Preparing Technical Communication Settings in SAP S/4HANA

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to set up the business system for the data replication framework and a technical user for handling inbound connections in SAP S/4HANA

Create a Technical User for Inbound Connections

In SAP S/4HANA, a technical user is required to authenticate and authorize inbound connections from Cloud Integration. This course concentrates on SOAP Web Services and the OData Gateway. Depending on the integration scenarios in scope, the inbound IDoc service might also be relevant.

The recommended authentication method is certificate-based. In this case, the certificate must be associated with the corresponding user.

This can be done using transaction SM30 and table VUSREXTID. If Basic Authentication is used, the remote system must provide the user’s alias and password.

Furthermore, the user must have proper authorizations to process the received data. You can manage users in transaction SU01.

Set Up Data Replication Framework

The Data Replication Framework (DRF) is a standardized architecture that facilitates controlled, efficient transfer of business objects and their data from SAP S/4HANA to target systems through configurable outbound implementations, supporting various integration scenarios without the need for custom development.

In this course, we use it to replicate products and business partners, including their relationships from SAP S/4HANA to SAP Sales and Service Cloud Version 2. For this, the following components of the DRF are relevant and need to be configured:

Elements of the Data Replication Framework

Business System: Refers to the target system for replicated data on the logical layer, such as SAP Sales and Service Cloud Version 2. In contrast, Cloud Integration only forwards messages on the technical layer. The business system’s configuration includes information about the types of business objects it can receive in general and how (e.g., IDoc, Web Services, etc.).
Outbound Implementation: Describes how a specific business object's data is extracted, formatted, and transmitted to a target system according to predefined rules and protocols (e.g., Replication of Business Partners incl. Relationships via Services)
Replication Model: The root configuration entity within DRF that specifies how business object data should be sent (Outbound Implementation) to which target business system.

The following graphic visualizes the structure with the scenarios used in this course and two systems as an example:

Data Replication Framework architecture used

Business Systems must be configured to support specific types of business objects.

The Replication Model links Outbound Implementations with Business Systems to specify which objects should be replicated to particular target systems and how they should be sent. A prerequisite for associating a business system with an outbound implementation is that the business system is enabled to receive this type of object in the specified manner.

You can manage Data Replication Framework settings with transaction DRFIMG.

Procedure in this Course

This course covers the creation and maintenance of integration scenario-related settings separately.

This lesson covers the creation of the Business System and the Replication Model without additional details.
Later lessons cover how to maintain settings for specific integration scenarios:
- Product Replication via Services.
- Business Partner Replication including Relationships via Services.

In a real-world project, you typically perform these steps together.

Video: Create a Business System and Replication Model

The following video shows how to create the Business System and the Replication Model without additional details in the Data Replication Framework Customizing transaction DRFIMG.

The business system, the replication model, and their related scenario-specific settings must be transported, which is another reason to do this all in a single step.

Define Business System

As shown in the video, the Business System can be accessed through the following menu path in transaction DRFIMG: Data Replication→Define Custom Settings for Data Replication→Define Technical Settings→Define Technical Settings for Business Systems.

The name of the Business System must exactly match the system ID of SAP Sales and Service Cloud Version 2, which can be found under Settings→Communication Systems, in the entry with the description default communication system.

If you use a System Landscape Directory (SLD), you must create the system entry there and reference it. In the sample environment of the video, no SLD is connected, which causes a warning message in the lower left corner that can be ignored and confirmed by pressing the [ENTER] key.

Further integration scenario-related settings will be applied in later lessons.

Define Replication Model

As the video has shown, the Replication Model can be accessed through the following menu path in transaction DRFIMG: Data Replication→Define Custom Settings for Data Replication→Define Technical Settings→Define Replication Model.

The name of the Replication Model can be chosen freely and does not need to match any specific name in the cloud CRM.

Further integration scenario-related settings will be applied in later lessons.

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