Inventory Cube Loading - Questions....

Question

This is the process I intend to follow to load InfoCube 0IC_C03 and the questions therein. I have the "how to handle inventory scenarios" document, so please don't suggest I read that.
1A) Delete Set-up tables for application 03
1B) Lock Users
1C) Flush LBWQ and delete entries in RSA7 related to application 03 (optional - only if needed)
2A) Fill set up tables for 2LIS_03_BX. Do Full load into BW Inventory Cube with "generate initial status" in InfoPackage.
2B) Compress request with a marker update
3A) Fill set up table for 2LIS_03_BF with posting date 01/01/2006 to 12/31/2007 (Historical) and load to Inventory Cube with a full update
      QUESTION1: Does this need a marker update?
      QUESTION2: Is this a good strategy  - do movement documents that old get updated once posted?
      QUESTION3: Does the posting dates restriction depend on on how far back in history we want to go and look at stock values?
3B) Fill set up table for 2LIS_03_BF with posting date 01/01/2008 to 9/9/999  (Current) and load to Inventory Cube with a delta init with data transfer.
3C) Compress load in 3B without a marker update
4A) Fill set up table for 2LIS_03_UM  and load to Inventory Cube with a delta init
4B) Compress load in 4A without a marker update
      QUESTION4: How should we select the posting date criteria? Do I need to load from 01/01/2006 to 9/9/9999 since that's the range used for BF?
5) Start V3 update jobs via Job Control
6) Intiate subsequent delta loads from BF and UM and compress with marker update
QUESTION 5: Is the sequence of loading BX first, then BF and UM fixed? or can I do BF and then BX, UM
QUESTION 6: Any tips on minimizing downtime in this particular scenario? Please don't suggest generic steps. If you can suggest something specific to this situation, that'd be great.
I hope you can help with the 6 questions I asked above.
Regards,
Anita S.

Answer 1

Hi Anita,
Please find my answers below. I have worked enough with this scenario and hence feel that these would be worth considering for your scenario.
3A) Fill set up table for 2LIS_03_BF with posting date 01/01/2006 to 12/31/2007 (Historical) and load to Inventory Cube with a full update
QUESTION1: Does this need a marker update?
In this step we dont need marker update while compressing.
QUESTION2: Is this a good strategy - do movement documents that old get updated once posted?
I am able to get the question quite clearly.
QUESTION3: Does the posting dates restriction depend on on how far back in history we want to go and look at stock values?
Yes. We need to start from latest and then go back as backwards as we want to see the stock values. This holds true when we are using non cumulative key figures
4B) Compress load in 4A without a marker update
QUESTION4: How should we select the posting date criteria? Do I need to load from 01/01/2006 to 9/9/9999 since that's the range used for BF?
No need to provide any selection criteria for UM while loading to BW, as this would fetch the same data filled in setup of revaluations.Unless you are looking for only some history other wise you can fill that for company code list and bring the whole data to BW  by a single full load, as the data wont be that huge as compared to BF
6) Intiate subsequent delta loads from BF and UM and compress with marker update
QUESTION 5: Is the sequence of loading BX first, then BF and UM fixed? or can I do BF and then BX, UM
This is fixed in terms of compression with marker updates.
QUESTION 6: Any tips on minimizing downtime in this particular scenario? Please don't suggest generic steps. If you can suggest something specific to this situation, that'd be great.
*Yes. Most of time consuming activity is for filling BF history. Negligable for BX and UM comparitively.
Either try having multiple BF selective setup filling based on posting date based on available background processes or filli open months setup during downtime and rest history once you unlock the system for postings. The reason for this being we dont expect any posting for history*
Feel free to ask any further questions about this.
Naveen.A