Using SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.x with SAP BW on HANA - Publishing a BW model to HANA (Part 1)

Recently I am getting a lot of questions how a customer that is using SAP BW on SAP HANA (HANA being the database for BW) leverage for example SAP BusinessObjects Explorer or SAP Visual Intelligence with the data in SAP BW.

There is a relatively simple answer for this and I will try to explain the required steps in the next days in a small blog series.

You can use this integration between SAP BW and SAP HANA to import models from  SAP  HANA-optimized InfoCubes, SAP HANA-optimized DataStore objects, and Query Snapshot into the SAP HANA modeling environment and you can then use the BI tools on top of those HANA models.

Overall the steps:

1. You publish the InfoProvider model to SAP HANA as a Calculation View / Analytical View
2. You make sure that the model in SAP HANA returns the data
3. You then leverage the SAP BusinessObjects BI product in combination with the data in SAP HANA

So lets start with the first steps today - publishing our existing BW InfoProvider to SAP HANA:

1. Start SAP HANA Studio by following the menu Start > All Programs > SAP HANA > SAP HANA Studio.
2. In the left hand panel use a right click and select the option Add System.

3. Enter the system details for the SAP HANA environment.

4. Click Next.

5. Enter you SAP HANA credentials.
6. Click Next.
7. Click Finish.
8. Select the menu File > Import.
9. Open the Folder SAP HANA Content.
10. Select the option Import SAP NetWeaver BW Models.

11. Click Next.

12. Enter the SAP NetWeaver BW Server details.
13. Click Test Connection

14. Click OK.
15. Click Next.
16. In the next screen select the SAP HANA System entry you created previously.
17. Click Next

18. Open the InfoArea.
19. Select the InfoCube.
20. Click Add.
21. Activate the option Include Display Attributes
22. Activate the option Overwrite existing objects.
23. Click Browse for the Package.
    
    

24. Select the Package sap.bw (just an example here)
    
25. Click OK.
26. Click Finish.

After the import has successfully finished, check if the model was been imported.

27. In the left panel open your system entry.
    
    

28. Open the folder Content.
29. You should find in the package sap.bw now 1 Analytical View and 1 Calculation View

To see the list of pre - requisites please take a look at SAP Note 1764251

In the next blog we will use  BEx Query and generate a snapshot in form of an analytical view in SAP HANA.