About Integration Repository
Integration Repository, earlier known as Interface Documentation, in SAP Solution Manager 7.2 as part of Solution Documentation provides the possibility to centrally document interfaces in the solution landscape. Basically, all interface technologies which exist in an SAP landscape are available, including SAP PI interfaces where the processing is done through different kinds of adapters. Each interface can be specified individually, as every interface technology provides a set of so-called interface attributes which comes out-of-the-box. In case further interface attributes are needed it is possible to create custom attributes and use them in the same way as the attributes delivered by SAP. Moreover, custom-specific interface technologies can be defined in case the standard technologies are insufficient to describe the interface properly.
How does Integration Repository help you?
In today’s distributed solution landscapes it is essential to have a central view of the existing interfaces and their technical details. Different tools may exist in various places which cater to the task of documenting single parts of interfaces, or only small portions of the interface information available in your landscape. Concentrating all this information centrally in SAP Solution Manager increases the visibility and helps avoid duplicate maintenance of said interface data in different tools.
In addition, the effect of planned downtimes in your solution landscape can be judged more easily, especially if the interfaces are assigned to business processes. Then it is directly clear which business processes will be affected once a system is shut down for maintenance, and corresponding measures can be taken in advance. Furthermore, if there is a critical situation in your landscape, like a system has stopped unexpectedly, or a particular interface has become stuck due to technical errors, you can identify the affected business processes directly in SAP Solution Manager without having the need to access the managed systems and laboriously search for the necessary information.
Many customers still use offline documents like spreadsheets to list their interfaces. This is usually cumbersome to handle and often poses the risk that data gets lost or outdated information is used due to improper document management. The Integration Repository application aims at replacing such kind of maintenance mode. Although it will create some initial effort to transfer the offline documentation into the SAP system it is worthwhile to do so. Interfaces and their attribute data can then benefit from all features Solution Documentation provides. This particularly means that different versions of the same interface can exist in parallel, and attribute data for the same interface may vary per site or system role.
In addition, integration with the Interface & Connection Monitoring application is available: interface attribute data maintained in Integration Repository can be used to configure Interface Channels for monitoring & alerting, without having the need to enter the same data into the system again. This integration reflects the best practice-like approach for Interface Management in SAP Solution Manager as indicated in below figure.
Effectively, Integration Repository gives you the following benefits:
- Gain a central view of all the interfaces in your landscape, including their technical and functional details
- Get rid of outdated excel sheets and human errors occuring on it
- Monitor your business critical interfaces and track issues arising out of interface failures immediately
Technical Aspects
- The Integration Repository application, although tightly bound to Solution Documentation, is a stand-alone application with separate data persistency. It acts as external application to Solution Documentation, and can be called from there as an element of an Interface object in the Interface Library.
- Integration Repository allows you to maintain the same interface in different contexts within the same solution – be it in different sites or system roles within the same branch, or across system boundaries. This represents the lifecycle of an interface as it is used in the real world: interfaces can be either created newly during an implementation project, or existing interfaces can be adjusted during an upgrade project.
- Interfaces exist in the whole landscape (in development, test, and productive environment), but may have slightly different attribute data due to specific, system-dependent attributes. All these aspects are covered by Integration Repository application – see the subsequent chapters for further details.
- Technically, the different variations of the same Integration Repository are persisted separately but held together by a common identifier, the so-called LIFO ID (“Logical Interface Object”). This guarantees that system-independent attributes of the same interface are always in sync between different contexts.
- If an interface gets updated during an upgrade project the corresponding Integration Repository object can be copied into the Maintenance branch of the solution, too, and later, when released to Production branch, it replaces the previous version of the Integration Repository object without disruptions.
To ensure successful service deliveries including the Integration Repository, the following prerequisites have to be fulfilled.
Release Dependency
Import using Excel Template | Value Helps for Interface Attributes | Interface Search and Mass Maintenance | Integration Directory of SAP PI/PO | Interface Discovery for RFC | Interface Discovery for IDoc | Interface Discovery for Web Service | S/4HANA ATC Check using Custom Code Analysis
Import using Excel Template
If you like to use the Excel Template for importing interface information into Integration Repository, Solution Manager on SP05 or higher is required.
Value Helps for Interface Attributes
To make full use of the value helps which are available for most attributes it is necessary to have RFC TMW or READ destinations in place to the managed systems which contain the source data.
Interface Search and Mass Maintenance
For using the Interface Search and Mass Maintenance app, SP09 or higher on Solution Manager is required.
Integration Directory of SAP PI/PO
To use the integration of SAP PI/PO Integration Directory, SP10 or higher on Solution Manager is required.
Interface Discovery for RFC
The technology RFC in Interface Discovery is available as standard for queued RFCs since SP08 of Solution Manager. With SP11, the functionality is established using the Unified Connectivity (UCON). Starting from SP12, we are using the statistical records (STAD) in the Managed System to discover RFC interfaces.
On the Managed System used for the extraction, ST-A/PI 01U is required for the Unified Connectivity (UCON) based functionality. Further, the managed system should be on SAP_BASIS 740 SP5 or above.
For the qRFC part, ST-A/PI 01T_731/700 SP01 and ST-PI 740/700 SP09 is required. In addition, note 1042040 needs to be implemented.
Interface Discovery for IDoc
For using Interface Discovery for IDoc, SP08 or higher is required. In addition, the Managed System which is used for the extraction needs to be on ST-A/PI 01T_731/700 SP01 or higher and ST-PI 740/700 SP09 or higher.
Interface Discovery for Web Service
The technology Web Service in Interface Discovery is available as standard since SP10 of Solution Manager ( Downport available for SP08 and SP09 ). On the Managed System used for the extraction, ST-A/PI 01T_731/700 SP01 is required. Furthermore, the prerequisite notes needs to be implemented in the Managed System and Solution Manager ( SP08, SP09 ).
S/4HANA ATC Check using Custom Code Analysis
If you plan to use the S/4HANA ATC Check from Custom Code Analysis, a system with SAP_BASIS 751 or higher is required.
Notes
The following notes have to be implemented in Solution Manager / Managed System.
| |
|---|---|
| SP13 | 3063423- INR: Collective Note for Integration Repository SP13. 3014479 - Note to retrieve receiving partner routing attributes. |
| SP12 | 3063130- INR: Collective Note for Integration Repository SP12 3014479 - Note to retrieve receiving partner routing attributes. |
| SP11 | 2912923 - INR: Collective Note for Integration Repository SP11 3014479 - Note to retrieve receiving partner routing attributes. |
| SP10 | 2912869 - INR: Collective Note for Integration Repository SP10 3014479 - Note to retrieve receiving partner routing attributes. |
SP09 | 2937680 - INR: Collective Note for Integration Repository SP09 |
SP08 | 2833165 - INR: Collective Note for Integration Repository SP08 2800542 - INR: Excel Export for Interface Discovery |
SP07 | 2664328 - IFDOCU: Interface Details changeable although read-only authorization provided 2668114 - IFDOCU: Import in Solution Documentation returns "Error while saving of attribute values" 2800542 - INR: Excel Export for Interface Discovery 2557971 - INR: Downport of Integration Repository Tools to SP07 |
SP06 | 2592191 - Advance Corrections IFDocu SM 7.2 ST720 delivered with SP07 2664328 - IFDOCU: Interface Details changeable although read-only authorization provided 2668114 - IFDOCU: Import in Solution Documentation returns "Error while saving of attribute values" |
SP05 | 2592191 - Advance Corrections IFDocu SM 7.2 ST720 delivered with SP07 2668114 - IFDOCU: Import in Solution Documentation returns "Error while saving of attribute values" |
| |
| 01U_700 / 01U_731 SP 0 | 1042040 - extended qRFC monitoring 2936751 - INR: Collective Note for Interface Discovery (ST-A/PI 01U SP00) |
01T_700 / 01T_731 Valid for Support Packages 01T_700 01T_700 01T_731 01T_731 | 1042040 - extended qRFC monitoring 2769657 - INR: Interface Discovery for IDoc 2799079 - INR: Enhancements for Interface Discovery for IDoc |
01T_700 / 01T_731 Valid for Support Packages 01T_700 SAPKITAB7X 01T_731 SAPKITAB9X | 1042040 - extended qRFC monitoring 2877574 - INR: Collective Note for Interface Discovery (ST-A/PI 01T SP03) |
Only valid with SAP Basis 740 SP11 or higher 2920553 - INR: Collective Note for Webservice Discovery (ST-A/PI 01T SP03 and SAP_BASIS 740 SP11 or higher ) | |
Authorizations
Customer Attribute Maintenance | Integration Repository Tools | Integration Directory of SAP PI/PO | Interface Discovery
The Interface Documentation can only be accessed if appropriate authorizations are available. This includes the authorizations to view and maintain Solution Documentation itself.
Please use template user BPO_ADM_<SID> to have authorizations to Solution Documentation in your Solution Manager. In addition, user needs authorization to the Function Module RFC_READ_TABLE with authorization object S_RFC and activity 'Execute'. This is used for fetching value helps in Integration Repository.
Customer Attribute Maintenance
In order to enable maintenance of custom-specific content your user must have authorization S_TCODE with value AGS_DCM_CUST_IFDOCU in Solution Manager. This authorization is assigned to standard roles SAP_SM_SL_ADMIN and SAP_SM_SL_EDIT_BPMN.
Integration Repository Tools
Role SAP_SM_BPOINR_DISPLAY has to be assigned for display of Integration Repository Tools. This is valid for Solution Manager SP11 onwards.
Role SAP_SM_BPOINR_EXE is needed for executing Integration Repository Tools in Solution Manager SP11 onwards.
Integration Directory of SAP PI/PO
For the RFC destination from Managed System Configuration in Solution Manager, the user maintained in the SM_*_READ destination to PI/PO must have authorization S_RFC with function module SXMS_PF_GET_AUDIT_DATA_AGG assigned.
Interface Discovery
From ST-A/PI 01U SP00 onwards, Authorization Object SM_BPM_DET is needed for access to Interface Discovery. Please check under below technologies for more details on the authorization.
All the necessary authorizations needed for ST-A/PI 01U SP00 onwards are included in role SAP_BPM_INT_DIS for access to Interface Discovery .
Technology IDoc
- From ST-A/PI 01U onwards, for the authorization object SM_BPM_DET, field values APPARA_MS = INR and OBJECT_MS = IDOC_DISC are required.
Technology RFC
qRFC
To execute the steps for qRFC discovery, Developer authorization is required ( S_DEVELOP ).
From ST-A/PI 01U onwards, for the authorization object SM_BPM_DET, field values APPARA_MS = INR and OBJECT_MS = QRFC_DISC are required.
- Unified Connectivity (UCON)
- From ST-A/PI 01U onwards, for the authorization object SM_BPM_DET, field values APPARA_MS = INR and OBJECT_MS = RFC_DISC are required.
Technology Web Service
From ST-A/PI 01U onwards, for the authorization object SM_BPM_DET, field values APPARA_MS = INR and OBJECT_MS = WS_DISC are required.
Service Activation
Services to activate in transaction SICF in Solution Manager | |
|---|---|
BSP_IFDOCU_MM | Interface Search and Mass Maintenance |
WDA_AGS_DCM_EXT_IMPORT | To import interfaces to Integration Repository |
| AGS_DCM_IFDOCU_SRV | Odata Service for Integration Repository: Then go to transaction /n/IWFND/MAINT_SERVICES and assign system alias "LOCAL_SM" to service AGS_DCM_IFDOCU_SRV |
| AGS_DCM_INR_SRV | Odata Service for Integration Repository for Solution Manager SP10 onwards: Then go to transaction /n/IWFND/MAINT_SERVICES and assign system alias "LOCAL_SM" to service AGS_DCM_INR_SRV |
Tool-Specific Prerequisites
In order to check the prerequisites and execute the service preparation, remote access to Solution Manager and the relevant Managed Systems is required.
Integration Directory of SAP PI/PO | Interface Discovery for Web Service | Interface Discovery for RFC | S/4HANA ATC Check using Custom Code Analysis | Integration in SAP Readiness Check 2.0
Integration Directory of SAP PI/PO
The SAP PI/PO system must be connected to the Solution Manager as Managed System and RFC destinations should be maintained.
There must be a Logical Component Group including the PI/PO system in system role „Production System“ of the solution-branch combination you plan to use.
You need two HTTP Connections to External Services which targets the PI system. The first HTTP destination should target the PI/PO ESR. Please use the description above from the ESR integration. In addition, you need a second HTTP destination without any path prefix and where Basic Authentication is maintained. This HTTP destination to External Server should follow this naming convention: SOL_API_<system id>.
Logical Ports must be created in Solution Manager to connect to the different Web services of the PI/PO system. The required logical ports depend on the PI/PO installation type. For more details on creation on Logical Ports, please check here.
List of Web Services used:
- Dual Stack installation
- SenderAgreementIn
- ReceiverAgreementIn
- CommunicationChannelIn
- ReceiverDeterminationIn
- InterfaceDeterminationIn
- IntegrationProcessIn
- JAVA-only installation
- IntegratedConfigurationIn
- CommunicationChannelIn
AdapterMessageMonitoring
- JAVA-only installation
Before importing the interfaces using Solution Administration Import, you need to create Logical Component Groups for all senders and receivers.
Interface Discovery for Web Service
SAP Basis on the managed system should be 740 SP11 or higher
Interface Discovery for RFC
For the Unified Connectivity (UCON) based functionality, Unified Connectivity has to be set to active in the managed system. For more details on setting up UCON, please check this.
S/4HANA ATC Check using Custom Code Analysis
As the legacy ECC system (in most cases) and Solution Manager are not on this SAP_BASIS level, we propose to use any available S/4HANA instance as hub system. This could be a sandbox instance available in your landscape.
The hub system needs to be connected via RFC to the to-be-scanned system. In addition, the hub system should be configured as Managed System on Solution Manager to enable data transfer of the ATC results.
In the hub system, we need access to transaction ATC to create run variants, schedule the run and access the results. On the to-be-scanned system, we need access to transaction SCI for creating the object set which will be scanned in the ATC run.
Further information is available on this SAP Blog.
Integration in SAP Readiness Check 2.0
Please refer to the blog to find details about Integration topic in SAP Readiness Check 2.0.
| |
|---|---|
Walk-through on creation of interfaces in Solution Documentation’s Interface Library, and the maintenance of interface attribute data in Integration Repository. This section contains: | |
Tools that help you set up and maintain Interfaces in Integration Repository. This section contains | |
Create custom Interface Attributes and custom Interface Technologies. This section contains:
| |
Actions you can perform on your Integration Repository. This section contains:
| |
How to migrate to Integration Repository from Solution Manager 7.1. This section contains: | |
Additional information that helps you set up and maintain Integration Repository. This section contains: | |
What Integration Repository Provides | |
|---|---|
General Features | With Solution Manager 7.2, the handling of interfaces was improved and simplified. For a list of features available in the different Support Packages see below. |
| |
SP11 |
|
SP10 |
|
SP09 |
|
SP08 |
|
SP05 |
|
SP03 |
|
Issue: Zero IDoc interfaces returned from Readiness Check | Issue: Implementation of Note 2769657 in SAP Solution Manager | Issue: qRFC Table Shadowing is not getting deactivated
Issue: Zero IDoc interfaces returned from Readiness Check
You are using Readiness Check tool and there is 0 IDoc Interfaces returned in the Integration Section.
Solution:
- Logon to the Managed System where Readiness Check is executed
- Goto transaction SE80 => Set breakpoint in subroutine eim_ifacedisc_idoc_readiness of program /SSA/EIM at PERFORM eim_ifacediscovery_idoc (Inbound and Outbound)
- Goto transaction SE38 => Execute RC_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA => Select only „Interface“ as scope
- Via menu „Program“ select „Execute and Print”
- Select any temporary printer and execute
- Confirm all popups
- The PERFORMs should return data
- If no data is returned, please raise an incident on SV-SMG-MON-BPM-DCM.
- If data is returned, we have a problem in the transfer of data between our routine and Readiness Check infrastructure. Please raise an incident on SV-SCS-S4R.
Issue: Implementation of Note 2769657 in SAP Solution Manager
You are implementing the note 2769657 to execute Readiness Check in your system. The system is a SAP Solution Manager.
Solution:
- The note 2769657 is not compatible with SAP Solution Manager. As Readiness Check will not be executed for SAP Solution Manager, it is not required to implement the note.
Issue: qRFC Table Shadowing is not getting deactivated
You are selecting the below options and pressing Execute. Yet, qRFC Table shadowing is not getting deactivated.
Solution Selecting the checkbox will activate qRFC Table Shadowing. To deactivate, please de-select the corresponding checkbox and press 'Execute'.
Introduction:
The idea of this service is to simplify the transition of integration scenarios from legacy ECC to S/4HANA on-premise. In the process, we establish the Integration Repository as central documentation in Solution Manger for all integration scenarios in the system landscape. And finally, to proof the readiness for S/4HANA, we execute an impact analysis on the Integration Repository content .
Business Needs:
Scope of the service:
1.Integration Repository(Documentation of interfaces):
- Tools & best practices to centrally document and mange interfaces in the solution manager.
- Guidelines to create and maintain custom interface technologies as well as custom attributes and use them in the same way as the attributes delivered by SAP.
- Guidelines to move and maintain the interface documentation across different branches with a solution context.
- Offers the possibility to search and mass maintain the interface attributes in few clicks.
2.Integration Assessment for S/4 HANA transition:
- To assess the changes in SAP S/4HANA (on-premise) which requires mandatory adaption actvities or could result in a significant disruption or disadvantage with regard to interfaces in the customer landscape
The changes include:
i. Removal of functionality (with or without a successor functionality.
ii. Changes to existing functionality which have a business impact or technical impact on customers.
- Semi-automatic approach using SAP tools to perform the assessment of changes for the interfaces in the customer landscape based on the simplification catalog and blacklisted databases.
3.Scalability for Interface Monitoring:
- Integration between integration repository and Interface & Connection Monitoring (ICMon) setup tool is available via the Default Values functionality to monitor the business-critical interfaces.
- Interface attribute data maintained in Integration Repository can be used to configure Interface Channels for monitoring & alerting, without having the need to enter the same data into the system again.
Single source of truth in Solution Manager for interface information
Integration Repository -Supported Technologies
- IDoc (ALE / EDI)
- BDoc
- Batch Input, Direct Input
- File
- HTTP / Webservice (ABAP, JAVA, REST-based, OData)
- Java Message Service (JMS)
- SAP PI / PO (any kinds of SAP supported adapter technologies)
- RFC (sRFC, aRFC, tRFC, qRFC, bgRFC)
- SAP Workflow
- SQL / Remote Database Access (ADBC, JDBC)
- Customer-specific Interface Technologies
S/4 HANA Impact Analysis
Integration Repository and Monitoring
Tools:
As Integration Repository will remain as the main conceptual building block which is part of Solution Manager´s Solution Documentation functionality. Most of the technical part of the service involves execution of different tools for extracting the existing interfaces from the managed system from different data sources.
For this purpose, we have developed different toolsets for automatic retrieval of interface data.
1. Interface Discovery - IDoc, RFC, Webservices etc.,
4. Interface Search and Mass Maintenance.
5. S/4HANA Impact Analysis - ATC Check from Custom Code Analysis.
Deliverables:
- Overview of Integration Assessment service concept and tool
- Understand the Integration Assessment concept and how it can support the transition to S/4HANA - Integration Repository with content from different tools
- The repository provides a central location to document all integration scenarios across the complete system landscape - S/4HANA transition impact analysis for prioritized interfaces
-The result of the analysis provides you an overview which interfaces will not work without adaption after transitioning to S/4HANA - Empowering for Integration Assessment and its supporting tools and resources
-You will be able execute the activities from the workshop yourself and continue with building up the Integration Repository and analyzing the impact of the S/4HANA transition
Service Approach:
- The service component starts with the preparation of the integration repository in SAP Solution Manager 7.2 (pre-condition). It includes system preparation as well as activation of interface discovery tools in SAP Solution Manager, in order to find active interfaces in the SAP system landscape.
- During an onsite workshop, the integration repository concept is explained. Furthermore, the first batch of interfaces is jointly imported from different sources into the integration repository. The knowledge transfer ensures that customers can proceed importing additional interface information themselves.
- With the integration repository build up, the service component continues with demonstrating the impact analysis in regard to the SAP S/4HANA transition. Different information sources are consulted (e.g. blacklisted RFCs, simplification items). The service component focuses on demonstration and knowledge transfer to the customer.
- The deliverable is an activated integration repository in SAP Solution Manager which is partly filled, and a first version of a list of impacted interfaces.
Service Value:
- Setup of Integration Repository to document and maintain the interfaces in Solution Manager to have a central view of the existing interfaces and their technical details by the service consultant.
- Extraction of available interface (standard &custom) from the landscape using Interface discovery tools.
- Documentation of the extracted interfaces in Integration Repository based on the business context.
- Execution of impact analysis on the documented interfaces from the Integration Repository for S/4 HANA readiness assessment.
- Final service report with the list of affected interfaces, and the corresponding workaround via. SAP notes and guidelines to fix the affected interface objects for smooth transition to S/4 HANA.
Service Contact:
Integration Assessment service is currently offered to customers with a valid Premium Engagement agreement.
For further information, please reach out to your SAP representative, either your Technical Quality Manager if you already are a premium engagement customer,
or your Services Account Manager.