How to implement SAP Fiori Procurement Overview Page for S4 HANA...

SAP Fiori Overview Page (OVP) is the latest interaction in SAP Fiori UX. It presents a new way of visualizing data to the business users by provides real time insights in the form of cards. This allows users to gain insights into the bigger picture allowing faster decision making. This page will help you setup the standard SAP Fiori Procurement Overview Page which SAP has released as part of S4 HANA 1610.

The main objective is to setup the Procurement Overview Page end-to-end with the complete set of functioning drill down applications.

Pre-requisites 

a) This app is available only for S4 HANA 1610.

 

Snapshot from Fiori Apps Library page.

https://fioriappslibrary.hana.ondemand.com/sap/fix/externalViewer/#/detail/Apps(‘F1990’)/S6OP

Backend components

Frontend components

Activate SAPUI5 Applications

In order to get the Procurement Overview Page up and running, you need to activate the following SAPUI5 applications. The list include the associated SAPUI5 applications for the drill down apps from the Procurement Overview Page.

PRC_OVPS1 – Overview Page

MM_PCTR_ST_MTS1 – Managing Purchasing Contracts

MM_PURDOC_LSTS1 – My Purchase Document Items

SLC_ACTS1 – Manage Activities

MM_PO_CRES1 – Create Purchase Order

PLM_ATH_CRES1 – Re-usable component for Attachment service

FND_OM_OUT_CLS1 – Re-usable component for Output Control

MM_REQNS1 – Purchase Requisition Object Page

MM_REUSE_TEXTS1 – Re-usable component for displaying texts

SBRT_APPSS1 – Smart Business Runtime

These SAPUI5 application can be activated manually through SICF transaction. But since manually activating then would be a time consuming activity, you can instead leverage the standard task list SAP_BASIS_ACTIVATE_ICF_NODES to activate all of them in one shot. Below are the steps.

Generate Task list run for SAP_BASIS_ACTIVATE_ICF_NODES in transaction STC01

 

Fill Parameters and Save

Run the Tasklist

Successful.

Activate OData services

In order to get the Procurement Overview Page up and running end-to-end, you need to activate the following OData services. The list includes the associated OData services for the drill down apps from the Procurement Overview Page.

C_NONMNGDPURGSPEND_CDS

C_PURGSPENDOFFCONTRACT_CDS

C_REQUISITIONNOTOUCHRATE_CDS

MM_PRC_OVP

C_PURCHASECONTRACTLEAKAGE_CDS

C_SUPPLIERACTIVITY_FS_SRV

/SSB/SMART_BUSINESS_RUNTIME_SRV

MM_PUR_PO_MAINTAIN

CV_ATTACHMENT_SRV

CA_OC_OUTPUT_REQUEST_SRV

C_REQUISITIONTYPEANALYSIS_CDS

C_PURREQUISITION_FS_SRV

MM_PUR_OA_MAINTAIN_SRV

These OData services can be activated manually through /IWFND/MAINT_SERVICE transaction. But since manually activating then would be a time consuming activity, you can leverage the standard task list SAP_GATEWAY_ACTIVATE_ODATA_SERV. Below are the steps.

Generate Task list run for SAP_GATEWAY_ACTIVATE_ODATA_SERV in transaction STC01.

 

Parameters for “Define OData Services for Activation”

 

 

Select System Alias for Activation

 

 

Select OData services for Activation

 

Run the Tasklist

 

Successful.

Security Roles

 
Assign the following 2 standard PFCG roles to the end user in the Frontend server. Both these roles are essential for the Overview Page to work end-to-end with all the drill-down applications.
SAP_BR_PURCHASER
SAP_BR_BUYER

Run Fiori Launchpad

When you click on each of the card, it should drill down to the corresponding Transactional / Smart Business Analytical application.

The power of Hadoop integrated with SAP HANA...

SAP HANA and Hadoop

In the article What is Hadoop? we talked about what exactly is Hadoop, What are its advantages and how it can be best applied. 

Now let's see how Hadoop and HANA can be integrated with each other. 

The power of Hadoop integrated with SAP HANA:

As we understood so far that Hadoop can store very huge amount of data. It is well suited for storing unstructured data, is good for manipulating very large files and is tolerant to hardware and software failures. 
But the main challenge with Hadoop is getting information out of this huge data in real time. 

We also have SAP HANA and as we all know that HANA is well suited for processing data in Real time. Hence SAP HANA and Hadoop is a perfect match. 

To get real time information from massive storage such as Hadoop, we can use HANA and HANA can be directly integrated to Hadoop.
So we can combine Hadoop and HANA to get real time information from huge data. 

With the help of SAP HANA Hadoop Integration we can also combine both structured and un-structured data. Structured and un-structured data are combined and transferred to SAP HANA via a Hadoop / HANA Connector. 

What does Hadoop bring to HANA?

• Cost efficient data storage and processing for large volumes of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data such as web logs, machine data, text data, call data records (CDRs), audio, video data.
• Batch Processing
• Where fast response times are less critical than reliability and scalability.
• Complex Information Processing
• Enable heavily recursive algorithms, machine learning, & queries that cannot be easily expressed in SQL.
• Low Value Data Archive & Data stays available, though access is slower.
• Post-hoc Analysis
• Mine raw data that is either schema-less or where schema changes over time.

SAP HANA and Hadoop Integration:

Hadoop is considered as one of the best in storing the structured, semi-structured and unstructured data. 
Combined structured and un-structured data are transferred to SAP HANA via a Hadoop / HANA Connector. BODS is one of main way to pull data to HANA. 

SAP has also set up a "big-data" partner council, which will work to provide products that make use of HANA and Hadoop. One of the key partners is Cloudera. SAP wants it to be easy to connect to data, whether it's in SAP software or software from another vendor. 

 

SAP Data Services: Simple GUI build and run ETL process 

 

 

What’s new in SAP HANA 2.0... !!!

What’s new in SAP HANA 2.0... !!!

Database Enhancements

High availability and disaster recovery

Load balance read-intensive operations between a primary and secondary instance instance of SAP HANA with the active / active-read enabled mode and cut downtime with automated orchestration for HA/DR processes. You can also streamline back-ups and recovery processes with one output for third-party solutions and enhanced multi-tenant capabilities.

Administration

Simplify data management with consolidated admin tools for your entire IT landscape. Streamline workload management with automatic system overload and run-away query prevention. Plus, compare multiple test-runs and fine-tune upgrade configurations with enhanced workload analysis and capture and replay functions

Security

Maintain regulatory compliance and protect your information with encryption for data-at-rest, as well as on-the-fly data masking based on viewers’ credentials. And leverage new support for LDAP groups to simplify user authorization and credentials management.  

Multi-tier storage and scale-out configurations

Achieve optimal performance while lowering costs by partitioning large data table across storage tiers. Plus benefit from automatic data movements across storage tiers and pruning of unneeded partitions for optimal usage of system resources and effective query processing

Advanced Analytical Processing Enhancements

Search

Find  information faster with improved filtering for multi-format data types (e.g. dates), dynamically configured rules that support system-specific parameters, and “batch mode” rules that remove duplicates in data sets

Graph data processing

Analyze your graph data more efficiently and achieve results faster. New graph data processing capabilities in SAP HANA 2.0 include support for vibrant visualizations and the popular Cypher query language

Text analytics

Improve outcomes with enhanced text analysis for all languages with space-separated words. Plus easily embed text analysis into your applications with native SQL interfaces and manage domain-specific custom dictionaries.

Predictive analytics and machine learning

Improve prediction accuracy with more pre-packaged algorithms and enhanced metadata to simplify their consumption. Run scoring functions faster with parallel processing across large-scale partitioned data. 

Application Development and Tools Enhancements

Application server

Choose from more development and deployment methods – on premise, in the cloud, collocated with SAP HANA, or on separate servers. Support multiple languages / runtimes, token-based authentication, JAVA / JavaScript tracing, REST APIs, web-based application monitoring, and native multi-tenancy application development. 

Tools, languages, and APIs

Accelerate application development with enhanced modeling for calculation views, core data services, and spatial and graph objects. Easily process, load, and move documents from within applications using APIs. And streamline your code with advanced SQL syntax, new MDX tools, and troubleshooting for advanced SQL syntax. 

Data Integration and Quality Enhancements

Data integration

Simplify and accelerate data movements with parallel data loads, automatic recovery, and data integration with SAP ABAP-based systems (via BAPIs that support virtual procedures). Gain access to more data sources with added support for Microsoft Access and SharePoint. 

Data quality and data federation

Improve the accuracy of location-based data by taking advantage of a new address suggestion capability in SAP HANA 2.0. You can also leverage remote metadata synchronization to enhance the accuracy of remote data schema copies. 

 

 

SAP HANA FAQ...

1.What is SAP HANA?
SAP HANA is an in-memory computing engine (IMCE) used for real-time processing of huge volumes of data and building and deploying real-world applications. Adopting the row-based and column-based DB technology, SAP HANA is an advanced relational DB product serviced by SAP SE. With this high-performance analytic (HANA) system, the big data exists on the main memory and not on the hard disk. It replaces the onus of data maintenance separately on the legacy system and simplifies the tasks of administrators in this digital world.

2.What is the development language used by SAP HANA?
C++

3.Name the operating system SAP HANA supports.
More than 70% of customers run their SAP workloads on Linux with the use of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, which is the best OS choice for SAP HANA.

4.Explain Parallel Processing in SAP HANA?
Using the columnar data storage approach, the workload in SAP HANA is divided vertically. The columnar approach allows linear searching and aggregation of data rather than two-dimensional data structure. If more than one column is to be processed, each task is assigned to diverse processor. Operations on one column are then collimated by column divisions processed by different processors.

5.List advantages of using SAP HANA database.
• With the HANA technology, you can create gen-next applications giving effective and efficient results in the digital economy.
• By using singe data-in memory, SAP HANA supports smooth transaction process and fault-tolerant analytics
• Easy and simple operations using an open-source, unified platform in the cloud
• High-level Data Integration to access massive amounts of data
• Advanced tools for in-depth analysis of present, past and the future.
6.List the merits and demerits of using row-based tables.
Merits:
• No data approach can be faster than row-based if you want to analyze, process and retrieve one record at one time.
• Row-based tables are useful when there is specific demand of accessing complete record.
• It is preferred when the table consists of less number of rows.
• This data storage and processing approach is easier and effective without any aggregations and fast searching.
Demerits:
• The data retrieval and processing operations involve the complete row, even though all the information is not useful.

7.List advantages of column-based tables.
• Allows smoother parallel processing of data as the data in columns is stored vertically. Thus, to access data from multiple columns, every operation can be allocated to a separate processor core.
• Only specific columns need to be approached for Select query and any column can be used for indexing.
• Efficient operations since most columns hold unique values and thus, high compression rate.
8. What table type is preferred in SAP HANA Administration: column-based or row-based?
Since analytic applications require massive aggregations and agile data processing, column-based tables are preferred in SAP HANA as the data in column is stored consequently, one after the other enabling faster and easier readability and retrieval. Thus, columnar storage is preferred on most OLAP (SQL) queries. On the contrary, row-based tables force users to read and access all the information in a row, even though you require data from few and/or specific columns.
9.What is the main SAP HANA database component?
Index Server consists of actual data engines for data processing including input SQL and MDX statements and performs authentic transactions.
10.Explain the concept of Persistence Layer.
The persistence layer in SAP HANA handles all logging operations and transactions for secured backup and data restoring. This layer manages data stored in both rows and columns and provides steady savepoints. Built on the concept of persistence layer of SAP’s relational database, it ensures successful data restores.
 Besides managing log data on the disk, HANA’s persistence layer allows read and write data operations via all storage interfaces.
11.Define Modeling Studio in SAP Hana Administration.
Modeling Studio is an operational tool in SAP HANA based on Eclipse development and administration, which includes live project creation.
• The SAP HANA Studio further builds development objects and deploys them, to access and modify data models like HTML and JavaScript files.
• It also handles various data services to perform data input from SAP warehouse and other related databases.
• Responsible for scheduling data replication tasks.
12.List the different compression techniques in HANA?
• Run-length encoding
• Cluster encoding
• Dictionary encoding
13.Explain SLT
SLT expands to SAP Landscape Transformation referring to trigger –based replication. SLT replication permits data transfer from source to target, where the source can be SAP or non-SAP while the target system has to be SAP HANA with HANA database. Users can accomplish data replication from multiple sources. The three replication techniques supported by HANA are:
• SLT
• SAP Business Objects Data Services (BODS)
• SAP HANA Direct Extractor Connection (DXC)
14. Name the replication jobs in SAP HANA.
• Master Job (IUUC_MONITOR_)
• Data Load Job (DTL_MT_DATA_LOAD__<2digits>)
• Master Controlling Job (IUCC_REPLIC_CNTR_)
• Migration Object Definition Job (IUCC_DEF_MIG_OBJ_<2digits>)
• Access Plan Calculation Job (ACC_PLAN_CALC__<2digits>)
15. What is Latency?
The time duration to perform data replication starting from the source to the target system is known as latency.
16.What are the various components of SAP HANA Administration?
• SAP HANA Studio
• SAP HANA Application Cloud
• SAP HANA Cloud
• Sap HANA DB
17.How to perform backup and recovery operations?
During a regular operation, data is by default stored to the disk at savepoints in SAPHANA. As soon a there is any update and transaction, logs become active and get saved from the disk memory. In case of power failure, the database restarts like any other DB returning to the last savepoint log state. SAP HANA requires backup to protect against disk failure and reset DB to the previous state. The backups simultaneously as the users keep performing their tasks.
18.Define SLT Configuration
Configuration is the meaningful information to establish a connection between source, SLT system and SAP HANA architecture as stated in the SLT system. Programmers are allowed to illustrate a new Configuration in Configuration and Monitoring Dashboard.
19.What is Stall?
The waiting process for data to load from the main memory to the CPU cache is called Stall.
20.Define different types of information views.
There are primarily three types of information views in SAP HANA, which are all non-materialized.
• Attribute view
• Analytic view
• Calculation View
21.What are Configuration and Monitoring dashboard?
They are SLT Replication Application Servers to provide configuration information for data replication. This replication status can also be monitored.
22.What is logging table?
Logging table records all replicated changes in the table, which can be further replicated to the target system.
23.How to define Transformation rules in HANA?
Using advanced replication settings, transformation rules are specified to transfer data from source tables during replication process. For instance, setting rules to covert fields, fill vacant fields and skip records. These rules are structured using advanced replication settings (transaction IUUC_REPL_CONT)
24.Explain the role of transaction manager and session?
SAP HANA transaction manager synchronizes database transactions keeping the record of closed and open transactions. When a transaction is committed or rolled back, the manager informs all the active stores and engines about the action so that they can perform required actions in time.
25.How is SQL statement processed in SAP HANA?
Each SQL statement in SAP HANA is carried out in the form of a transaction. Every time, a new session is allocated to a new transaction.
26. Define Master-Controller job.
A Master-controller job is responsible to build database logging table in the source system. It further creates synonyms and new entries in SLT server admin when the table loads / replicates.
27.How users can avoid un-necessary storage of logging information?
Pause the replication process and terminate the schema-related jobs.
28.Is the table size in source system and Sap HANA system same?
No
29.When to change the number of Data Transfer Jobs?
The number of data transfer jobs change when the initial loading speed or latency replication time is not up to the mark. At the end of the initial load, the number of initial load jobs may be reduced.
30.What is the default IMCE Studio perspective?
Administrator Console

Data Load from S/4HANA into BW via SDA... !!!

Being a SAP Consultant, I am a especially interested in everything which has to do with embedded analytics in S/4, but also in the integration with existing platforms like Business Objects and last, but not least, Business Warehouse.

 

When discussing SAP Activate and Best practices, it was brought to my attention that there are a lot of best practices how to integrate S/4 with Business Objects and BW. You can find the best practices at the following location:

 

SAP Best Practices for analytics with SAP S/4HANA

 

One of the interesting integration scenario’s one might come across with is the ability to take a HANA view (or CDS view) and persist that in BW. Think about scenario’s where you might like to take the accounts payables or receivables of a certain moment and build that up from a historical perspective. As normal real time analytics would show you the open items at a certain key date, it will make sense to calculate snapshots per month to show open items in a trend.

 

In this blog post, I would like to show you how easy it is to go from a real time view of your data into a persistent way of looking at the data.


Connecting S/4 to BW

 

In short we want to take an existing HANA model (one of the 3000+ views) and use that as a datasource in BW.

 

 

We will be using a combination of SDA (smart data access), an open ODS view and an Advanced DSO to go from a virtual scenario into a persistent scenario
.
The open ODS view architecture:

 

 

The generation of an open ODS into an ADSO is something I’ll show you in the next paragraphs.


Creating the SDA connection

 

Creating a remote connection to your S/4 system is a piece of cake. Go into the HANA studio of the receiving BW system, go to provisioning and create a new connection

 

 

Be sure to select the correct driver, the IP address of the source system and log on with your system user.

 

If all is ok, you will get the following screen

 

 

Now the fun starts. Select your view. I suggest you look at this blog post to get an idea on how to select the view you’re looking for

 

SAP S/4HANA Embedded Analytics – A detailed Walkthrough (Part 1)

 

For my example I will be taking the S4_HANA_SDA_sap.erp.sfin.fi.ar/FAR_CUSTOMER_LINE_ITEMS source and add that as a virtual (remote table) by right clicking on the view.





After adding the virtual table you can do a quick SQL content query to the results from my source table

 

 

Connecting the view to BW

 

Moving along to my BW system to connect the remote table to an Open ODS view.

 

Go to your info area of choice, right mouse click and create open ODS view

 

 

As I want to keep my ADSO fairly aggregated, I only select a number of fields

 

 

We now have a virtual connection via BW to S/4!

 

From Open ODS to Advanced DSO


Persisting it only takes two more steps:

 

Press generate dataflow to create the data source

 

 

Press a second time to get your flow generated

 

 

And ready we are with our ADSO and data flow!

 

 

I am just going to make one small modification in the ADSO and transformation by adding today's date as part of my key so that I truly have a snapshot per day

 

 

Load and activate the ADSO

 

 

We have data!

 

 

Let’s do a quick test in Analysis for Office

 

 

All done, we have snapshot AR data from S/4 per day!

How to save time to import many Language Packs for ERP/S4HANA Installation !!!

When you install languages using Software Provisioning Manager (sapinst) - Each language is installed sequentially and it takes a very long time. Just the install of French language takes 3 hrs 15 min. considering average of 2.5 hrs if you were to install 36 additional languages, it should take 90 hrs which is approx. 4 days. You can use the procedure below to save time when installing many languages required to be installed.

 

1. PREPARATION:

Provide sufficient additional space (36 languages need 100GB) in /usr/sap/trans. There should be sufficient background jobs. Also, take a backup at this point.

The media directory structure is as shown below after extracting the zip files:

vhcals4hci:/media/51050422_LNG1/DATA_UNITS # ls

AR BG  CA  CS DA  DE  EL EN  ES  ET  FI

vhcals4hci:/media/51050422_LNG2/DATA_UNITS # ls

FR HE  HI  HR  HU IT  JA  KK KO  LT  LV NL  NO  PL PT  RO

vhcals4hci:/media/51050422_LNG3/DATA_UNITS # ls

RU SH  SK  SL SV  TH  TR UK  VI  ZF  ZH

Copy the *.PAT files into /usr/sap/trans/EPS/in with this single command

vhcals4hci: cp /media/51050422_LNG?/DATA_UNITS/??/*.PAT /usr/sap/trans/EPS/in/.

 

2. ADD LANGUAGES IN RSCPINST:

Execute tCode SE38, program RSCPINST

Click on Add Language

RtClick First Column and select Set Filter from Popup

Click on Multiple Selection

Select items from below for cut & paste

AR

BG

CA

CS

DA

DE

EL

EN

ES

ET

FI

FR

HE

HI

HR

HU

IT

JA

KK

KO

LT

LV

NL

NO

PL

PT

RO

RU

SH

SK

SL

SV

TH

TR

UK

VI

ZF

ZH

 

Click on icon below to paste all 38 language codes

Click on Execute and Ok

Click on Select All

You will get screen like this. Languages already installed will be shown

Click on Check and then Activate. You will get message below

 

3. SETUP MONITORING AT OS LEVEL:

While the languages are being imported in the next step you will see no job running in SAP.

 

But R3trans processes will be running. The following scripts will help to check progress:

1. Monitor CPU Consumptionm in one window command :top
2. Count number of R3trans processes at OS level and they reduce in umber as the language import is completed.command :ps -ef | grep R3trans | wc -l
3. Monitor Space at OS level in directory /usr/sap/trans with comma:df -h
4. Count the number of files in /usr/sap/trans/tmp. The number of languages remaining to be imported are approx half the number of files here.ls –l /usr/sap/trans/tmp | wc -l
5. Tail ALOG file in /usr/sap/trans/log. Find out the last ALOG file like ALOG1601 and tail the file to check current date to substitute MM, DD and execute  command: grep "S4H.ALL R 0004 2016MMDD" ALOG1601.S4H

 

4. ADD LANGUAGES TO SMLT:

enter tCode SMLT click on create icon. Assuming the box is not used for any other work, as you add each language watch the CPU utilisation and after you reach about 70%, wait for 5 minutes before adding next language.

 

In the above screen, “supplementation” language is a secondary language used to supplement a language that is not completely translated. English & German are only 2 languages which are completely translated. Missing texts in other languages can cause process to crash and language supplementation function helps to replace that missing text with supplementation language text. When you choose English here for Arabic language, whichever text is not translated for Arabic will appear in English.

SWPM (sapinst) procedure by default does not add any supplementation language and can be added manually later on.

5. REPEAT ABOVE STEPS FOR ALL LANGUAGES:

Add one by one language from below list shown here for Cut and Paste. Please pick the correct ones from the popup list one by one.

AR          Arabic

BG          Bulgarian

CA          Catalan

CS          Czech

DA          Danish

DE          German  - Already installed

EL           Greek

EN          English--- - Already installed

ES           Spanish

ET           Estonian

FI            Finnish

FR           French

HE          Hebrew

HI           Hindi

HR          Croatian

HU          Hungarian

IT            Italian

JA           Japanese

KK          Kazakh

KO          Korean

LT           Lithuanian

LV           Latvian

NL          Dutch

NO         Norwegian

PL           Polish

PT           Portuguese

RO          Romanian

RU          Russian

SH          Serbian(Latin)

SK          Slovak

SL           Slovenian

SV          Swedish

TH          Thai

TR          Turkish

UK          Ukrainian

VI            Vietnamese

ZF           Chinesetrad.

ZH          Chinese

The screen should look like this. If you are installing 36 additional languages, please ensure the number of languages is 38.

6. IMPORT PACKAGES:

Against each language click on Import Package icon

Find Packages, Select and Execute

7. MONITOR THE JOB:

A job will be launched in SM37

8. REPEAT ABOVE STEP FOR ALL LANGUAGES:

Check the jobs scheduled

The process of adding and running all above can be completed in 30 mins

 

9. MONITOR PROCESSES AT OS LEVEL AND IMPORT STATUS IN SMLT:

After above jobs are completed, you will need to monitor R3trans processes as below. The number of R3trans processes reduces as language import is completed.

All above should be completed in 7 Hrs

Following is the typical order of import if you have added all languages in SMLT one after other in listed sequence, The first language to finish was CA – Catalonia and after that in 4 minutes language ET finishes and so on. Arabic Language finishes last.

CA          4hrs8min

ET          4hrs12min

LV           4hrs33min

NO          4hrs36min

FI            4hrs40min

SH          4hrs42min

SL           4hrs47min

HE          4hrs49min

UK          4hrs49min

KO          4hrs49min

HI           4hrs49min

HR          4hrs49min

SV          5hrs

VI            5hrs1min

PL           5hrs5min

RO          5hrs7min

KK          5hrs8min

EL           5hrs10min

NL          5hrs11min

HU          5hrs13min

DA          5hrs14min

LT           5hrs16min

ZF           5hrs17min

SK          5hrs18min

TH          5hrs20min

TR          5hrs22min

RU          5hrs26min

IT            5hrs28min

CS          5hrs35min

PT           5hrs36min

JA           5hrs38min

ZH          5hrs39min

ES           5hrs41min

BG          6hrs

AR          6hrs 10min

 

For S/4HANA 1511 FPS1 if you are installing Best Practices content, please use Note 2292425 - Removal Language-dependent SAP Best Practice content  to install only the needed languages.