Tips on implementing BW-Accelerator (BWA)

All SAP teams want their solutions to run as quickly and efficiently as possible. When it comes to SAP NetWeaver BW performance, there is a solution that can help make this happen: SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator. Here are some best practices for getting started with SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator to significantly boost query performance and help you get the job done even faster:

1. An SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator implementation can be completed in 12 weeks or less. Here are some key items to remember while planning:

• During project start up, make sure you have someone from Basis, network, physical hardware, and system admin available to coordinate schedules, access, and resources
• When ranking infocubes for indexing, note that not all InfoCubes need to be indexed. Use the EarlyWatch reports to find the slow performing queries that have a significant number of users and are accessed at a high frequency.
• Sizing SAP NetWeaver BW Accelertor, is important to determine the overall system hardware needed. You cannot use the size of the InfoCubes, since the TREX indexing also uses compression to reduce overall size.
• Plan for fail-over, disaster recovery and back-up: You should plan for at least one extra blade per environment incase the server blade fails (you can rebuild indexes to this blade). You also should have contingency plans incase the SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator indexes becomes unavailable.
• Collect benchmarks and execute performance-tuning of queries: SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator works primarily on database fetch operations, processes in the BI analytical engine is still performed. You should therefore also tune these and redesign poorly performing queries before BWA is implemented

1.  When it comes to SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator administration, keep in mind that:

• The Admin work is done through a single interface
• The admin interface is available under the transaction code  RSDDBWAMON/RSDDBIAMON
• Health checks for SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator are available under the transaction code RSRV
• Most companies plan for a maximum of 2-5 days of SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator training. You need a maximum of 1-2 administrators (1 for backup).
• You can turn-off the SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator usage for certain roles
  • This reduces the stress on the hardware for non-essential users
  • You can also turn-off the SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator uses for individual queries in transaction code SU01

To get more step-by-step best practices for implementing and optimizing SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator, you can check out my presentation, A Comprehensive Guide to Plan for, Implement, and Maintain SAP NetWeaver® BW Accelerator, at the BI 2011 event this March 15-18 in Las Vegas!