SAP Note 449891 Temporary database objects in BW 3.x

There are DB objects like tables, views, triggers and so on with the /BI0/0 name prefix. You cannot find these objects in the ABAP/4 Data Dictionary.

Other terms

Business Information Warehouse, temporary tables, query processing, DB02, BW, CLEAR_HLP_TBLS, ora-00942, truncate, SQLDBIF_DSQL2_OBJ_UNKNOWN

Reason and Prerequisites

The BW System uses different temporary objects for the query and other processes. The system often generates them outside of the ABAP DDIC for performance reasons or because they cannot be defined there (as stored procedures or triggers).
All these objects have names that start with /BI0/0... followed by a number for the object type and an identification having eight places. Thus a temporary table can be named for example /BI0/0101234567.
There are the following type prefixes:

• /BI0/01 ... are temporary tables that save interim results in connection with the query processing, transfer results from one query to another, and so on. These tables are used once. You can delete them if you like. Otherwise the system deletes these tables automatically sometime and reuses their names in another stage.

• /BI0/02 ... are like the /BI 0/01 ... ,however, they are used to process external hierarchies. For the results stored in these tables, a re-use mechanism exists. There is no risk of damage if you remove these tables;  however, as a result the performance of the queries can suffer.

• /BI0/03 ... are views that are generated during the processing of a query. The BW System defines one view for every SQL query and accesses it via a simple SELECT * FROM <Viewname>. This can avoid some problems that can occur during the direct output of the SQL statement. There is no risk of damage if you remove these views, provided that they are not just used in a query, that means: Generally these views are removed after the processing of the query is completed. However, "remainders" of queries can exist which have not run successfully.

• /BI0/04 ... are names of stored procedures that are used while the system compresses/condenses the InfoCube. They are removed after use.

• /BI0/05 ... are names of triggers that are used while the system compresses/closes the InfoCube. They are removed after use.

• /BI0/06 ... are names of tables that are used during the query processing, similar to the above-mentioned tables with prefix /BI0/01. These tables are not deleted but reused. However, you can delete them without problems.

• /BI0/0D ... are names of tables that are used in context with the Open-Hub function. They contain materialized results of Open-Hub read processes. Even if these tables are temporary, the BW Open-Hub should control the structure and deletion of these tables. Therefore you should not delete these tables.

Solution

You can run report SAP_DROP_TMPTABLES to remove temporary objects.

Caution:

The SAP_DROP_TMPTABLES report deletes all objects (except for the temporary hierarchy tables) without taking into account whether or not they are still in use. This can result in terminations of queries, compression and data extraction, for example, if these are running simultaneously.

If temporary objects prove to be inconsistent under DB02, you must execute report SAP_UPDATE_DBDIFF once. If you use the DB02 afterwards once again, you must make sure that the system refreshes the results. The report copies information on differences between definitions in the ABAP DDIC and in the DB catalog into table DBDIFF. DB02 includes the table during the check for inconsistencies.