Deployment of SAP mappings

Question

i have created numerous mapping in OWB to extract, transform and load data from SAP tables. this of course includes dimension and fact data.
i understand that they are ABAP mappings so ABAP source code and an SQL Loader control file will be created for each type of mapping.
my question is :-
1) do we have to manually deploy the ABAP program to the SAP server ?
2) if we want to schedule the data to load periodically, do we have to manually know how to define background jobs in SAP ?
3) do we schedule a periodic process at the OS level to manually FTP the data and control files over to our data warehouse "staging" area ?
4) and lastly, on the data warehouse environment, we again have to manually establish a period background process to load the data from the transferred flat files
i am concerned due to the number of dependencies involved in this whole process, than in event any errors occur, it might be difficult to diagnose and pinpoint the failure. does Oracle provide any sample scripts or guidelines to streamline this process ?
sorry for the long questions but i have a project to deliver and these concerns are making us contemplate on whether we should proceed further ...
looking forward to your replies. thanks !

Answer 1

Duncan,
See the answers below:
1) do we have to manually deploy the ABAP program to the SAP server ?If you generate ABAP you have to deploy it in the standard way by uploading it through the SAP UI. This is a one time activity.
2) if we want to schedule the data to load periodically, do we have to manually know how to define background jobs in SAP ? There are numerous ways to do this - either manually through SAP or by using system management tools. Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) is the preferred tool to do this kind of operation for Oracle Warehouse Builder (OWB). OEM is OWB's standard scheduler. OEM has a SAP Management Pack. Take a look at the following documents for this pack:
- installation guide: http://otn.oracle.com/docs/products/oem/doc_library/sap/sap_inst.pdf
- getting started: http://otn.oracle.com/docs/products/oem/doc_library/sap/sap_gs.pdf
3) do we schedule a periodic process at the OS level to manually FTP the data and control files over to our data warehouse "staging" area ?- this can be done by OEM (OWBs standard scheduler).
4) and lastly, on the data warehouse environment, we again have to manually establish a period background process to load the data from the transferred flat files - this can be done by OEM (OWBs standard scheduler).
i am concerned due to the number of dependencies involved in this whole process, than in event any errors occur, it might be difficult to diagnose and pinpoint the failure. does Oracle provide any sample scripts or guidelines to streamline this process ?- OWB's standard way of scheduling jobs and managing dependencies is to use OEM for scheduling (as already mentioned) and Oracle Workflow (OWF) for defining jobs flows (including dependencies). In other words, you define your jobs (with dependencies) in OWF and schedule them in OEM. OEM, OWF and OWB are tightly integrated and there is a whole chapter about this process and how to configure and run it in the OWB documentation. See chapter 10 in the user's guide (find the user's guide at http://otn.oracle.com/docs/products/warehouse/content.html ).
Regards:
Igor