(SP38) Glossary of Terms - Writer

DAP

Data Archiving Process, the process to archive data into an InfoCube and create a master table that contains the location of the individual archived tables.

RSA1

The Administrator Workbench for SAP BW (AWB) is the main tool for tasks in the data warehousing process. It provides data modeling functions as well as functions for control, monitoring, and maintenance of all processes in SAP BW having to do with data procurement, data retention, and data processing.

InfoCube

An InfoCube is several relational tables arranged according to the star schema: a large fact table in the middle surrounded by several dimension tables. Can function as both a data target and an InfoProvider.

InfoProvider

InfoProviders that contain real-time InfoCubes provide the data basis for BI Integrated Planning. Aggregation levels are a type of virtual InfoProvider and are created based on a real-time InfoCube or a MultiProvider that contains InfoCubes of this type. Aggregation levels are specifically designed so that you can plan data manually or change it using planning functions.

DSO

Data Store Objects serve for storing data from multiple sources to make analyses of data and simplifying reporting. Since data is coming from different sources data needs to be cleansed (e.g., redundancy) and consolidated (e.g., from a business point of view). ODS/DSO objects store data at a detailed level (atomic). There is a bigger portion of data available as opposite to data warehouse's cubes. ODS/DSO is combining a key field (e.g., business document or its item) with a data field (e.g., business document status and other properties) as a key figure. There is nothing multidimensional (no dimension neither fact tables) with ODS/DSO as with cubes. Data in ODS/DSO is stored in transparent (flat) database tables. ODS/DSO objects are reportable.

PSA

The Persistent Staging Area (PSA) is the inbound storage area for data from the source systems in the SAP Business Information Warehouse.  The requested data is saved, unchanged from the source system.

Change Log

Change Log (CHLG) contains the change history for delta updating from the ODS Object into other data targets, such as ODS Objects or InfoCubes for example.

OutBoarding

OutBoarding is a process of archiving data via OutBoard. Occurs in 3 phases and can be executed manually or included in a process chain. Near antonym: InBoarding.

InBoarding

InBoarding, or loading data from an archive into an InfoProvider – either their original InfoProvider or a different one. Near antonym: OutBoarding.

Data Packet

Data Objects can be grouped into Data Packets. Data from different Data Packets can be processed in parallel.

InfoSource

In BW, an InfoSource describes the quantity of all the data available for a business transaction or a type of business transaction (for example, cost center accounting). An InfoSource is a quantity of information that logically belongs together, summarized into a single unit. It prepares consolidated data for updating the data targets. InfoSources contain either transaction data or master data (attributes, texts, and hierarchies). An InfoSource is always several InfoObjects that logically belong together in the form of the communication structure. There are two types of InfoSources: InfoSources with flexible updating and InfoSources with direct updating.