(2011) Offloading analysis

Purpose of the offloading analysis is to identify a list of InfoProviders suitable for offloading. Analysis is collecting and evaluating multiple statistics about each InfoProvider in order to reduce your database in easy way. You setup analysis once and just wait for email notification with the results or suggestions. 

Setup

Initial setup consists of two parts. Initial setup of system and BW Analysis setup. 

  • Go to transaction /DVD/HS_OFF_SETUP
  • Initial system setup
    • Install license if needed 
    • Fill customer information
      • Insights customer ID 
        • if you don't have your customer ID you can e.g. number 123
      • Customer name
    • Fill administrator information
      • Email address will be used for receiving notification or results
    • Leave selected 'Only central' deployment scenario
    • Fill central customizing 
      • User name for execution of background jobs
      • Sender's e-mail address for notifications or results
    • Confirm setup with Complete button
    • See setup logs and click Exit
  • BW Analysis setup
    • Confirm that system will be added to the system landscape
    • Confirm that you want to continue with BW Analysis setup
    • See setup logs

The analysis is executed immediately after finishing setup. Once the analysis is done and the results are ready, e-mail notification is send to you. Please be aware the analysis can take multiple hours, depending on your database size and system performance. 

Notification email

Once results of the analysis are ready, you will receive notification email with following information:

  • size of database that you could save
  • list of InfoProviders that fulfill offloading rules
  • step list to offload proposed InfoProviders
  • criteria used for InfoProvider list creation
  • 2 attachments
    • shortcut file to see result in SAP system
    • JSON file with necessary information for offloading

Offloading analysis viewer

Result are available using transaction /DVD/HS_OFFD directly on analysed system. 


InfoProviders that fulfill offloading rules are displayed in results. Following table shows the meaning of particular columns in a result table.

ColumnDescription
Object contains a technical name of an InfoProvider
Typedisplays a type of an InfoProvider (InfoCube, DSO, aDSO, WODS)
Descriptionlong description of an InfoProvider
Off. interface

recommended offloading interface

Infodetailed information about available offloading interfaces and special functions recommended for an InfoProvider
Size [MB]

total object size in MB

  • InfoCube: F table + E table + dimension tables
  • DSO / WODS / ADSO: new table + active table

table size calculation differs by various database types

  • HANA database: main memory + delta memory + index
  • Other databases: table size (without index)
Off. pot. size [MB]

offloading potential size in MB

  • sum of data partitions that fits to offloading rules
Off. %offloading potential size in percentage relative to the object size
Rowsnumber of rows in InfoProvider data tables (same tables are used as in the size calculation)
Number of queries

the total number of queries that read data in an InfoProvider

  • This column can contain a value > 0, also in the case the InfoProvider is empty. This event occurs when a query uses a MultiProvider which includes this InfoProvider
Trend - Number of queriesvisualization displaying the usage of data areas - values are rounded to natural numbers
Trend - Size [MB]visualization displaying the size of data areas - values are rounded to natural numbers
Split characteristic

describes applied time characteristic

  • if the characteristic is empty, then the Data distribution analysis doesn't identify a suitable characteristic and distribution of size and number of queries isn't successful
Condition

recommended offloading condition

  • condition includes all data partitions that fits to offloading rules
Archived size [MB]

size of unpacked archived data in MB 

  • size of data in an online database that would be occupied, if all archived data would be reloaded
DTP source counthow many times an InfoProvider is used as a source in DTP load requests
Last DTP exec.timestamp of the last DTP load request execution
DTP dest. countnumber of DTP requests loaded into an InfoProvider (including reloaded requests from an archive)
DTP dest. relv

number of requests (DTPs for InfoCubes, activation requests for DSOs) relevant for straggler analysis

  • by a DSO object - request is relevant, when a Change log contains records of this request
  • by an InfoCube object - request is relevant, when request records are not compressed
  • by a WODS object - requests aren't relevant, as WODS can be archived only based on a request creation date
  • by an ADSO object - based on the type of the object, the ADSO behaves the same as the equivalent object type (DSO, WODS, InfoCube)
    • as ADSO object can have various settings. In general the analysis collects requests for the following object types:
      • Data warehouse - data mart
        • information is gathered from the inbound table
      • Corporate memory – reporting capabilities
        • information is gathered from inbound table
      • Data warehouse – delta calculation
        • information is gathered from Change log table
DTP stragglers

number of requests with straggler records /wiki/spaces/ITOA/pages/560103425

  • subset of requests relevant for straggler analysis, which contain at least one straggler record
DTP stragg. rowsnumber of rows which represent straggler records
Number of lookups

number of lookups that are present in a system for an InfoProvider

  • number of lookups in the source code

Due to readability of a result table, not all columns are displayed by default. To show or hide columns, you can choose from predefined ALV layouts or create your own.

Notification settings

Email address that was set during setup will be receiving notifications about potential offloading candidates. You are able to change delivery parameters as follows:

Find menu Notifications and chose Advanced settings.

List of notification parameters

Tech. nameDescriptionDetails
ENABLEDNotifications enabledIf the value if set to X notification are enabled, if the value is empty notifications are disabled
LAST_MAIL_TIMESTAMPTimestamp of a last emailTimestamp of a last sent email to notification email address in format YYYYMMDDHHmmss, if value is empty no email was sent yet
EMAILRecipient e-mailEmail address used for notifications
NEXT_MAIL_DAYSSend next email after (days)

Time period in days when email could be sent to the recipient e.g.

  • if the value is 14, email will be send each 14 days
  • if the value is 0, each time analysis collects data email will be send
OFFLOADING_VARIANTOffloading variant usedOffloading variant used for calculation of suitable candidates for offloading
SAP_USERSAP GUI UserName of SAP user that will be pre-filled in a shortcut attached to email


Offloading rules

InfoProvider are displayed in results only in case it fits to rules. Product installation provides default rule values. However, you can adjust rule values according to your archiving strategy. Here you can find available rules:

Rule descriptionDefault valueDetails
Size of InfoProvider is greater than X MB0.1 % of database sizeRule will avoid offloading for too small objects by setting the size threshold for InfoProvider
Data partition usage is less than X query executions60Rule will avoid offloading often used data partitions. Smallest data partition that can be identified is one month. Therefore, value 60 means that data from particular month cannot be used more than 60 times in analysis time range. If so, it will not be included to the offloading condition
Size of data partition is bigger than X MB1Rule will avoid offloading for too small data partitions by setting the size threshold
Do not offload data newer than X months12Rule is setting retention period for online data. For default value data that are newer than 12 months are excluded from the offloading condition
Analysis time range: last X months3Viewer is using data only for last 3 months by default. If you are collecting data for multiple months, you can change this parameters to bigger value. If you start with data collection within last 3 month it will not give you more information

Rule values can be changed by clicking on Rules button.

You can define additional "rules" by setting filters to ALV table. When you then hit Save button, all rules are saved together in offloading variant.

Example: How to set additional filter

Choose column which you want to filter

Set select option e.g. all object starts to Z

Confirm and save offloading variant

Offloading variants

Offloading variant contains rule values as well as ALV filters. You can create multiple variants in order to compare different offloading strategies. One offloading variant can be set as default for calculation of notification email and for Actions queue. Default offloading variant cannot be changed, but you can create you own.

Set offloading variant for notifications

Initial installation contains default offloading variant that is used for notifications. If you want to get notifications based on your own offloading variant, proceed as follows.

Notifications > Set current variant

Offloading interface availability

Offloading analysis can recommend two offloading interfaces for object:

Offloading interfaceDescription
DTOSAP BW/4HANA Data Tiering Optimization
SDA+OutBoard DataTiering with SDA+

Interface is recommended by multiple criteria. Here you can find the main criteria:

  • System prerequisites required by interface implementation
  • InfoProvider type support
  • InfoProvider requirements to interface
    • special functions e.g. WRITER

Export configuration

If you choose InfoProviders that should be offloaded, you can select them and export their offloading related configuration into file. This file can be then imported to the development system in order to create offloading DataProviders. There are two ways to get the configuration:

  • Notification email contains a configuration file
  • Download configuration file from the result viewer
    • choose object that you want to export (if nothing is selected everything is exported)
    • click on button Export configuration

Information how to add DataProviders using configuration JSON file can be found here: (2011) DataTiering Main Screen (find Define DP from file)