There are many tasks and technical requirements to migrate a BW system to HANA. This includes BW technical settings and software levels required to start the process. Thankfully, SAP has provided a checklist tool for SAP NetWeaver BW powered by HANA. In this Blog we take a quick look at the key features. By Dr. Berg
Automated HANA Readiness Tool
In version 2.x of this tool available since December 2012, hundreds of checks are done automatically in the BW system. This includes platform checks on database and application and system information.
There are even basis checks for support packs, ABAP/JAVA stacks, Unicode, BW releases, and add-ons to your system. The program is found in SAP Note 1729988, and the tool provided automatic check programs for both the 3.5 version and the 7.x version of BW
FIGURE 1: INPUT FOR SELECTING READINESS CHECKS FOR BW TO HANA MIGRATION
First you enter the checks you want to perform to see if your system is ready for a HANA Migration. This should include most of the options seen in the figure above, such as basis and database, but you also can choose to ignore customer objects or checks you are planning to run at a later time.
The idea of the checklist tool from SAP is that you run it several times throughout the project. Once before you start, then periodically as you resolve issues an d upgrade requirements, and then finally when the system has been migrated to HANA. This last step is important, since the checklist tool also has specific checks for the HANA system that can help you identify any issues before turning over the system to end users. If the tool shows a ‘red’ flag, you should resolve this before starting your HANA migration, or if a new red flag shows up, fix it before completing the migration.
FIGURE 2: BW READNIESS RESULTS FOR HANA MIGRATION
The output results in a list of actions that should be undertaken before the migration starts. In our example, we can see that for our system database patch 110 should be applied as part of our preparation steps.
Getting Started
If you want to try this program in your system, simply install the latest version from SAP Marketplace in note 1729988 and then execute the program using ZBW_HANA_CHECKLIST for those on a BW 7.x system, or ZBW_HANA_CHECKLIST_3X for those on older BW 3.x systems. The tool even allows you to download any recommended SAP notes to fix issues found in the check through the automated transaction call of SNOTE. This program should be executed by anyone who is in the planning stages of a BW to HANA migration.
More Information at SAP BI 2013 in Las Vegas
Next month at BI 2013 in Las Vegas, I will be showing more tools and give a detailed presentation on how to create “Strategies for budgeting, planning, and sizing your SAP NetWeaver BW on SAP HANA projec t”. The session will be at the MGM on Tuesday, March 19, from 12:00 to 1:15 pm.
During the conference I will also be signing copies of the SAP HANA Book I wrote for SAP press with Penny Silvia and you can stop by to see me at the ‘meet-the-expert’ session and get your HANA questions answered…
Hope to see you there...
Dr. Berg