How to

Archive in SAP BI

White Paper
Version 1.0 October 2008

How to archive in SAP BI

Document Control
Change Record
Date

Author

Version

Change Reference

October 7,
2008

Rohit Parti

1.0

No previous document

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How to archive in SAP BI

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.

Business Scenario................................................................................................................ 4

2.

Solution Approach to the Business Scenario ........................................................................ 4

3.

Archiving strategy in the SAP BI System .............................................................................. 5

4.

Archive Process An Overview ........................................................................................... 6

5.

SAP BI Data Targets in Scope for Archiving ......................................................................... 7

6.

Prerequisites for Archiving.................................................................................................... 7

7.

Considerations for Archiving ODS Data................................................................................ 7

8.

System in scope for Feasibility ............................................................................................. 7

9.

Step-By-Step Archive Process ............................................................................................. 8

10. Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 25

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How to archive in SAP BI

1. Business Scenario
The rapid increase in transaction data has created an enormous administration workload and leads to longer
data-processing times in the SAP BI Application area. We need to find a solution where in we can achieve
considerable performance improvement in reporting and efficient utilization of database resources.

2. Solution Approach to the Business Scenario

The best possible solution approach to the above problem would be to ARCHIVE the historical data that is not
currently being used in reporting and store it in a safe storage from where it can be retrieved back as in when
required for reporting or auditing purposes.

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How to archive in SAP BI

3. Introduction to archiving strategy in the SAP BI System

Data archiving in the SAP BI system allows you to archive data from InfoCubes and ODS objects.
The tool used is the Archiving Development Kit (ADK). The ADK is already used in many mySAP.com
components to develop archiving solutions. The ADK provides the runtime environment required for archiving.
The first step is to read the data from the data targets and use the ADK to write it to the archive files. These
archive files are stored in a local directory.
The ADK also enables you to export archive files from your local file system to external third-party data stores.
In UB, the third party data store is Common Store.

Properties of the ADK









Has already been integrated into many mySAP.com components

It is platform-independent and release-independent
Is able to handle structural changes
Has a central archive administration (SARA)
Can be used in conjunction with third party archiving and storage systems
Supports statistics and indexing
Indexing takes place using the Archive Information System (SAP-AS)

Figure 1.0: ADK Integration in BI

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How to archive in SAP BI

4. Archive Process An Overview

The archiving process in the SAP BI system is divided into three stages:
1. Writing data to the archive
2. Deleting archived data from the data sources.
3. Reloading the data from the archives into the SAP BI system

Figure 2.0: Archiving Process Overview

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How to archive in SAP BI

5. SAP BI Data Targets in Scope for Archiving

The current scope for Archiving of BI data targets as part of feasibility study that is being carried out is: 

InfoCube Create any cube having relevant data in it for archiving.

Operational Data Store (ODS) Create an ODS object having relevant data in it for archiving

6. Prerequisites for Archiving



Logical File Name

This is the actual defined physical path where all archived data files will reside.
It is maintained on transaction code: FILE.
For more information on define this you can go to the following LINK


Compression

For archiving data from the cube, the cube should be fully compressed. The source table of the archive data
would then be the E table of the cube. The F table i.e. the fact table would have zero records in it.

7. Considerations for Archiving ODS Data.

For ODS objects, the system only deletes the data from the Active Data table. The Change Log remains
unchanged.

With ODS objects, it is therefore particularly important that the archived data area is protected against
data being reloaded into the ODS object. If this were not the case, when the data is activated, not only
would new entries be generated in the Active Data table, but a real update would also be generated in
the Change Log and updated into the connected data targets.

8. System in scope for Feasibility

The system in scope for carrying out the feasibility of archiving in SAP BI application area was SAP BI 7.0
having the SP12 installed.

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How to archive in SAP BI

9. Step-By-Step Archive Process

1)

Check the
existing
number of
records in the
E table as the
cube is
compressed.

(TCODE SE16)

2)

Total number
of records in
the E Fact
table of the
cube are
13,500,912

3)

Check the
contents of the
F fact table.

4)

Numbers of
records are
zero as the
cube is
compressed
so F table
has no records
in it.

5)

Check the
compression
status in the
Cube, as this
is one of the
prerequisites
of Cube

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How to archive in SAP BI

Archiving.

6)

Create Archive
Process

On context menu of
the InfoCube, select
Create Archive
Process

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7)

General Settings
Tab

No changes made to
this tab as we are not
using the Nearline
storages.

8)

Selection Profile
Tab

Choose the time

characteristics to be
used by the archiving
object from the drop
down box
Characteristics for
Time Slices.
Optionally you can
drag to include any
additional partitioning
time characteristic
from the InfoObjects
list.

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9)

Semantic Group
Tab

Select a characteristic
for grouping data on
the archive file.

10) ADK Tab

Enter the Logical File
Name and check Start
Automatically radio
button under Delete
Jobs. Suggestion:
Leave the Archive File
Size textboxes empty.
If specified, the archive
object will be written
and split according to
the maximum size
entered in MB. E.g. If
you need to archive a
100 mb data, and you
specified 50 under
Maximum Size in MB,
therell be 2 archive
files each with a size
of 50 mb, archived

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11) Activate the

archiving
process.
Check the context
menu (right click on
the InfoProvider), the
menu should now be
enhanced with
additional functionManage ADK Archive
and Data Archiving
Process

12) Manage ADK

Archive
Select Manage ADK
Archive. This takes
you to transaction
code SARA
Archiving Data
(Manually)
Click on Write button
Create a variant
(Cannot be reused
One variant per
archiving Object)
Click on Maintain
button
13) You can run the
archive manually
here or
otherwise use
the process
chain

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14) Maintain
Variants for
manual write job.
Continue and make
the following inputs
according to your
archiving object

Click on Next Screen

button
Click the
button

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How to archive in SAP BI

In the variant attributes

screen
Fill the Meaning text
area with a meaningful
name of the variant.
Click on the Save
button twice.

15) Start Date

button
Click on Start Date
button Schedule to
start immediately
Click on Spool
Params button and
the accept spool
printing parameters.
16) See logs

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17) Manage the

InfoProvider
Notice an extra tab
Archiving which
contains all archiving
related functions.
Here you can monitor
the progress, see how
many records were
archived per file, how
much space the files
utilize, archiving
criteria, archiving
session number,
release hanging
processes & see the
last action of an
archiving object.

HINTS: Icons on the

Archiving tab.
This indicates that the
request# 188 062 has
completed archiving
and data is now
removed from the
InfoProvider.

This indicates that the

request# 188 043 has
completed
successfully reloading
back the archived data
to the InfoProvider.

18) Archiving
Sessions
Click on Management
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button of Transaction
code SARA
Archiving session will
indicate incomplete
even though job
finished because the
archived data has not
yet been deleted.

19) Deleting Data

from an info
provider
Back on the ADK
(SARA), click on
Delete button
Archive Selection
Click Archive
Selection button. This
is to select which
archiving session you
need to delete its data
(there can be more
than 1)
Click on Continue

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20) Execute &

monitor the Job

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21) Check number of

records in E
fact table after
the delete
program has run.

The number of records

should decrease from
the E table as some of
the contents are now
archived.

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The number of records

are reduced.
Records before
archiving 13,500912
Records after
archiving 12,446,809

22) Check for the

Archive status in
the manage tab
of the cube.

23) SARA
Management
Back on SARA, click
on Management
Session maintains
green status if data is
successfully archived
and removed from the
infoprovider

24) Reloading data

Reloading Archived
data back to BI
(Strictly on exceptional
cases)
Back on SARA, go to
menu bar -> Goto ->
Reload

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Click continue on this

message.

25) Create a variant

for reloading
data into the
cube.

26) Enter a
description for
the Reload
variant.

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27) Maintain variant

Save (twice) and back
on SARA -> select

28) Archive
Selection
Click on Archive
Selection and select
the file to be reloaded
(can be more than 1
file)

29) Execute &

Monitor the job

30) See Logs

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31) Data is now

reloaded into the
Cube

32) Number of
records added to
the F table of the
cube

33) Check for load

status in
Archiving tab.
If reload is successful
status will be green

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34) Check contents

of E fact table
after the reload
job has
executed.
The number of records
remains the same.

35) Check the

contents of the
F fact table.

The numbers of
records have
increased in the F
fact table as the
reloaded archive
contents have been
transferred to the F
fact table.

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10.

Conclusion

The above steps depict the way archiving is carried out in the SAP BI system. The below mentioned
statistics of archiving run show the number of records in the two cube fact tables (F and E) as follows: -

Table Name
/BIC/FZCOPAACTD
/BIC/EZCOPAACTD

Number of Records before Archiving

0

Number of Records after Reloading

1,054,103

13,500,912

12,446,809

The above result of the table content shows that the archived contents when reloaded are placed in the F
fact table of the cube.

The total number of records for reporting remains the same when the reload program is run.

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