Data Extraction supportability of SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511 FPS02

Overview     

To support data extraction while using SAP S/4HANA system as source, with current version (SAP S/4HANA on-premise 1511 FPS02), both options are available as listed below:

1) SAP BW (Business Warehouse) DataSources

2) ABAP CDS (Core Data Service)-based VDMs (Virtual Data Models)

This blog aims to explain these 2 options including how-to-find guidance, but will not go into details of SAP BW DataSources, ABAP CDS, or S/4 HANA Embedded Analytics, etc.

SAP S/4HANA data extraction with SAP BW DataSources

Customers are able to extract data from SAP S/4HANA 1511 to their own BW-Hub using the BW extractors delivered by SAP. In some areas, extractors have been deprecated or can no longer be used with SAP S/4HANA 1511. The extractors related to deprecated functionality, or Add-ons etc. that due to S/4HANA simplification will not be available after conversion, and accordingly the downstream ETL, modeling, queries will be also affected. Meanwhile, customers are able to simplify traditional BI, and utilize S/4HANA embedded analytics for instant insight-to-action operational reporting. Please refer to the general restriction Note 2214213 for SAP S/4HANA 1511. There, in Section 12, restriction Notes of multiple areas are listed which contain the list of no longer available BW extractors.

DataSource adjustments might be required to comply with changed Scope and data structures within SAP S/4HANA 1511. This needs to be verified on customer-specific basis. For example, in SAP S/4HANA the material number was extended from 18 to 40 characters for moving SAP DIMP to core. After the upgrade to SAP S/4HANA all DataSources in the source system are deactivated. Thus the metadata of the DataSources must be replicated to the central SAP BW system again (TA RSA1). Consequentially the persistency tables in the SAP BW staging area are extended to 40 characters.

For very basic scenarios, the S/4HANA database interface layer of NetWeaver redirects all extractor related SELECTs to compatibility views (proxy objects are in place for objects like MKPF, etc.), which retrieves the same data based on the new data model (ACDOCA, MATDOC, and also backup tables like xxxx_BCK, etc.) e.g.:

SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511 FPS02 Simplification List:

http://help.sap.com/s4hana -> SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511 FPS02 -> Simplification List

SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511: Restriction Note:

http://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/2214213

How to check available DataSources in the system:

SAP S/4HANA CDS based data extraction

The analytics programming model of SAP S/4HANA is based on Core Data Services (CDS) views and the accordingly provided semantic layer Virtual Data Model (VDM). The virtual data model is also used for transactional or search uses cases and aims to fulfill on-premise and on-demand qualities. A complete Analytics solution also requires data extraction capabilities to support scenarios such as central EDW, Data-as-a-Service (DaaS), Mobile Offline apps, and offline Analytics like with Lumira Desktop. The CDS views provided with the virtual data model can also be used as basis for data extraction.

CDS views for data extraction shall be annotated with “@Analytics.dataExtraction.enabled: true”.

dataExtraction.enabled– Full data extraction is enabled.

Via this indicator the application marks those Entities that are suitable for data extraction. This ability is typically lost on the level of consumption views where joins, procedures and aggregations “blur” the relation to the primary data (especially data replication including calculated elements leads to wrong query results in the target system). To avoid additional data modeling outside VDM for the data provisioning scenarios, a logical sub-layer in the CDS reuse layer should be redundancy-free, but still complete from the business perspective. For each reuse view which is part of this core layer, it is decided from a technical (performance, ...) and semantic perspective, whether it can be also released for extraction use cases mentioned above. All views with an analytical data category of #FACT, #DIMENSION, #TEXT, #HIERARCHY are also suitable for data extraction.

ABAP CDS in ABAP Dictionary - HELP SAP Documentation:

http://help.sap.com/abapdocu_750/en/index.htm-> ABAP - Keyword Documentation→  ABAP - Dictionary→  ABAP CDS in ABAP Dictionary

How to check if a CDS based VDM is enabled for extraction?

With the name of an existing CDS View or S/4HANA ‘eliminated’ table, several approaches could be used to check the detailed DDL definition of the (underlying) CDS View. From there the dataExtraction.enabled property can be checked further.

An overview of useable approaches according to the type of object could be found in the below table. Detailed explanation follows afterwards.

1. General CDS views

Option 1: Via Report RUTDDLSSHOW2

Run the report RUTDDLSSHOW2 via transaction SE38, entering the CDS View name, e.g. BSAD.

The DDL definition of this CDS object is returned directly in the SAPGUI.

Option 2: Via ADT Search function

Launch ADT (ABAP Development Tools) and search with this CDS View name directly in it. (Window > show view > Search). Then you can double click on the object showed in the search result area to open the definition, and the search normally takes longer time compared to other approaches.

Option 3: Via Transaction SE11 redirecting to ADT

For general CDS view objects including analytical data category of #FACT, etc., the fastest way is to just open the CDS view in Transaction SE11 with object name (e.g. BSAD -> name of the DDL source is e.g. BSAD_DDL as in the field below).

Double click on the name of the DDL source in SE11 -> double click on the ADT Link -> CDS Editor will be opened in ADT directly, showing the DDL definition of this DDL Source.

Some additional information here:

The CDS View can also be displayed in a graphical way by using content menu “Open With Graphical Editor”:

The object package hierarchy can be found under Attribute tab in the view definition (SE11).

2. S/4 HANA ‘ELIMINATED TABLES WITH PROXY OBJECT’ (e.g. MKPF)

The 'eliminated' tables of the SAP ERP 6.0 world do still exist in S/4HANA as DDIC definition as well as database object. For compatibility reasons there are CDS views assigned as proxy objects to all those tables ensuring each read access. Each read access to one of the tables will get redirected in the database interface layer of NetWeaver to the assigned CDS view. The details should be checked in the 'SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511 FPS02 Simplification List', as well.

To find the DDL definition of these objects, first of all, you need to get the names of the Proxy Object.

Open Transaction SE11 and display the table via object name e.g. MKPF.

If the table has been ‘eliminated’ in S/4HANA like MKPF, we can get the name of the assigned proxy object via Menu Extras -> “Proxy Object…”. (Refer to below for simplification list: http://help.sap.com/s4hana -> SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511 FPS02 -> Simplification List)

You can check the detailed DDL definition by using report RUTDDLSSHOW2 or ADT search function as described in previous section “1. General CDS Views” Option 1 and 2, using the proxy object name as the input.

How to perform BW extraction from S/4HANA CDS based VDMs?

SAP BW is able to consolidate data from different source systems and provide a harmonized view for reporting. For this SAP BW supports various tools and concepts, e.g. different staging areas and data sources for each system that needs to be integrated into the central reporting.

Option 1: BW extraction from S/4HANA basing on CDS views

With this option, the ETL procedure is to extract data from SAP S/4HANA to SAP BW via a dedicated ODP (Operational Data Provider) source system type as below:

For each CDS View in the source system, there is a corresponding Open ODS View in BW. After data source creation, with this Open ODS View, you can directly consume the definition of the CDS in the source system. The ODP name of the source object is exactly the name of the CDS view you were looking at in the source system. This gives you the possibility to have one interface on the source system side for direct access in the source system, and for data provisioning from the source into BW as well.

Option 2: BW extraction from S/4HANA basing on CDS underlying technical database views:

The other way around, is to integrate the underlying database views of the CDS views. Below typical scenarios can be referenced:

    a) Via SDA, virtual access

          Load data from S/4HANA into BW via SDA

    2) Via ODP and SLT, real time replication

          Please refer to the following Wiki page on SCN:

          SLT | ODP based Real-time Replication

          SAP Note 2037476 - Operational Data Provisioning with SAP LT Replication Server:

          http://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/2037476

          For this scenario, view must contain key fields of original table, per SAP Note "1958809 - Installation/Upgrade SLT - DMIS 2011 SP6 / DMIS 2010 SP10":

          http://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1958809

Thank you for reading!

Gavin Huang