Tableau on SAP HANA: Performance Tracing & Workload Analysis
The purpose of this document is to give an overview of the performance tracing and monitoring capabilities in SAP HANA and Tableau to identify performance bottlenecks. This understanding is a prerequisite for identifying suitable performance optimization measures.
In this paper, you’ll find step-by-step instructions and recommendations to:
- Analyze the performance of Tableau dashboards on SAP HANA
- Understand database execution steps and runtime impacts
- Establish long-term performance monitoring
- Identify opportunities to optimize queries and dashboards
Find opportunities to improve Tableau dashboard performance
SAP HANA is a widely-used data environment for Tableau customers. To avoid bottlenecks during high-load situations, it is important to be able to analyze and identify the source of expensive (CPU runtime and memory consumption) and dominant (runtime multiplied by execution count) queries. SAP HANA can be configured to collect these statistics and Tableau can connect to them for analysis.
Performance and stability are critical for the successful implementation of Tableau dashboards on SAP HANA live data sources. To achieve the best possible performance, it is important to analyze the dashboard runtime during the design process and continuously monitor the system for expensive queries thereafter.
Topics and tools covered in this paper include:
- How to use Tableau’s powerful analytical capabilities to analyze Expensive Statements recorded in SAP HANA
- When and how to use SAP HANA Expensive Statements Trace, SQL Trace, SQL Plan Cache, and SAP HANA Memory Tracking with Tableau
- Further analyzing long-running or memory-intensive SQL statements with SAP HANA Plan Explanation and SAP HANA Plan Visualizer
- Additional resources for designing efficient workbooks with best practices for dashboard performance
Prerequisites for performance tracing and workload analysis
In order to activate the SAP HANA traces mentioned in this document, sufficient authorizations or the help of an SAP HANA admin are required. Additionally, a Tableau Creator (e.g. analyst or dashboard designer) will be required for collecting the front-end runtimes measured by Tableau. When combined, these Tableau and SAP HANA traces provide the full end-to-end runtime distribution. These traces provide information needed to identify performance bottlenecks which are great candidates for performance optimizations.
Ready to get started? Download the whitepaper to learn more.
