Migration of Queries and Work Books from BW 3.x to BI 7

Introduction

This Blog Explains step by step procedure for Migration of Queries and Work Books from BW 3.x to BI 7.0 and also explains the lessons learned while migrating reports/work books from bw 3.x to BI 7.This Blog is useful for consultants who are going to work on migration of reports and work books Projects in BW.

Pre-requisites for Migration

Install the new SAP GUI release 7.10 with Latest Patch level.

Make sure that all the Migration team should have the same version of GUI and Excel.

After new GUI installation, make sure that you should have both 3.x BEX options and 2004s BEX options are available.

Migration Process:

Migration will happen when the Existing 3.x objects (Queries and Workbooks) are opened in the new tools (Using BI 7 Bex Options).

Query Migration:

Open the Existing Query in change mode with the new 2004s BEX Query Designer and Save the Query.

Once you save the Query it will be automatically migrated.

Query Migration Procedure:

Before Migration Check the Table RSZCOMPDIR:

Enter your Query Technical Name as input to the field COMPID in the table RSZCOMPDIR and execute.

Field VERSION in the Table RSZCOMPDIR should have the value below 100, It means Query is in 3.x version…

If it is Greater Than 100 means, it is already Migrated. Here it is ‘15’, means query is not yet migrated

Open the existing query using the BI7 Query Designer and Save it. It will be automatically Migrated.

Now you can check your RSZCOMPDIR table will have a value which is more than 100 for the field VERSION…Here it is ‘101’, means it is Migrated.

Note: Once a Query is migrated to BI7, system will not allow editing the Query using 3.x Query Designer. However, it will allow execution of the Query in 3.x.

Workbook Migration:

Open the Existing 3.x Workbook by using the 2004s BEX analyzer and Save the Work Book. Once you save the Work Book, it will be automatically migrated.

Standard Workbooks are automatically upgraded.

Workbooks with customer coding (If there are any macros exists) will need manual adoption.

Work Book Migration Procedure:

Open the existing Workbook from BI 7 Bex Analyzer and Save it…It will be automatically Migrated.

Note: Should delete data in the Work Book before Save it

Once a Workbook is Migrated, we will not be able to open it using the 3.x version.

Lessons Learned from this Project:

Front end must be in the same version for all the systems while Migrating Queries and Work Books.

Especially when we are working on Global Standard Model i.e. onsite and offshore model, need to be very careful in GUI versions of all the systems in the project.

We had couple of issues, due to mismatches of front end versions.

Onsite team was in SAP GUI 710 with Patch Level 4 and offshore team was in same GUI version, But Patch Level 8.Due to this variation in the front end patch levels we got the following issues.

Issue: Text elements were not showing up properly in the workbooks after migration.

Solution: This is a program Error in Patch Level 17. We rectified this problem by applying OSS note 1143771.

It was fine till the patch level 16.there is some problem in Patch level 17; again it is fine with Patch Level 18.

Issue: Text Elements were showing as blank in the Migrated Work Books.

Solution: Updated the GUI and Excel versions in all the work stations of the team

Issue:

As part of the project we have changed some existing work books in 3.x by embedding an image in the work book. We were copying the Image from an existing work book and pasting it into the target work book, which we shouldn't do, rather we should insert the image as object into the target work book. Due to this we were getting the below Informative message.

‘Work Book contains links to other data sources, you want to Update or don't update?'

Solution: Changed Excel features--àEdit in the Menu bar-àLinks-àStartup Prompt-àDon't display the alert and don't update automatic links (second radio button)..selected this radio button and saved the work book