SAP Data Warehouse Cloud [Part II]

SAP Data Warehouse Cloud [Part II]

Spaces Within SAP Data Warehouse Cloud

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In our previous article, we discussed SAP Data Warehouse Cloud and its capabilities. In this article, we will go deeper into the Spaces-concept, what they are, how they work, and how to easily set these up in your Data Warehouse Cloud environment.

Understanding a Space

SAP Data Warehouse Cloud uses SAP newly created container technology called Spaces. Before you can start developments such a space needs to be created. These virtual workspaces can be set up for all different company areas, departments, individuals, etc., for data modeling, data integration, and story dashboard building.

The separation of spaces makes it possible to replicate them for e.g. similar users and it also simplifies the optimization of the use of the spaces concerning auditing, governance, compliance, and connections to third-party software. Once such a space has been set up, the fun can start. In the Space tile you can see some specifications about the Space:

  1. Members assigned to this Space
  2. Established connections
  3. Created data models

In the Space Management tab in SAP Data Warehouse Cloud the spaces can easily be created and managed. Spaces can be seen as isolated work areas that are assigned with certain memory usage, CPU usage, runtime hours, and available disk space. It is also possible to assign new users and remote sources. A user can be defined as a Space Administration or a Space Developer. On the top left corner, you can see general information about your spaces and their state.

A Space can have different states, we will sum them up:

  • Cold Spaces: used storage is 5% or less
  • Green Spaces: used storage is between 6% and 90%
  • Hot Spaces: used storage is greater than 90%
  • Hibernated Spaces: Spaces that are not used at the time
  • Locked Spaces: Spaces that exceeded their quota

The coolest thing about Spaces, in my opinion, is that you can reallocate them. The administrator can upsize, downsize, or hibernate them whenever needed. This way disk usage is managed by the administrator with the consequence that they have more control within the tool. The system is completely scalable!

Setting Up A Space

The first thing you need to do, as Space Administrator, navigates to the Space Management page in Data Warehouse Cloud. Once there you can create a new Space by clicking on the corresponding tile. Once clicked you can give the Space a name.

The administrator will be navigated to the next page where he can configure the Space specifications. In the overview section, you can finetune the general settings of the Space. Here you can see the Space status, you can assign storage and give the space a priority. The priority will define the priority of the space compared to other spaces in the system.

The next step in the creation process is user assignment. Here you can add/delete users from the Space, only these users will have access to the Space and their given roles define the user’s possible actions within that Space.

If you want a Space to have access to a certain system within the company, let us say the BW/4HANA system, you can add these in the next section. Add a local connection by clicking on the ‘+’ button.

  1. Add connection
  2. Choose your connection type e.g. SAP HANA, SAP ABAP, Generic Data (OData), …
  3. Fill in connection properties: in this case, we are connecting to a BW/4HANA system and the user credentials that are filled in must have the right privileges on the right schemas. This is necessary because otherwise, the Data Warehouse Cloud users will not be able to access the required schemas in the system and use the schema’s objects in their developments.

After adding the connection, you can validate it and see if it has been successfully added.

In the Schema Access section, the administrator is able to add already existing flows from other systems/tools. This way you don’t have to recreate something that’s already available in your systems. In this section, you can add third-party tools and give certain users permissions so they can consume Space data in another reporting tool e.g. Power BI. This way Data Warehouse Cloud gives users the freedom to connect with any tool they like to use.

Finally, when creating/changing a Space you can decide whether it is valuable to keep an audit log for your Space. You can configure an audit log for reading and/or change operations and keep an eye on actions within your Space.

Blog by Youri Van Heester and Jeroen Coppens