INTRODUCTION TO SAP

HISTORY OF SAP
The company behind R/3 is SAP AG , germany founded by 4 former IBM employees in 1972 The companys headquarters is @ walldorf SAP stands for SYSTEMS ,APPLICATIONS ,PRODUCTS FOR DATA PROCESSING SAP is the no 1 Enterprise Resource Planning Package in the world R/3 system is a successful client/server system

Advantages of SAP
All the modules are tightly integrated SAP AG provides with services and support activities Scalability of systems 3 tier architecture R/3 Centralized storage of data Latest reports generation for decision making process Customizable solutions for every industry like retail , oil , manufacturing etc. Operating System Independent - win, linux , unix ,sun solaris Data Base independent Oracle , SQL Server , Informix

Competitors
Oracle Apps Peoplesoft Adrenaline HR MS ERP suite BAAN JD Edwards Marshalls of Ramco systems

BASIS
System Administrator Installation Troubleshooting User Profile Maintenance Authorization Management Transport Management Of Change Requests Adding Patches And Upgrading The Versions Enhancements

ABAP/4 - ADVANCED BUSINESS APPLICATION PROGRAMMING

4 th generation ABAP language Programming language only for SAP Generating reports Customizing the screens Data uploads /downloads from Local PC or Remote Host Communication between two different systems R/3 to R/3 or R/3 to R/2 Form designing such as PO, Invoice , Goods Receipt etc

Functional Modules
FICO Finance and controlling MM Materials Management SD Sales and distribution HR Human resource PM Plant Maintenance QM Quality Management PS Project Systems PP Production planning

New Dimension Products

CRM Customer Relationship Mgmt SRM Supplier Relationship Mgmt SCM Supply chain management APO Advanced Planning and Optimization SEM Strategic Enterprise Management BIW Business Information Warehousing

SAP Industry Solutions

SAP Aerospace & Defense SAP Banking SAP Chemical SAP Service Provider SAP Consumer Products SAP Engineering & Construction SAP Pharmaceuticals SAP Retail

SAP R/3 Three Tier Architecture

R/3 is considered to be all of the components attached to One single Centralized database It has 3 server layers

The R/3 Basis System

PRESENTATION SERVER

APPLICATION SERVER

DATABASE SERVER

R/3 In-detail
SAPGUI SAPGUI Presentation server Layer

dispatcher Gate Way TCP/ IP Application server layer

WP

WP

Customizing data And Repository

Application data

Database Server Layer

Database Oracle

Presentation Layer
The presentation layer contains the software components that make up the SAPgui (graphical user interface) Interface between the R/3 System and its users R/3 System uses the SAPgui.exe to provide an intuitive graphical user interface for entering and displaying data The presentation layer sends the users input to the application server, and receives data for display from it. While a SAPgui component is running, it remains linked to a users terminal session in the R/3 System.

Application Layer
The application layer consists of one or more application servers and a message server Each application server contains a set of services used to run the R/3 System Theoretically, you only need one application server to run an R/3 System. In practice, the services are distributed across more than one application server. This means that not all application servers will provide the full range of services The message server is responsible for communication between the application servers. It passes requests from one application server to another application server within the system. It also contains information about application server groups and the current load balancing within them. It uses this information to choose an appropriate server when a user logs onto the system.

Database Layer
The database layer consists of a central database system containing all of the data in the R/3 System The database system has two components - the database management system (DBMS), and the database itself SAP does not manufacture its own database. Instead, the R/3 System supports the following database systems from other suppliers: ADABAS D, DB2/400 (on AS/400), DB2/Common Server, DB2/MVS,INFORMIX, Microsoft SQL Server, ORACLE, and ORACLE Parallel Server. The database does not only contain the master data and transaction data from your business applications, but all data for the entire R/3 System is stored there. For example, the database contains the control and Customizing data that determine how your R/3 System runs. It also contains the program code for your applications. Applications consist of program code, screen definitions, menus, function modules, and various other components. These are stored in a special section of the database called the R/3 Repository, and are accordingly called Repository objects. You work with them in the ABAP Workbench.

Components of Application Layer Work Processes Dispatcher Gateway Shared Memory Database Connection

Work Processes
An application server contains work processes, which are components that can run an application Each work process is linked to a memory area containing the context of the application being run. The context contains the current data for the application program. This needs to be available in each dialog step. Further information about the different types of work process is contained later on in this documentation.

Dispatcher
Each application server contains a dispatcher The dispatcher is the link between the work processes and the users logged onto the application server Its task is to receive requests for dialog steps from the SAPgui and direct them to a free work process. In the same way, it directs screen output resulting from the dialog step back to the appropriate user.

Gateway
Each application server contains a gateway It is the interface for the R/3 communication protocols (RFC, CPI/C). It can communicate with other application servers in the same R/3 System, with other R/3 Systems, with R/2 Systems, or with non-SAP systems.
The Common Programming Interface - Communications (CPI-C) is a standard call interface for applications, which perform direct program-toprogram communication.

Types of work process

Dialog Work Process
Dialog work processes deal with requests from an active user to execute dialog steps.

Update Work Process

Update work processes execute database update requests. Update requests are part of an SAP LUW that bundle the database operations resulting from the dialog in a database LUW for processing in the background.

Background Work Process

Background work processes process programs that can be executed without user interaction (background jobs).

Types of work process

Enqueue Work Process
The enqueue work process administers a lock table in the shared memory area. The lock table contains the logical database locks for the R/3 System and is an important part of the SAP LUW concept. In an R/3 System, you may only have one lock table. You may therefore also only have one application server with enqueue work processes.

Spool Work Process

The spool work process passes sequential datasets to a printer or to optical archiving. Each application server may contain only one spool work process.

Advantages of the Multi-tier Architecture

The distribution of the R/3 software over three layers means that the system load is also distributed. This leads to better system performance. Since the database system contains all of the data for the entire R/3 System, it is subject to a very heavy load when the system is running. It is therefore a good idea not to run application programs on the same host. The architecture of the R/3 System, in which the application layer and database layer are separate, allows you to install them on separate hosts and let them communicate using the network. It also makes sense to separate program execution from the tasks of processing user input and formatting data output. This is made possible by separating the presentation layer and the application layer. SAPgui and the application servers are designed so that the minimum amount of data has to be transported between the two layers. This means that the presentation layer components can even be used on hosts that have slow connections to application servers a long way away. The system is highly scalable, due to the fact that the software components of an R/3 System can be distributed in almost any configuration across various hosts. This is particularly valuable in the application layer, where you can easily adapt your R/3 System to meet increasing demand by installing further application servers.