SAP BW/4HANA Migration - Discover / Prepare Phase – Part 1

This article covers the execution of the pre-check for the Discover / Prepare Phase of a migration to SAP BW/4HANA using transaction RSB4HCONV. The detailed explanation of the output for transaction RSB4HCONV and the Explore / Realization Phase has be documented in the following article.

SAP BW/4HANA is a new, next generation data warehouse product from SAP that, like SAP S/4HANA, is optimized for the SAP HANA platform, including inheriting the high performance, simplicity, and agility of SAPHANA. SAP BW/4HANA delivers real time, enterprise wide analytics that minimize the movement of data and can connect all the data in an organization into a single, logical view, including new data types and sources.

A SAP BW/4HANA migration typically follows this sequence:

Discover / Prepare Phase: check system for BW/4HANA compliance (gather information about objects and code that needs to be transferred or changed), estimate effort for the conversion project.

Explore / Realization Phase: Transfer legacy objects into HANA-optimized counterparts, system

conversion, post conversion tasks.

This article along with part 2 and part 3 will cover the Discover / Prepare Phase for a system conversion that is in-place. A system conversion is to migrate a current SAP BW system into a SAP BW/4HANA system. Using the Transfer Toolbox (RSB4HTRF) provided by SAP, the SID of the system can be kept (i.e. in-place conversion).

SAP supports the conversion by providing pre-checks that identify some important steps you need to take to ensure your existing BW system is compatible with BW/4HANA. Pre-checks are available in the form of SAP notes. We can use these pre-checks to find out what mandatory steps they must carry out before converting to SAP BW/4HANA. The results list the instances that need to be addressed before attempting the BW/4HANA conversion process.

If you just want to check your SAP BW system using transaction RSB4HCONV, then the SAP BW/4HANA Starter Add-on is not required (it can’t be installed on release 7.4 or lower). However, the SAP BW/4HANA Starter Add-on will be required to change the operating mode or use the Transfer Toolbox (RSB4HTRF).

Systems running on SAP BW 7.50 powered by SAP HANA can be converted in-place keeping their SID. In the realization phase of the conversion project, classic objects must be transferred into their HANA optimized replacements using the Transfer Toolbox (RSB4HTRF). This transfer can be performed scenario-by-scenario. When all classic objects have been replaced, the system conversion to BW/4HANA can be triggered.

Steps to ensure the latest SAP notes are installed (for pre-check report (RSB4HCONV) and transfer toolbox (RSB4HTRF)).

The following steps ensure that the latest SAP OSS notes are updated into your BW system for the BW/4HANA conversion process.

Attached to OSS note 2383530 - Conversion from SAP BW to SAP BW/4HANA you'll find a text file "Z_SAP_BW_NOTE_ANALYZER.txt".
Save the file on your computer and open it in an editor.
In the system that you want to execute the pre-check, use transaction SE38 to create a report called "Z_SAP_BW_NOTE_ANALYZER".
Copy and paste the content of the above-mentioned text file into the report and activate it.
Attached to OSS note 2383530 - Conversion from SAP BW to SAP BW/4HANA, you'll find six XML files. Save those files that are related to your use-case:
For SAP BW from 7.00 to 7.40, use SAP_BW4HANA_Pre_Checks_[last_update].xml
For SAP BW 7.50, the pre-checks cannot be installed isolated but are bundled with the Transfer Toolbox. Use SAP_BW4HANA_In-place_Conversion_(Original_System)_ [last_update].xml.
Execute the SAP Note Analyzer program (Z_SAP_BW_NOTE_ANALYZER) in SE38/SA38.
Click on the icon "Load XML file" and chose the system specific XML file.
Select radio button "Check implementation state against information in XML file" and check checkbox.
"Download needed SAP Notes". Select radio button "In background".
Run the report. A background process will be started which downloads the required notes.
When the process finished successfully, execute the report again with a de-selected checkbox "Download needed SAP Notes".
A list of notes with its implementation status will be shown. You can now install the missing notes by clicking on the corresponding icon in the list.

Please note that the above steps are also required in all SAP source systems that the BW system extracts data from. The XML file used to determine missing notes in the source system s Source_System_for_SAP_BW4HANA_.....(attached to note 2383530).

Execution of Pre-Check in transaction RSB4HCONV.

For this article we’ve executed the below steps on BW 7.5 system (SP 11 SAPK-75011INSAPBW).

Please note to execute this pre-check transaction RSB4HCONV - you need authorization for the authorization object S_RS_B4.

Execute transaction RSB4HCONV.
Select the "Execute Pre-Checks" button.
Select the "Execute in Batch" radio button and "collect statistics" check box from the pop-up screen(once executed, you can check the status of the generated background job in SM37).

Once the background job completes. Do the following steps to view the log.

Execute transaction RSB4HCONV.
Select Show logs button.
Enter date/time and user who generated the logs (previous steps) and click execute

The following is an example of a log that is generated for the pre check for BW/4HANA.

Summary

This article provides an overview of the installation and execution of the pre-check in transaction RSB4HCONV. It’s extremely important to execute this check to have enough time to solve any issues before starting the BW/4HANA conversion processes. The next articles (part 2 and part 3) will provide a detailed explanation of the log generated by transaction RSB4HCONV.

BW/4HANA compliance assessment

For a BW/4HANA compliance assessment please contact us @ services@seaparkconsultancy.com.