Settings in OutBoard allow the user to change the appearance of the Cockpit and the performance of the kernel. Settings are changed by means of adjusting the settings a corresponding parameter. Parameters are usually different for each system and therefore are not to be transported, as these are changed on each system separately.

TA: /DVD/OUTBOARD

_{Settings on Outboard Cockpit view}

To see the parameters click on settings from the Outboard Cockpit. The Outboard Settings Screen should appear (appearance may vary depending on which OutBoard modules or possible service packs are installed).

_{Selecting an InfoProvider and viewing settings}

DEFAULT values are pre-delivered in the OutBoard installation package.
On the first Tab of OutBoard settings the user can define global parameters, as well as change units and currency used for OutBoard Cockpit
The Authorization checkbox determines if OutBoard™ authorization is activated, that determines the following accesses "display", "edit" or "execute" to users
Job start-up parameter determines if background jobs in OutBoard™ are started with time conversion. When unchecked the jobs are scheduled and started normally by the system scheduler, when there are available background processes. In the other case the job is started immediately. Archive size unit, Percent per GB and Currency are the customizable parameters for the Cockpit statistics. Near-line Objects tab:

_{Nearline Object tab in view settings}

Summary of Object names and Object types with possibility to define InfoProvider-specific settings.
Object specific settings
DEFAULT values are pre-delivered in the OutBoard installation package. To change an InfoProvider parameter value, uncheck the "From Defaults" checkbox.

NLS Object – NLS Object name

Max. package number (DTP) - determines the maximum number of packages which can be processed at once in the loading via a Data Transfer Process (DTP).
Possible values: integer > 0 e.g. 10, 20, 50
Default value: 5
Finished packages for processing - maximum number of finished processes during parallel DTP load.
Possible values: integer > 0 e.g. 10, 20, 50
Default value: 2
Parallel jobs for loading – determines how many parallel jobs will be used for reading from the archive when loading from the archive via DTP. (link to further reading).
Possible values: integer >= 0 e.g. 0, 4, 15
Default value: 0 (no parallelization)
Parallel WP for reporting – this value determines how many work processes are used for reading when data from OutBoard is requested for reporting. For more information see Reporting on archived data.
Possible values: integer > 0 e.g. 10, 20, 50
Default value: 0 (no parallelization)
Filtering type – determines the filtering logic when accessing the NLS data.
Possible values: SETS, RANGE

Expert settings

There is also possibility for users to enter Expert settings. These settings have the form of the database table and have also parameters not visible in Main settings.
Each parameter can be either InfoProvider-specific (these can vary between different InfoProvider) or is set only globally. A special InfoProvider is used which is called "DEFAULT". If no parameters are set on InfoProvider level, the DEFAULT value is used. Global parameters may only be set in the DEFAULT.

If DEFAULT parameter value is changed, values for all InfoProviders, for which a value was not explicitly set, will change as well

_{Output from Settings}

Parameters

AUTHORIZATION – this parameter determines if OutBoard Authorization is switched ON (value X) / OFF (value ' ')
Default value: OFF
BG_JOB_DIRECT_START – this parameter determines if Background jobs in OutBoard are started "With converting to Time – Based Jobs" (value 'X')/ "Without converting to Time – Based Jobs" (no value). When job is started "Without converting to time based jobs", this job is scheduled and started normally, when any background job is free. When selecting "With converting to Time – Based Jobs", the job will be started immediately if any background job is free, if there are no free background jobs it will try to execute the job every ten seconds for 30 minutes.
Default value: OFF.
CURRENCY – the currency in which money saved is calculated.
Possible values: Any currency available in SAP.
Default value: EUR
DATA_CLASS – determines the Data Class for storage table and its indexes. It can be changed only when no data is archived. For Oracle database the tablespace for particular storage table can be selected. It is determined by DATA_CLASS. The link between a tablespace and Data Class can be found in table TAORA.Possible values: Any Data Class available in SAP system.
Default value: APPL1
DISPLAY_COMP_RATIO_TYPE – This parameter determines the way of computing the saved storage by archiving. There are two possible settings:
1. LOCAL_ONLY - In case the archiving is performed in external database, the ratio for calculating of the saved storage in primary database is set to 100%.
2. EMPTY - In case the archiving is performed in primary database (e.g., Cluster), the compression ratio is calculated based on the size between all data and archived date.
If the parameter is changed from LOCAL ONLY to EMPTY, the statistics need to be recalculated with the report /dvd/nls_upd_clu_ratio_size.
FILTERING_TYPE – determines the way, how is the archived data filtered when accessed. Can be based on RANGE or SETS.
Possible values: RANGE, SETS
Default Value: RANGE
HNA_UNLOAD_PRIO – determines the Unload Priority of Outboard tables for SAP BW running on SAP HANA. It can be 0 ~ 9, where 0 means not-unloadable and 9 means earliest unload.
Default value: 9
LOAD_MAX_GRAN – determines the maximum number of packages that can be processed at once in the loading via a Data Transfer Process (DTP).
Possible values: integer > 0 e.g. 10, 20, 50
Default value: 5
LOAD_USE_ADD_SORTING – when enabled, data loaded from archived WODS is sorted in same order in which it was loaded. This applies when setting has value ‘X’, L mode is used, source WODS is archived. Setting may be switched ON (value X) / OFF (value ‘ ’)
Default value: ‘ ‘
LOAD_PAR_RET – maximum number of finished processes during parallel DTP load.
Possible values: integer > 0 e.g. 10, 20, 50
Default value: 2
LOAD_PAR_WP – determines how many parallel jobs will be used for reading from the archive when loading from the archive via DTP.
Possible values: integer >= 0 e.g. 0, 4, 15
Default value: 2 (parallelization using 2 jobs)
NAV_ATTR_BUFFER – size of buffering table when Navigation attribute support is switched on.
Possible values: integer > 0 e.g. 10, 20, 50
Default value: 3000000
NAV_ATTR_FILTER_POS – defines the filtering order/ priority when Navigation attribute support is switched on. Value 0 means that filtering on Navigation attribute is done at first then the filtering on other attributes is done. Value 1 represents the opposite scenario.
Default value: 0
NAV_ATTR_SELECTION – parameter to turn the navigation attribute support functionality: on (1) or off (" "). This setting can be edited on InfoProvider level. It is recommended to turn off this parameter for SybaseIQ archiving storage, because needed filtering is done on the database level and there is no need to use the standard Outboard navigational functionality in this case.
Default value: 1
NLS_STATISTICS – this parameter determines if OutBoard Statistics is switched ON (value X) / OFF (value ' ')
Default value: ON
REBUILD_AGGREGATE – this parameter defines if OutBoard aggregates are rebuilt automatically (value X) during the archiving process, or deactivated instead (value ' '). If the automatic rebuild is switched off, the OutBoard aggregates can be activated and filled again using the report /DVD/NLS_FILL_AGGREGATE_IN_BG.
Default value: ON (X)
REP_PAR_WP – this value determines how many work processes are used for reading when data from OutBoard is requested for reporting. For more information see [#Reporting Reporting on archived data].
Possible values: integer > 0 e.g. 10, 20, 50
Default value: 2 (parallelization using 2 jobs)
Note: For an IQ transparent storage, the parameter for REP_PAR_WP cannot be set to higher than 1.
SIZE_DIFF_TRESHOLD – if using a size dependent OutBoard license, after reaching this value of free space, the user will get a warning message by each archiving process or creation of DAP.
Default value: 60 GB
SIZE_TO_MONEY_COEFF – determines how much money costs one GB. Money saved is computed by multiplying SIZE_TO_MONEY_COEFF by storage saved.
Possible values: integer > 0 e.g. 10, 20, 50
Default value: 10
SIZE_UNIT – the value used as a base unit of measurement for all volumes shown in GUI. If changed, data is recalculated accordingly.
Possible values: KB, MB, GB
Default value: GB
UPDATE_SIZE_STATISTICS – this parameter determines if object size statistics are updated when archiving or reloading data. In case of substantial archiving requests, recalculation has a noticeable performance impact. Setting may be switched ON (value X) / OFF (value ‘ ’)
Default value: ON
USE_DATA_CLASS_BADI - determines if BAdI will be used to define DATA_CLASS. If the value is 'X' the parameter DATA_CLASS cannot be edited in Settings for a given InfoProvider. (The default value can still be changed.) If the BAdI is used, the implementation for BAdI /DVD/NLS_DETERMINE_DATACLASS has to be created. Parameters of BAdI: iv_dapname – Technical Name of InfoProvider ev_data_class – Data class in technical settings. The output format of the BAdI implementing class method GET_DATA_CLASS should be of type TABART.

_{The implementation of BAdI for Data class (Transaction(TA): SE80)}

USE_PART_KEY_BADI - if the value is 'X', the user has the possibility to define own partitioning keys for the OutBoard table for DB6 database. If the BAdI is used, the implementation for BAdI /DVD/NLS_STORAGE_PARTITION_KEY is to be implemeted. The output format of the BADI implementing vlass method /DVD/NLS_DB6_STORAGE_PART should be table type /DVD/NLS_TT_FIELD. The input parameter iv_tabname is the name of the table to be partitioned.
USE_DV1_NAMESPACE – if turned on ('X'), the needed local cluster table in DAP creation is created in namespace /DV1/. If there are issues with this namespace, the namespace /BIC/ is used instead – by setting the parameter to ' '.
Possible values: ON (value X) / OFF (value ' ')
Default value: ON (X)

The OutBoard Settings can be transported between systems.

VP_SUPP_NAV_ATTR_IN_LOC_FILT – in case local filters are defined on navigational attributes, there can be some tuning done by setting the parameter to a specific value:
S(recommended): support filtering on navigational attributes in local filters
N: local filters will be removed/cleared from the filtering completely
R: only local filters parts connected to navigational attributes will be removed

_{OutBoard settings}

WRITER_AUTO_RELOAD_EMPTY_REQ - enables automatic reload functionality. At the beginning of a DTP load to cube / DSO activation, empty archiving requests are reloaded. Data therefore stays in active table, in the post processing, new archiving requests are created with the same archiving condition.
Possible values: ON (value X) / OFF (value ' ')
Default value: ON (X)
WRITER_AUTO_RELOAD_THRESHOLD - sets the maximum number of rows for creating new archiving request in post processing. In case of archiving request having more rows than set value, new archiving request has to be created manually.
Default value: '0'.

Outboard for Analytics with storage management specific settings

Settings are divided into general section with Global settings and InfoProvider specific settings (already described in previous part) and to Storage management part.

Storage management settings – Aging profile assignments
In this tab user can assign or change an aging profile for a specific InfoProvider.

Storage management settings – Archive storages
Only with OutBoard™ with storage management NLS solution, users are offered the option to individually decide about preferred storage location of the NLS database, using effective data compression in all cases.

_{Storage Definition}

With these certain modules installed, OutBoard™ is ready to handle (does not mandatorily require) additional, external database or non-SAP®-based software for data management, thus keeps the system landscape simple and easy to maintain.

Using the predefined storage types, Administrators may choose the preferred storage location:

Storage scenario 1 -> Cluster storage

NLS within the database tables of the particular BW system. This solution is not supported, if the primary system is running on SAP HANA database.

Storage scenario 2 -> RFC storage

NLS in separate database tables of a remotely available system

RFC connections earlier defined can be invoked (s-tcode: SM59)

Storage scenario 3 -> File storage

In separate database tables of a remotely available other BW system

Request and package is determined by name of file. Supported operating systems: Windows© Server, Unix, Linux, AIX©, HP-UX©, WebDAV. Destination must be available for the system or service user.

Storage scenario 4 -> External database

In separate database tables of a remotely available database. The secondary connection to this database should be defined (SAP Note 808505) – the name of the connection should not contain any special characters (e.g. space).

_{Archive Storage Types}

Storage scenario 5 -> External Database MaxDB
As of OutBoard SP20 it is possible to use MaxDB database as external binary storage.

Storage scenario 6 -> DB2 transparent storage

As of OutBoard SP17 it is possible to create transparent storage for a db2 database using a column-oriented approach. The advantages for using transparent storage are better performance when reading the archived data in reporting (for InfoCubes) and better access performance in lookups (for ODSes). However, since the data is not compressed, the compression ratio is not comparable to the non-transparent archiving (when using cluster tables).

To store the data that is to be archived in transparent form, the user should create an archiving profile using storage of type SM_TRS_DB2: DB2 Secondary con. as can be seen in picture below:

_{Storage definition}

The connection to the DB2 needs to be pre-defined using the standard TA dbco . It is recommended to use connection mode O (OpenSQL versions of OutBoard function modules will be used).

Storage scenario 7 -> Transparent Storage Sybase IQ

It is possible to create a transparent storage for SybaseIQ database. The advantages for using transparent storage are better performance when reading the archived data in reporting (for InfoCubes) and better access performance in lookups (for ODSes).

_{Transparent Sybase IQ - storage definition}

It is recommended to used the connection mode O (OpenSQL versions of OutBoard function modules will be used). However, since the data is not compressed, the compression ratio is not comparable to the non-transparent archiving (when using cluster tables).

Report for change old Sybase IQ to new Transparent Sybase IQ
Report /DVD/NL2_CHANGE_OLD_SIQ_TO_NEW changes metadata from old Sybase IQ implementation into new Transparent Sybase IQ implementation in Storage Management without the necessity to move data between these storages. It is safe to run the report in dialog as only metadata are changed and the processing should not be a time consuming activity.
First create new storage, choose transparent storage Sybase IQ (SM_TRS_SIQ). Then open report /DVD/NL2_CHANGE_OLD_SIQ_TO_NEW. Select from list of storage IDs. Field 'Old SIQ storage ID' is storage for which this conversion has to be done. Field 'New SIQ storage ID' specifies storage into which will data point after conversion.

_{Report for Sybase IQ storage change}

To execute report, both fields have to be filled. There is an option to convert also aging profiles. It is recommended to leave default value on (checked) as this way the storage will be changed in aging profiles as well. If the checkbox is unchecked, new aging profiles containing new storages have to be created.
After successful change from old Sybase IQ to new transparent Sybase IQ, old Sybase IQ storage is not necessary anymore, it is safe to delete it.

Storage scenario 8 -> Oracle Transparent Storage

It is a transparent storage for an Oracle database.

_{Archive storage types - Oracle}

It is recommended to perform DB shrink operation after data reload, to see the actual free space on database.

Storage scenario 9 -> Transparent storage Hive

It is a transparent storage for Hive on top of a Hadoop cluster.
Storage creation parameters:

HTTP RFC Destination - RFC destination for HTTP HDFS connector
Hive RFC destination - RFC destination for HIVE Java connector
Hive host - hostname for HIVE master node
File Type - file type for HIVE table

OutBoard for Analytics is compatible with Cloudera implementation of Hadoop, Hive and Impala interface components as of version CDH 5.x.

_{Archive Storage Types – Hive}

Storage scenario 10 ->Transparent storage Impala
It is a transparent storage for Impala on top of a Hadoop cluster.
Storage creation parameters:

HTTP RFC Destination - RFC destination for HTTP HDFS connector
Hive RFC destination - RFC destination for HIVE Java connector
Impala RFC destination - RFC destination for Impala Java connector
Hive host - hostname for HIVE master node
Impala host - hostname for Impala master node
File Type - file type for Impala table

OutBoard for Analytics is compatible with Cloudera implementation of Hadoop, Hive and Impala interface components as of version CDH 5.x.

_{Archive Storage Types – Impala}

Storage scenario 11 -> Hadoop storage type
We use Apache Hadoop and it is implemented as a binary storage (compressed). For more details on how to connect Hadoop please ask for separate Hadoop & OutBoard documentation. OutBoard for Analytics is compatible with Cloudera implementation of Hadoop, Hive and Impala interface components as of version CDH 5.x.

_{Archive storage types - Hadoop}

Storage scenario 12 -> MSSQL BLOB storage
Allows for storing data in a compresed BLOB structure of remote MSSQL database. This reduces the amount of data physically stored but may also lead to longer processing time in comparison to a transparent solution. Due to the limitations on MSSQL side, maximum size for one BLOB line is 8000 bytes.

Storage scenario 12 -> MSSQL transparent storage
Archiving into transparent MSSQL is supported in OutBoard storage management. Using this option, the data can be accessed in archive more quickly via transparent tables, however the compression ratio is lower compared to archiving into cluster tables.

Storage management settings – Aging profiles
Aging profiles provide customization for:

Retention policies: time period until specified storage type is relevant.
Storage type link: location where data is automatically migrated to when the data fulfills criteria of the retention policy.
Deletion indicator: if the data can be deleted during the last phase of the chain.

_{Aging profile in Outboard Settings}

Each "Aging profile" has a default storage type used, in the case of no storage destination determined. Definition of aging profile therefore must be linked to a target storage destination. All InfoProviders linked to the specific profile must have a DAP created or DAP must be able to be determined, (s-tcode: RSA1) determination is done using standard time characteristics.
Available profile categories:

with only time characteristic à maintenance of storage destination is available
with more characteristics à requires BADI implemented to determine the storage destination for each request

Example: Each storage destination has defined boundaries based on the given selection characteristics of the profile. All boundaries are closed from right and open from left side so they combine the complete timeline.

(0, 3> years – cluster
(3, 6> years – remote system
(6,10> years – file
(10, infinity) – delete

OutBoard on SAP HANA

Datavard's NLS solution is certified for SAP HANA, when using OutBoard with Storage Management on SAP HANA, all archived tables are stored in memory.

The default setting for Unload priority for OutBoard tables is defined to 9. Unload priority sets the priority of table to be unloaded from memory. It can be 0 ~ 9, where 0 means not-unloadable and 9 means earliest unload. Standard unload priority of tables stored in memory is 5, that means in case of need to free some memory space, the archived data would be unloaded to disks preferably.
For allowing OutBoard users to define Unload priority other than default value, a setting is available. In the Near-line objects tab of OutBoard with Storage Management when running on SAP HANA settings the user should have the "Unload Priority of Archive Table" option. Here the user may define the new Unload Priority value.

_{Near-line objects tab with SAP HANA settings}

By clicking on the "Set Unload Priority" button the user may specify for which InfoProviders will this setting be updated. When using OutBoard without storage management, this value is one of the parameters that can be found in settings.

_{HNA_UNLOAD_PRIO setting}

For activating this value, the user should run report /DVD/NLS_HNA_SET_UNLOAD_PRIO. By running this report the user may define specific InfoProviders for which the new Unload Priority value should be changed.

_{Set Unload Priority for Table on HANA}

All archived data are divided into SAP HANA partitions based on NLS Request ID using range partitioning. Range partitioning creates dedicated partitions for certain values or certain value ranges. Range partitioning is used to actively manage the partitioning of a table; partitions may be created or dropped individually.

Language support

English and German are currently supported.

Size Dependent License

If using OutBoard with size dependent license: As of spring release in May 2013, the license can be also size dependent. A size dependent license is based on agreement, prior to Outboard installation.

If there is no agreement in place to have a size dependent license then this section is not relevant.

The Outboard consultant will provide the information about the Outboard license size and validity of the system. For most cases the license is based on the size that is occupied in the system.
There are various places with in Outboard to find information and monitor license size:
1. By checking the Outboard connection (e.g. in TA rsa1 in DAP Display mode or Archiving Tab of an InfoProvider

_{License size - Outboard Connection}

2. By creation of a new DAP or in Logs of an archiving process.

_{License Size / Status - Log}

Setting a Size Threshold warning for OutBoard

In OutBoard Settings there is a new parameter corresponding to the new licensing of OutBoard. This parameter is called SIZE_DIFF_TRESHOLD. Here the threshold size for warnings can be defined. When the free size with in the system passes the threshold, a warning will be triggered during each archiving process or creation of DAP.

Reaching Outboard storage size limit.
In the case reaching the storage limit of the Outboard, it will no longer be allowed to archive any additional data. However all data that was archived previously within the limit size will still be accessible. If the size limit is reached it is recommended to contact your OutBoard consultant in order to discuss how best to proceed.

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