SAP ILM Processing Audit Areas

An audit area defines which business information needs to be stored for auditing purposes, for example for financial audits as well as warranty and product liability claims.
SAP delivers the following audit areas for testing purposes and as templates:
  • TAX (Tax Auditing)
  • PRODLIABIL (Warranty and Product Liability)
  • DEMO (For demonstration or test purposes, without BW queries)
  • GENERAL (All objects that are not assigned to an audit area)
In addition to objects from central ERP applications, some audit areas also contain objects from the industry solutions SAP Oil & Gas and SAP for Utilities.

Procedure

1. Calling up Audit Area Processing
Choose one of the following options:
  • In NetWeaver Business Client (NWBC), call up the Retention Management Cockpit and select the Processing of Audit Areas.
  • In the SAP application system, choose   Menu  User Menu  ILM Retention Management  Audit Areas Processing Audit Areas   (Transaction ILMARA).
2. Creating, Copying, or Merging Audit Areas
You can create an audit area and then assign an archiving object to it (such as the corresponding objects created in IRM Customizing). You can also copy an existing audit area (including all related objects) or you can merge it with another audit area and then adjust the object assignments.
Note Note
You can create audit areas only in the Z namespace. The source audit area for a merger with another audit area also has to be in a Z namespace. To change an audit area delivered by SAP or to use an audit area for a merger, you need to copy it to the Z namespace.
  • To create an audit area, proceed as follows:
    1. Choose Create.
    2. Enter the name (in the Z namespace) and the description of the audit area.
    3. Save by specifying a transport request (Customizing request).
    4. Assign them to the Objects (archiving objects) audit area as described below.
  • To create an audit area by copying another audit area, or to merge two audit areas, proceed as follows:
    1. Select the source audit area.
    2. Choose Copy.
    3. Enter the following data:
      • Deactivate after copying or merging: If you want to edit only retention rules in the target audit area, then select this checkbox. The system then deactivates all objects in the source audit area.
        Caution Caution
        You need to make this setting if you want to use an audit area delivered by SAP as a template.
        If you do not select this checkbox, all active objects remain unchanged in both audit areas and you need a rule for each active audit area. When you merge audit areas, all the activated objects in the source audit area are also activated in the target audit area. Objects that are active in the target audit area remain active, even if they were inactive in the source audit area.
      • Audit area: Name of the target audit area in the Z namespace (new name for a copy or name of the existing audit area for a merger)
    4. Confirm the entries and prompts.
    5. Specify if you also want to copy or merge audit package templates from the source audit area. ChooseOK to confirm.
      Note Note
      You can only merge the audit package templates if audit package templates already exist in the target audit area. The name of each audit package template must be unique.
    6. Save the new audit area by specifying a transport request.
3. Editing the Assignment of Objects (Archiving Objects) to Audit Areas
  1. Select the audit area and choose Start.
  2. Choose Edit.
  3. In the Selection column, select all IRM object that you want to assign to the audit area.
  4. Save by specifying a transport request (Customizing request).
    Note Note
    In the Decommissioning Cockpit, you can also select the tables and fields relevant to an object. You need additional authorization to do so.
    1. Select Selecting Tables and Fields.
    2. Choose Edit.
    3. In the Selection column, select all tables and fields of an archiving object that you want to assign to the audit area.
      Selecting a table includes all of the related fields. If you select a single field, the * symbol appears in the selection field.
    4. Save.
  5. Optional: To display the checksum definition and the checksum results for an object, select the row and choose the Display Checksums pushbutton.
    For more information, see: Checksums
Delete Audit Area
  1. Ensure that the audit area does not have retention rules assigned to it.
  2. Choose Delete.

Providing Stores for SAP NetWeaver ILM

To move data from the database of the system, you need an ILM-certified WebDAV server on which you can set up the ILM stores. You also need to connect and configure the storage service that runs on an AS JAVA to the application system.

Procedure

Assigning Authorizations for SAP NetWeaver ILM Functions

SAP delivers roles with the relevant authorizations for the use of the SAP NetWeaver ILM functions. To give users access to ILM functions according to the information storage and management processes, SAP delivers roles with the following attributes:
  • Access to the complete scope of functions (with administration rights)
  • Access to a limited scope of functions for defining rules specific to a Line of Business
Each role creates a menu structure that you can use on the SAP Easy Access screen or in the NetWeaver Business Client as the Cockpit for using ILM functions. In this menu structure, the functions are arranged according to the processes to be executed.
Depending on the assigned role, the Retention Management Cockpit offers either the complete or a restricted scope of functions for using the Retention Management functions.

Procedure

  1. Assign the roles with the relevant authorization for using the cockpit menu structure to the users.
  2. To be able to call up the SAP NetWeaver ILM function in a clear and concise cockpit, install the NetWeaver Business Client.

Activating SAP NetWeaver ILM

To be able to use SAP NetWeaver Lifecycle Management (SAP NetWeaver ILM), you need to activate the relevant Business Functions so that the ERP application system is ILM-enabled.
This enhances the archiving functions, specifically Archive Administration (transaction SARA) as follows:
  • Archive Structure Display
  • Including Retention Policies
  • Creating Snapshots
  • Destroying Information
  • Converting Archive Files for SAP NetWeaver ILM
  • ILM-specific Archive Administration

Prerequisites

You have a license for the use of SAP NetWeaver Information Lifecycle Management (SAP NetWeaver ILM).

Procedure

  1. To activate the Business Functions for SAP NetWeaver ILM, start Switch Framework in the legacy system.
    For more information, see: Activating Business Functions (Documentation on Switch Framework)
  2. Activate the ILM Business Function.
    More information: Documentation on the Information Lifecycle Management business function.

Overview of the SAP HANA Direct Extractor Connection

The SAP HANA Direct Extractor Connection (DXC) is a means for providing out-of-the-box foundational data models to SAP HANA, which are based on SAP Business Suite entities. DXC is also a data acquisition method forSAP HANA. The rationale for DXC is simple, low TCO data acquisition for SAP HANA leveraging existing delivered data models.
Customer projects can face significant complexity in modeling entities in SAP Business Suite systems. In many cases, data from various areas in SAP Business Suite systems requires application logic to represent the state of business documents appropriately. SAP Business Content DataSource Extractors have been available for many years as a basis for data modeling and data acquisition for SAP Business Warehouse. Now, with DXC, these SAP Business Content DataSource Extractors are available to deliver data directly to SAP HANA.
DXC is a batch-driven data acquisition technique; it is considered a form of extraction, transformation, and load, although its transformation capabilities are limited to using the user exit for extraction purposes. For more information, seehttp://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70/helpdata/en/49/ae67401d4988448036b180dc9ec1e6/content.htm andhttp://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw70/helpdata/en/6e/fe6e420f00d242e10000000a1550b0/content.htm.
A key point about DXC is that in many use cases, batch-driven data acquisition at certain intervals is sufficient, for example, every 15 minutes.
Overview of the DXC Rationale
The following key points sum up the rationale for the SAP HANA Direct Extractor Connection:
  • Use the preexisting foundation data models of SAP Business Suite entities as a basis for use in SAP HANA data-mart scenarios:
    • Reduces complexity of data modeling tasks in SAP HANA significantly
    • Speeds up time lines for SAP HANA implementation projects
  • Provide semantically rich data from SAP Business Suite to SAP HANA
    • Ensures that data appropriately represents the state of business documents from ERP
    • Includes application logic that is built into many extractors
  • Simplicity/Low TCO
    • Reuses existing proprietary extraction, transformation, and load mechanism built into SAP Business Suite systems over a simple HTTP(S) connection to SAP HANA
    • Requires no additional server or application in the system landscape
  • Change data capture (delta handling):
    • Acquires data efficiently – brings only new or changed data into SAP HANA
    • Handles data from all delta processing types properly
DXC Configuration for SAP Business Suite
There are two configurations available for DXC, based on the SAP Business Suite system:
  • The default configuration for SAP Business Suite systems based on SAP NetWeaver 7.0 or higher – such as ECC 6.0 is covered by this document.
  • The alternative configuration for SAP Business Suite systems based on releases lower than SAP NetWeaver 7.0 – such as SAP ERP 4.6 is covered in the appendix of this document. For more information, see theAppendix – DXC System Landscape Variants: The “Sidecar” Approach section.
An SAP Business Suite system is based on SAP NetWeaver. As of SAP NetWeaver version 7.0, SAP Business Warehouse (BW) is part of SAP NetWeaver, for example, ERP (ECC 6.0 or higher). This BW system is referred to as an “embedded BW system”. Typically, this embedded BW system is not used because most customers who run BW have it installed on a separate server, and they rely on that one. The default DXC configuration uses the scheduling and monitoring features of the embedded BW system but not its other aspects, such as storing data, data warehousing, or reporting (Business Intelligence (BI)). DXC extraction processing bypasses the normal dataflow and sends data to SAP HANA instead. The following illustration depicts the default configuration of DXC.
In SAP HANA, an In-Memory DataStore Object (IMDSO) is generated, which directly corresponds to the structure of the DataSource you are working with. This IMDSO consists of several tables and an activation mechanism. The active data table of the IMDSO can be used as a basis for building data models in SAP HANA (attribute views, analytical views, and calculation views).
Data is transferred from the SAP Business Suite source system using an HTTP connection. In general terms, the extraction and load process is the same as those used for extracting and loading SAP Business Warehouse – you rely on InfoPackage scheduling, the data load monitor, process chains, and so on.
Note
DXC redirects data into SAP HANA and therefore does not require BW on SAP HANA.