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Author's profile photo Karsten Strothmann

Questions for TechEd 2021 Session DEV101: Discover Event-Driven Architecture with SAP

Session Content

Event-driven architecture is already an important architecture paradigm that will become widely adopted in future. Get a holistic overview of event-driven architectures in the SAP ecosystem and
learn how to put events into play to optimize and innovate your business processes. Find out about event sources (like SAP S/4HANA, SAP ERP, and SAP SuccessFactors solutions), event consumers (like SAP Integration Suite, SAP Extension Suite) and the role of the SAP Event Mesh capability as event broker.

The goal of this blog

We realized that time would be too short to answer all your questions in the chat. The idea behind this blog is that you ask your, questions in the comments section below and we will answer them in the coming days. On top, I have been able to capture the questions and answers in the chat during the session and will add and answer them here.

Again, we will answer all questions. Might just take a few days.

Additional Material

Let me add a few links here, inspired by your questions, that might help you to get started and that already answer some of the questions:

Selected blogs:

Questions and Answers

Martin: Do you have a good documentation as to how to add additional events to S/4?

Answer: The question is Cloud or on prem? Currently you cannot add events to S/4HANA Cloud. The events are provided by development and cannot be changed. For on prem, at this point in time you have to use the event-enablement add-on to create your own events. The best approach would be to start a mission in discovery center (see link above and search for Event Mesh to find available missions – there are some for the standard events and some for the add-on). These missions contain all the steps in detail. The add-on is by the way free of charge for both ECC and SAP S/4HANA when used with SAP Event Mesh.

Praveen:  Can we get consume from non-SAP systems as Web hooks?

Answer Javier: Yes, you can push the event using web hooks, this is what we used in the show case Other options are AMQP/MQTT or making a GET OData call to Event Mesh.

Brad: Is BTP replacing classic workflow? 

Answer: No, EDA is a different approach. Main focus of event mesh is REAL TIME. You can combine events and workflow though. You could trigger a workflow based on an event. Was done in last year’s BTP in the garage sessions. On top, there is a certain pattern in event-driven architectures that goes into this direction and would allow for a workflow-like approach. This is not our focus, we go for a loose coupling.

Vijay: If we have multiple receiver systems of this event can we control sequential and all changes together at end of the day once for a specific receiver

Answer Javier: You can configure specific queues for each receiver system and each of them are de-coupled from the others

Nithish: Can we use Event Mesh with SAP ECC ?

Answer: Yes. ECC can be event-enabled with the  event enablement add-on.

Konstantinos: Can CPI manage queues and reprocess events at event sequence?

Answer: CPI currently cannot manage queues (create queues, create topic subscriptions) directly. For a full description of the features supported by the AMQP adapter check the following blog:

https://blogs.sap.com/2019/11/20/cloud-integration-connecting-to-external-messaging-systems-using-the-amqp-adapter/

Kaval: Can we do the message filtering within the queue subscriptions ?

Answer: Filtering is only supported on topic level. Content based filtering is currently unsupported.

Stefan: Can I create custom events for my enhancements?

Answer: Depends on the backend – for S/4 oP and ECC using the add-on. For S/4HANA Cloud the colleagues work on an option, which is at this point in time not available yet. On the extension side, yes, you are free to create your own events.

Abhishek: can events in 3rd party applications be published to SAP backends as a consumer?

Answer: For selected backends yes. Using the event-enablement add-on consuming events with on premise SAP S/4HANA and ECC is possible. The feature set currently is more limited than the one for events exposure, but it is there and will most likely be extended.

Abhishek: Is replicating master data from SAP to 3rd party application a good use case good for Events?

Answer: this is a difficult one to answer. A number of customers do exactly this, so it is possible and it is a use case that you find quite often. I would say it is a good use case if you don’t overdo it in respect to the amount of data. Again REAL TIME is the important differentiator from my perspective.

Punit: What about the event source originating from Non-SAP sources in a Hybrid Cloud Environment/Multi Cloud Environment?

Answer: Well, we support open standards. So you can expose events from non-SAP via Event Mesh. The question is how to produce these events on the source side.

Punit: How do we do the load balancing to multi node /multi cluster event mesh instances in a Clustered environment ?

Answer: I am not absolutely sure whether we fully understand your question – is this load balancing in a CF subaccount or across CF subaccounts? Load balancing is typically handled by SAP, we would need additional background for this question though.

Kawal: What is the underlying technology for SAP Event Mesh?

Answer: We’re specifically hiding this away since we want to offer an event broker as a service, in an almost serverless way, allowing customers to do eventing without having to worry about these things. In the end it is hardware and software event brokers that do the actual work behind the scenes. If you know who we are partnering with, you should be able to conclude the answer.

Shanmugavel: How do we find out of box events in S/4HANA?

Answer: API Business Hub is the place to check out.

Stefan: What do I do if a dependent-on application is temporarily down and I need to replay the queued events for that application?

Answer: If an event consumer is temporarily down the events are kept in the queue. Once the event consumer is up again, it consumes the events. This is a design decision though. We typically work with queue subscriptions that show this behaviour.

Praveen: How can we harmonise all events within the mesh?

Answer: Difficult to answer. What does all events mean? All SAP events? Event Mesh is the strategic event mesh for SAP, so all LoBs are supposed/planned to send their events via Event Mesh mid term. Then the question would just be how to harmonise custom events that you would potentially create using a different toolset.

 

 

 

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      12 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Martin Stenzig
      Martin Stenzig

      Could you point me to step by step instructions as to how to add new events to S/4? I love the event concept, but the S/4 objects that I need to throw events are not enabled in the default release.

      Author's profile photo Michael Legaspi
      Michael Legaspi

      Would Event Mesh still be in SAP Cloud MTE?

      Author's profile photo Karsten Strothmann
      Karsten Strothmann
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Michael, let's be specific: Event Mesh is part of the BTP and not of S/4. So, what you are probably asking is whether events are available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud MTE. The answer is yes. Available events can be looked up in the API Business Hub.

      Author's profile photo Kawal Preet Kaur
      Kawal Preet Kaur

      Thank you so much for the amazing session and the blog. It would be great if we can have the latest in-depth documentation for the SAP Event Mesh.

      Also what is the limit for the number of topics in a Queue?

      Author's profile photo Srinivas Rao
      Srinivas Rao

      Hi Karsten Strothmann - Thank you for another opportunity to ask questions.

      I want to clarify my understanding.

      1. If I have the requirement to enhance my notification events, then at the moment it is not possible to do so, right ? If yes, then the only way to achieve it will be buy & install the Add-on which gives me the relevant infrastructure to create data events. Is this correct understanding?
      2. I am assuming that not all the business objects are covered to have standard notification events out of the box. What is the way to influence roadmap of SAP to consider a specific business object earlier than expected ?
      3. In many of the tutorials, we see that event mesh instance based dashboard is used to create queues, but I am assuming that is the NOT the case when it comes to enterprise account. We will always have to go via the Event Mesh subscription ( application ) to create queues & topics. Is this correct understanding?
      4. In case, we need notification events pushed to SAP Event Mesh based on BO data conditions, then it is not possible at the moment in standard. To achieve this, it is ONLY POSSIBLE via the Event Enablement Add-on. Is this correct understanding?

       

      Thanks & Regards

      Srinivas Rao.

      Author's profile photo Karsten Strothmann
      Karsten Strothmann
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Srinivas,

      1. Currently the only option for S/4 on prem and ECC would be the add-on. You need to install it, yes. Important point: you don't need to buy the add-on. It is included in the usage based pricing of SAP Event Mesh when using Event Mesh.
      2. There is an influence campaign - please go for it: https://influence.sap.com/sap/ino/#/campaign/1175
      3. You can use the management API as well. On top, if you use CAP for your coding, your queue can get created automatically during deployment. Check out these links for details:
      4. Unless the notification event is not listed in API Business Hub, the add-on is the way to go for now. On top, the S/4 colleagues work on another approach to provide events. My assumption and expectation is that this will be available sometime in 2022.

      Best,

      Karsten

      Author's profile photo Robert Eijpe
      Robert Eijpe

      Hi Karsten,

      Thanks for this clear presentation. For a customer of us, we implementing S/4HANA cloud events with event mesh and cloud integration to third party systems production systems. We now facing that we need to call an api after every event to look if this event is relevant. Will there come a possibility to filter events based on content in S/4HANA before sending it to event mesh?

       

      Author's profile photo Javier Garcia
      Javier Garcia

      Hi Robert,

       

      At Sika we like to route all messages such as iDocs, Proxy calls and now events through AIF (Application Interface Framework) which give us the flexibility of doing some validations, change the format of the event and also monitor them.

      It is not something standard & out of the box, but it is a possibility for your business case...

       

      Hope it helps

      BR
      Javier

      Author's profile photo Robert Eijpe
      Robert Eijpe

      Hi Javier, thanks for you feedback,

      But AIF is not scope for our integration process. We are not using the IDOCS and proxies. We using S/4HANA Cloud and need react on S/4HANA events and process them with BTP Event Mesh and Cloud Integration. Because these event are very limited in their payload, we always have to call the API to look what is the new data.

      Author's profile photo Karsten Strothmann
      Karsten Strothmann
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Robert,

      to my knowledge, the S/4HANA colleagues work on an additional approach. My expectation and assumption is that this approach will be available in 2022. Current plan is to allow for creating events, adjusting events, data events etc.

      Unfortunately, until then your current approach is the way to go.

      Best,

      Karsten

       

      Author's profile photo Jeswani Jitendra
      Jeswani Jitendra

      Firstly, I would like to ask if Event Mesh deployment supports federated deployment model meaning if I activate multiple Event Mesh instances across regions (due to compliance reasons). How the communication happens among brokers?

      Secondly, with Introduction of "Data Events" (much awaited), I understand the whole data set would be sent from publishing backends as part any state change. That brings me to following 2 points:

      1. what happens when the size of "Data Events" exceeds the limitation of 1MB? I understand there is a limitation on message size for all messaging protocols.
      2. Would it be possible to have to setup Data filters at Topic Level in Event broker so that only relevant data is pushed to subscribers.
      Author's profile photo Karsten Strothmann
      Karsten Strothmann
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Jeswani,

      1. You need an application in the middle that proactively takes care of the communication. Event Mesh does not support this out of the box. Event Mesh instances in different Cloud Foundry subaccounts are independent from each other. Connected blog: https://blogs.sap.com/2021/07/27/cloud-foundry-event-mesh-instance-sharing/
      2. The Event Source needs to ensure that events are not bigger than 1MB. Otherwise Event Mesh is going to not accept the event.
      3. Data events by the way does not mean that the entire data of an object would be sent. You can typically define what data the event holds.
      4. So you would do the filtering of wanted data already at creation level. Event Mesh does not support filtering/routing on content level.

      Best,

      Karsten