SAP System Landscape

In the context of SAP Business Suite, the SAP Product Portfolio offers SAP applications for the following areas:

• Enterprise Resource Planning (SAP ERP)

• Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM)

• Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM)

• Supply Chain Management (SAP SCM)

• Product Life Cycle Management (SAP PLM)

These applications are part of the SAP Business Suite. As a result, a customer with an SAP Business Suite license also has a license for each application in the SAP Business Suite.

An SAP application is a virtual bundle of business functions. You cannot install, patch, upgrade, or administrate an SAP application. You cannot log onto an SAP application because an SAP application consists of several SAP components, such as SAP ECC (SAP ERP Central Component), SAP SCM server, and so on.

SAP ERP is an SAP solution. It contains several SAP components. The main component is the SAP ECC (formerly known as SAP R/3).

From a technology point of view, it is the SAP components that a customer installs or upgrades. You can log on and work with a component. A common term for an SAP component is an "SAP system".

SAP ECC is the central component of SAP ERP, which in turn is the central application of the SAP Business Suite. It is formerly known as SAP R/3. As of release 5.0, SAP R/3 was renamed to SAP ECC. SAP ECC is the main SAP component and, the main component in SAP ERP.

However, SAP now offers SAP S/4HANA Suite, a new generation of business applications built on the in-memory platform SAP HANA. SAP S/4HANA Server is the newly developed successor of SAP ECC. in the new SAP S/4HANA Suite. You could say that SAP S/4HANA Server is "the new SAP ECC system".

Another important product to mention is SAP NetWeaver, which represents the technology stack provided by SAP to support the SAP Business Suite. It is comprised of different components, such as SAP BW, SAP EP, SAP PI, and so on. These technical components of SAP NetWeaver can be installed as needed to serve different requirements. Again, you cannot install SAP NetWeaver, or patch or update SAP NetWeaver as a whole. SAP NetWeaver is a bundle of several SAP systems, for example:

• SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW)

• SAP Enterprise Portal (SAP EP)

• SAP Process Integration (SAP PI)

• SAP Master Data Management (SAP MDM)

These SAP systems can be installed as needed to serve different requirements.

SAP systems for SAP Business Suite are based on SAP NetWeaver Application Server (SAP NetWeaver AS) – either on ABAP (SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP – or for short: AS ABAP) or on JAVA (SAP NetWeaver AS Java – or for short: AS JAVA).

ABAP Platform is the technology platform underlying SAP S/4HANA and is shipped as part of SAP S/4HANA.

In contrast to SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP, ABAP Platform is not shipped as a standalone product. ABAP Platform consists of the AS ABAP, the ABAP Development Tools (ADT) in Eclipse and several additional technology components which are required to run SAP S/4HANA.

The figure above shows two examples of SAP systems:

• An SAP ECC 6.08 system (as part of SAP Business Suite 7 Innovations 2016 (BS7i2016))

• An SAP S/4HANA 2021 Server system

In this training course, SAP S/4HANA 2021 Server systems are used.

This course describes how to set up and transport within an SAP system landscape of AS ABAP based SAP systems.

The figure above shows a history of some of the releases of the central software component SAP_BASIS. Among others, this software component contains the coding for the transactions that form the Transport Management System.

To maintain data security, you should protect application data by using the client concept, which separates data according to clients, and the authorization concept, which separates data within one client according to the users.

In addition, you should strictly separate the environments for development, quality assurance, and production. The stability and performance of the production client should not be affected by development and test activities in other clients.

Changes to repository objects are cross-client and immediately affect the business functions and processes. Therefore, changes have to be tested before being transported to the production system.

Here repository is the collectivity of all programs, function modules, table structures, data elements, domains, and so on that belong to an SAP system.

If you had only one SAP system, no further development would be possible after production had started. Changes to repository objects could only be made when production operations were stopped for development and testing.

A two-system landscape is not optimal, because both development and quality assurance testing take place in the development system.

To ensure smooth production operation, an SAP system landscape should contain the three SAP systems from the figure above, the standard clients, and any required additional clients.

A three-system landscape meets the needs of many customers. It has the following features:

• Development takes place in the development system, a SAP system of an SAP system landscape in which development and customizing take place. Changed objects are then released to the quality assurance system, the SAP system, of an SAP system landscape, in which end users carry out productive work.
• In the quality assurance system, you can test new developments without affecting the production environment.
  Note

  A quality assurance system enables you to integrate development efforts and to check the validity and consistency of transported objects before moving the objects into production.

• All objects imported into the quality assurance system should also be delivered to one or more production systems.

The three-system landscape is also a basis to apply SAP Support Packages or to perform a release upgrade.

SAP systems in the same SAP system landscape require unique SAP system names, known as the System ID (SID).

SAP provides the tools required for the creation, documentation, and distribution of changes within an SAP system landscape. It also provides the tools to set up the SAP system landscape so that it supports the management, verification, and testing of all changes:

• A single client is recommended for all customizing work. Set the Client change options appropriately before using your clients.
• A single SAP system (the development system) is recommended for all development work. Set the system change options appropriately.
• Assign appropriate user authorizations to developers and the customizing team members to control whether a user can create, modify, or release tasks and transport requests.
• Record and document all changes to a client or SAP system.

The Change and Transport System (CTS) comprises the following tools:

• The Change and Transport Organizer (CTO) provides functions for organizing software development projects. It is designed to support projects of all sizes, whether they are carried out centrally or in a distributed environment.
• The Transport Management System (TMS) organizes, monitors, and performs transports for all SAP systems within an SAP system landscape. In addition, TMS is used to configure and manage the setting up of SAP systems and transport routes within an SAP system landscape.
• The transport tools are executables and programs that communicate with the SAP system, the database, and files generated during the transport process.