Now go check your RSDD_HDB logs. You’ll probably find an index that hasn’t been rebuilt since 2018.
The deep insight? The BIA INDEX (the legacy accelerator) was dead. In its place, HANA calculated views. But if you used standard MultiProviders or Infocubes (yes, people still used Infocubes in 7.4), you were forcing HANA to emulate a bitmap index. sap bw 7.4 practical guide pdf 28
If you see Column Search taking longer than Join Processing , you have a classic 7.4 problem: Your HANA model is emulating a row-store. Now go check your RSDD_HDB logs
Never trust the GUI. Trust M_MVC_TABLES . If the RECORD count in HANA doesn't match the ROWS in SE16 for your fact table, you are already in performance hell. The "Transparent Filter" Lie Another gem likely buried around page 28 of that PDF is the revelation about SID (Surrogate ID) navigation . The BIA INDEX (the legacy accelerator) was dead
But here is the practical kicker that most blogs missed: Even after conversion, your F table still contained REQUEST_GUID entries for every single data load. That’s right—every DTP request left a forensic trail inside the fact table.
The fix? Rebuild your CompositeProvider as a HANA Calculation View directly in the HANA Studio (or XSA). Then consume it in BW via an External View.
Let’s crack open what that page really meant—and why its lessons are more critical today than ever. BW 7.4 was billed as "HANA-powered." But if you migrated an old system, you quickly realized that simply flipping the switch to "HANA-optimized" didn't fix everything. The practical guide on page 28 likely pointed to a single, brutal truth: Your InfoProviders were still physically optimized for row-based storage.