How to Audit Your SAP BW/4HANA System

Auditing is the process of monitoring and recording specific user activities in the SAP BW/4HANA system. Through auditing, you can track who did what, when, and why in your data warehouse. Auditing can help you to ensure data security, compliance, and governance by providing transparency and accountability.

In this blog post, we will explain what auditing is, why it is important, and how to implement it in SAP BW/4HANA with examples.

What is Auditing?

Auditing is a concept that defines the collection and analysis of audit information in SAP BW/4HANA. Audit information is the data that describes the actions performed by users or applications in the system, such as creating, changing, or deleting objects, executing queries or reports, loading or transforming data, etc.

SAP BW/4HANA supports auditing through its audit concept. An audit is a set of conditions that defines what actions are recorded and how they are recorded in the system. An audit can be assigned to a user directly or indirectly through a role.

SAP BW/4HANA provides various types of audits, such as:

Object audits: These are audits that record the access to objects in SAP BW/4HANA, such as InfoObjects, InfoProviders, Data Flows, Transformations, Data Transfer Processes, Process Chains, etc. Object audits can be defined using audit objects or audit-relevant characteristics.
Analysis audits: These are audits that record the access to data in SAP BW/4HANA at row level, such as InfoCubes, DataStore Objects (advanced), CompositeProviders, Open ODS Views, etc. Analysis audits can be defined using audit-relevant characteristics or variables.
Reporting audits: These are audits that record the access to reporting functions in SAP BW/4HANA, such as queries, workbooks, Web templates, etc. Reporting audits can be defined using audit objects or audit-relevant characteristics.
Administration audits: These are audits that record the access to administration functions in SAP BW/4HANA, such as transport requests, archiving processes, monitoring tools, etc. Administration audits can be defined using audit objects.

To audit your SAP BW/4HANA system, you need to perform the following steps:

Define your audits and conditions: You need to identify the actions and events that you want to record and analyze in your system. You can use the audits delivered by SAP or create your own custom audits. You can use Audit Maintenance (transaction RSAUDITC) to create and maintain your audits and assign conditions to them.
Assign your audits to users or roles: You need to assign your audits to your users or roles according to their activities and responsibilities. You can use User Maintenance (transaction SU01) or Central User Administration (transaction SCUA) to create and maintain your users and assign roles to them. You can also use Role Maintenance (transaction PFCG) to create and maintain your roles and assign audits to them.
Collect and analyze your audit information: You need to collect and analyze your audit information to generate meaningful reports and insights. You can use Audit Information System (transaction RSAUDITM) to collect and display your audit information. You can also use Audit Reporting (transaction RSAUDITR) to create and execute predefined or custom reports based on your audit information.

Examples of Auditing in SAP BW/4HANA

Here are some examples of how you can use auditing in SAP BW/4HANA:

Data Security: You can use auditing to protect the confidentiality and integrity of your data in SAP BW/4HANA. You can create audits for different types of data access, such as read-only, read-write, or delete access. You can also create audits for different types of data sensitivity, such as personal data, financial data, health data, or business data. For example, you can use analysis audits to restrict the access to personal data based on the user’s role and the data’s sensitivity.
Data Compliance: You can use auditing to comply with data protection laws and regulations in SAP BW/4HANA. You can create audits for different types of data processing activities, such as collection, storage, transfer, or deletion of data. You can also create audits for different types of data protection requirements, such as consent, purpose limitation, data minimization , or data retention. For example, you can use administration audits to record the deletion of data after a certain period of time.

Conclusion
Auditing is a method of monitoring and recording specific user activities in SAP BW/4HANA. Auditing can help you to ensure data security, compliance, and governance by providing transparency and accountability.

Data Governance: You can use auditing to improve the quality and consistency of your data in SAP BW/4HANA. You can create audits for different types of data management activities, such as loading, transforming, cleansing, or enriching data. You can also create audits for different types of data quality dimensions, such as accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or relevance. For example, you can use object audits to track the changes made to data models or data flows.

You can audit your SAP BW/4HANA system by defining your audits and conditions, assigning your audits to users or roles, and collecting and analyzing your audit information. You can use auditing to perform various types of data protection and management in SAP BW/4HANA, such as data security, data compliance, or data governance.

We hope this blog post has given you some insights and ideas on how to audit your SAP BW/4HANA system with examples. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to leave a comment below.

Disclaimer : This content is generated by AI.