Copying a Data Flow

Context

You use this function to copy Data Warehouse objects and processes belonging to a data flow or process chain.

The data flow copy supports various scenarios:

You can use a data flow or a process chain as a "master template" for other data flows or process chains.
You can take a data flow or process chain from BI Content, copy it and then modify the copy according to your requirements.
You can take a data flow or process chain for one source system from BI Content and then copy it for the other source systems you need.
You can copy a data flow or process chain that is dependent on source system A for source system B or various other source systems you need.

You create the copies in the development system and transport them to the production system. After creating a 1:1 copy, you can also create multiple copies (1:n copy) from a template. As the development system generally contains fewer source systems - and different ones - than the production system, you can create dummy source systems and use these for the copies. In the production system, you then assign the dummy source systems to the target source systems as original source systems. Unlike when assigning one original source system to multiple target source systems in the production system, the simplification is made already in the development system when using a 1:n copy with dummy source systems in the data flow copy. Instead of it being applied just to the source system-specific objects, it is applied to non source-system specific objects in the data flow or process chain. You can find our more about assigning original source systems to target source systems in the target system for the transport under Defining the Target Source System.

When defining and performing a copy, there is a wizard to help you. When performing a copy, you work through the following steps:

You collect the source object, original objects and source and original processes.
You define how each object and process will be copied.

You can create a copy by creating a new object or by using an existing one for example. The copy types on offer depend on the object or process type.
You assign the source/original objects and source/original processes to the target objects and processes in the copy.

In this step, depending on the selected copy type, you assign technical name and description for target objects to be created or select an existing object as the target object.
You complete the copy process defined before and thus create the copy of the data flow.

The starting point for a making a copy is either and object or process chain with the associated data flow. For the selected data flow, the wizard shows the steps required to define and perform the copy.

3.x data flow objects, MultiProviders, InfoSets, semantically partitioned objects, process types like the data archiving process or process types in integrated planning cannot be copied.

Procedure

Select the starting point for the data flow copy:
- You can select an object in Data Warehousing Workbench as the starting point for the data flow copy.
  
  The following objects are supported as the starting point for the copy: DataSource, DataStore object, InfoCube, HybridProvider, InfoObject, VirtualProvider.
  1. In the object tree in Data Warehousing Workbench, select the required start object and choose Copy Data Flow in the context menu for the object.
  2. On the dialog that appears now, choose Define Start Objects for Data Flow Copy and define the directs (upwards; downwards; upwards and downwards) that you want to collect objects in for the data flow copy - starting from the start object - and choose .
- You can select a process chain in the process chain maintenance transaction as the starting point for the data flow copy.
  1. In process chain maintenance (transaction RSPC), select a process chain and chose Process Chain Copy .
  2. To collect the processes and data flow objects participating in the process chain, choose With Wizard on the dialog that now appears.
The system carries out a dependency analysis.

If you want to perform the copy starting from objects in Data Warehousing Workbench, you can define in the next dialog whether the database transfer processes and InfoPackages will be collected for the copy process.

In another dialog, the system shows you whether any objects in the data flow or process chain cannot be copied. If you choose Continue, a wizard appears to guide you through copying the data flow.

If the system does not find any dependencies, the wizard for the data flow copy opens directly.
Work through the steps shown in the wizard.

The objects and processes to be copied are worked through in groups in the wizard steps. The steps that the wizard actually displays depends on the data flow being copied. The graphic below provides a complete overview of the possible wizard steps:

Step 1: Start

In the first step, the wizard shows infomation about the structure of the wizard.

Step 2: Template

If one or more copy processes already exist for the start object, you can select a copy process as a template for the current one. The wizard then takes over various settings from the template, the number of copies for example. We recommend using a template if you want to keep the the target objects from the template in the current copy process.

Step 3: Copy Number

You can create multiple copies in a single copy process. In this step, you define the number of copies in this copy process. If you want to create more than one copy, use placeholders for the technical names and descriptions of the target objects in the subsequent steps. You define how to fill the placeholders for each copy in the Number of Copies step. If the copies are created at the end of the copy process, the place holders are replaced by the character strings defined in this step.

Step 4: Non-Copiable Objects

Some objects cannot be copied with the wizard. If the data flow to be copied contains objects of this kind (3.x objects for example), these are displayed in this step. You then have the option of using the original objects in the copy or of not using them at all.

Note
If you want to copy a 3.x data flow, we recommend migrating the data flow first.

Step 5: Process Chains

If you want to copy the data flow from a process chain, the process chain you have selected is displayed here, together with its subchains. You can copy whether to copy the subchains together with the process chain. In the following steps, the objects and processes to be copied are assigned to the process chain(s) to be copied.

Step 6: Source Systems

You cannot copy source systems, but you can define whether a source system from the original data flow for the copy should be assigned to another source system.

Steps 7-9: Data Flow Objects

The sequence of the following steps is defined by the dependency relationship between the objects. As transformations are dependent on their source and target objects, the steps for copying the possible source and target objects from transformations (DataSources and InfoProviders) appear before the step for copying transformations. If you want to copy the source and target object of a transformation, the copy of the transformation relates to the copy of the source and target object rather than the source and target object of the original transformation.

Steps 10-12: Processes

If you perform the data flow copy for a process chain, make the copy settings for the processes in the following step. The wizard distinguishes here beween Directly Dependent Processes, Indirectly Dependent Processes and Other Processes. These steps are displayed if the corresponding processes are contained in the process chains selected for the copy process. For copy processes starting from a data flow object, the Directly Dependent Processes appears if you defined in the wizard that InfoPackages and data transfer processes should be included in the copy.

Step 13: End

In this step, you start the copy process either in the background or in the dialog. The copies of data flow objects and processes are created in accordance with the settings made in the previous steps.
If you run the copy process in the dialog, the copy process log is displayed. If you run the copy process in the backgroun, you can call the log by running tansaction RSCOPY.

More information Overview of Data Flow Copy Processes.