SAP Data Archiving

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Contents

1.0 Introduction to Enterprise Data Archiving .................................................................2

1.1 Data Archiving – Features .....................................................................................2
2.0 SAP Data Archiving – Basic Components .................................................................3
2.1 Archiving Objects..................................................................................................3
2.2 The Archive Development Kit (ADK) ...................................................................5
®
2.3 ArchiveLink - The Optical Archiving Method ....................................................6
3.0 The Archiving Procedure...........................................................................................7
3.1 Right Retrieval Strategy.........................................................................................7
3.2 Three Phase Archiving Process..............................................................................7
Phase I - Creating Archive Files...............................................................................8
Phase II - Deleting files from the Database ..............................................................9
Phase III - Transferring Archive Files......................................................................9
4.0 SAP Data Archiving - Support Tools.........................................................................9
4.1 SAP Archive Administration (SARA)....................................................................9
4.2 DART (Data Retention Tool).................................................................................9
4.3 SAP Archive Information System (SARI)...........................................................10

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 SAP Data Archiving

1.0 Introduction to Enterprise Data Archiving

Currently, a large number of enterprises use SAP R/3 as a platform for
integration of business processes. The continuous usage of SAP results in huge
amounts of enterprise data, which is stored in SAP R/3. With passage of time,
the new and updated data is entered into the system while the old data still
resides in the SAP enterprise system.

Since some of the old data is critical, it cannot be deleted. The difficulty is
keeping the data you want, and deleting the data you do not want. Hence, a SAP
database keeps on expanding rapidly and enterprise systems, which have limited
data retention abilities for a few years, suffer from problems such as data
overflow, longer transaction processing times, and performance degradation.

The solution of this problem has led to the concept of Data Archiving in SAP.
Data Archiving removes out-of-date data from the SAP database that the R/3
system does not need online, but can be retrieved on a later date, if required.
This data is known as archived data and is stored at an offline location. Data
Archiving not only consistently removes data from the database but also ensures
data availability for future business requirements.

One rule of thumb is that in a typical SAP enterprise system, the ratio of data
required to be online and instantly accessible to old data, which could be
archived, and stored offline is 1:6. For example, if an enterprise has 2100 GB of
SAP database, the online data, which is frequently used by SAP users will be
300 MB and the rest (1800 MB) will be scarcely used and hence can be archived.

1.1 Data Archiving – Features

• It provides a protection layer to the SAP database and resolves

underperformance problems caused by huge volumes of data. It is
important that SAP users should keep only minimal data to efficiently work
with database and servers. Data archiving ensures that the SAP database
contains only relevant and up-to-date data that meet your requirements.

• Data archiving uses hardware components such as hard disks and

memory. For efficient data archiving, minimum number of disks and disk
space should be used.

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 • It also reduces the system maintenance costs associated with the SAP
database. In the SAP database there are various procedures such as,
data backup, data recovery, and data upgrade.

• SAP data archiving complies with statutory data retention rules that are
common and well-proven techniques.

SAP data achieving can be implemented in two ways. In the next section both
options will be discussed in detail.

2.0 SAP Data Archiving – Basic Components

SAP Data Archiving is the SAP supported method for data archiving in SAP
enterprise systems. SAP Data Archiving enables the user to keep the size of
sensitive enterprise database under control. Archiving capabilities in SAP R/3 are
provided across all modules by a built-in, centralized component (SAP ADK,
®
Archive Development Kit) and add-on components such as ArchiveLink . Both
these components deal with SAP data in form of special objects, known as
Archiving Objects.

This papere discusses in detail the basic process used by Archive Development
®
Kit (ADK) and ArchiveLink for data archiving. But before understanding ADK, it
is important to understand the concept of Archiving objects.

2.1 Archiving Objects

Archiving objects are the essential ingredients for archiving SAP data. An
archiving object can be defined as a logical unit, which is obtained from SAP data
objects. When data objects are combined on the basis of requirements, a
business object is formed, which then can be archived.
Archiving objects instruct the SAP archiving system to get the right tables when
archiving specific R/3 business objects. They are defined using transaction
AOBJ.

The archiving objects are defined for different modules of a SAP system. For
example, financial accounting documents are archived via the archiving object
FI_DOCUMNT, which comprises the document header, company-code-
dependent postings, change documents, SAPscript texts and other elements.
Some archiving objects with their basic functionality are listed in the table below.

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 Archiving Type of Archiving Details
Object Object
SD_AGREEM Sales and Distribution Through this you can archive
arrangements and the associated
conditions
W_PROMO Retail Using this object you can remove old
promotion data from your system
MM_EKKO Material Management Using this object you can archive
purchasing documents
SD_VBRK Sales and Distribution Using this object you can archive
customer billing documents
FI_DOCUMNT Finance Using this object you can archive
credit memo documents
PP_ORDER Production Using this object you can archive
production orders

Each archiving object has automated associated methods. The table given below
describes these methods in brief. These methods are the functions or
subroutines, which work with archived objects.

Access Type Method Description

ALL ARCHIVE_OPEN_FOR_WRITE Open archive file for
writing.
ARCHIVE_OPEN_FOR_READ Open archive file for
reading
ARCHIVE_OPEN_FOR_MOVE Open archive file to
reload.
ARCHIVE_OPEN_FOR_DELETE Open archive file to
delete.
ARCHIVE_CLOSE_FILE Close all archive files
Write access ARCHIVE_NEW_OBJECT Get new data object
ARCHIVE_SAVE_OBJECT Write data object from
data container to the
archive file.
Read access ARCHIVE_GET_NEXT_OBJECT Read next data object into
the data container from
the archive file.

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2.2 The Archive Development Kit (ADK)

SAP provides the Archive Development Kit (ADK) for realization of secure and
efficient archiving procedures, to support and simplify the development of
archiving programs. ADK provides a development environment where
programming code is written to call archiving objects. When the program is
executed, the corresponding archiving files are created. Figure 1 illustrates this
relationship.

Figure1: Archive Development Kit

Image Source: SAP® white paper: Data Archiving and Archive Development Kit

ADK creates the archiving files from archive objects. It acts as an interface layer
between archiving objects and the archived files. To reduce the space consumed
by the archived files, ADK compresses the data 5 times the normal data. Only
data in clustered tables is left from being archived and stored, as it is, in the
database.

ADK is central to creating, opening, writing, reading and closing archive files,
plus all administrative issues, from scheduling jobs to communicating with
external storage systems.

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Another major function of ADK is to retrieve archived files. Archived files normally
have an outdated database structure. ADK checks for the file format and
encounters all potential problems, which may evolve due to such files. The major
functions of ADK are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Archive Development Kit Functions

The ADK is designed to use in client/server architecture. and provides an

appropriate way of using system resources efficiently.
®
2.3 ArchiveLink - The Optical Archiving Method
®
ArchiveLink is a SAP product that enables data archiving for business
®
documents in an optical storage system. Through ArchiveLink , one can store
scanned original documents, outgoing documents, or print lists in optical
systems. It is not possible to analyse them with R/3 tools or load them into R/3,
without the help of third party software. Archive files created by R/3 data
®
archiving, can be removed, analysed and reloaded through ArchiveLink . The

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Complimentary Software Providers (CSP) [or Third Party Software Providers] can
also provide these solutions, which are integrated with the SAP system to archive
data from the database. Their capabilities include:

• Scanning Documents
• Conversion of documents to electronic form
• Storing images on optical media
• Data searching and retrieving functionalities

3.0 The Archiving Procedure

3.1 Right Retrieval Strategy

An important challenge for SAP administrators is to find out the appropriate data
for archiving. It is important to have knowledge of the business processes
involved in the enterprise, prior to data archiving, so that appropriate archive
objects are created. This helps in identifying database table growth and simplifies
the process of identifying objects for archiving.

3.2 Three Phase Archiving Process

Data archiving process comprises three major phases. They are:

• Creating an archive file

• Removing the archived data from the database
• Transferring the archived files to a location outside the SAP database

Figure 3 displays an ideal data archiving process.

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 SAP R/3 Database

Phase I: Creating
an archive file using
Archiving Programs

Phase II: Removing

the Archived data
from the database

Phase III: Saving

the archived data at
the offline location

Figure3 : Three Phase Process of Archiving

Phase I - Creating Archive Files

The archived files of data are created in the SAP database by the Archiving
Management system. The Management system reads the data from the
database and writes it to the archive files in the background. In instances of
archived files exceeding the maximum specified limit, or if the number of data
objects exceed the stipulated limit in the system, then the system automatically
creates new archive files.

At the end of the process of saving data into archive files, ADK triggers the
system event SAP_ARCHIVING_WRITE_FINISHED, which is an indicator to the
system to start next phase of archiving process.

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Phase II - Deleting files from the Database

While archiving management system writes data on the archive files, another
program deletes it from the database permanently. The program checks whether
the data has been transferred to the archive. It is quite important too as it is the
last check performed by the system before deleting data permanently from the
database. Several deletion programs run simultaneously, because the archiving
program is much more faster than the deletion programs. This is important as it
increases the efficiency of archiving process.

Phase III - Transferring Archive Files

Once the Archive management system has finished archiving the data, the next
step is to save the archived files at a different location other than the SAP
database. This can be accomplished by an automated process in the system or
by a manual process. This step is optional since many enterprises may wish to
keep the archived files within the current database. However, large enterprises
transfer their data periodically as a part of their data archiving processes.

4.0 SAP Data Archiving - Support Tools

4.1 SAP Archive Administration (SARA)
All data archiving activities commence with Archive administration (transaction
SARA). SARA provides the overall administration of archiving schedules and
manages the archiving sessions. The process includes customization of objects,
their conversion to archived sequential archived files and most importantly, their
overall management. In addition to these, the archive administration process also
retrieves the archived files and converts the data through an automated process,
if there is a change in software, hardware or the data structure. The data
archiving process is streamlined and simplified through the Central command of
archiving administration.

4.2 DART (Data Retention Tool)

A data retention strategy is required for retaining enterprise information for long
periods of time. The Data Retention Tool (DART) provides this funcitionality. It is
capable of extracting data, which is period-specific as well as any supporting
information. DART transforms database objects into flat files that can be read by
any third-party software designed for flat files. It is available as an add-on for
older versions of SAP R/3, but is an integrated feature of the recent versions of
SAP R/3.

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4.3 SAP Archive Information System (SARI)

SARI provides much-needed retrieval capabilities against previously archived

data. It requires the archive files be loaded into new tables in the database. In
this approach, AS requires detailed, technical knowledge of the database table
structure and field layouts. Database structure of an enterprise needs to be
flexible and dynamic to be able to quickly adapt to organisational changes. It
might happen that the current database structure is not compatible with the
structure of database when archive files were initially generated. Archive
Information System is a standard tool delivered by SAP that facilitates
customized access to the archived data.

The success of R/3 has propelled SAP to the top echelons of the global software
industry. Archiving is an essential element of a complete and efficient
implementation of SAP. Lack of familiarity with archiving tools among SAP user
groups has hampered the popularity and effectiveness of SAP Archiving. SAP
Archiving is perceived to be complex to understand and implement. With the right
strategy and adequate knowledge, an enterprise can harness the full potential of
SAP R/3.

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