Transfer Data from SAP BW to SAP Vora or Cloud Storage

SAP Data Hub provides capabilities that enable you to transfer data from an SAP BW system to an SAP Vora system or cloud storage.

Prerequisites

You have created a connection to an SAP Vora system or cloud storage area such as Amazon S3, Google Cloud Platform, Hadoop Distributed File System, and so on using the SAP Data Hub Connection Management application.

Context

You can use the Data Transfer operator in the SAP Data Hub Modeler to execute a data transfer from SAP BW to SAP Vora. This operator enables you to select the source data from a selected SAP BW system and the target SAP Vora table in an SAP Vora system to which you want to transfer the data.

Procedure

Start the SAP Data Hub Modeler.
In the navigation pane, select the Graphs tab.
In the navigation pane toolbar, choose + (Create Graph).
The tool opens an empty graph editor in the same window, where you can define your graph.
Select the operator.
A graph can contain a single operator or a network of operators based on the business requirement.
1. In the navigation pane, choose the Operators tab.
2. In the search bar, search for the Data Transfer operator.
3. In the search results, double-click the Data Transfer operator (or drag and drop it to the graph editor) to add it as a process in the graph execution.

Select the source.

In the Source tab, select the required SAP BW system and a BW Query or BW InfoProvider within this system. The BW Query or BW InfoProvider is the source data for the data transfer activity.

In the Connection ID dropdown list, enter the required connection ID.
You can also browse and select the required connection.

In the Source Type dropdown list, select the required source.

Source Type	Description
Query	Queries are combination of characteristics and key figures (InfoObjects) that allow you to analyze the data in an InfoProvider. A query corresponds to one InfoProvider, although you can define any number of queries for each InfoProvider.
InfoProvider	InfoProviders are typically made up of InfoObjects. InfoObjects are the smallest (metadata) units in SAP BW. You can create logical views on the physical data stores in the form of InfoProviders to provide data from different data stores for a common evaluation.

Based on the source type, the tool displays all queries or InfoProviders from the selected connection.

Select the required query or an InfoProvider that you want to use as the source data for the data transfer.

(Optional) Import source from the Metadata Catalog.
You can browse the folders in the Metadata Catalog and select the required data set (Query or InfoProvider).
1. In the editor, choose Import from Catalog.
2. Browse and select the required data set.
3. Choose OK.
  The tool automatically populates the connection details based on the selected data set. For more information on Metadata Catalog, see Manage Metadata in the related information section.
Provide values for variables.
If the selected query is defined with variables, then the tool prompts you to provide values to those variables. The tool also displays the default values, if any, defined for the variables.
1. In the Variable Values dialog box, select the variable, operator type and provide the required values.
2. If you want to view only the mandatory variables, select Show Mandatory Only.
  
  Caution If you continue without providing values to mandatory variables, then you may lose the selected query. In such cases, select the query again and provide values to the variables.
3. Choose OK.
Select dimensions.
You can select the required dimensions from the source that you want to project to the SAP Vora table.
1. Choose Select Dimensions.
2. In the Select Dimensions dialog box, select the required dimensions and choose OK.
3. If you want to filter a dimension and project only the filtered values, select the dimension and choose (Click to filter values).
4. In the Provide Filter Values dialog box, provide the filter condition and choose OK.
You can also sort the order of the selected measures and dimensions when projecting it to the SAP Vora table. In the Selected Measures or Selected Dimensions pane, use Move Up, Move Down, Move to Top, or Move to Bottom icons to sort the selected measures and dimensions.
Select measures.
You can select the required measures from the source that you want to project to the SAP Vora table.
1. Choose Select Measures.
2. In the Select Measures dialog box, select the required measures and choose OK.
Tip You can also sort the order of the selected measures and dimensions when projecting it to the target SAP Vora table. In the Selected Measures or Selected Dimensions pane, use Move Up or Move Down icons to sort the order selected measures and dimensions projected.
(Optional) Specify the transfer mode.
SAP Data Hub supports two types of transfer modes. The preferred way is to utilize SAP HANA.
1. If the engine uses the INA protocol to retrieve data from the source, in the Timeout text field, enter a value in milliseconds.
  The modeler waits for the time that you specify before executing a timeout on the data retrieval. This means that, after the timeout period, the graph execution fails. The default timeout value is 60 seconds.
2. If an external HANA view exists, the modeler displays the name of the SAP HANA view that it is using to retrieve data from the source.
  To use a HANA view, you can do so by marking a specific query or InfoProvider in the query designer to generate an underlying calculation view. SAP Data Hub can query this view to transfer the data to other target systems.
  Remember The engine uses the non-optimized BW INA provider to retrieve data from the source only if no external SAP HANA view exists.
(Optional) Define partitions.
The modeler provides capabilities to define a maximum of two partition conditions on the source columns to optimize the data transfer operation. It supports the partition types List and Range to define the partition conditions.
1. In the Partition Conditions section, choose Add Condition.
2. Select the required partition column and its data type.
3. In the Type dropdown list, select the required partition type.
4. In the Partition Values text field, define one or more partition values.
  For range partition type, define only the low boundary value.
Note If data is retrieved using BW INA provider as the transfer mode, then the partitions are ignored.
When connecting to an SAP Vora table, complete this step. When connecting to cloud storage, skip this step and perform the next step. Select the target SAP Vora table.
In the Target pane, select the required SAP Vora system and browse to the required SAP Vora table within the selected system. The SAP Vora table is the target destination for the data transfer task.
1. In the Connection ID dropdown list, enter the required connection ID.
  You can also browse and select the required connection.
2. In the HANA Wire Port text field, enter the SAP HANA Wire port of the SAP Vora Transaction Coordinator, which is determined as 3<XX>15, where <XX> is the instance number of the SAP Vora cluster as configured in the SAP Vora Manager.
3. In the Schema Name text field, enter the required SAP Vora schema.
  You can also browse and select the required SAP Vora schema and the table.
  Note Users can also manually enter the schema name and the table name. If the schema and table does not exist in the selected SAP Vora system, the tool creates them in the SAP Vora system to execute the data transfer. The columns and its data types in the SAP Vora table depends on the measures and dimensions that the user selects from the source query or InfoProvider.
When connecting to an SAP Vora table, complete the previous step. When connecting to cloud storage, perform this step. Select the target file location.
In the Target pane, select the required cloud storage and browse to the required folder location within the storage.
1. In the Connection ID dropdown list, enter the required connection ID.
  You can also browse and select the required connection.
  Note As the Data Transfer is done via the HANA Wire protocol, it is important to connect to the external SAP Vora Transaction Coordinator, which can speak the protocol. The cluster-internal default hostname for this is vora-tx-coordinator-ext.
2. In the Path text field, enter the required path.
  
  In case the connection you choose has a root path specified the content of this field is relative to this path. You can also browse to select the required file location.
Validate source and target.
Choose Validate to validate the source and target definition.
Remember You can transfer data only when both the source and the target (SAP Vora table) have the same number of columns (at minimum), data types, and are in the same order.
Corresponding to the common usage of Cloud Storage, the content of the target is overwritten. This includes the Vora Table itself, which is dropped.
Save and execute the graph.
Use the Workflow Trigger and Workflow Terminator operators in the graph to control the start and stop of the graph execution respectively.

Tip You can also schedule the graph execution. For more information, see Schedule Graph Executions.