How to Use SLT for Data Extraction into SAP HANA

SAP HANA is a powerful in-memory database that can handle massive amounts of data and perform complex analytics in real time. But how can you get the data from your SAP or non-SAP source systems into SAP HANA? One of the options is to use SLT (SAP Landscape Transformation Replication Server), an ETL tool that allows you to load and replicate data in real time or on a schedule.

In this blog post, we will explain what SLT is, how it works, and how you can use it to extract data from your source systems into SAP HANA. We will also share some tips and best practices for optimizing your SLT performance and data quality.

What is SLT?

SLT is a replication software that can replicate data between different systems, either between SAP systems or certain third-party databases. It was initially based on SAP NetWeaver and now can also be deployed on the S/4HANA foundation.

SLT uses a trigger-based replication approach to pass data from the source system to the target system. This means that whenever a change occurs in the source system, a trigger is activated and the change is recorded in a logging table. Then, a read engine in the source system reads the changes from the logging table and sends them to the SLT server. The SLT server transforms the data into the SAP HANA format and loads it into the target system.

SLT has several benefits, such as:

It allows real-time or scheduled data replication.
It can handle cluster and pool tables.
It supports automatic non-Unicode and Unicode conversion during load/replication.
It is fully integrated with SAP HANA Studio.
It has table setting and transformation capabilities.
It has monitoring capabilities with SAP Solution Manager.

How to Use SLT for Data Extraction into SAP HANA?

To use SLT for data extraction into SAP HANA, you need to have your SLT system (either a standalone DMIS system or a SLT version on a SAP S/4HANA system) and a SAP HANA system in which the SLT system is already connected. If you need to connect your SLT system to your SAP HANA system, you can follow the steps in this SAP Note.

Once you have your SLT and SAP HANA systems ready, you can follow these steps to create a configuration and start replicating data:

Log in to your SLT server and call transaction LTR from SAP SLT replication server. A web-dynpro pop-up screen will appear for login to SAP SLT server. Enter client / user id / password and click on logon tab.
A pop-up screen for configuration will appear. Click on New button for the new configuration.
Enter configuration name and description. Select SAP System or Non-SAP System as the source system. Enter RFC connection or DB connection for source system. Enter username / password / host name and instance number. Enter job options detail – number of data transfer jobs and number of calculation jobs. Select replication option as real time or schedule time. Once all the settings are maintained click on OK to create a new schema in SLT.
After creating the configuration, you can see it in the list of configurations. Select the configuration and click on Replicate button to start replicating tables from source system to target system.
A pop-up screen for table selection will appear. You can enter the table name manually or use F4 help to select tables from source system. You can also specify filters to only replicate a subset of data with certain characteristics, such as data related to one certain company. You can filter data by using one of these three methods: rule-based filtering, transformation filtering, or dynamic filtering. Once you have selected the tables and filters, click on OK to start the replication process.
You can monitor the replication status and performance by using transaction LTRC or LTRS from SLT server. You can also use SAP HANA Studio to view the replicated tables and data in SAP HANA system.

Tips and Best Practices for SLT

Here are some tips and best practices for using SLT for data extraction into SAP HANA:

Before replicating data, make sure that your source system and target system have compatible data types and structures. You can use transaction DMC_MT_TABLE_CONSISTENCY from SLT server to check the consistency of table definitions between source and target systems.
To improve the performance of SLT, you can increase the number of data transfer jobs and calculation jobs according to your system resources and network bandwidth. You can also use parallelization techniques such as mass transfer ID or partitioning to distribute the load among multiple jobs.
To ensure the data quality and integrity of SLT, you can use transaction DMC_MT_STATUS from SLT server to check the replication status and error messages. You can also use transaction DMC_MT_DATA_COMPARE from SLT server to compare the data between source and target systems.
To avoid unnecessary replication of data, you can use filters to only replicate the data that you need for your SAP HANA scenarios. You can also use transaction DMC_MT_DELETE_TABLES from SLT server to delete the tables that you no longer need from target system.

Conclusion

SLT is an effective, easy to use, low maintenance tool to tap into SAP data and replicate it to SAP HANA for fast analytics and data processing. By using SLT, you can leverage the power of SAP HANA to gain insights from your data in real time or on a schedule.

We hope this blog post has helped you understand how to use SLT for data extraction into SAP HANA. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to leave a comment below.

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