SAP Data Archiving Basic Guide for Beginner's

P2004515579 · ‎11-21-2022

Topics to be covered

Introduction

Benefits

Programs

Archiving object

T-Codes Explain

Archiving Development Kit

Access to archived data

Data Archiving Roadmap

Storage system

Conclusion

Introduction

Recently, I completed SAP Data Archiving Basic Training. Everyone has heard about archiving once in a lifetime. Let’s understand the basics of SAP data archiving in detail.

‘Archiving’ means the process associated with copying data and supporting documents from an active system to an external source for the purpose of deletion or storage for later retrieval.

In SAP, ‘Data archiving’ means selecting the huge volume of data that is no longer required in the database and that has not been used for a long time. Sap recommends this process of data archiving to clean up the SAP standard tables and improve the system's performance and usability.

Fig.1 A data archiving decision tree (Source: SAP)

Benefits of data archiving

Reduce the cost of memory, disk, and administration costs.

Improved system performance and response time.

Reduce the cost of maintenance and run of growing application infrastructure.

Let’s understand the programs used in the data archiving process,

Write :-

This program creates a new archive file and writes the data in it. At this point, no data has been deleted from the database. The write program can be executed in two processing models. (To create archive files)

Test mode

Production mode

In the test mode, no archive files will be created, whereas in the production mode, archive files will be created.

Fig.2 Write Program

Write session: -

SARA - > Give archiving object name.

Click on write button

Now provide variant name and click on maintain button to create the variant for write session.

Determine the user under which the session needs to be started.

Specify the date and time.

Define the spool parameter.

Execute

Delete: -

This program reads the data from the archived files and deletes the data from the database. The delete program can be executed in different processing modes.

Test mode

Production mode

In the test mode, the log after the execution shows the entries of the data to be deleted from the database, whereas in the production mode it shows the statistics of the deleted data from the database.

Delete session:-

SARA- > Give archiving name.

Click on delete action button

Determine the user under which the archive files need to be deleted

Select the archive files to be deleted

Specify the start date and time.

Define the spool parameter

Execute

Reload: -

This program is used to reload the archived data from the external storage system back into the respective SAP database tables. It is not available for all the archiving objects. (If need be, the archived objects can be restored.)

Pre-processing: -

Before the write phase, some archiving objects undergo optional phase named pre-processing.

In pre-processing, the data for archiving is marked by the creation of a deletion flag, but the data is not deleted from the database.

On completion of pre-processing, the data marked for deletion will be archived by write program.

Fig.3 Preprocessing

Post processing:-

It also operates on the database and does not require any archive files. This is the final program and can be executed asynchronously with the delete program.

If the data from the database is not deleted by the delete programs, it can be deleted by the post processing program.

Index program:-

The program builds or deletes an index that allows individuals access. Infostructure created for archive objects acts as an index to the archived data.

Archiving session’s status:-

Complete status:- Data archived and deleted.(Green)

Incomplete status:- Data was only archived.(Yellow)

Error status:- Error occurred while write program.(Red)

Fig.4 Status

Archiving object:-

Archiving objects describe the structure and context of the data to be archived.

An archiving object combines all the functions necessary to archive data that is linked through business process (Such as Orders, invoices etc.) and object linked to this data.

Archiving objects are defined by the transaction AOBJ.

Fig.5 Archiving Object

Archive Administration:

The Archive administration enables you to all your archiving programs (read, write, delete, and restore) and also generates background jobs for them.

Residence period:

Amount of data that will be available online before it meets the achievability criteria.

Retention period: -

It is the entire time that the data spends in archive format before it gets deleted from the actual database.

T-Codes explain:-

SARA:-

Central transaction for performing data archiving.

From SARA, we can branch to other transactions in data archiving environment.

SARA is an archive administration tool that is used to write, delete and manage all data archive in SAP system.

Fig.6 SARA

AOBJ:-

Contains the programs offered by archiving object.

Contains the tables from which the data is archived for a particular object, customizing settings for the object etc.

AOBJ can be used to define custom archiving objects for the customer specific tables.

DB02:-

A database table that is growing extremely fast could be the focal point of sharing.

Database Monitoring done using transaction DB02.

DB02 provides information about size and growth of tables, index files, table spaces etc.

Fig.7 DB02

DB15:-

Transaction DB15 provides information about which database tables belongs to which archiving objects and vice versa.

Fig.8 DB15

TAANA:-

TAANA transaction code is used to analyze how data is distributed across the fields of tables.(ex; time periods, organizational unit etc.)

TAANA transactions will be used to determine how many records can be removed from the table using specific archiving object.

Fig.9 TAANA

Archiving Development Kit :- (ADK)

Archive development kit is of central component for data archiving.

ADK provides all data archiving functions and all necessary tools for developing new data archiving solution.

With ADK, SAP provides an archiving solution for SAP standard tables in SAP applications. Also, we can write our own archiving objects that fit for specific tables and functions.

ADK provides other features like data compression, connection to external storage, automatic structure conversion for data objects etc.

Access to archived data:-

Business Transaction:-

SAP has delivered archive enabled transaction codes to retrieve the archived data.

Eg.FB03 for FI_DOCUMENT

These transactions can directly be used to get access to data archive.

Document Relationship Browser(DRB):-

Display of business processes across archive and database boundaries.

Using Archive Information System:-

Archive information system is a cross application tool used to index archive files.

The archive information system also offers an option for displaying archived data in a technical view.

Using archive read programs:-

Application can offer programs that evaluate archived data and display it in a business view.

Fig.10 The three phases of the SAP data archiving procedure (Source: Mouritech)

Data Archiving Roadmap:-

Storage system in data archiving:-

The archived files are saved in the content repository after the write program has created an archive file before the delete program starts. (OAC0)

You can also use external storage system connected to sap system, SAP CMS or Archivelink interface stores the archive files to storage system automatically as instructed.

You can write the archived files to local tapes or CD’s

Because data security is also important in data archiving, European countries have decided to implement the GDPR rule. GDPR stands for "General Data Protection Regulation." It gives individual the control and protection of their personal data.

Fig.11 GDPR Rule(Source: SAP)

Conclusion:-

In this blog, I discussed some fundamental data archiving concepts. I understand that data archiving is a big topic. There are numerous topics, such as infostructure, logical path, and some technical stuff. I will try to cover the remaining topics in my next blog. The purpose of this blog post was to provide the basics of data archiving in a simpler format. Please correct me if I'm wrong somewhere, or leave a comment. I will appreciate your comments about this blog. You can expect to see many more blogs written by me about SAP functional modules. Make sure you follow me for more such articles.

Thank You.

You can use some references for additional information.

https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_POLICY_MANAGEMENT/2f97c46b09a9420c998853f4b0187777/d269e2518fb9f261e10...

https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_PRODUCTION_AND_REVENUE_ACCOUNTING/75bc5bb1955345c59bb53d3cc4db9ec2/4d8...