How to…

Minimize Downtime For

Delta Initialization

BUSINESS INFORMATION WAREHOUSE

Applicable Releases: SAP BW >= 2.0B, S-API >= 3.0B (PI >= 2002.1)
July 2002
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HOW TO … MINIMIZE DOWNTIME FOR DELTA INITIALIZATION

1 Business Scenario
You would like to load data from your (SAP R/3) source system into a BW system using the BW delta
process. Initializing this delta process can take an exceptional amount of time, and for many
DataSources, it imposes restrictions on the production system (for example, stopping work in the
affected application component or having a high workload). You would like to minimize the amount of
time and the restrictions that the initial load causes on the production system.

2 Introduction
The solution described in this paper includes only the steps that are absolutely necessary to execute
it in the productive system and to execute the main workload in a copy. The steps that are performed
on the production system only take a few minutes. Afterwards, BW extracts the data from a copied
(mirror) system rather than the production system, relieving all restrictions on the latter.
Necessary for this scenario is the ability to quickly perform a system copy, or a synchronization/split
of a mirror system. The scenario described here uses the TimeFinder™ from EMC2™.

TimeFinder software provides a fast and flexible way to create a physical copy of the R/3 database
that can then be used to create a second instance of the database. The methods used in this guide
are independent from whether you use TimeFinder or SRDF to create the copy of your database.
More information on how to create the copy can be found in several EMC2 white papers listed in
section Additional Documents (EMC2).

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HOW TO … MINIMIZE DOWNTIME FOR DELTA INITIALIZATION

The following picture illustrates the solution.

BW Production

1 3

2
R/3 Production R/3 Mirror

1. Trigger extraction (send request IDoc) without transferring data

2. Split the mirror system.
3. Extract data from the mirror system to BW.
4. Transfer monitor information generated by extraction.

The initialization of the delta process is simulated in the production system without actually
transferring data. Thus, the BW status information appears as if the extraction had already run. In
doing so, delta data can already be collected in the production system. The data is subsequently
transferred from the mirror system without disturbing the production system.
A prerequisite for this process is that a simulation of the delta initialization process is already
implemented for the respective extractor. You can check this in the ROOSOURCE table. The value
"1" has to be in the INITSIMU field for the DataSource.
For a better understanding, it would be helpful to become familiar with the components used in this
example.
Systems:
• Original source system (production system):
o SAP ID: QY5
o Client 100
o Application server: pwdf0131
o Operating system: Windows NT

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HOW TO … MINIMIZE DOWNTIME FOR DELTA INITIALIZATION

o Release 4.5B, PI 2002.1

• Mirror system
o SAP ID: OY5
o Client 100
o Application server: emcmirror
o Operating system: Windows NT
o Release 4.5B, PI 2002.1
• BW-System
o SAP ID: QB5
o Local source system entered in the BW system: QY5CLNT100
o DataSource / InfoSource: 2LIS_11_VAITM
o Release 2.1C

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HOW TO … MINIMIZE DOWNTIME FOR DELTA INITIALIZATION

3 The Step-by-Step Solution

Trigger the Extraction in BW Without Transferring Data

1. At the end of the extraction, you have to

transfer monitor information from the
mirror system into the original system
using an RFC. In order to execute this
RFC, the original system needs to
already have an RFC-connection
pointing to itself. If this RFC connection
does not exist, create it in transaction
SM59.

2. In the BW system, enter your user as

"Debugging User" in transaction
RSADMIN.

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HOW TO … MINIMIZE DOWNTIME FOR DELTA INITIALIZATION

3. Create or use an InfoPackage for

initializing the delta process. Switch off
the immediate update of data in the
source system (the checkbox needs to
be empty). This is only possible if you
have completed step 2 for the current
user (restart Administrator Workbench).

4. Now start the loading of data in the

InfoPackage. By doing this, a request
IDoc is sent to the source system that
initially remains in the IDoc inbox of the
production system without being directly
processed.

Activities During Downtime (Synchronize and Split Mirror System, Enable

Delta)
Downtime for your productive system begins. You have to make sure that no users or jobs are active
in the system (check transactions SM04, SM50, and SM66). You need to complete the following
steps:

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HOW TO … MINIMIZE DOWNTIME FOR DELTA INITIALIZATION

Depending on the extractor, specific steps could be necessary that are also required
for normal delta initializations (without mirror systems), for example, stopping the
update. If necessary, these steps also need to be performed, but are not described in
any further detail here.
Perform a system copy
The original system is put in a position to write delta records into the delta queue.
This is done by posting the request IDoc in a special mode (called
DELTA_ENABLE).

5. Complete the required steps for

copying the original system or for
synchronizing the mirror system with
the original system and the
subsequent split. To do this, use your
EMC2 documentation. In our example,
the important steps are the following:
Establish (synchronize): Establishing
the copy might have already occurred
during the preparation (before
downtime) and includes the following
steps:
a. Shut down the R/3 mirror
system in preparation for
copying.
b. Shut down the database
for the mirror system.
c. Stop the SAPOSCOL, R/3
for the mirror system.
d. Unmount the disk drive(s)
for the mirror system (Disk
Administrator).
e. Issue the "Establish"
command.
Split (system separation): Splitting the
two systems so that the systems are
now independent of one another.
a. File system flush with
symntctl (only with
Windows NT/2000).
b. Issue the split command.

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HOW TO … MINIMIZE DOWNTIME FOR DELTA INITIALIZATION

6. Call up the transaction BALE (<4.6C)

or BD87 (>= 4.6C) next in the original
system. To determine the request IDoc
number, double click on the respective
line (message type RSRQST, status
64):

7. Open the view for "Data records".

Monitor the IDoc entries by double
clicking on the data records, especially
if there are several. You can see the
IDoc number in the header.

8. On the right-hand side, you can see

the screen that appears after double
clicking on a data record. Here you
find all of the information that is
important for identifying the correct
IDoc (for example, DataSource, time
stamp, or selection criteria).

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9. Call up the function module

RSC1_ZDD_DELTA_ENABLE
(transaction SE37, F8) and specify the
request IDocnumber in parameter
I_DOCNUM. Afterwards, the system is
able to collect deltas for the
DataSource and now you can resume
work in the production system.

Extraction from the Mirror System, Transfer of Monitor Information

The next step includes extracting the data from the mirror system and transferring it to the BW
system while the production operation is now running in the original system.

10. To do this, you next have to start the

R/3 mirror system. The following steps
are described in detail in the EMC2
documentation. For a Windows NT
operating system, for example, the
following steps have to be completed:
Mount the disk drive (mirror
system).
Start the database (mirror system).
Start SAPOSCOL, SAPSERVICE
Set up a user in the mirror system
that has database authorization for
the mirror system’s SID. (This
point does not apply if the original
system already has such a user,
because this also exists in the
mirror system.)
Start the R/3 System (mirror
system).

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11. Depending on what needs to be done

in the mirror system, it could be
necessary to set up the transport
system in transaction STMS. Since no
transports are actually run, the
configuration does not matter, and you
can use the default values.

12. After you have completed the possible,

additional steps dependent on the
DataSource (for example, creating
setup tables), post the request IDoc as
usual in the mirror system (meaning
NOT with the report that was used in
the original system). To do this, start
transaction BD87 and choose
"Posting" of the IDoc with status 64.

13. Enter the same IDoc number that you

already specified in step 7, and start
the processing.

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14. The extraction is now running. You can

check the status as usual in the BW
monitor. There you also find the
unique request number that the
system has assigned for this loading
process. This number is needed later
on.

15. In this step, the monitor information

that was collected in the mirror system,
during the extraction, is transferred
into the original system so that useful
monitoring is possible for the DeltaInit
request. This includes the following:
Information for the data packages
sent during the extraction
Information for the Info-IDocs sent
during the extraction
Entries in the application log
Update for the delta administration
tables
To transfer the monitor information,
execute the function module
RSC1_ZDD_REPLAY_SET. You
receive the request number from the
monitor and enter the RFC connection
from step 1 in the second field.

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4 Notes

DataSources Used
With our tests, the following DataSources were used (as examples):
2LIS_11_VAITM
0FI_AR_3
0FI_AP_3

Restrictions for the Extractable Tables

The following only applies if the system ID of the mirror system differs from the original system ID. (In
our example QY5 is different from OY5.)

If you follow the EMC2 procedure, a "Clean-Up" script is executed on the mirror system after the split.
This prevents scheduled tasks (for example, batch and print jobs) from being executed in the mirror
system. To do this, the script changes the control entries in specific tables.
Although it is highly improbable that these tables will play a role in a BW extraction, it should be
mentioned that after modification, the content of the tables no longer agrees with that in the original
system, and your extraction could transfer incorrect data into the BW system. This concerns the
following tables:
TCESYST, TCESYSTT
TSYST, TSYSTT
TASYS
TCECPSTAT, TCEDELI
TADIR
E071, E070, E070L
TBTCS, TBTCO
TSP01, TSP02, TSP02F, TSP0E, TSPVJOB, TST01, TST03, TSP03, TSP03C, TSP03D
TEMSG, TEMSI

Several DataSources
Without restrictions, you can use this process simultaneously for several extractions. This is to
ensure that you have downtime once, or that the number of downtimes is minimized. This applies to
simultaneous delta initializations (with selection criteria) of one DataSource, as well as simultaneous
delta intitializations of different DataSources.

Additional Documents (EMC2 )

Oracle, Windows NT - Creating Second Instance Copies for SAP with TimeFinder
Bringing Up an SAP R/3 Second Instance at http://www.emc.com/techlib
Oracle, UNIX - Creating Second Instance Copies for SAP with TimeFinder
Bringing Up an SAP R/3 Second Instance at http://www.emc.com/techlib

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SQL Server 2000 and Windows 2000

Creating Second Instance Copies for mySAP with TimeFinder at http://www.emc.com/techlib
Creating Hot Snapshots and Standby Databases with IBM DB2 Universal Database V7.2 and EMC
TimeFinder at http://www.emc.com/techlib and http://www.ibm.com
Using Multiple BCV Database Copies with IBM DB2 Universal Database V7.2 and EMC TimeFinder
at http://www.emc.com/techlib and http://www.ibm.com

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