Preparing Technical System Settings

Exploring the System Landscape in Detail

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to describe the system landscape in detail with all relevant components

System Landscape in Detail

In this lesson, we’ll explore the system landscape for integrating SAP S/4HANA with SAP Sales and Service Cloud Version 2 in more detail, including network components like firewalls and load balancers.

The following diagram provides an overview of the system landscape, which already includes more details than in the previous unit. The upcoming sections discuss the landscape in even greater detail based on the message flow.

System Landscape in Detail

Note

Please note that the network landscapes shown here are for demonstration purposes only. The components and segments in an actual network landscape may differ. The Customer Network represents either a real on-premise network or a private cloud network where the same access principles apply.

The message exchange between SAP Sales and Service Cloud Version 2 and SAP S/4HANA always goes through Cloud Integration as the middleware. The two cloud systems are on the public internet, while SAP S/4HANA is located within the customer network, which is always an independent network segment, whether it’s an on-premise network or a private cloud offering.

Let’s examine the path that messages take between the systems in the upcoming sections. We will consider both directions:

  • SAP S/4HANA to SAP Sales and Service Cloud Version 2
  • SAP Sales and Service Cloud Version 2 to SAP S/4HANA

Connections from SAP S/4HANA to SAP Sales and Service Cloud Version 2

This direction is used when sending data from a system within the customer’s network, meaning SAP S/4HANA, to the cloud CRM, for example, to load master data initially.

Connections from Customer Network to Cloud Network

Data sent in this direction takes the following route:

  1. SAP S/4HANA sends messages containing data to Cloud Integration, which is inside SAP BTP and behind a Load Balancer.
  2. Cloud Integration receives, processes, and forwards messages to SAP Sales and Service Cloud Version 2.

Looking from the network configuration perspective, this is the straightforward case. Systems, such as SAP S/4HANA, typically don’t connect directly to the internet. Depending on the specific network setup, there are usually other components in between, such as (forwarding) proxies.

Connections from SAP Sales and Service Cloud Version 2 to SAP S/4HANA

The other direction, which involves sending messages from the cloud CRM to SAP S/4HANA, requires additional setup because messages need access to the customer network. This applies to both on-premise and private cloud setups. The best practice is to use Cloud Connector with SAP BTP's Connectivity Service. Alternatively, a Reverse Proxy can also be used.

Connections from Cloud Network to Customer Network

Data sent this way follows this route:

  1. SAP Sales and Service Cloud Version 2 sends data to Cloud Integration, which is inside SAP BTP, behind a Load Balancer.
  2. Cloud Integration receives, processes, and forwards messages to SAP S/4HANA through the secure tunnel established between the Cloud Connector and the Connectivity Service.

Cloud Connector

The Cloud Connector operates within the on-premise network and establishes a secure tunnel to the connectivity service in SAP BTP. This enables messages to be forwarded from Cloud Integration to on-premise systems without requiring port openings or modifications to inbound firewall rules in the on-premise network.

The Cloud Connector configuration enables you to specify systems, virtual hostnames, services, virtual port numbers, and resources that can be accessed from SAP BTP.

Load Balancer in SAP BTP

The Load Balancer in SAP BTP plays a key role in using client certificates for authentication to Cloud Integration, which imposes restrictions on choosing issuing certification authorities (CAs).

You will learn more about this in the lesson Preparing Credentials for Cloud Integration of this course.

Logical vs. Technical Perspective

When sending data throughout the system landscape, it is crucial to distinguish between the logical and technical layers.

System Landscape showing the difference between logical and technical addressing
  • The logical layer is used for addressing messages based on source and target system IDs, such as T41CLNT400 for SAP S/4HANA or sap_cloud_crm_myXXXXXXX for SAP Sales and Service Cloud Version 2.
  • The technical layer refers to the network infrastructure, where more than the source and the target systems are involved in message processing and delivery. Most prominently, Cloud Integration as the middleware.

That’s the reason why, when defining the Communication System in SAP Sales and Service Cloud Version 2, the entered details include a mixture of the logical system ID of SAP S/4HANA and the technical hostname of Cloud Integration. Messages sent from SAP Sales and Service Cloud Version 2 are logically addressed to SAP S/4HANA. However, the messages must pass through Cloud Integration; therefore, the hostname of the communication target must be Cloud Integration’s runtime.

Screenshot of SAP Sales and Service Cloud Version 2's communication system screen with the logical system name and the technical hostname of the communication partner highlighted.

Credential Maintenance Overview

The upcoming lessons explain how to maintain basic communication settings in each system, including communication system entries and credentials.

Since maintaining credentials is handled differently in each system and for each direction, it can be challenging to keep track of everything. The following diagram provides an overview of where each type of credential is maintained for each direction. It is intended to serve as a reference for the upcoming lessons.

Diagram that shows the different credential maintenance locations.

The graphic shows three systems next to each other. Each system contains boxes labeled Inbound and Outbound, followed by the location where the credentials for this direction can be maintained in the corresponding system, and what terminology is used for them.

The boxes are connected by arrows, pointing from Outbound to Inbound, representing the following two directions:

  1. From SAP S/4HANA to SAP Sales and Service Cloud Version 2.
  2. From SAP Sales and Service Cloud Version 2 to SAP S/4HANA.
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