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Replicating Data to SAP Responsible Design and Production

Objective

After completing this lesson, you will be able to describe data integration and manage source system

Overview of Replication

Why?

SAP Responsible Design and Production is using business data to create reports and provide analytical views. For a performant view and report generation, the data is replicated from the source system (SAP S/4HANA or SAP ECC) to SAP RDP. With the introduction of new report categories for new countries/regions, the replication must be adapted as well.

What?

Data that is needed by the reports to be generated is replicated to SAP RDP. To keep the footprint low on the source system, only the needed data is replicated. Due to the changing requirements of the various reports, the data and their attributes is subject to change and might be adapted.

Currently replicated business objects:

Organization and Configuration data like Company Codes, Sales Organizations, Countries/Regions, and Unit of Measures
Deliveries and Material Documents with their related Suppliers and Customers
Packaging Data like Packaging Elements and Packaging Compositions
Products, either used as Finished Good or as Packaging Material, and their related Batches and Inventory

Overview of Replicated and Connected Data

The image shows an overview of data flow of replicated and connected data

Replicating Data to SAP RDP by means of RDP Integration Accelerator

How to Install Integration Accelerator Transport Requests in Source System

Select Watch Demo to start the simulation.

DemoStart Demo

How to Create RFC Connections and Settings for RDP API

Quick Steps

Establish RFC connections to RDP
Manage configuration settings for services
Add Source ID
Create and activate Change Pointers

Select Watch Demo to start the simulation.

DemoStart Demo

How to Start Data Replication from Source System to RDP

Quick Steps

Show Packages in SE80
Replicate Data to RDP

Select Watch Demo to start the simulation.

DemoStart Demo

Data Replication

This image shows the initial replication sequence

Data must be replicated regularly from a source system such as SAP S/4HANA or SAP ECC to SAP Responsible Design and Production. The following object types must be replicated:

Configuration data
Organization data
Customers
Products
Deliveries
Packaging elements
Packaging compositions
Material documents
Suppliers
Batches
Inventory

Note

Configuration and organization data must be replicated before any other data. In general, there is a certain sequence for data replication or data import that needs to be considered.

The image shows the overview of the architecture.

Replication Types

The architecture overview displays the different available integration scenarios and replication types from the source systems to SAP RDP.

The following replication types are supported:

Push replication
Push replication means that data is sent from an SAP system or a third-party system to SAP Responsible Design and Production. The time, the object types, and the recurrence are determined on the side of the source system. Source systems and object types must be configured in the Configuration Cockpit application.
Data import through file upload
You can import data in the Data Import application. Predefined templates are provided for this purpose.
Note
You'll learn more about data import in the next lesson.

Push Replication

Why?

SAP RDP is offering an open REST API for all business objects that must be replicated.

These interfaces can not only be used by SAP S/4HANA or SAP ECC systems but also by third-party software to replicate data.

What?

Data can be pushed from an external system to SAP RDP calling the APIs. Although it’s up to the client of the communication to define how it's collecting and sending the data, the assumption is that the data will be sent in packages per request. The default would be 2,000 objects per request. After an initial replication run, the changed data should be replicated on a regular basis.

All the public interfaces can be found on the SAP API Hub Responsible Design and Production

SAP API Business Hub – Responsible Design and Production

The image shows how to access SAP API Business Hub for Responsible Design and Production

SAP API Hub Responsible Design and Production

What must be done?

Set up the replication services in BTP Cloud Cockpit.
Get the credentials from SAP RDP.
Set up a HTTPS connection from the source system to SAP RDP.
Extract data out of the source system.
- Extract further transactional and master data.
- Extract packaging data.
Configure the replication in SAP RDP.
Start the replication (and run it periodically).

Overall Documentation

For the replication documentation, refer to the following SAP help pages:

See help documentation for RDP@BTP
Official public documentation
- Push Replication See help documentation for sending packaging data from SAP S/4HANA to RDP.
- SAP S/4HANA integration with SAP Responsible Design and Production

Setting Up the Technical Connection

Step 1 – Set Up the Replication Services

Follow these steps to set up the replication services in BTP Cloud Cockpit:

https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_RESPONSIBLE_DESIGN_AND_PRODUCTION/01d581e7150c42f59b5234a76f5e8d2d/8e467a1faff84fa1a1456905207b9949.html?locale=en-US

Step 2 – Get the Credentials from SAP RDP

The clientId and the clientSecret that are received from the cloud service must be used on the sender side to establish the connection.

Step 3 – Set Up a HTTPS Connection from the Source System to SAP RDP

Setting up the replication services in SAP S/4HANA:

Follow these steps to set up the replication destinations.

To establish the connection, use the above retrieved clientId and clientSecret.

Step 4 – Extract Data Out of the Source System

The image shows in order to replicate data via the Push interfaces, data has to be extracted and sent to RDP via REST.

Note

Documentation for the REST interfaces can be found here: SAP API Hub Responsible Design and Production

Extracting Data

Extracting Data Out of the Source System

To replicate data using the push interfaces, data has to be extracted and sent to RDP through REST.

Extracting Configuration, Master, and Transactional Data

For objects that are needed for the calculations and analytics in RDP, there are no standard extractors provided by SAP RDP. SAP Value Prototyping team offers some extractors that can be transported into an SAP ECC or SAP S/4HANA system for releases prior to SAP S/4HANA 2021 FPS1. These extractors offer an easy way to send the data from an SAP system to RDP.

For those who don't want to leverage the provided extractors or who must integrate a non-SAP system, SAP offers an API to implement own extractors.

The API interfaces are described here.

The mapping of the ECC or S/4HANA data to the RDP properties is described here.

Note

This is a proposal for a default implementation. There might be deviations in the customer system.

Extracting Master and Transactional Data

The provided Acceleration Package offers extractors for all needed business objects. The offered filters can be used to limit the amount of replicated data and to tailor the data to your needs. Test run and delta replication are also part of the offered solution – see the figure Extracting Master and Transactional Data.

Structure of Packaging Data

For packaging data, SAP provides extractors for packaging data that is stored in PLM and/or in Recipe Management (RM). SAP has defined the way how the packaging data shall be structured as characteristics in PLM so it can be consumed easily by the provided extractors. Also, extractors for uploading packaging compositions from Bill of Material and uploading packaging elements from Material Classifications are provided.

Nevertheless, as a standard entity for packaging elements and packaging composition is missing, the customer has to adapt the mapping of the S/4HANA data to the API. A detail description is provided with the BAdIs for each extractor.

Note

The default extractors for extracting packaging data are shipped first with S/4HANA 2021 FPS1.

For customers that need extractors for earlier releases, SAP Value Prototyping team offers extractors that can be transported into an SAP ECC or SAP S/4HANA system for releases prior to SAP S/4HANA 2021 FPS1. These extractors offer an easy way to send the data from an SAP system to RDP. The current status of the extractors with SAP ECC version is subject to change.