SAP BODS Interview Questions and answers

Question.1  What is the use of BusinessObjects Data Services?
Answer:  BusinessObjects Data Services provides a graphical interface that allows you to easily create jobs that extract data from heterogeneous sources, transform that data to meet the business requirements of your organization, and load the data into a single location.

Question.2  Define Data Services components.
Answer: Data Services includes the following standard components:

  •     Designer
  •     Repository
  •     Job Server
  •     Engines
  •     Access Server
  •     Adapters
  •     Real-time Services
  •     Address Server
  •     Cleansing Packages, Dictionaries, and Directories
  •     Management Console

Question.3  What are the steps included in Data integration process?

  •     Stage data in an operational datastore, data warehouse, or data mart.
  •     Update staged data in batch or real-time modes.
  •     Create a single environment for developing, testing, and deploying the entire data integration platform.
  •    Manage a single metadata repository to capture the relationships between different extraction and access methods and  provide integrated lineage and impact analysis.

[sociallocker]Question.4   Define the terms Job, Workflow, and Dataflow

  •     A job is the smallest unit of work that you can schedule independently for execution.
  •     A work flow defines the decision-making process for executing data flows.
  •    Data flows extract, transform, and load data. Everything having to do with data, including reading sources, transforming data, and loading targets, occurs inside a data flow.

Question.5  Arrange these objects in order by their hierarchy: Dataflow, Job, Project, and Workflow.
Answer:  Project, Job, Workflow, Dataflow.

Question.6   What are reusable objects in DataServices?
Answer:   Job, Workflow, Dataflow.

Question.7   What is a transform?
Answer:  A transform enables you to control how datasets change in a dataflow.

Question.8   What is a Script?
Answer:  A script is a single-use object that is used to call functions and assign values in a workflow.

Question.9   What is a real time Job?
Answer:  Real-time jobs “extract” data from the body of the real time message received and from any secondary sources used in the job.

Question.10  What is an Embedded Dataflow?
Answer:  An Embedded Dataflow is a dataflow that is called from inside another dataflow.

Question.11  What is the difference between a data store and a database?
Answer:  A datastore is a connection to a database.

Question.12   How many types of datastores are present in Data services?
Answer:  Three.

  •     Database Datastores: provide a simple way to import metadata directly from an RDBMS.
  •     Application Datastores: let users easily import metadata from most Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.
  •     Adapter Datastores: can provide access to an application’s data and metadata or just metadata.

Question.13  What is the use of Compace repository?
Answer:  Remove redundant and obsolete objects from the repository tables.

Question.14   What are Memory Datastores?
Answer:  Data Services also allows you to create a database datastore using Memory as the Database type. Memory Datastores are designed to enhance processing performance of data flows executing in real-time jobs.

Question.15  What are file formats?
Answer:  A file format is a set of properties describing the structure of a flat file (ASCII). File formats describe the metadata structure. File format objects can describe files in:

  •     Delimited format — Characters such as commas or tabs separate each field.
  •     Fixed width format — The column width is specified by the user.
  •     SAP ERP and R/3 format.

Question.16   Which is NOT a datastore type?
Answer:  File Format

Question.17  What is repository? List the types of repositories.
Answer:  The DataServices repository is a set of tables that holds user-created and predefined system objects, source and target metadata, and transformation rules. There are 3 types of repositories.

  •     A local repository
  •     A central repository
  •     A profiler repository

Question.18  What is the difference between a Repository and a Datastore?
Answer:  A Repository is a set of tables that hold system objects, source and target metadata, and transformation rules. A Datastore is an actual connection to a database that holds data.

Question.19   What is the difference between a Parameter and a Variable?
Answer:  A Parameter is an expression that passes a piece of information to a work flow, data flow or custom function when it is called in a job. A Variable is a symbolic placeholder for values.