Difference between transactions RS12 / SM12 ?

Seems there is no difference; at least as of BW 3.0 and above. According SAP Note 316329 - Master data table locked locks on master data were handled differently in BW versions 2.0 – 2.1C. The difference is that not standard SAP lock mechanism was used but there was BW specific locking mechanism used. This was however removed in version 3.0 and subsequent. Therefore transaction RS12 is still in BW just because of BW history. As you can see the same ABAP report (RSENQRR2) is called by both TAs.

How to find BWA version?

Well, from SAP BW side not that easy :-) however everything is possible since there is a class CL_RSDDTREX_SERVICE.

For little bit more comprehensive information about SP of BW as itself you can call method COMP_BI_SP_BIA_REV.

Related posts:

How to check whether your ABAP NetWeaver is HANA DB based?

    Learn your BW in hard way

Magic of unwanted

It is really surprising and very funny those sudden moments which can be described as “magic of unwanted”. Usually it comes much unexpected. I was same case also for me this time. I was just looking on data load request in Manage table of some cube in TA RSA1. I was scrolling up and down… 

Yep, for first sight nothing is unusual there…

But if you have a closer look you just realize it… :-)

One more zoom here:

-      Update 29/04/2013 –

Sometime ago SAP BW surprised me with very data load request number which was generated in very funny way. Today I encounter similar thing. This time it was with technical ID of transformation.

Actually it might not tell you anything unless you are not Slovak speaking. This word is also familiar to Czech speaking people. Actually it is not very nice word. :-)