Controlling Processes

Data passes a number of stations on its way through the Data Warehouse. You can control the processes for data with process chains. Process chains take on the task of scheduling data load and administration processes in the Data Warehouse in a meaningful order. They allow for the greatest possible parallelization during processing, and at the same time prevent lock situations from occurring when processes execute simultaneously. Process chains also offer a number of functions, for example to define and bind operating system events or customer processes.

The processes are processed under event control. If a process has in a certain result, for example "successfully finished", one or more follow-on processes are started. Process chains therefore allow central control, automation and monitoring of the BW processes and efficient operation of the Enterprise Data Warehouse. Process chains for automating certain processes can also be used in functions for business planning that are integrated in SAP NetWeaver BW. These are described in a subsequent section.

Since the process chains are integrated in the Alert Monitor in the Computer Center Management System (CCMS), processing of BW processes is embedded in the central SAP Monitoring architecture of the CCMS.