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out-of-date data from the SAP database that the R/3 system does not need online, but can be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.

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.
• 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 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 paper 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.

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.

Type of Archiving
Archiving Object Details
Object

Using this object you can archive production

PP_ORDER Production
orders

Using this object you can archive credit memo

FI_DOCUMNT Finance
documents

Using this object you can archive customer

SD_VBRK Sales and Distribution
billing documents

Using this object you can archive purchasing

MM_EKKO Material Management
documents

Using this object you can remove old promotion

W_PROMO Retail
data from your system

Through this you can archive arrangements and

SD_AGREEM Sales and Distribution
the associated conditions

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.

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.

Fig1: 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.

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 Fig 2.
 Fig 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.

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 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
The Archiving Procedure

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.

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

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.

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.
SAP Data Archiving - Support Tools

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.

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 functionality. 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.

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.