Deprecated feature API from component REPOSITORY

[mbortolon]

Hello experts

In a fresh installation(only "server") of SAP HANA DB 2.0 SPS03(036) my tenants and the systemdb sometimes show this warning:

For this warning there is the note: 2465027 - Deprecation of SAP HANA extended application services, classic model and SAP HANA Repository
(starting from the father note: 2425002 - SAP HANA 2.0: Deprecations reported by the HANA statistics server)

but I cannot understand why I have to do these activities in a fresh system, it not an upgrade from HANA 1.0!

Thanks,
Marco

[dennispadia · Accepted solution]

Hello Marco,

As mentioned in the SAP Note 2425002 - SAP HANA 2.0: Deprecation reported by the HANA statistics server, there are several features that are been deprecated. Deprecation is the first step where SAP provide time to user to either move that functionality or do no use it as this feature is going to be decommissioned in future SPS.

If you see, API feature of REPOSITORY component is deprecated from HANA 2.0 SP 01. So from where this API feature is been called or used in the system? If you run query you will get the LAST_TIMESTAMP when this feature was been called.

SELECT * FROM M_FEATURE_USAGE WHERE IS_DEPRECATED='TRUE'

If you scroll to right of the result, you will get STATEMENT_ID and STATEMENT_HASH, so you can search SQL Plan Cache with this STATEMENT_HASH. If you are not able to find the STATEMENT_HASH, kindly put the filter and check the query that ran on LAST_TIMESTAMP value. You will find that every time there is an increase in CALL_COUNT of API feature when it calls below procedure.

call SYS.REPOSITORY_REST (?,?)

Authorization to call this procedure is inside CONTENT_ADMIN and MODELING role which is the default role you get when a SYSTEM user is created during installation. If you remove above roles, then you won't be able to see anything under Content section.

So, REPOSITORY_REST is called every time you try to check content as this procedure validate authorization of user. So, I feel this procedure is part of API feature for REPOSITORY component.

If you see, I have CALL_COUNT for M_TENANTS feature which is again deprecated as per SAP Note. I got this alert as I manually ran query “SELECT * FROM M_TENANTS” from my console. So when M_TENANT table has been called, it increases the CALL_COUNT in M_FEATURE_USAGE

I think SAP has set an alert, monitoring M_FEATURE_USAGE table and alert users that the deprecated feature has been used, so kindly take appropriate action. So if you try to use any of the deprecated feature it will give you alert. But frequency of this alert depends on how often you call that deprecated feature. M_TENANT alert I got only once as I manually called that table.

So if you use any of the IS_DEPRECATED=TRUE feature, you will get an alert. Either you can stop this alert if you are confident that you don't use any feature mentioned in SAP Note 2425002 which is deprecated.

NOTE: This is my analysis and I’m not SAP employee. You can raise incident and confirm.

Regards,

Dennis Padia

[dennispadia]

Hello Marco,

Yes you are right it happens only from HANA Studio as from cockpit you cannot access catalog folder which calls the procedure call SYS.REPOSITORY_REST (?,?) to check authorization for content folder. As this alert is set to run once a day, if anyone from team has accessed catalog, the call count will gradually increase and this alert will stay.

Below is my observation, you can try at your side as well. Perform this in HANA Database > 2.0 SPS 03

Open SQL Plan > filter using "repository". Note call SYS.REPOSITORY_REST (?,?) last execution time. It you find no row, then proceed with next step

Also execute below query and note down the call_count and last_timestamp

Now expand "content" folder in HANA studio.

Now again go back to SQL plan cache or refresh if you have already have the screen. The time stamp is now changed.

Also check below query, the call count is now increased.

This is just my observation. There might be other cases as well where it calls API feature which I'm still exploring.

Regards,

Dennis

[mbortolon]

Thanks!

This is clear but how can I avoid this problem? I've 2 SYSTEMDB and 8 tenants, it means 10 emails at day plus the others
PS: I can use the CATALOG also from HANA Cockpit

[dennispadia]

Hello Marco,

CATALOG usage from HANA cockpit doesn't call the procedure REPOSITORY_REST to check authorization. Instead it uses some other method for authorization check. I can suggest two solution but I'm not from SAP so this words are basically my take on this issue.

1) You can disable this alert as you have mentioned that you have installed new HANA database. So you won't be using any old functionality which you want to be alerted for. I feel SAP has incorporated this alert so user can take necessary action before they can actually decomission functionality.

2) Start using HANA Cockpit as all new advancement is coming in cockpit only and chances are HANA studio will be going out of support in near future

Regards,

Dennis.

[mbortolon]

Hello Denis

1) Yeah, a former colleague that works in a big company have done this because they experience the same problem

2) But a colleague that works on BI told me that some functions are not available on HANA Cockpit (Calculation View handling, etc...)

Thanks,
Marco

[tobias_ptz]

Hi Dennis,

I'm getting exactly the same messages, going through your steps. Plus some I don't know where they came from (Repository API).

Just for my understanding, do you ignore these error messages, because they are coming during "normal" Studio usage?

BR

Tobias

[dennispadia]

Hello tobias.ptz ,

This alerts starts coming from HANA 2.0 SPS 03 as the feature API got deprecated from that very version and in future it will be decommissioned. I'm ignoring this alert as we don't have any native development on classic HANA repository which uses this feature. (future development will be on HDI). If it's you fresh installation and you don't perform development on classic HANA repository you can ignore this alert. But if you want to find exact workaround, you can raise message to SAP.

Regards,

Dennis

[mbortolon]

Sorry for been late

I'm pretty sure(99.9%) that this error is due the access to SYSTEMDB/tenants with SAP HANA STUDIO. If I use only HANA COCKPIT I haven't this message. Every time I double-click on a tenant in my HANA DB the next deprecated functions check gives me the error!

[HakanHaslaman]

Please open a support incident, because this looks to be a different issues as known and needs to be deeper investigated.

[HakanHaslaman]

Yes, the most issues are seen in post upgrade and not new installation.
However, the feature API from component REPOSITORY is deprecated. It is part of XS classic model and we suggest you to migrate it to XS advanced model as mentioned in Note 2465027

The feature still works in your current database revision but will be disabled in a future release. This alert serves as a reminder for the migration to XS advanced model.

[mbortolon]

Hello Hakan
The problem is that is a fresh installation and we are not using XS at all. I've already run the queries of the note 2465027 but the result is null, so I cannot understand what I've to migrate 😞

Marco