Power BI & SAP - Integration Options and possible Pifalls

Power BI & SAP
Integration Options and
possible Pitfalls
06.11.2019

Jochen Jülke
E-Mail: JJuelke@verovis.de
@JJUELKE
Vita
 Dipl. Wirtschaftsinformatiker
 Power BI MCSA , SQL Server 2000-2016 MCSE
 „Power BI“ Enthusiast seit 2008 (Project „Gemini“)
 Organisator Power BI Usergroup (PUG) München
Mission:
„Unternehmenssteuerung auf einem neuen Niveau“
#CFO #GoDigital #Projekterfolgreichmacher
founded 2015, 50x Passion

Session Objectives & Agenda
• Why should you consider mixing MS+SAP BI?
• What’s possible? What are valid Scenarios?
• HowTo/Demo: Connect PBI to BW and HANA
• Tips & Best Practices, Possible Pitfalls?

Why?
• Business / Use Cases
1. Enterprise Reporting
2. Self Service BI
3. Big Data / NoSQL Data Analysis
Performance
Security
User
Experience
(UX)
CXO-Level,
Manager,
“Consumer”
Controller,
Domain Expert Report
Designer
“Data Modeller”
IT, DBA, BI Dev
R&D,
Data Scientist

Why?
Consideration
1. UX-Experience
2. Performance
3. Security
4. Costs
• Intuitiv?
• Valueable?
• Accessible?
• Desirable?
• Usable?
• Authentication
• SAP, AD, SSO
• Autorisation
• Row-Level Sec.
• Column-Level
Sec.
• Lizence-Costs
• HW + SW Costs
• Skillset / Trainingscosts
• Cost of Chg./
Livecylce Mgt
• Antwortzeiten
• Ladezeiten
• Deployments

Report Layer vs. Data Layer
PowerBI.com
PowerBI.com
(Power BI Premium)
Azure Analysis Services
Other azure data services
HANA
ECC
NON-SAP Datasources
Files DBs (Web) APIs IoT & Datastreams
Power BI Desktop
Excel 2010-2019
Power BI
Add-Ins
Report-Linking
Direct Query / Dual Mode
Import Mode (Cached)
Live Connection
BICS
MDX
SAP
SQL
ODATA

Scenarios, Variants, Considerations
• SAP BW
• Direct Query (mit/ohne SSO)
• Import / Composite Mode
• SAP HANA
• Direct Query (mit/ohne SSO)
• Relational vs. Multidimensional
• SAP ECC
• Theobald Connector
• Azure Data Factory
• Frontends
• PowerBI.COM
• (Power BI Report Server)
• Excel (& Excel Online)
• SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC)

©2019 verovis GmbH – performance management & analytics – verovis.de 10
HANA
ECC
„BI Authors“
Power BI Desktop
SAP and MS Power BI
“Get Data” with Power BI Desktop
Power BI bietet keinen direkten Connector für Zugriff
auf SAP ECC/R3. Anbindung aber über OData-
Connector und/oder Azure Data Factory möglich.
SAP .NET Connector 3.0
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-sap-bw-connector
->Im SAP Download Center verfügbar (SAP S-ID notwendig)
SAP HANA Client
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-sap-hana
->Im SAP Download Center verfügbar (SAP S-ID notwendig)
→ Power BI Data Gateway benötigt ebenfalls installierte
BW/HANA Connectoren!!

SAP and MS Power BI

SAP HANA and MS Power BI
HANA Features
• Calculation Views
• (Attr/Analytic Views)

SAP BW and MS Power BI
BW Features
• InfoCubes & QueryCubes
• Bex Queries
• Selections

1. activate Feature in PBI Desktop and publish
SAP BW and MS Power BI
“SAP Variables/Selection” Dialog Feature requirements/constraints
• „Power BI Premium“ needed
• SAP SSO required!
• Only available in DirectQuery
• [….]
2. User klicks in PBI Service
3. User can now define SAP Filters in PopUp to filter report

Blueprint for SAP and MS Power BI
Gateway and Modes
HANA
ECC
„Dashboard &
Spreadsheet
Consumer“
„BI Authors“
Power BI Desktop
PowerBI.com
MS Data Gateway
Import Mode
Daten werden im Intervall X über Gateway in die Cloud
übertragen und dort gespeichert
Direcy Query (DQ) Mode
Benötigte Daten zur Anzeige eines Reports werden
beim Aufruf des Reports „live“ über Gateway geladen
und lediglich temporär in einem Cloud-Cache
gespeichert
Mixed/Composite Mode
Für jeder Tabelle im PBI Model kann definiert werden
ob diese per Import- oder DirectQuery Mode über das
Gateway geladen wird
Auswahlkriterien für den „Besten“ Modus:
Performance <> Datemenge <> Datenaktualität

Security – 3 Variants
Proxy Account Single Sign On (SSO) RLS / SAP Permission
Replication

Variant 1: Security with Proxy Account
HANA
ECC
„Dashboard &
Spreadsheet
Consumer“
„BI Authors“
Power BI Desktop
PowerBI.com
MS Data Gateway
SAP-Benutzer (Serviceaccount):
XYSVC
Active Directory Benutzer:
XY@myCompany.de
SAP Berechtigungen für
XYSVC
Import Mode
or
Hybrid/Composite Mode
or
Direct Query (DQ) Mode

Variant 2: Security with Single Sign On (SSO)
HANA
ECC
„Dashboard &
Spreadsheet
Consumer“
„BI Authors“
Power BI Desktop
PowerBI.com
MS Data Gateway
„Passthrough“ per SSO
Active Directory Benutzer
= SAP-Benutzer
XY@myCompany.de
SAP Berechtigungen für
SAP-Benutzer:
XY@myCompany.de
Direcy Query (DQ) Mode
Benötigte Daten zur Anzeige eines Reports werden
beim Aufruf des Reports „live“ über Gateway geladen
und lediglich temporär in einem Cloud-Cache
gespeichert

SAP Security Replication
Challenge
• If we use PBI as „Frontend“ for SAP we want to leverage existing SAP
Security Authorisations/Privileges
• This is NOT possible when using other Modes then Direct Query+SSO
Solution Approach
• User/Permission Management stays in SAP
• „Security Metadata“ of SAP must be imported into PBI
• Based on this data PBI Role Level (RLS) can be applied
Benefits
• Leverage SAP Security Definitions in PBI (no double-maintenance needed)
• Increased performance in comparison to Direct Query Szenarios
• Option to „mashup“ SAP und non-SAP Data in PBI
RLS
Analytics
Privilege
SEC
Metadata

Variant 3: Security with “SAP Permission Replication”
HANA
ECC
„Dashboard &
Spreadsheet
Consumer“
„BI Authors“
Power BI Desktop
PowerBI.com
MS Data Gateway
XYSVC
XY@myCompany.de
SAP-Berechtigungen für
XYSVC
RLS
Import Mode
or
Hybrid/Composite Mode

Full Picture
Workspaces
Global
Group2
GroupX
Live
Dataset
Snapshot
Dataset
Dashboard1
PBI Report1 XL Report2
Dataset1 Dataset2
PBIXFile
PBIApps
Sec-RoleSec-Role
„Dashboard &
Spreadsheet
Consumer“
Scheduled
Load
O365&PBI
Administration
O365 & PowerBI.com PBI Visual
XL Range
Direct
Query
Other Source Systems
SQL
AS
Azure
AS
MS Data Gateway
SQL MDS
Excel 2010-2019
Power BI Desktop
Power BI
Add-Ins
„BI Authors“
Sec-Roles Mgt.
or
Master/Dim-Data
BW Query
SQL Srv or
Azure SQL/DWH
MS-DB acts either as „intelligent Data Cache for SAP“ or as
primary DWH (design decision if SAP-HANA or MS-DWH
should lead)
Sec-RoleSec-Role Active Directory
(onPrem)
SAP
DATA HUB
HANA
Theobald XtractIS
/ Universal
SSIS
PBI HANA
Connector
QuerySnapshot
Mobile App
HANA
Studio /
Eclipse
BEx/BW Designer
Sec
Power Query
M-Script
ECC
SAP
SLC
SAP
SNC
Business
Objects BO
Azure Data
Factory (ADF)

Best Practice Tips
• General
• Choose the right architecture/dataflow
• Build Composite Modells
• „Query Folding“ to reduce amount of data imported
• use PBI Desktop „Query reduction“ Option for faster Design-Mode
• Report-Linking between Power BI and SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC)
• SAP HANA
• avoid multiple Joins in HANA Views and materialize the view
• Multidimensional vs. Relational Mode
• SAP BW
• overcome SAP BW memory overflow issues
• leverage tracing for BW Connector
• Direct Query and DAX Limitations

1. AVOID COPY BULK DATA VIA MDX FROM CUBE TO CUBE
Best Practices Tips
Choose the right architecture/dataflow
ECC
MDX
Import
Dataset
PBIX File
1x
Dataset/
Model
X
Power
Queries
1x
ReportDashboards Reports Datasets Dataflows
Workspace 01
Dashboards Reports Datasets Dataflows
Workspace 02
SQL Srv or
Azure SQL
Query
Snapshots
HANA
Power-BI Service (powerbi.com)
Azure Analysis Services
Publish
SQL Server
Analysis Services
2. „Lift & Shift“ components as needed

Best Practices Tips
Composite Models
Storage Mode „Import“
Cached „snapshot“ of data
Storage Mode „Direct Query“
Returns always „live“ data.
Dashboard tiles can be cached
Storage Mode Dual
cached or non-cached based on specific query and
involved tables

Best Practices Tips
„Query Folding“ to reduce amount of data imported
- “Query Folding” limits the data transferred from source (BW/HANA) by i.e.Using WHERE Clause for the data-source
- Adding i.e. a custom column to the query BREAKS query folding and all processing is done in PowerBI (instead of source)
“Query Folding” active = processing/filtering on source No “Query Folding” = processing/filtering in powerbi

By default every
klick in PBI
Desktop can
produce a new
query to the
datasource
Best Practices Tips
use PBI Desktop „Query reduction“ Option for faster Design-Mode

• PBI>SAC
Jump from PBI Report „in Context“ to SAC Report or embed SAC Content via „HTML Visual“
in Power BI
→Use SAP Analytics Cloud URL API
https://help.sap.com/viewer/a4406994704e4af5a8559a640b496468/release/en-
US/4818f7d4ffc241d6ac646e4974e7ba6c.html
https://www.saplearners.com/how-to-call-a-gui-transaction-with-parameters-in-sap-fiori/
• SAC>PBI
→Filter a PBI report using query string parameters in the URL
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/service-url-filters
Best Practices Tips
Report-Linking between Power BI and SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC)
PowerBI.com

Typical performance issues come from:
- Number of visuals on the page
- HANA View with numerous joins and
aggregations
- Measures created in BI
Solution Approches:
- Reduce number of visuals
- Materialize HANA Views where possible
- Create all measures in HANA
HANA - Best Practices Tips
avoid multiple Joins in HANA Views and materialize the view

HANA - Best Practices Tips
Multidimensional vs. Relational Mode
PBI>File>Options>Global
Category Import Direct Query (Multi) Direct Query (relational)
Data Sources Table+view+calc.view Single calculation view Multiple calulation views
SQL Statements Yes No yes
Composite Models Yes No Yes
Calculated Columns Yes (DAX or M-Scipt) No Yes
Parent-Child hierarchies Yes yes No
SSL Support Yes Yes No
Data Types - SmallDecimal var binary not supported
- Nvarchar truncated to 400 chars
Other/Limits - Performance is good
- SSL is supported
- Perf is not optimal when using larger,
complex HANA views
- - Non-additive measures do not work as
expected (as explained here)

- Hard Limit of BW MDX Interface: 1 Million Cells (Columns * Rows)
- If Query runs infinite/timeouts
- Option 1: Consider Switching to DirectQuery-Mode
- Option 2: Consider Switching to PBI Premium and incremental Refresh
- Option 3: Create „Loops“ to get data in batches
- Convert Query (Q1) to Function and add Parameters (i.E. for Timerange)
- Create a second Query (Q2) with calls the function with different parameters multiple times (for
each row in Q2)
BW - Best Practices Tips
overcome SAP BW memory overflow issues

1. Create
„PBI_EnableSapBwTracing“
environment-variable
leverage tracing for BW Connector
2. Run Report in PBI Desktop
and open trace folder
3. Use SAP Transaction MDXTEST to
check the query

- DAX Limitations
- Problem:
No available in Direct-Query Mode: Nearly all filter functions like FILTER(),
SELECTEDVALUE()…
- Solution: Use .[UniqueName] Attributes
Sample:
CurrentYear = format(VALUE(left(right(MAX('Fiscal year'[Fiscal year.Fiscal year Level
01.UniqueName]);5);4));"#")
Direct Query and DAX Limitations
Other Limits:
- 1M row retrieval limit
- No/limited „Datasource Mashup“ possibilities
- No calculated tables
- No Q&A or Quick Insights
- Can be (very) slooow
- Can negatively impact data source performance
- Can deliver inconsistent results
(especially over volatile data sources)
- …

Power BI & SAP - Integration Options and possible Pifalls

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