recaps an exciting day of learning and collaboration centered around big data and SAP technologies as part of the world-wide SAP Startup Focus Program. August 2, 2012

HANA and the Future of Personalized Medicine

Medicine can now be aided by tools capable of processing large volumes of data quickly. HANA is well placed to establish a strong role in the new era of personalized medicine. Mark Heffernan shares some thoughts and observations on the potential for HANA and personalized medicine. July 31, 2012

SAP Hana Code Jam - Why Code in SAP Hana?

SAP Mentor Tammy Powlas shares her experience at the first SAP CodeJam focused exclusively on SAP HANA. July 30, 2012

New Installation/Import - Including Unified Installer -  for SAP NetWeaver BW Powered by SAP HANA

SAP’s Roland Kramer provides guidance for implementing BW on SAP HANA, whether it’s a new installation or an export of an existing system with any DB export. July 27, 2012

Using JPA to Persist Application Data in SAP HANA

This document proposes a solution for using the Java Persistence API framework JPA to persist Java classes in HANA DB. July 18, 2012

Create Your Own Security Monitoring Tool

SAP Mentor Tomas Krojzl of IBM shows how to create a tool that will give you an overview of user role assignments in your SAP HANA system.Part I | Part IIJuly 18, 2012

Real-time Gross-to-Net Profitability Analysis - HANA PoC at COIL

Vistex partnered with SAP and IBM in the SAP Co-Innovation Lab to develop a solution to provide real-time profitability analytics while reducing the overall impact on transactional processing and other business operations. In this blog, Kevin Liu of SAP Co-Innovation Lab introduces the project and resulting white paper.

SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP for HANA

How does ABAP help to leverage the benefits of in-memory database technology? This documentdescribes SAP's vision, strategy, development, and commitment to enable ABAP for SAP HANA.June 25, 2012

Does SAP HANA Replace BW? (Hint: No.) - Part 2

In this part 2 blog, SAP Mentor John Appleby continues where SAP EVP Steve Lucas left off in his original blog post inspired by a series of posts in the Twittersphere. June 25, 2012

Download the SAP HANA Essentials eBook (It's Free!)

In this video blog, SAP HANA expert Jeffrey Word introduces the new book SAP HANA Essentials eBook. June 25, 2012

Announcing the SAP HANA Distinguished Engineer Program

Learn about a new program from SAP that aims to promote and encourage technical expertise in SAP HANA. June 19, 2012

Happy First Birthday, HANA!

On the first birthday of SAP HANA, SAP Mentor Vijay Vijaysankar from IBM reflects on the progress made over the last year and looks forward to challenges and opportunities ahead. June 18, 2012

SAP Insider: Powered by SAP HANA

In this SAPinsider article, Scott Leatherman of SAP explains how value-added resellers, independent software vendors, and systems integration partners are helping companies that have "big data" challenges understand the scale of SAP HANA and identify areas where it can help drive their business forward. June 18, 2012

Get your own SAP HANA DB server on Amazon Web Services

Get your hands on your own HANA DB server using three different image sizes we made available for you. Check out now and create your own HANA@AWS environment and get started with SAP HANA!  June 1, 2012

Happy Birthday to You, HANA!

On Monday, June 18, SAP HANA turns one year old, and we'd like to you to be a part of the celebration. Bay Area residents may join us in Palo Alto, and everyone's welcome to join in on the virtual birthday party. Festivities start at 10 AM Pacific time. June 14, 2012

Understanding Look and Feel of SAP HANA STUDIO

In this document, Krishna Tangudu discusses the basic navigation for the SAP HANA Sandbox system, with an emphasis on the look and feel of the system. May 31, 2012

Rapid Deployment Solution for Banking Powered by SAP HANA Transforms your Business

To help banks to speed up the adoption of SAP HANA, SAP offers Rapid Deployment Solutions for banking. Susanne Knopp highlights them in this recent blog. May 31, 2012

Getting Started with SAP HANA Developer Center

In this short tutorial, SAP Mentor and Development Expert Alvaro Tejada Galindo covers some HANA Developer Center essentials: Creation of a Developer Center account, CloudShare, creation of row and column tables, upload of CSV file to SAP HANA, creation of Stored Procedure, creation of a view, and graphic analysis using SAP HANA Studio own tools. May 9, 2012

Who's Talking About SAP HANA? Find out on this "Conversation Heat Map"

Chris Kim of SAP Global Marketing introduces a tool for visualizing social media conversations around #SAP #HANA. Check it out. May 10, 2012

Explore Use Cases, Quantify Business Value

In these two blogs, SAP Mentor Rukhshaan Omar previews two new decision-making tools she'll be unveiling at SAPPHIRE NOW Orlando: The HANA use case repository and the business value calculator. May 8, 2012

Developer's Journal: ABAP/HANA Connectivity via Secondary Database Connection

Interested in how to access HANA from your ABAP systems? In his edition of the HANA Developer's Journal, Thomas Jung explains how much can be done today when HANA runs as a secondary database for your current ABAP based systems and what development options within the ABAP environment support this  scenario. April 15, 2012

SAP HANA Technical Overview – An Entry Point to Our Revolutionary Chapter

This blog introduces the latest and greatest technical overview white paper for SAP HANA. This essential document provides a general understanding of SAP HANA as of support package 3 (SP03), and covers database administration, deployment scenarios, data load architecture scenarios, and more. 20 April 2012

SAP HANA Scale-Out Performance Test: Blog Commentary

In his blog SAP HANA - Scale Out Performance Test Results - Early Findings, Sam Bhat of United Software provides general guidelines for people interested in considering new database technologies like SAP HANA. Josh Greenbaum (EAC ) summarizes the data from SAP’s latest HANA scalability test in his blog SAP Ups the HANA Challenge following SAP’s April 10 press conference. 20 April 2012

Visit the SAP Newsroom for more news from the April 10 press conference. 11 April 2012

Inside SAP HANA: Optimizing Data Load Performance and Tuning

SAP Mentor John Appleby outlines seven steps and offers insight into the best ways to optimize data models and load performance in SAP HANA. He covers not only optimizing the data model, but testing load parameters and choosing a partition scheme carefully. 4 April, 2012

Back to Featured Content.

Overview

Resources

• The New Frontier – SAP Operational Process Intelligence powered by SAP HANA
• Watch it - SAP Operational Process Intelligence powered by SAP HANA on YouTube
• Test Drive SAP Operational Process Intelligence, powered by SAP HANA
• Tame BIG Processes with SAP Operational Process Intelligence, powered by SAP HANA - Part 1
• Tame BIG Processes with SAP Operational Process Intelligence, powered by SAP HANA - Part 2
• Tame BIG Processes with SAP Operational Process Intelligence, powered by SAP HANA - Part 3
• Bipedal Process and Data Intelligence.... Stop Hopping.... RUN!
• The Process Black Box – SAP Operational Process Intelligence shines a light inside
• Real life examples:
  • Read the first experiences from CubeServ, a ramp-up partner: SAP Operational Process Intelligence on HANA - a boost for process efficiency!
  • NEW!Operational Process Intelligence (SAP OPInt) + Tips For Your 1st Business Scenario
• NEW! SAP Operational Process Intelligence is Now Generally Available!

Webinars / Recordings

• Last call ASUG members! Join Monday webcast on SAP Operational Process Intelligence
• Attending SAPPHIRE NOW? Catch up with Process Orchestration & Operational Process Intelligence Champions!
• Meet SAP Operational Process Intelligence, Workflow and BPM Champions at ASUG Annual Conference
• Webcast: Driving Big Value from Big Processes with SAP OPInt on SAP HANA- register to get the replay!
• SAP NetWeaver BPM Roadmap Webinar featuring SAP OPInt - link to replay in the blog!

• Solution Brief - Power Smart Business Operations with Real-Time Process Intelligence
• Test this Solution right now in our testdrive
• Documentation on SAP Help Portal
• SAP Operational Process Intelligence on sap.com
• SAP Operational Process Intelligence on saphana.com

• Process Orchestration

The Top 10 SAP HANA Myths Spread by Other Vendors

SAP Mentor John Appleby solves for X in the equation, "Another vendor has told me X about SAP HANA, is it true?" while Vijay Vijayasankar explains why A Faster Horse Just Won’t Cut It Anymore. July 19, 2013

The Process Black Box – SAP Operational Process Intelligence shines a light inside

Much has been made of what breakthroughs SAP HANA can provide to the world of business. In this blog, SAP Mentor Owen Pettiford of CompriseIT shares his take on how sapopint is a product that delivers.

Join Owen in the SAP Mentor Monday webinarto find out more about SAPOPInt.

Also learn about SAPOPInt from Sebastian Zick, who shares his real-world experience on how CubeServ gained transparency of processes across system boundaries. July 19, 2013

Real-time Sentiment Ratings of Movies on SAP HANA One

SAP intern Wenjun Zhou describes using SAP HANA One to power an app that rated movies. Learn how he used the Rotten Tomatoes API to find newly released movies, along with Twitter and Sina Weibo APIs to check sentiment among U.S. and China-based movie-goers, respectively. July 19, 2013

SAP Solutions and Best Practices for Testing SAP HANA

Ensuring a smooth introduction and ongoing operation of applications running on SAP HANA requires a thorough and automated testing approach. This includes a selection of representative test cases that address technical, functional, and non-functional needs, as well as dedicated tools that accelerate and increase the effectiveness of testing efforts. Learn from this white paper how to develop and implement a tailored testing approach based on best practices. July 19, 2013

New Features in SAP HANA Studio Revision 55

In case you missed it, Lars Breddemann reports on the improvements released with revision 55 of SAP HANA Studio. July 19, 2013

Calling XSJS Service Using SAP UI5

Inspired by a previous blog on SAP HANA Extended Application Services, Vivek Singh Bhoj elaborates on how to call the XSJS service. July 19, 2013

See more recently featured content.

If you are interested in learning about Big Data then you are at the right place to find out how SAP makes Big Data real

Here is a quick link to the webinars that have taken place so far:

Also be sure to regularly check out the new and upcoming topics that we will be adding to the series such as Text Analytics, Spatial Data processing and Sentiment analysis of movies

Security / Authorizations

Will all existing users get migrated to HANA DB with the correct authorizations?

Absolutely – The ERP database to HANA migration is a full database migration

Will the user administration in ERP on HANA change, how does this impact our security team? Does the Basis Team need to be involved in this HANA research work?

All ERP users / roles are defined through the ERP Application layer. The only change is for the users of the HANA data modeling studio in the HANA datamart, and that also applies to SHAF.

Yes, it is recommended to train the Basis team in SAP HANA, there are specific technical training classes available.

https://training.sap.com/us/en

Where can I find more details on the HANA security capabilities?

SAP HANA Security Guide

This guide describes how to enable security for SAP HANA appliance software and the SAP HANA database.

http://help.sap.com/hana/hana_sec_en.pdf

Is the authorization in the SHAF (SAP HANA Analytical Framework) rather comparable to the ERP on HANA security model, or to the HANA data mart security model?

The user privileges in the SAP HANA data mart security model are currently less granular than the authorizations in BW on HANA and in ERP on HANA.
If more complex security is required, the recommendation is to consume the HANA data models via BW Transient or Virtual InfoProviders.

In order to access SHAF in the sidecar scenario, the Business Suite users share the same technical database user for connecting to the HANA sidecar. This authorization check within Business Suite using PFCG & authorization check.
Once SHAF in the sidecar has been accessed,  HANA based Analytics (Access from reporting tools to HANA ) is utilized. Each HANA based Analytics user becomes a database user and the authorization check within HANA using privileges

Please see the link to the HANA security guide for more details:

http://help.sap.com/hana/hana_sec_en.pdf

SAP HANA database authorization mechanisms use the following privileges:

●System privileges
Perform system-level operations or administrative tasks

●Object privileges
Perform specified actions on specified database objects

●Analytic privileges
Allow selective access control for database views generated when modeled are activated

●Package Privileges
Allow operations on packages, for example, creation and maintenance. Privileges can differ for native and imported packages.

Database Replication Security Guides

These guides describe how to enable security for the data replication technologies related to the SAP HANA appliance software.

SAP HANA Security Guide - Trigger-Based Replication (SLT)

http://help.sap.com/hana/hana_slt_repli_sec_en.pdf

SAP BusinessObjects Data Services Administrator's Guide. Please see the chapters "Security" and "User and Rights Management:

http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/boexir4/en/xi4_ds_admin_en.pdf

In HANA development, if you happen to have a need to perform same modifications to the model multiple times in the same model or copy them over to different models, then XML editing would help you save a lot of effort.

In cases like, if your data is based on “Account model”, but the reporting requirement is “Key Figure model”, then you may end up creating a lot of Restricted Key figures and Calculated Key figures. Or consider a case, when the data model contains more than 70 – 80 key figures and you need to apply currency conversion to these Key figures, then the XML editing can help you reduce a lot of manual effort.

If your XML coding skills are advanced, then it can certainly help model large UNION operations, which in current eclipse editor can certainly be painful and may result in hanging the HANA studio.

And in case, if you don’t have any such requirement mentioned above, it would still help you look into the generated XML for the HANA information models to understand how different settings like Default schema, Default Client, Default Language, various input parameters, variables, data sources etc are mapped.

Steps to generate the XML model of the schema:

The XML file can be generated from the right hand side option as shown below, but I prefer the EXPORT functionality so that the same file can be imported back after editing.

The EXPORT / IMPORT option can be found in HANA Studio as shown below. A detailed document on how to use the EXPORT / IMPORT functionality can be found at http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-26381

For the demonstration purpose, let us consider a data model with

• one base Key figure with currency conversion applied (C_SALES)
• 3 base Key Figures which are currently modeled as "simple", but need to be modeled as "Amount with Currency" and also need to apply currency conversion (C_SALES_1, C_SALES_2, C_SALES_3)
• 1 Restricted Key Figure (SALES_2012) with C_SALES restricted to Year 2012
• 1 Calculated Key Figure (SALES_10PER_CC) with 10% of the Sales to be added to the Sales for further calculation.

The model can look like :

Case 1: Modify Key Figures from Simple to Amount with Currency and apply Currency conversion:

The Key Figure (C_SALES) has been defined as Amount with Currency with Dynamic Currency conversion as shown below. Such setting can be copied to the other Key Figures in the generated XML file. This can save considerable effort as compared to performing the modifications in HANA Studio, when the number of Key figures to be modified are significantly high.

Please note that the Schema for currency conversion has been hidden in the screenshot above.

The setting in the XML file can be seen in the following screenshot.

The changes to be done for the Key Figures C_SALES_1, C_SALES_2, C_SALES_3 are as follows:

• Change the measureType from "simple" to "amount" like for C_SALES
• Copy the code block highlighted in the screenshot between <descriptions> and <measureMapping> tab like for C_SALES
  

After the re-import of the XML file, the changes can be seen in the Key Figures C_SALES_1, C_SALES_2, C_SALES_3 as follows:

Please note that the Schema for currency conversion has been hidden in the screenshot above. The same technique can be used to create additional Key Figures in the model as mentioned below.

Case 2: Create additional Restricted and Calculated Key Figures:

Additional Key figures can also be created by copying the existing code blocks for Restricted and Calculated Key figures and modifying the technical name, description and filter / expression conditions. For simplicity, we can copy the existing RKF and CKF and modify the filter conditions and calculations.

To add a Restricted Key figure with Sales for 2013, the XML file can be modified as shown below. The <measure> block can be copied and modified as shown in the screenshot below:

The measure id, description and the restriction values (including the attributes) can be modified after copying. The same concept can be applied for the Calculated Key Figures as shown in the below screenshot. The <measure> block can be copied and modified for the new Calculated Key Figure.

After the modification to the XML file, it can be re-imported and the view can be VALIDATED and ACTIVATED in HANA Studio. The validation process can identify any error in the imported model and can be corrected. The generated model can look like:

Please note that the above mentioned process is an alternative approach to the development based on personal experience. It could be debatable, if this process is supported by SAP. But since the IMPORT of the XML file feature is provided in HANA Studio and the Re-imported model can be validated and activated in HANA studio, I believe the process does not have any negative impact.

Apart from the above mentioned use cases, there could be multiple other use cases, where the XML file modification can help you in the development.

So I leave it to your better judgement on the alternative approach, which can help you reduce your development effort.

TO CREATE SCHEMA Using SQL Editor

SYNTAX :  CREATE  SCHEMA <schema_name>

Ex: CREATE  SCHEMA  EXSCH

To Create Column Table Using SQL Editor

syntax :  create column table <schema_name>. <table_name> (Field_name1 Datatype ,Field_name2 Datatype,Field_name3  Datatype  ,.................)

EX : createcolumntable"EXSCH"."EMP"( "EID"INTEGERnotnull,"ENAME"VARCHAR (100)null, "ESAL"DECIMALnotnull,

       "ELOC"VARCHAR (100) null,primarykey ("EID"))

Store Procedure to insert value

Example

CREATEPROCEDURE EXSCH.EMP_INSERT_PROCS (IN EID INTEGER ,

       IN ENAME VARCHAR(100) ,

       IN ESAL DECIMAL ,

       IN ELOC VARCHAR(100) ) LANGUAGE SQLSCRIPT AS

BEGININSERT

INTO"EXSCH"."EMP"VALUES (EID,

ENAME,

ESAL,

ELOC)

;

END

;

Store procedure to Update Values in table

Example:

CREATEPROCEDURE EXSCH.EMP_UPDATE_PROC (IN EID INTEGER ,

       IN ENAME VARCHAR(100) ,

       IN ESAL DECIMAL ,

       IN ELOC VARCHAR(100) ) LANGUAGE SQLSCRIPT AS

BEGINUPDATE"EXSCH"."EMP"

SET   ENAME = :ENAME ,

ESAL =:ESAL ,

ELOC  =:ELOC

WHERE EID   =:EID

;

END

;

Store procedure to Delete Values in table

CREATEPROCEDURE EXSCH.EMP_DELETE_PROC (IN EID INTEGER ,

       IN ENAME VARCHAR(100) ,

       IN ESAL DECIMAL ,

       IN ELOC VARCHAR(100) ) LANGUAGE SQLSCRIPT AS

BEGINDELETE

FROM"EXSCH"."EMP"

WHERE EID =:EID

;

END

;

Regards

T SrinivasuluReddy

To consume HANA views in Business objects dashboard you have to create a universe in sematic layer using IDT and publish the same. Using the universe we create a report in Dashboard.

Creating dashboard on HANA views involves three basic steps

Prerequisite:

HANA views- attribute view/analytical view/calculation view is already created in SAP HANA.

Execution:

1. Creation of a universe.
2. Creation of a dashboard.
3. Publishing and viewing dashboard

Detailed Steps:

1. Creation of a universe

• Launch IDT and create a project.
• Create a Relational Connection (of type SAP->JDBC Drivers) to HANA system.

• Once created the connections, publish the connection to the repository.

• Create a Data Foundation with a Single Source option.

• In the next screen select the relational connection for the HANA system where view is lying.
• Once the data foundation screen opens, select Calculation View from the right side panel. All activated views (Attribute/Analytical/Calculation views) will be shown under _SYS_BIC schema. The naming convention will be like packagename.subschema/viewname.
• Create Relational Business Layer on top of this Data Foundation.
• Select the required Fields(Attributes and Measures) and hide the unwanted fields.
• Make sure the Aggregation has been set for Measures. Even though aggregation is specified, the aggregation function has to be explicitly specified in SQL Function if the measures in order to achieve desired aggregation.
• Go to Queries and check for the HANA data by clicking the Refresh. The data should be shown based on the selected fields.
• Publish the Business Layer into BIP Repository as a Universe in order to consume by other BO Reporting Tools.

2. Creation of a dashboard

• Launch the Dashboard Design from Start Menu
• Click a Blank Model

• Click “Add Query” in the Query Browser

• Mention the BIP Server details to open the session which includes hostname; user; password 

• Now Select the Universe in the “Add Query” dialog->Click Next

• Select the required Characteristics and Measures in put it under “Result Objects”. Mention the filters, under “Filters” panel, if required and click Refresh. HANA data will be shown under Result Set as shown below

• Click Next->Next->Ok

• Now bind the field(say Division) values to Excel cells:

• Place the component(say ListView) into Canvas and map the Excel cell values to ListView

3. Publishing and viewing dashboard.

• Save the Dashboard into BOE Server

• Now login to CMC->Folders. The published dashboard will be shown here in the folder.
• Right click to View the dashboard

Hope this helps to the freshbees on SAP HANA and Business Objects Dashboards.

Feel free to ask questions.

HAPPY HANA

Deepak Chodha.

Overview

Resources

• The New Frontier – SAP Operational Process Intelligence powered by SAP HANA
• Watch it - SAP Operational Process Intelligence powered by SAP HANA on YouTube
• Test Drive SAP Operational Process Intelligence, powered by SAP HANA
• Tame BIG Processes with SAP Operational Process Intelligence, powered by SAP HANA - Part 1
• Tame BIG Processes with SAP Operational Process Intelligence, powered by SAP HANA - Part 2
• Tame BIG Processes with SAP Operational Process Intelligence, powered by SAP HANA - Part 3
• Bipedal Process and Data Intelligence.... Stop Hopping.... RUN!
• The Process Black Box – SAP Operational Process Intelligence shines a light inside
• Real life examples:
  • Read the first experiences from CubeServ, a ramp-up partner: SAP Operational Process Intelligence on HANA - a boost for process efficiency!
  • NEW!Operational Process Intelligence (SAP OPInt) + Tips For Your 1st Business Scenario
• NEW! SAP Operational Process Intelligence is Now Generally Available!

Webinars / Recordings

• Last call ASUG members! Join Monday webcast on SAP Operational Process Intelligence
• Attending SAPPHIRE NOW? Catch up with Process Orchestration & Operational Process Intelligence Champions!
• Meet SAP Operational Process Intelligence, Workflow and BPM Champions at ASUG Annual Conference
• Webcast: Driving Big Value from Big Processes with SAP OPInt on SAP HANA- register to get the replay!
• SAP NetWeaver BPM Roadmap Webinar featuring SAP OPInt - link to replay in the blog!

• Solution Brief - Power Smart Business Operations with Real-Time Process Intelligence
• Test this Solution right now in our testdrive
• Documentation on SAP Help Portal
• SAP Operational Process Intelligence on sap.com
• SAP Operational Process Intelligence on saphana.com

• Process Orchestration