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Database Architecture.... Modeling Facts and Dimensions in HANA

Former Member
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I am working on a small reporting warehouse and have received some conflicting guidance from various resources.

I'll start this off simple and maybe this will progress into a more in depth discussion.

In a traditional Data Warehouse, I model things in Star Schemas using Facts and Dimensions. Occasionally, the Star Schema will evolve into a Snowflake or a more complex schema using bridge tables, etc...

Now that I am looking to create this small warehouse in HANA, (Proof of concept / need to  get something into HANA) I am being told that Fact and Dimension tables can be collapsed into single tables because of columnar storage and the great advantages that it provides. I am willing to learn new ways of doing things, and I realize HANA is a game changer in a lot of ways. I am just not convinced that traditional Data Warehouse modeling techniques need to be thrown out the window just because HANA can handle it.

Can anyone give me valid reasons why Facts and Dimensions should be collapsed in HANA or on the flip side, is this advice coming out of left field and I need to push back on it?

Thanks in advance...

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Former Member
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Hi Kenny,

I'd highly recommend you spend a good chunk of time with the SAP HANA Modeling Guide. This should help give you a better picture of how to go about modeling data in HANA, and you'll learn much more than someone here simply chiming in "model it with an Analytic View".

No simple answer - i.e. what's your source data (SAP or non-SAP), are you doing any ETL or are you maintaining source structures via SLT, is BW on HANA an option..... (these are rhetorical questions - I don't expect answers )

Also, as your internal to SAP, definitely dig around the forums and resources there - you could spend years digging through all the material available.