How to replicate from ABAP to ABAP

With DMIS 2011 SP6 we released the capability for ABAP to ABAP replication. The underlying database is not imporatent for this setup. We get more and more request how to set it up. It is described in the system docu, but of cause a how to with screenshots is much better.

First of all, why should you setup a ABAP to ABAP replication?!

◉ Replacement of an batch-oriented option to move data between systems
◉ Fill additional ABAP system beside ECC with real-time data

License: The standalone SLT license is required. Any license you got with HANA is not valid for any use case beside the replication directly into HANA DB!

Architectural Concept:

From a setup perspective nothing changed to the original HANA scenario. The main difference is that you need a RFC connection to the target ABAP system. The setup of the configuration is done via LTR, all other executions like start/pause/resume/stop replication is handled via LTRC. The DMIS Addon has to be deployed, in the source, SLT and target system.

Setup steps:

1.) You have to create a configuration via LTR, first you specify a configuration name.

2.) Afterwards you specify the RFC Destination of the source system.

3.) In the third step you choose RFC Connection from the radio buttons and specify the RFC Destination and the Scenario with Standard RFC scenario.

4.) In the next step, you define the transfer settings as required.Nothing special to the settings you know from HANA replication.

5.) In the last step, you review your configuration and create it finally.

The configuration is now ready to use.

Start replication:

To start the replication for a table you have to enter transaction LTRC and execute the Data Provisioning function.

Specify the table name you want to replicate, the transfer option and execute it.

Two important points:

◉ Ensure that a target table with the same name already exist. In the ABAP to ABAP scenario, SLT will not create the target table structure automatically.

◉ Take care for the client, if you do not have the same client in source and target, specify a transformation rule that change the source client to the target client.

Monitoring:

You can check the transfer process, the logging tables, triggers and the creation of the different objects in the Table Overview and Data Transfer Monitor in transaction LTRC.

Result:

The procedure to enable ABAP to ABAP replication is pretty easy, the only important points are that you have to ensure that the target table is already available on the target system. SLT will not create the table automatically (of cours you can have tables with different fields and transformaiton rules). Also the client field is an important point. In the HANA case SLT will write all records from all clients to the schema, here with ABAP to ABAP the client seperation will take place and you will only see the client depend data. If you have the need to transfer records from client 100 to the target system to client 200 – a transformation rule is required.