LO Extraction – Part 2 Database

Update Logic

Applies to:
SAP BI, NW2004s Business Intelligence, ABAP, BI For more information, visit the EDW homepage.

Summary
This article explains about LO extraction logic, architecture and background tables involved.
Author : P. Renjith Kumar
Company : SAP Labs India
Created on : 1 January 2010

Author Bio

P Renjith Kumar is presently working in SAP Labs India Pvt Ltd and specializes in
Extraction and Modeling areas of BI. Basically as an ABAP consultant, he has extensive
cross functional experience and has been with end to end SAP ERP and BI
implementation projects across manufacturing domain.

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 LO Extraction – Part 2 Database Update Logic

Table of Contents
Prerequisite................................................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 3
The update process ...................................................................................................................................... 3
V1 and V2 Update Modules........................................................................................................................... 4
Update Request ............................................................................................................................................ 5
Transactions and Logical Units of Work......................................................................................................... 6
LUW: Logical Unit of Work: ........................................................................................................................... 7
DB LUW........................................................................................................................................................ 7
SAP LUW ..................................................................................................................................................... 8
The Update Mechanism: ............................................................................................................................... 8
How to check update status .......................................................................................................................... 8
Update status.............................................................................................................................................. 12
Related Content .......................................................................................................................................... 13
Copyright .................................................................................................................................................... 14

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 LO Extraction – Part 2 Database Update Logic

Prerequisite
Once you are done with the first part of the article you can understand this article clearly. You can find the
first part here.
http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/1034bcbe-b459-2d10-2a89-ecdeb4e53ff1

Introduction
This part deals with the LO extraction logic, its architecture, working mechanism and background tables and
reports involved.

The update process

When you do some transaction like creating/changing sales order, purchase order and press save what
happens? It is either saved into database or some error occurs. We will see how this happen.
The update system is used to lighten the workload of the SAP transactions when time-consuming changes
are made to the database. The changes are carried out asynchronously  usually with short delays in
between  by special update work processes.
At the end of a transaction COMMIT WORK and the update task are called; the dialog part of the SAP
transaction is closed, and the update part of the SAP logical unit of work (LUW) is started. The following
graphic illustrates the necessary actions and the sequence in which they execute the different workprocess

.
After the transaction has been processed, the dialog process completes the VBHDR entry (the update
header of the update request) and searches an update server for the V1 update

The update server distributes the tasks to an update work process. This processes the V1 modules of the
update request, triggers a COMMIT to the database, and releases the SAP locks on the update request The
work process then searches for an update server for the V2 update, providing V2 update modules exist.

A V2 update server then passes this onto a V2 work process, which processes the V2 modules and triggers
a COMMIT to the database.

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 LO Extraction – Part 2 Database Update Logic

Processing the V1 modules involves transferring the contents of the update tables VBMOD and VBDATA to
the application tables of the database. The changes are not actually made to the tables in the database until
the database LUW in which this takes place is completed. The SAP locks are released and, if V2 update
modules exist, the V2 update is started. This is similar to the V1 update with the exception that there are no
locks that have to released and no search for a process for further processing.
Now we need to see about V1 and V2 updates in detail

V1 and V2 Update Modules

An update is divided into different modules. Each module corresponds to an update function module.

There are two types of module.

The SAP System makes a distinction between primary, time-critical (V1) and secondary, non-time-critical
(V2) update modules. The system also supports collective runs for function modules that are used on a
regular basis.

This distinction allows the system to process critical database changes before less critical changes.

 V1 modules describe critical or primary changes; these affect objects that have a controlling
function in the SAP System, for example order creation or changes to material stock.
 V2 modules describe less critical secondary changes. These are pure statistical updates, for
example, such as result calculations.

The V1 modules are processed consecutively in a single update work process on the same application
server. This means that they belong to the same database LUW and can be reversed. Furthermore, V1
updates are carried out under the SAP locks of the transaction that creates the update. This ensures that the
data remains consistent; simultaneous changes to the objects to be updated are not possible.

All V2 updates are carried out in a separate LUW and not under the locks of the transaction that creates
them. If your SAP System contains a work process for V2 updates, these are only carried out in this work
process. If this is not the case, the V2 components are processed by a V1 update process.

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 LO Extraction – Part 2 Database Update Logic

All V1 modules of an update must be processed before the V2 modules.

Now we see about update request

Update Request

An update request or update record describes the data changes defined in an SAP LUW, which are carried
out either in full or not at all (in a database LUW). (This only applies to V1 updates. V2 updates are triggered
once the V1 update has been completed, and therefore take place in a separate database LUW.)

Structure of update record

An update request comprises an update header, V1 modules (or components), V2 modules and a collective
run.

An update module corresponds to a function module, and contains the update data and, in certain cases,
error information, which is generated if the update is canceled.

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 LO Extraction – Part 2 Database Update Logic

The following update tables in the database contain the following information:

Update Table Contents/Description

VBHDR Update headers (one per update record)

VBMOD Update modules (one per function module), n V1 modules and m

V2 modules per update request.

VBDATA Data which is transferred to the modules (variables, structures,

internal tables)

VBERROR Error information which is generated if an update is canceled

Now we need to know about LUW.

Transactions and Logical Units of Work

In everyday language, a transaction is a sequence of actions that logically belong together in a business
sense and those either procure or process data. It covers a self-contained procedure, for example,
generating a list of customers, creating a flight booking, or sending reminders to customers. From the user’s
viewpoint, it forms a logical unit.

The completeness and correctness of data must be assured within this unit. In the middle of a transaction,
the data will usually be inconsistent. For example, when you transfer an amount in financial accounting, this
must first be deducted from one account before being credited to another. In between the two postings, the
data is inconsistent, since the amount that you are posting does not exist in either account. It is essential for
application programmers to know that their data is consistent at the end of the transaction. If an error occurs,
it must be possible to undo the changes made within a logical process.

In the R/3 System, there are three terms frequently used in this context:

Database Logical Unit of Work (DB LUW)

A database LUW is the mechanism used by the database to ensure that its data is always consistent.

SAP LUW

An SAP LUW is a logical unit consisting of dialog steps, whose changes are written to the database in a
single database LUW.

SAP Transaction

An SAP transaction is an application program that you start using a transaction code. It may contain one or
more SAP LUWs.

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 LO Extraction – Part 2 Database Update Logic

LUW: Logical Unit of Work:

A Logical Unit of Work (LUW or database transaction) is an inseparable sequence of database operations
which must be executed either in its entirety or not at all. For the database system, it thus constitutes a unit.
LUWs help to guarantee database integrity. When an LUW has been successfully concluded, the database
is once again in a correct state. If, however, an error occurs within an LUW, all database changes made
since the beginning of the LUW are canceled and the database is then in the same state as before the LUW
started.
An LUW ends
1. When the database changes have been confirmed (database commit) or
2. When the database changes have been canceled (database rollback)
An LUW begins
1. Each time you start a transaction
2. When the database changes of the previous LUW have been confirmed (database commit)
3. When the database changes of the previous LUW have been cancelled (database rollback)

DB LUW
From the point of view of database programming, a database LUW is an inseparable sequence of database
operations that ends with a database commit. The database LUW is either fully executed by the database
system or not at all. Once a database LUW has been successfully executed, the database will be in a
consistent state. If an error occurs within a database LUW, all of the database changes since the beginning
of the database LUW are reversed. This leaves the database in the state it was in before the transaction
started.

The database changes that occur within a database LUW are not actually written to the database until after
the database commit. Until this happens, you can use a database rollback to reverse the changes. In the R/3
System, database commits and rollbacks can be triggered either implicitly or using explicit commands.

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 LO Extraction – Part 2 Database Update Logic

SAP LUW
The Open SQL statements INSERT, UPDATE, MODIFY, and DELETE allow you to program database
changes that extend over several dialog steps. Even if you have not explicitly programmed a database
commit, the implicit database commit that occurs after a screen has been processed concludes the database
LUW. The following diagram shows the individual database LUWs in a typical screen sequence:

Note
A logical unit consisting of dialog steps, whose changes are written to the database in a single database LUW is called
an SAP LUW. Unlike a database LUW, an SAP LUW can span several dialog steps, and be executed using a
series of different work processes. If an SAP LUW contains database changes, you should either write all of them
or none at all to the database. To ensure that this happens, you must include a database commit when your
transaction has ended successfully, and a database rollback in case the program detects an error.

An example for V1 and V2 update

The Update Mechanism:

V1 - Synchronous update
V2 - Asynchronous update
V3 - Batch asynchronous update
If you create/change a sales order (VA01/VA02), when you press 'SAVE' and see a success message (Sales
Order.... created/ changed..), the update to underlying tables VBAK/VBAP has happened (before you saw
the message). This update was executed in the V1 work process.
There are some statistics collecting tables in the system which can capture data for reporting. For example,
LIS table S*** stores sales data (it is the same data as VBAK/VBAP stored redundantly, but in a different
structure to optimize reporting).Now, these tables are updated with the transaction you just posted, in a V2
process. Depending on system load, this may happen a few seconds later (after you saw the success
message). You can see V1/V2/V3 queues in SM12 or SM13.
V3 is specifically for BW extraction. The update LUW for these is sent to V3 but is not executed immediately.
You have to schedule a job (LBWE definitions) to process these. This is again to optimize performance. V2
and V3 are separated from V1 as these are not as real-time critical (updating statistical data). If all these
updates were put together in one LUW, system performance (concurrency, locking etc) would be impacted.
We will see V3 in the later part.

How to check update status

1. Start Update System Administration. To do this, choose Tools > Administration > Monitor
> Update. Alternatively enter transaction code SM13.
2. Check if the update is active. One of the following messages is output at the bottom of the
initial screen of the Update System:

o Update is active
o Update is deactivated

Make sure that you see “Update is active”

Here is an example to see, this is a screen shot from SM13 transaction

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 LO Extraction – Part 2 Database Update Logic

Update management (SM13) is used for the following:

 Display update requests

 Analyze problems pertaining to the update
 Test and debug canceled update requests
 Display and reset the status of update requests
 Display statistics on updates

Now we will see how to find the cancelled update

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 LO Extraction – Part 2 Database Update Logic

Here if you double click on first one you will see the detailed info.

Get the update key from here.

Update key: 45E79BDF6891F199BB140019BBCCEC70

Now as we know we can check the status of update in the update header table, we will check that
SE11: VBHDR

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 LO Extraction – Part 2 Database Update Logic

Similarly you can find the records that are yet to be updated

Like this you can find the V1 executed, V2 executed etc.

Now we will see the detailed explanation for the update status.

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 LO Extraction – Part 2 Database Update Logic

Update status

Status Phase

initial The update request has been created, but has not yet been completely
processed. (This status applies from the moment the dialog work
process transfers the update request to the update work process to the
COMMIT in the update work process).

Error An error occurred in the init phase, which prevents the update from
being carried out.

Error (no The update request has been canceled and the update cannot be
retry) repeated.

V1 processed The init phase has been successfully completed, and the V2
modules are being passed on for further processing. If no V2 modules
exist, this update request no longer appears in the overview.

V2 processed The V2 modules have also been processed correctly, but there is still a
collective run (can be regarded as V3) to be carried out.

If there is no collective processing to be carried out, this update

request no longer appears in the overview.

processed If the parameter rdisp/vb_delete_after_execution is set to 2 - in other

words, if automatic deletion is deactivated - an update that has been
successfully completed has the status ok. If automatic deletion is
activated (default), the update record no longer appears in the
overview.

to delete This update request has been marked for deletion.

Enqueues The SAP locks belonging to this update request were manually deleted
deleted (SM12).

Like this you can identify the status of the update records.
In my next part I will explain about the LO extractors and their working logic…..

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 LO Extraction – Part 2 Database Update Logic

Related Content
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For more information, visit the EDW homepage

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 LO Extraction – Part 2 Database Update Logic

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