In August 2022 (release 2208), the 3-system landscape (3SL) became available. The 2-system landscape included a quality system, where customizations were both created and tested, and a production system. 3SL includes a development system, test system (previously named, quality), and production system. This enables developers to build more complex on-stack extensions using stable SAP objects in the development tenant (client 80) of the development system, and separates testing activities into a dedicated test system.
The roles of the different SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition, systems:
Development System
Within an SAP system, there can be one or more tenants with different purposes. A tenant is an organizational unit in the system with specific user master records and authorizations. The SAP S/4HANA Cloud Starter and development systems have two tenants:
The development tenant is for developer extensibility in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud ABAP environment, where developers have full ABAP development tool access to released SAP S/4HANA Cloud business objects and extension points. The development is tenant-independent, meaning development objects built here can be accessed from the customizing tenant if permission is granted. This is because development objects are stored in database tables without a client column. Changes are recorded and transported to the subsequent systems.
The customizing tenant is the main project tenant, used for business process configuration and key user extensibility with the SAP Fiori extensibility apps. The configuration activities are based on the reference content from SAP Central Business Configuration. The customizing activities are mostly tenant-dependent, meaning configurations or extensions made here can only be accessed within the customizing tenant. This is because master and transactional data is stored in database tables within a client column. Changes to business configuration in this tenant are recorded and transported to the subsequent systems.
Test System
Once the development and configuration projects in the development system are finalized, an administrator imports development transport requests, customizing transport requests, and software collections into the test system to validate business configurations and extensions.
Production System
An administrator imports development requests, customizing requests, and software collections in the Production system to make the configurations and extensions available for productive use.
The other components are used in a similar fashion as in a Two system landscape.
So, in this setup, we utilize SAP Central Business Configuration for organizing our integration tools and overseeing object transfers. SAP Cloud ALM offers support in managing the project efficiently.
Connecting to SAP Business Network:
For seamless integration and to closely replicate actual business scenarios, the Quality system links to a test account on the SAP Business Network. This arrangement allows for thorough testing and quality checks without affecting ongoing business activities. It's a secure space for identifying and fixing problems, ensuring that only thoroughly tested and approved changes are implemented in the production system.
On the other hand, the production system connects to the live SAP Business Network buyer account, engaging in real business transactions and activities. This connection is crucial for the actual running of business operations, ensuring that the production system's data and processes are in live interaction with the SAP Business Network.
We use the Integration Suite, particularly the managed Gateway, as middleware to facilitate the connection between the Buyer's Backend system and the SAP Business Network, also taking care of converting different message formats.
S/4HANA Cloud Starter System:
The journey begins within the S/4HANA Cloud starter system, which is not designed to connect to the SAP Business Network. The SAP S/4HANA Cloud Starter System comes preconfigured with enterprise scope and business data for all lines of business. It's used by consultants to conduct Fit-to-Standard workshops. Note that this Starter System is phased out thirty days after the S/4HANA Cloud Production instance is set up.