Best Practices for SAP BI using DB2 9 for z/OS - IBM Redbooks

6.1 Types of InfoCubes
Data targets are objects that store data physically. Some InfoCubes are data
targets. These are physical data stores.
Other InfoCubes are not data targets, because there is no data physically stored
in them. InfoCubes that are not data targets are VirtualProviders.
We look at these types in more detail.
6.1.1 Physical data stores (data targets)
6.1.2 VirtualProviders
InfoCubes that are physical data stores actually store the data physically and can
be either basic InfoCubes or real-time InfoCubes.
Basic InfoCubes Basic InfoCubes store data physically. There are two fact
tables per InfoCube: E and F. Data initially gets loaded
into the F table. During SAP compression, this will be
moved to the E- fact table.
Real-time InfoCubes These InfoCubes are both readable and writable,
supporting parallel write access. Real-time InfoCubes are
used for BI-BPS planning data. Standard InfoCubes can
be converted to real-time InfoCubes if so required.
Real-time InfoCubes store data physically in two ways: by
the transaction used for entering planning data and by
using the BI staging.
Converting a standard InfoCube to a real-time InfoCube is
used when the data in the standard InfoCube is no longer
required. When the data in the InfoCube is required we
then convert the standard InfoCube to a real-time
InfoCube by using the process to convert a standard
InfoCube to a real-time InfoCube.
The virtual providers are:
► RemoteCube
A RemoteCube is an InfoCube whose transaction data is not managed in the
business warehouse, but rather externally. Only the structure of the
RemoteCube is defined in BI. The data is read for reporting using a BAPI®
from another system.
76 Best Practices for SAP BI using DB2 9 for z/OS