Basic SAP HANA Interview Questions And

Answers

Q1. What do you understand by SAP HANA?

Ans: SAP HANA is an in-memory database.

 It is a combination of hardware and software made to process massive

real-time data using in-memory computing.
 It combines row-based and column-based database technologies.
 Data now resides in the main memory (RAM) and no longer on a hard disk.
 It is best suited for performing real-time analytics and developing and
deploying real-time applications.

Q2. Why choose SAP HANA?

Ans: SAP HANA is one of the fastest growing products in SAP history and is viewed
by the industry as a breakthrough solution for in-memory databases. SAP HANA
claims that it accelerates analytics and applications on a single, in-memory platform,
as well as combining databases, data processing, and application platform
capabilities.

SAP HANA is the next-generation business platform that brings together:

 Business transactions
 Advanced analytics
 Social media
 Mobile experience
 Collaborative business
 Design connections

Q3. Why is SAP HANA unique?

Ans. SAP HANA proves to be a unique tool for users in many ways. The reasons for
uniqueness are:
  SAP HANA is the first technology ever to be used for both OLTP and
OLAP application processing.
 It provides query processing environment for structured as well as
unstructured data. That is, for both relational database (tables) and less
structured (texts, graphs) respectively.
 The multi-core processing engines of the SAP HANA system process data
parallelly. The parallel processing is done within different columns of the
same database. Using a columnar database, the system optimizes data
structure and eases storing large data by compressing it.

Q4. Describe SAP HANA Database Architecture in brief?

Answer: The SAP HANA database is developed in C++ and runs on SUSE Linux
Enterpise Server. SAP HANA database consists of multiple servers and the most
important component is the Index Server. SAP HANA database consists of Index
Server, Name Server, Statistics Server, Preprocessor Server and XS Engine.

Index Server:

Index server is the main SAP HANA database component. It contains the actual data
stores and the engines for processing the data. The index server processes
incoming SQL or MDX statements in the context of authenticated sessions and
transactions.

Persistence Layer:The database persistence layer is responsible for durability and

atomicity of transactions. It ensures that the database can be restored to the most
recent committed state after a restart and that transactions are either completely
executed or completely undone.

Preprocessor Server:The index server uses the preprocessor server for analyzing
text data and extracting the information on which the text search capabilities are
based.

Name Server:The name server owns the information about the topology of SAP
HANA system. In a distributed system, the name server knows where the
components are running and which data is located on which server.
Statistic Server:The statistics server collects information about status, performance
and resource consumption from the other servers in the system.. The statistics
server also provides a history of measurement data for further analysis.

Session and Transaction Manager:The Transaction manager coordinates

database transactions, and keeps track of running and closed transactions. When a
transaction is committed or rolled back, the transaction manager informs the involved
storage engines about this event so they can execute necessary actions.

XS Engine:XS Engine is an optional component. Using XS Engine clients can

connect to SAP HANA database to fetch data via HTTP.

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Q5. What is the function of a Replication server?

Ans. The replication server is responsible for managing the replication of table data
as well as metadata from the data source.

Q6 Which platforms SAP HANA supports?

Ans. SAP HANA supports various platforms:

 Microsoft Windows Vista, 7, 8, Server 2008 (32-bit)

 Microsoft Windows 7, 8, 10, Server 2008 / R2 (64-bit)
 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 (64-bit)
 Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6 (64-bit)
 Mac OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Q7. What is the maximum number of tables in a Schema in SAP HANA?

Ans: The maximum number of tables in a schema in SAP HANA is 131,072.

Q8. What is the maximum number of columns in a table in SAP HANA?

Ans: The maximum number of columns in a HANA Table is 1,000.

Q9. What is SLT?

Ans: The full form of SLT is SAP Landscape Transformation which is nothing but a
trigger based replication. It

is the replication technology to pass the data from the source system to the target
system. Here the source

can be either SAP or non-SAP whereas the Target system is SAP HANA system
which contains HANA

Database.

Q10. Define Configuration in SLT?

Ans: The information required to create the connection between the source system,
SLT system, and the SAP HANA system is specified within the SLT system as a
Configuration. A new configuration in Configuration & Monitoring Dashboard
(transaction LTR) can hence be defined.

Advanced SAP Hana Interview Questions and

Answers

Q11. What are the different components in SAP HANA Architecture? What is
the use of Index server?

Ans:

 Index Server
 Name Server
 Statistical Server
 Preprocessor Server
 XS Engine
  SAP Host Agent
 LM structure
 SAP Solution Manager Diagnostic Agent

Index server contains engine to process data in HANA database. These data
engines are responsible to handle all SQL/MDX statement in HANA system. Index
server also contains Session and Transaction Manager which is responsible to
manage all running and completed transactions.

Q12. Explain the column and Row store in HANA?

Ans:HANA supports both type of data store in database. Row store is used when
you need to use Select statement and no aggregations are performed.

Column store is used to perform aggregations and HANA Modeling is supported only
on Column based tables.

Q13. What are the different types of permanent license keys in HANA system?

Ans: There are two types of permanent License keys for HANA system −

Unenforced − If unenforced license key is installed and consumption of HANA

system exceeds the license amount of memory, operation of SAP HANA is not
affected in this case.

Enforced − If Enforced license key is installed and consumption of HANA system

exceeds the license amount of memory, HANA system gets locked. If this situation
occurs, HANA system has to be restarted or a new license key should be requested
and installed.

Q14. Clarify how you can maintain a strategic distance from un-vital logging
data from being put away?

Ans:You can maintain a strategic distance from un-vital logging data from being put
away by delaying the replication by halting the blueprint related occupations.
Q15. Define Five-minute rule?

Ans:It is a rule of thumb for deciding whether a data item should be kept in memory,
or stored on disk and read back into memory when required. The rule is “randomly
accessed disk pages of a cache are re-used every 5 minutes”.

Q16.What are the security features present in SAP HANA?

Answer:
The following security related features are provided by SAP HANA :

 Authentication and SSO

 Authorization
 User and Role Management
 Encryption of data communication in Network
 Encryption of data in Persistence Layer

Q17. Define Stall?

Ans:

Waiting for data to be loaded from main memory into the CPU cache is called as
Stall.

Q18. What Is A Restricted User In Sap Hana System?

Answer :

Restricted users are those users who access HANA system with some applications
and they don’t have SQL privileges on HANA system. When these users are created
they don’t have any access initially.

Q19. What Are The Types Of Calculation View?

Answer :
SAP HANA Graphical Calculation View (Created by SAP HANA Studio Graphical
editor).

SAP HANA Script-based calculations Views (Created by SQL Scripts by SAP HANA
Studio).

Q20. Which Engine Is Used To Create Attribute View?

Answer :

Join engine is used to create attribute view

 This engine is used when we execute any Attribute View in HANA or run
native SQL on more than one table with join condition.
 If there are any calculations involved either in Attribute View or in native
SQL then Join Engine will use the Calculation Engine for calculations or
fetch the result.

Expert Level SAP HANA Interview Questions and

Answers

Q21. What are the different compression techniques in HANA?

Ans: Different types of compression techniques in available in SAP HANA are:

 Run-length encoding
 Cluster encoding
 Dictionary encoding
 Prefix encoding
 Indirect encoding
 Sparse encoding

Q22. Can user always upgrade SAP HANA directly, even if there is a significant
difference between the source and the target level?
Answer: We can upgrade SAP HANA from any source level to any target level
without an intermediate step. But there are some exceptions :

 Source level with SPS2 or below

 Exceptions mentioned explicitly in the related (Example: SAP HANA SPS
08 Database Revision 80)

Q23. What Is Sap Hana 1.5, 1.2 Or 1.0 Sp03?

Answer :

They are all the same thing, and 1.0 SP03 is touted to be the final name which
should go into Ramp Up (beta) in Q4 2011. This allows any SAP Net Weaver BW 7.3
Data Warehouse to be migrated into a HANA appliance. HANA 1.0 SP03 specifically
also accelerates BW calculations and planning, which means even more
performance gains can be attained.

Q24. What is SLT(SAP Landscape Transformation) in SAP HANA?

Ans: The full form of SLT is SAP Landscape Transformation which is nothing but a
trigger based replication. It is the replication technology to pass the data from the
source system to the target system. Here the source can be either SAP or non-SAP
whereas the Target system is SAP HANA system which contains HANA database.

Q25. What is the difference between Catalog and Content tab?

Ans:

 Catalog −This contains RDBMS objects like schemas, tables, views,

procedures, etc. You can open SQL editor and design database objects.

 Content −This is used to maintain design time repository. You can create
new packages and design Information views in HANA system. Various
views can be created under content tab to meet business requirement and
to perform analytical reports on the top of the Modeling views.

Q26. Define Latency in SAP HANA ?

Ans: Latency is the length of time to replicate data (a table entry) from the source
system to the target system

Q27. Which Information view in SAP HANA is used to implement star schema
queries?

Answer: Analytic View

Q28. What are Transformation rules?

Ans: Transformation rule is a rule specified in the Advanced Replication settings

transaction for source tables such a way that the data is transformed during the
replication process. For example one can specify rule to Convert fields, Fill empty
fields and Skip records.

Q29. What hardware is supported in SAP HANA right now?

Ans: All of the major vendors e.g. HP, IBM, Dell, are offering HANA now. Technically
HANA will run on any Intel x64 based system from your laptop through to the big 40-
core, 2TB RAM servers. It is however only supported on a small number of big rack-
mount servers like the Dell R910 and HP DL980.

Q30. How you can connect SAP HANA to Microsoft Excel?

Ans: MDX Provider is used to connect MS Excel to SAP HANA database system. It
provides driver to connect HANA system to Excel and is further used for data
modelling. You can use Microsoft Office Excel 2010/2013 for connectivity with HANA
for both 32 bit and 64 bit Windows.

Most Frequently asked SAP HANA Interview

Questions and Answers

Q31. What is the part of the transaction administrator and session?

Ans:

The exchange chief co-ordinates database exchanges and keeps a record of running
and shut transactions. When the exchange is moved back or submitted, the
exchange supervisor informs the included stockpiling motors about the occasion so
they can run essential activities.

Q32. Why will user choose SAP HANA?

Ans: SAP HANA as mentioned is a next-generation in-memory business platform.

Stated below are the few reasons why is SAP HANA chosen.

Real-Time – SAP HANA Provides Real-time Data provisioning and Real-time

Reporting of data.

Speed – SAP HANA provide a high-level speeds processing on massive data and
this is due to In-Memory Technology.

Open to Data/Source– SAP HANA can access various data sources without any
issues including the Structured and Un-Structured data from SAP or Non-SAP data
source.

Cloud- SAP HANA application and database can be easily deployed to the Cloud
environment.

Simplicity– SAP HANA is best known for its simplicity. It also reduces the efforts
behind the ETL process, Data Aggregation, Indexing, and Mapping.

Cost factor– SAP states that SAP HANA Software can reduce the total IT cost of
any company.

Choice option available– SAP HANA is supported by the different hardware vendor
and has a list of the Software provider, so based on the requirement, the user has
too many options to can choose the best one.

Q33. Explain SAP HANA Database and SAP HANA Platform.

Ans: SAP HANA Database – SAP HANA Database is a hybrid in-memory
database. This Database is known as the heart of SAP in-memory technology. As
mentioned in SAP HANA, Database tables are of two types

 Row Store
 Column Store

SAP HANA Platform – SAP HANA Platform is called the development platform with
in-memory data storage. This facility allows the users to perform the analysis on a
large volume of data that too in a real time. This Platform works as a platform for
development. It also provides infrastructure and tools for building a high-performance
application.

Q34. Why materialized aggregates are not required?

Answer: With a scanning speed of several gigabytes per millisecond, in-memory

column stores, make it possible to calculate aggregates on large amounts of data on
the fly with high performance. This is expected to eliminate the need for materialized
aggregates in many cases.

Q35. What is SLT?

Answer: SLT stands for SAP Landscape Transformation which is a trigger based
replication. SLT replication server is the replication technology to pass data from
source system to the target system. The source can be either SAP or non-SAP.
Target system is SAP HANA system which contains HANA database.

Q36. What is Configuration in SLT?

Answer: The information to create the connection between the source system, SLT
system, and the SAP HANA system is specified within the SLT system as a
Configuration. You can define a new configuration in Configuration & Monitoring
Dashboard (transaction LTR).

Q37. What is a Package in SAP HANA?

Ans: In SAP HANA, Package is used by developers to group together related
content objects in SAP HANA Studio. It only contains sub-packages and cannot
include repository objects. A package consists of both sun packages and repository
objects.

Q38. What is a Decision Table and explain its types?

Ans: In SAP HANA, a decision table is a tabular representation of the decision-
making process. It doesn’t portray static solutions or answers, and standardized the
logical process and allows developers to insert the values in both the actions and
conditions related to the decision.

Q39. How does SAP HANA support import from a local file?

Ans: Go to File → Import, You will see below option

This is used to import data from a flat file like .xls or.csv file. Click on Next → Choose
Target System → Define Import Properties.

Select Source file by browsing local system. It also gives an option if you want to
keep the header row. It also gives an option to create a new table under existing
Schema or if you want to import data from a file to an existing table.

Q40. What is a persistence layer?

Ans. The persistence layer is mainly responsible for processing data backups
periodically and storing it permanently. This is known as “Savepoints” and by default,
the savepoint frequency is in every 5 minutes. The data stores as log volumes and
data volumes.

Q41. What do you understand by SAP HANA In-Memory Computing Engine

IMCE?

Ans: In-Memory concept of SAP HANA means that all the data is stored in RAM
memory. A conventional database transfer data from memory in 5 milliseconds
however SAP HANA In-memory takes 5 nanoseconds to read data. SAP HANA uses
multicore CPU architecture and stores data in row and column based storage in
HANA database.