SAP Systems –

Being the market and technology leader in business management software, SAP offers a wide range of
products, applications and services to enterprises of different sizes. At the heart of the SAP software
portfolio is the SAP Business Suite, which contains applications and industry specific solutions
providing a stable core upon which enterprises can manage their business.

Complemented by the integration of the SAP BusinessObjects business intelligence (BI) solutions,
customers can access a range of analysis and business intelligence features to help them to analyze and
make better business decisions.

Most of these applications and innovations from SAP are based on a common technology platform
called SAP NetWeaver, which provides a foundation and integration platform for SAP solutions.

SAP Business suite comprises of the following applications –

- SAP ERP (SAP enterprise resource planning)

- SAP CRM (SAP customer relationship management)
- SAP SRM (SAP supplier relationship management)
- SAP SCM (SAP supply chain management)
- SAP PLM (SAP product lifecycle management)

The SAP NetWeaver technology platform is a reliable, secure, and scalable foundation for running
business applications, such as SAP Business Suite and SAP BusinessObjects BI solutions. It also enables
large enterprises to perform mission-critical business processes.
The figure shows the simplified structure of SAP NetWeaver. The structure makes it easy to reference
SAP NetWeaver capabilities using application scenarios while supporting a more intuitive drilldown
procedure for SAP NetWeaver components. The technology map is not linked to a specific SAP
NetWeaver product or release but contains all the capabilities provided by the SAP NetWeaver platform.

SAP NetWeaver can provide personalized access to mission-critical applications and data by using
portals, desktop clients, and mobile interfaces. The flexible UI technology of SAP NetWeaver enables IT
organizations and partners to build their own state-of-the-art applications.

The business intelligence (BI) solutions of SAP provide comprehensive BI functionality that can empower
users to make effective, informed decisions based on data and data analysis.

Business process composition enables users to design, model, implement, run, monitor, operate, and
improve business processes.

EIM can help organizations integrate data and reconcile business information in heterogeneous IT
landscapes and business networks that are cross-company.

Data integration and reconciliation, in turn, help create a trusted data foundation for operational,
analytical, and governance initiatives. SAP delivers solutions from different product families, including
SAP NetWeaver, SAP BusinessObjects BI Solutions, EIM, and SAP solution extensions.

By managing information assets effectively, organizations can minimize data integration efforts,
streamline end-to-end business process execution, and gain well-founded business insight.
SAP NetWeaver enables IT organizations to use standards-based web services for forming new,
innovative business solutions that meet changing business needs. In particular, SAP NetWeaver provides
SOA middleware that facilitates communication between disparate applications. From a technical view,
SOA middleware consists of an enterprise services repository and registry, an enterprise services bus,
and SOA management tools.

Using SAP NetWeaver, IT professionals can extend or enhance existing applications.

Organizations face a difficult challenge in the security-conscious world today. They have to support
transparent enterprise boundaries, location-independent users, and the growing demands for
regulatory compliance.

Instead of just focusing on individual phases, SAP provides a holistic approach. Results of a specific
phase can be leveraged by other phases due to the integration provided by SAP Solution Manager. This
type of integration helps implement and operate IT solutions more quickly and at lower costs.
Examples of SAP NetWeaver key products include the following:

 Business Process Management

 Business Rules Management

 Composition Environment

 Process Integration

 Enterprise Portal

 Enterprise Workspaces

 Mobile

 Business Warehouse

 Knowledge Management

 Master Data Management

 Identity Management

 Single Sign-on

 Application Server ABAP

 Application Server Java

 Application Lifecycle Management

Together with a database, SAP NetWeaver AS is the application platform for SAP systems.
Properties of SAP NetWeaver Application Server

SAP NetWeaver AS is the result of the logical development of the technology used by the SAP
Application Server (previously known as SAP Basis). Special attention is paid to web-based applications.

SAP NetWeaver AS offers the following features –

- A reliable and extensively tested runtime environment.

- A framework for executing complex business processes that meet high security standard.
- A reliable and user-friendly development environment.
- Support for open standards, such as hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), HTTPS, simple mail
transfer protocol (SMTP), WebDAV, simple object access protocol (SOAP), Secure sockets layer
(SSL), Single sign-on (SSO), X.509, Unicode, HTML, extensible markup language (XML), Web
services (WS) policy, SOAP, WS Trust, Java standard Edition (SE), Java Specification Requests
(JSR), Web services for remote portlets (WSRP), Security-assertion markup language (SAML),
representational state transfer (REST) and open data protocol (OData).
- High Scalability
- Support for different operating systems and database platforms.
SAP systems provide a defined set of business processes or business applications which are part of an
SAP solution. These applications need to be implemented independently of the hardware environment,
the operating system, and database, which is used to the greatest extent possible.

SAP NetWeaver Runtime Environments -

- Advanced Business Programming (ABAP) run time environments (AS ABAP).

- Java run time environment (Application Server (AS) Java)

ABAP Runtime Environment

ABAP is the programming language developed by SAP. Many business applications in the SAP system are
written in ABAP. ABAP has been optimized for developing highly scalable business applications.
Customers can use the ABAP workbench for developing completely new applications or enhancing and
modifying standard SAP applications. Applications are developed or enhanced using the AS ABAP
infrastructure. AS ABAP provides the runtime environment for programs written in ABAP.

JAVA Runtime Environment

AS Java is an application server that is Java EE – Complaint. Java is an object-oriented, platform

independent programming language that has spread across many areas. The JAVA concept enables the
development of a large range of applications from classic applications to applets used in websites to
client and server applications.

As of SAP Web application server 6.20, SAP has provided a complete Java Enterprise Edition (EE) –
Compatible runtime infrastructure.

Up to SAP NetWeaver AS Java 7.0, the infrastructure was compliant with J2EE 1.3.

The architecture of an application server in accordance with the JAVA EE specification is similar to the
ABAP run time environment used for SAP solutions. Both run time environments are platform
independent, executed in a multi-level architecture, and have separate presentation logic and business
logic.
The concepts of client and server can be defined in the following ways:

 In the hardware-oriented view, the term server is the central server in a network that provides
data, memory, and resources for workstations (clients).
  In the software-oriented view, client and server are both defined at the process level (service).
The process requesting a service is the client, and the server is the process providing the service.

In the context of SAP systems, the terms client and server are used as defined in the software-oriented
view.

The following processes are used for operating business application software:

 Presentation processes can be used, for example, to display screens

 Application processes can be used, for example, to execute applications

 Database processes can be used, for example, to manage and organize databases

When you are installing and configuring an SAP system such as SAP Enterprise Core Component (SAP
ECC), you need to decide how you are going to distribute the required processes among the available
hardware. The figure shows different types of configurations in relation to the number of hardware
layers used.

Single-Tier Configuration

In single-tier configuration, only one computer performs all the processing tasks (database, application,
and presentation processes). This is classic mainframe processing.
Single-tier configurations are used for tests and demonstrations (for example, as SAP system on a
laptop). If many users want to work on a system in a single-tier configuration, then the extra hardware
cost for each additional user becomes greater than the cost of implementing additional hardware levels
(for example, moving the presentation process to other hosts).

Two-Tier Configuration

Special presentation servers that are used to format graphical interfaces usually implement two-tier
configurations. A two-tier configuration with distributed presentation processes can maintain good
performance for a high number of users. There is no substantial increase in the hardware costs
compared to a single-tier configuration. The load resulting from the presentation processes is
distributed among various front-end computers so that the performance of the database host is not
affected.

An alternative two-tier configuration is to install powerful desktop systems and use them for
presentation and application processes (two tier client and servers). This configuration is especially
suitable for applications that have high processor demands, for example, for simulations or software
developers. Such configuration is implemented in the SAP environment only for testing purpose because
it requires additional administration.

Three-Tier Configuration

In a three-tier configuration, each layer runs on its host. Multiple application servers can simultaneously
work with the data of a database server.

If the number of users exceed a certain limit, the central host, on which we run our application and
database processes, will become a bottleneck. To prevent such a bottleneck, you can improve the
performance of the SAP system by distributing the application layer processes among several hosts.

The addition of hardware layer specifically for application processes facilitates scalability. If the number
of SAP users in a system increases over time, it negatively affects system performance. To improve
system performance, another host can be added for application processes in most cases.

Multi-Tier Configuration

In the SAP Business Suite environment, more complex configurations for the client and server, which
consist of more than three tiers, are both theoretically possible and used in practice. For example, an
additional level could be a web server.
When you install an SAP system, you have the option of separating the processes at application level
from the processes at database level. This means that the installation and operation of the database for
an SAP system can be done on a separate physical computer, separated from the instances of the SAP
system. There is exactly one database for each SAP system. The database has the same system ID
(Database (DB) ID) as the SAP system.

The instance that is installed first is the Primary Application Server Instance (PAS). Further instances for
a system are referred to as Additional Application Server Instances, or AAS. In earlier versions, AS ABAP
7.0 or lower, PAS is referred as the central instance (CI) and AAS is the dialog instance (DI).

The central service instance of an SAP system offers services that no other instance of the system offers.
It provides the message server and the enqueue work process. The message server enables
communication between the instances of a system, and the enqueue work process handles the logical
locks in a system. For AS ABAP, the central services instance is also referred as ASCS and JSCS in AS Java.

A central system refers to a scenario in which the system contains a single instance (PAS) installed on
the same host as the database.

SAP Systems –
An SAP system is an installed software system that provides a defined set of functions that are part of an
SAP solution. These functions are implemented in a set of software components. An SAP system is
installed and configured as a unit. It consists of a database, one or more application server instances
(ABAP and/or Java), one central services instance (with a message server and enqueue server), and
other optional components depending on the system. The system is identified by its SAP system ID,
which consists of three letters or digits (for example, DCC).

SAP Instance –

An SAP instance is an administrative unit that combines the SAP system components together to provide
one or more services. The services provided by an instance are started and stopped together. An
instance is configured using an instance profile. Each instance has its own memory areas and its own
directory structure in the file system. In an instance, different processes and services are offered to
support the data processing functions in a system. An instance runs on one physical computer, but it is
possible for multiple instances to exist on one computer. An instance is identified by the host name,
system ID (SID) and a two-digit instance number.

The terms SAP instance and application server are often used synonymously.