SAP BW Interview Questions and Answers
1. What exactly do you know about the SAP BW?
Answer: It is a data warehouse application that has some of the tremendous features in it. The fact is every business needs to maintain the data most reliably and this is one of the best available tools to enable businesses for the same. It can simply help organizations in data reporting, formatting, analysis, as well as in important decision making. Data can also be accessed easily from all the SAP applications and in case the need felt, from other businesses as well. (SAP BW Interview Questions)
2. Can you create a data storage area in the SAP BW?
Answer: Yes, this is possible and generally it is called Infocube. There are generally two tables which are present in it and they are called Dimensional Table and the Fact Table.
3. Can you tell something about the Multi-provider in the SAP and how it is useful for the users?
Answer: It is an info-provider that consists of data from the info-providers used for other tasks. One of the main aims of this is to make sure that data remain available reliably for the reporting purpose. Some of the things that make it useful for the users are:
1. The source of data is from the Info providers that are dedicated to a specific task.
2. They don’t contain any sort of data present in them
3. There are basic union operators which make sure that the Info-providers remains connected to one another
4. They are useful in assuring effective reporting and make sure they can be run anytime for testing or any other purpose.
4. What is proposed from statistics for aggregates?
Answer: You can ask the system to get the optimal characteristics for aggregation by using the BW statistics data (like query run time, etc).
5. How extended Star schema is different from Star schema?
Answer: In Extended Star schema one fact table can connect to 16 dimensions tables and each dimension table is assigned with 248 maximum SID tables. SID tables are also called Characteristics and each character can have master data tables like ATTR, Text, etc.
In Star Schema, Each Dimension is joined to one single Fact table. Each Dimension is represented by only one dimension and is not further normalized.
Dimension Table contains a set of attribute that is used to analyze the data. (E learning Portal)
6. What is the use of InfoCube in the BW system?
Answer: InfoCube is defined as a multidimensional dataset that is used for analysis in a BEx query. An InfoCube consists of a set of relational tables that are logically joined to implement star schema. A Fact table in a star schema is joined with multiple dimension tables.
You can add data from one or more InfoSource or InfoProviders to an InfoCube. They are available as InfoProviders for analysis and reporting purposes.
7. What are the conversion routines for units and currencies in the update rule?
Answer: Time dimensions are automatically converted; ex: if the cube contains calendar month and your transfer structure contains the date, the date to calendar month is converted automatically.
8. What are the data loading tuning one can do?
Answer:
- Watch the ABAP code in transfer and update rules;
- Load balance on different servers
- Indexes on source tables
- Use fixed-length files if u load data from flat files and put the
- file on the application server.
- Use content extractor
- Use PSA and data target in parallel option in the info package
- Start several info packagers parallel with different selection options
- Buffer the SID number ranges if u load a lot of data at once
Loadmaster data before loading transaction data.
9. What are the data-target administration tasks?
Answer: Delete index, generate an index, construct database statistics, initial fill of new aggregates, the roll-up of filled aggregates, compression of the InfoCube, activate ODS, complete deletion of data target.
10. How we do the SD and MM configuration for BW?
Answer: You need to activate the data sources in R3 system.You need to maintain the login information for the logical system.sm59: Choose the RFC destination, BW system, Under logon Security, maintain the user credentials. Maintain control parameters for data transfer. Filling in of setup tables SBIWI feels that these are certain prerequisites. From an SD perspective, you as a BW consultant should first understand the basic SD process flow on the R3 side. (search the forum for SD process flow and you’ll get a wealth of information on the flow and the tables as well as transactions involved in SD).Next, you need to understand the process flow that has been implemented at the client’s place. How the SD data flows and what are the integration points with other modules as well as how the integration happens. This knowledge is essential when modeling your BW design. From a BW perspective, you need to first know all the SD extractors and what information they bring. Next look at all the cubes and ODS for SD.
11. What are the load process and processing?
Answer: The load process and processing are the Info package, Read PSA and update data target, save hierarchy, update ODS data object, data export open hub, delete overlapping requests.
12. How the dimensions are optimized?
Answer: It system can be used as many as possible for performance, for instance, it may be assumed that 100 products and 200 customers; if one dimension for both, the size of the dimension will be 20000; if it was made individual dimensions then the total number of rows will be 300. Even if they are taken more than one characteristic per dimension, the math considering the worst case and decide which characteristics may be combined in a dimension.
13. What is the structure of InfoCube?
Answer: An InfoCube is used to store the data physically. It consists of several InfoObjects that are filled with data from staging. It has the structure of a star schema.
In SAP BI, an Infocube contains Extended Star Schema as shown above.
An InfoCube consists of a fact table that is surrounded by 16 dimension tables and master data that is lying outside the cube.
14. Which are the attachments that are platform-independent and become a part of the template?
Answer: There are several attachments that are part of the template form. APP STORE: This is a kind of attachment that comprises packages as well as procedures that are useful for all the different forms to create toolbars, menus, etc.
APPS DAYPK: This attachment contains packages that help control the applications associated with oracle.
FNDSQF: This attachment has various procedures as well as packages for flex fields, profiles, message dictionary and also concurrent processing. CUSTOM: This attachment helps extend the application forms of oracle without causing any modification related to the application code. There are various kinds of customization including zoom.
15. Where do we use Write optimized DSO’s?
Answer: Write optimized DSO provides a temporary storage area for large sets of data if you are executing complex transformations for this data before it is written to the DataStore object. The data can then be updated to further InfoProviders. You only have to create the complex transformations once for all data. Write-optimized DataStore objects are used as the EDW layer for saving data. Business rules are only applied when the data is updated to additional InfoProviders. (SAP BW on HANA Interview Questions The Best 2019 Latest)
16. How would you convert an info package group into a process chain?
Answer: Double Click on the info package grp, click on the ‘Process Chain Maint’ button and type in the name and description; the individual info packages are inserted automatically.
17. How can you navigate to see the error idocs?
Answer: If it is fine to check the IDOCs in source system go to BD87->give Ur user ID and date->execute->you can find Red status Idocs select the erroneous Idoc->Rt.clickand select Manual process. You need to Reprocess this IDOC which is RED. For this, you can take the help of Any of your Team (ALE IDOC Team or BAsis Team)Or Elseyoucan push it manually. Just search it in the bd87 screen only to Reprocess. Also, try to find why these IDocs are stuck there.
18. What is the index?
Answer: Indices/Indexes are used to locate needed records in a database table quickly. BW uses two types of indices, B-tree indices for regular database tables and bitmap indices for fact tables and aggregate tables.
19. How can a cube have partitioned for which the data already exists?
Answer: The cube cannot be partitioned if the data already exists the cube must be empty to do this, one workaround is to make a copy of the cube A to cube B, export data from A to B using export data source, empty cube A, create partition on A, re-import data from B, and delete cube B.
20. How would you optimize the dimensions?
Answer: Use as many as possible for performance improvement; Ex: Assume that u have 100 products and 200 customers; if you make one dimension for both, the size of the dimension will be 20000; if you make individual dimensions then the total number of rows will be 300. Even if you put more than one characteristic per dimension, do the math considering the worst-case scenario and decide which characteristics may be combined in a dimension.
21. What is the use of real-time InfoCube? How do you enter data in real-time InfoCubes?
Answer:
- Real-time InfoCubes are used to support parallel write access. Real-time InfoCubes are used in connection with the entry of planning data.
- You can enter the data in Real-time InfoCubes in two different ways −
- Transaction for entering planning data.
22. What is extended Star schema? Which of the tables are inside and outside cube in an extended star schema?
Answer: In Extended Star schema, Fact tables are connected to Dimension tables and the dimension table is connected to the SID table and the SID table is connected to master data tables. In Extended star schema you have Fact and Dimension tables are inside the cube however SID tables are an outside cube. When you load the transactional data into Info cube, Dim Id’s are generated based on SID’s and these Dim id’s are used in fact tables.
23. What is the use of Transformation and how the mapping is done in BW?
Answer: The transformation process is used to perform data consolidation, cleansing, and data integration. When data is loaded from one BI object to another BI object, transformation is applied to the data. Transformation is used to convert a field of source into the target object format.
Transformation rules −
Transformation rules are used to map source fields and target fields. Different rule types can be used for transformation.
24. What is the structure?
Answer: Combination of characteristics and key figures; for example, you can create a structure containing sales for products A, B, and C as three different restricted key figures contained in a structure; if this is global you can reuse it in other queries.
25. What is the calculated key figure?
Answer: To do complicated calculations on key figures such as mathematics functions, percentage functions, etc. For example, you can have a calculated key figure to find out sales tax from the sale price.
26. Can you tell something about the Data Ware-house Hierarchy?
Answer: It is an approach that is considered when it comes to defining the data aggregation. It’s a logical structure and the best thing is the users are free to consider it for data organization. The common example of this approach is the time dimension hierarchy.
27. What is a Dashboard in SAP BW and how it is created?
Answer: It is a collection of views, groups, as well as reports. It can also be considered as the graphical reporting interface. It is possible to create the same with the help of a Web Application Designer. The entire content can be displayed on a screen quickly.
28. What is a reusable structure?
Answer: These are query level structures that can be used in any queries.
29. What is the use of the Info area in the SAP BW system?
Answer: Info Area in SAP BI is used to group similar types of an object. Info Area is used to manage Info Cubes and Info Objects. Each Info Objects resides in an Info Area and you can define it as a folder that is used to hold similar files together.
30. which Datastore object is used?
Answer: DataStore object for direct update allows you to access data for reporting and analysis immediately after it is loaded. It is different from standard dsos in the way how it processed the data. Data is stored in the same format in which it was loaded to the DataStore object for the direct update by the application.
31. How do I separate development from the production environment?
Answer: Depending on requirements for the availability of the application, the size of the user population and other factors you can decide how to divide the development environment from the production environment. For certain applications, it is acceptable to combine the development server with the deployment server, as long as the end users understand that sometimes the application is not available. Other applications may require two (development and production) or even three (development, test, and production) servers. In Application Express applications can be moved from environment to environment using an export and import facility for application definitions. With one server available to run the database and Application Express, you can still separate the development version of an application from its production version by using two workspaces accessing separate schemas. In this case, one workspace will be used by developers and the other will be the workspace in which the application is deployed in production.
32. When to Virtual Providers based on DTP?
Answer: When only some amount of data is used.
You need to access up to date data from an SAP source system.
Only a few users execute queries simultaneously on the database.
33. Explain the architecture of the SAP BW system and its components?
Answer: OLAP Processor
Metadata Repository,
Process designer and other functions.
Business Explorer BEx is a reporting and analysis tool that supports query, analysis and reporting functions in BI. Using BEx, you can analyze historical and current data to a different degree of analysis.
34. How does change run affect aggregate?
Answer: Newly loaded master data is not active until the change run has been applied to hierarchy.
35. What do you mean by the term Rollup in the SAP BW?
Answer: Generally, this approach is considered when it comes to packing the new data packages in the Info-cubes. This is generally done because the entire data in the Infocube doesn’t remain available during the reporting processes.
36. Name two types of Multi providers and compare them to each other?
Answer: These are Homogenous and Heterogeneous. In homogenous, there are info-providers which are similar to one another in terms of all their technical specifications and other technical details. They can also have similar key figures and characteristics.
On the other side, Heterogeneous are the ones which are ones that have only a limited number of identical characters as well as the key figures. It can be used for modeling while the homogenous cannot be considered for this task. All the scenarios can easily be divided into the sub-categories and have their dedicated info-provider.
37. Is it possible for the users to convert the package group into a Process Chain? If so, how?
Answer: Yes, this can be done easily. For this, the user has to first make a double click on the group defining the info. Next is to open the Process Chain Management option from it. After this, the users have to type the name and the description post in which the task is done automatically.
38. What exactly do you know about the term Data Flow in the Business Intelligence or Business Warehouse?
Answer: It defines the path adopted by the data and how it reaches from one specific location to another in a domain or a warehouse. Some various rules and regulations govern the control over the same. Generally, the flow is from a transactional to an analytical system.
39. What is the Process chain and when you can use the same in the Data Warehouse?
Answer: It is an approach that is useful when it comes to automating the loading process of the date. Several important processes such as Indices, Data Load, as well as the deletion can be automated provided some basic conditions are met and the best thing is the users don’t have a lot of concern with the type of data you generally make use of.
40. Can you name a few important tasks which are essential in the data warehousing and management of the same?
Answer:
- Collection integration, as well as management of the data and the concerned tasks
- Making effective plans and analyzing the situations with the help of data stored
- The next important task is reporting. There are many tools in SAP BW application that are useful in this matter and enable the user to keep up the pace even when the data is present on the browser or in the excel.
- Next important module is to assure broadcast publishing
- Making sure of security is the next big thing as privacy always matters for any businesses when it comes to dealing with the data whether structured or unstructured
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41. What is Geographical Information in the SAP BW and for what purpose it is used commonly?
Answer: Geographical Information generally consists of information related to a customer, origin, a region of the sales, transaction history and a lot more. It can be accessed through a geographical system, named as BEx.
42. What is the process chain and how you used it?
Answer: Process chains are a tool available in BW for Automation of the upload of master data and transaction data while taking care of dependency between each process.
In one of our scenarios, we wanted to upload wholesale price info object which will have a wholesale price for all the material. Then we wanted to load transaction data. While loading transaction data to populate wholesale prices, there was a lookup in the update rule on this InfoObject master data table. This dependency of first uploading master data and then uploading transaction data was done through the process chain.
43. What is the function of the ‘reconstruction’ tab in an info cube?
Answer: It reconstructs the deleted requests from the info cube. If a request has been deleted and later someone wants the data records of that request to be added to the info cube, one can use the reconstruction tab to add those records. It goes to the PSA and brings the data to the info cube.
44. What is an open hub service?
Answer: The open hub service enables you to distribute data from an SAP BW system into external data marts, analytical applications, and other applications. With this, you can ensure controlled distribution using several systems. The central object for the export of data is the Infospoke. Using this, you can define the object from which the data comes and into which target it is transferred. Through the open hub service, SAP BW becomes a hub of an enterprise data warehouse. The distribution of data becomes clear through central monitoring from the distribution status in the BW system.
45. What are extractors? Name a few which are used commonly in the SAP BW?
Answer: Many times there is a need to extract the data from the system programmer. This task generally needs a lot of time and effort too. With the help of an extractor, it can be accomplished very easily and in a proper time frame. The users are free to consider them in the SAP Business Warehouse easily. A few which are used commonly are as under:
1. Customer Generated Extractors
2. Application-Specific Attractors
3. Cross Application Extractors
46. Compare Info cubes with Operational Data Store?
Answer: The level of data in the ODS is very high and every single detailed about the same can be grabbed easily. On the other side, not many details are present in the Info cubes about the data.
It is possible to control the ODS with a key whereas the same is not possible in case of an Infocube
ODS is a flat structure but Infocube is a 16-dimensional approach
Under a Cube, there can be multiple ODS. Generally, it can be said that Infocube can have data that is derived generally from the ODS.
47. What exactly do you know about Business Warehouse statistics?
Answer: There are several cubes present in the SAP and they are considered for measuring the performance of data loading and query handling. All the data in the Warehouse can be shown or can be displayed with the help of this approach. Generally, it keeps an eye on the overall time queries take to accomplish a task or how quick they are responded.
48. What is compression in the Data Warehouse?
Answer: It is a procedure that is considered for eliminating the additional ID’s. Its main aim is to make sure that the maximum space remains available on the warehouse so that the maximum amount of data can be stored. A compression is a useful approach with the help of which the users can make sure that no duplicate or unused IDs exist in the warehouse environment which can sometimes slow down the system performance.
49. How do perform real-time data acquisition in a BW system?
Answer: Real-time data acquisition is based on moving data to Business Warehouse in real-time. Data is sent to the delta queue or PSA table in real-time.
Real-time data acquisition can be achieved in two scenarios −
By using InfoPackage for real-time data acquisition using Service API.
- Using Web Service to load data to Persistent Storage Area PSA and then by using real-time DTP to move the data to DSO.
Real-time Data Acquisition Background Process −
- To process data to InfoPackage and data transfer process DTP at regular intervals, you can use a background process known as Daemon.
- Daemon process gets all the information from InfoPackage and DTP that which data is to be transferred and which PSA and Data sore objects to be loaded with data.
50. Tell something you know about the dimension in the Warehouse and how it can be optimized?
Answer: Generally, the Data Warehouse has a group of reference information about any activity. The same is considered as a dimension in the warehouse. For optimization, the users have to make sure that there are no dynamic characters that remain present in the dimension and there should also be a strict upper limit on the size of the same.
51. What is generally included in the Data Target Administrative task?
Answer: All the information regarding the database statics, Indexes, Info-cube comparison, Deleting the data target, as well as maintenance, can be located in the Data target Administrative Task.
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