System Landscape Directory

Author: Paul Médaille

 System Landscape Directory

Contents:

• Overview of the System Landscape Directory

• Deployment Options
• Administering the SLD
• Maintaining SLD Content
• The XI Domain

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

z Administer the System Landscape Directory (XI-specific).
z Describe and Create a Technical System of type “Exchange
Infrastructure.”
z Create an XI Domain.

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

 System Landscape Directory: Business Scenario

z You have installed the Exchange Infrastructure and

need to maintain the System Landscape Directory.

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

 System Landscape Directory

The System Landscape Directory is a server

application that communicates with a client
application via HTTP.
The server holds a central Repository of information
about systems and software in the Data Center and
the XI Landscape

Information in the SLD is partly provided by SAP and

partly maintained by the customer

Information in the SLD is maintained in a protocol

developed by the DMTF (www.dmtf.org) called the
Common Information Model or CIM.

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ XI components are client applications to the SLD; for instance, and integration engine can determine its role by reading it from
the System Landscape Directory. SAP’s Solution Manager is another client application to the SLD.
„ The two main content areas inside the SLD are the System Landscape (catalog of physical and logical systems in the data center)
and the Software Catalog (description of all software products from SAP and other vendors).
„ The SLD is populated with data about SAP software by SAP; that is, an administrator uploads a file to the SLD that contains the
description of all currently-supported SAP products and software components. Customers are then to add entries for non-SAP
products and software components. Additionally, other vendors that support the CIM model can provide software descriptions of
their products.
„ From the web site of the Distributed Management Task Force:
Distributed Management Task Force, Inc. (DMTF), developer of the Common Information Model (CIM), is the industry
organization leading the development, adoption, and interoperability of management standards and initiatives for enterprise
and Internet environments.
CIM is the breakthrough standard for the exchange of management information in a platform-independent and technology-
neutral way, streamlining integration and reducing costs by enabling end-to-end multi-vendor interoperability in
management systems. Key technology vendors and affiliated standards groups that implement CIM enable a more
integrated, cost-effective and less crisis-driven approach to management.
„ SAP AG is a leadership member of the DMTF.
„ You can access the SLD by pointing a browser to http://<server>:<port>/sld (where <server> is the SLD server and <port> is the
J2EE HTTP port). You will be prompted for a user name and password.
 Deployment Options

1. Single SLD Server

2. Distributed SLD Servers

3. Dedicated SLD Server

for a System Island

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ The SLD server acts as a central information provider for the enterprise system landscape. Therefore, the
most common installation scenario is that all systems inside a system landscape including all sub-networks
share a single SLD server. The advantages of using a single SLD server for the entire system landscape
include consistent data and easier administration and lower operating expense.
„ For some large system landscapes that are distributed over different geographic locations, a single SLD
server might slow down the performance of involved application systems. In this case, a distributed SLD
server installation can be taken into account. In order to ensure consistent data of the distributed SLD
servers, the SLD bridges of each location have to be configured to deliver system data to all distributed
SLD servers (see information on the system bridge later in this unit). In addition, if any data has been
entered manually, this data has to be entered in the Web-based UI for all SLD servers, too. Note that the
distributed SLD servers can cause higher administration expense with regard to consistent data. Therefore,
we recommend that you use a single SLD server first.
„ In certain cases, you need to have a dedicated SLD for a particular group of systems (production
landscape, for example) while all systems including the particular group should be kept in another SLD.
Figure 3 illustrates a production landscape as a system island that obtains a dedicated SLD server for its
own use. The main SLD server, in contrast, stores information about all systems in the landscape including
the production landscape. In this case, the SLD bridge, which is connected with the production systems,
has to be configured to deliver data to both the dedicated and the main SLD server. If systems have been
entered manually in the production system landscape, they have to be entered manually in the Web-based
UI for both SLD servers.
 Administering the SLD

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ Administration of the SLD includes the following items:

y Starting and stopping the SLD server. To start or stop, use the toggle button on the Main
Administration page. You can also see the status of the Server (running or stopped) from here.
y Viewing the Server log and configuring the log settings.
y Viewing and setting important server and SLD parameters
y Configuring the Data Supplier Bridge (allows for self-registration of SAP systems)
y Sending System messages.
„ Additionally, an administrator can maintain content in the SLD, including:
y Importing CIM data to the SLD, exporting CIM data from the SLD, and backing up the CIM data.
y Maintaining CIM data (especially for areas of the model that do not have maintenance dialogs in the
main SLD screen, such as XI domains).
y Monitoring changes to CIM data
y Managing Namespaces for development
y Viewing Automatically Updated data.
„ To access the administration area, you require a user ID with the security role LcrAdministrator.
The standard role mapping provides this security role for the J2EE administrator (see the User
Management and Security unit of this course for further details).
 Administering the Server Log
Select the level at which internal
components of the SLD server write To change the log
log messages. If you set this to level permanently
something lower than Info (Debug, for and globally for the
example), it may decrease complete cluster,
performance. choose Set
Permanently.

Download or Upload log

settings to a file.

Filter the log Refresh the log view,

Download the log
output by the clear the log view, or set
to a local file.
level of detail. the view to auto-refresh.

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ To work with the server log, click the Server Log link from the main Administration page.
„ During a system process, the SLD server logs relevant information for monitoring purposes. This process
is called a Trace. The trace levels specify which message classes the system records. You can set logging
at one of the following trace levels for one session, or you can set it permanently:
-0: None
-1: Warn
-2: Info
-3: Debug
-4: Fine
-5: Finer
-6: Finest
„ A trace level includes all levels that are lower. (In the table above they are numerically lower.) This means
that the system records all messages of the set classes and of the ones lower than them. Additionally, the
two message classes Error and Fatal are always recorded. Error displays application and system errors
that do not prevent the application from continuing. Fatal, on the other hand, flags errors that cause the
application to stop. The default trace level is 2 (Info). The higher the trace level, the more extensive and
detailed the log, and the larger the log file.
„ Since the log settings are maintained in a file, you can download the settings file, change it, and upload the
settings file. Chnages to the file only take effect, however, when the SLD server is restarted.
 Displaying System Information

1. Choose Server → Details.

The browser displays the Details screen.
2. Select the relevant tab page.

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ To perform administrative activities for the SLD service, you need an overview of the J2EE application
that is running. You can use the function described here to display information about the following:
•Server
• Data
• Persistence
• Object Manager
• Browser
•Supplier Bridge
„ This page allows for viewing the relevant settings only. To change settings, you must navigate to the
appropriate page in SLD Administration.
 Server Settings

Enter a registered ABAP namespace or

the name of the J2EE host

The standard path is "/usr/sap/<SID>/SYS/global/sld"

on UNIX and
"<X>:\usr\sap\<SID>\SYS\global\sld"
on Windows.

Ensure that the persistence mode is “Database.”

“Database” is the default persistence mode. “File System”
is only needed for test purposes.

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ Choose Administration→ Server Settings on the main page.

„ You can make server settings changes only if the SLD server is stopped.
„ Enter an ABAP namespace without enclosing slashes for Object Server and the path of the working
directory for Working Directory. You can reserve an ABAP namespace at
http://service.sap.com/namespaces. This will ensure global uniqueness of your object names. If you are
not able to reserve a prefix at SAP, use a host name as Object Server. In this case, you are not able to use
this SLD server for name reservation in the SAP Java Development Infrastructure. Additionally, the SLD
server requires a directory on the file system for automatic upload purposes. Use the directory <system-
install-dir>\SYS\global\sld as the working directory.
„ This interface let’s you work with some vital server settings. You can fine tune the SLD server by using
server parameter settings. Administration → Profile leads you to the page of server parameter settings.
 Server Profile

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ For each profile setting, there is an information button that lists the functionality of the server setting in
question. You can see the details for each setting by clicking this button. Listed below are some of the
more important settings:
y OverlayWithXIProfile: If true, the exchange profile is used to extend and overlay parameters of the
local SLD profile. Up to XI 2.0, the exchange profile has been used in this way. Beginning with SAP
WebAS 6.40 and XI 3.0, the overlay mechanism is switched off per default. Default value: false.
y StartWithServer: If true, the application is automatically started with the J2EE engine. Note: the
START / STOP buttons on the Administration page define the nominal state of the application. Thus,
the application does not start with the J2EE engine, if it has been explicitly stopped on the
Administration page. Default value: true.
y BufferInstances: If 'true' the object manager uses a memory cache for CIM instances. Currently the
instance cache does not support a cluster environment, hence this parameter should be set to 'false' in a
cluster. Default value: true.
y SessionTimeout: Number of seconds to keep a session between two consecutive browser requests.
Default value: 1800.
y ShowStackTrace: Display Java stack trace in web error messages. Default value: false.
y CacheSyncTime: Default live time of internal cache of CIM classes and CIM software components in
sec. Default value: 3600
 SLD Bridge

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ The SLD Bridge, together with data suppliers, allows SAP systems to register themselves with the SLD.
In order to receive automatically reported data that is sent by data suppliers that run in individual systems,
you have to configure and start the SLD bridge. The SLD bridge transforms the system data sent by data
suppliers to the SLD server into the CIM-compliant format.
„ The data exchange between the data suppliers of ABAP-based systems and the SLD bridge takes place by
means of RFC. Therefore, an SAP gateway service has to be configured. On the main page of SLD,
choose Administration → Data Supplier Bridge, and specify the SAP gateway server and the service
number.
y After you have set up the gateway service, the SLD bridge has to be restarted so that the settings can
take effect.
y A gateway service must not be shared by multiple SLD servers. If you implement scenarios with
multiple SLD servers, you have to assign a dedicated gateway service to each SLD server.
„ If you want the SLD bridge to send data to multiple SLD servers, choose Administration → Data Supplier
Bridge → SLD Clients → New SLD ... on the main page of SLD. Specify the server and logon data for the
additional SLD servers.
„ You must also insure that you set up the data suppliers correctly in the systems that report data to the SLD
Bridge. The setup of the data suppliers must match the setup of the SLD Bridge on the SLD server.
 Data Suppliers for ABAP-Based Systems
The ABAP-based data supplier delivers system data to the SLD server in two ways:

Directly by
means of an
RFC
connection to
the SLD bridge
(default)

By writing the
data to the
central shared
memory server.
An SLD plug-in
for the CCMS
agent exports
the data from the
shared memory
by means of RFC Configure in
to the SLD Transaction RZ70
bridge.

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ You can set up data suppliers in ABAP-based systems (SAP R/3 Release 4.0b and higher) so that these
systems can report system data automatically to the SLD.
„ Setting up the data supplier for ABAP-Based systems is done in transaction RZ70. In the Data Transport
frame, choose the correct mechanism for your setup.
 Configuring ABAP-Based Data Suppliers

Transaction RZ70

To save your settings, choose

Activate Current Configuration
© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ When you make settings for the data supplier, you also have to specify information about the SLD bridge.
Since the SLD bridge is registered on an SAP gateway, you have to enter this gateway.
„ In the group box SLD Bridge: Gateway Information, enter the name of the gateway host and the name of
the gateway service. This information is case-sensitive; furthermore, it must exactly match the
configuration of the SLD Bridge on the SLD server (see the slide titled “SLD Bridge” for details).
„ Save your entries by choosing Activate Current Configuration (“Matchstick” icon on the application
toolbar).
„ When you make settings for the data supplier, you also have to set how often you want data about the
current system to be collected, and which Data Collection Programs will run.
 Data Collection Programs
Use the “Proposal” Icon for initial loading of the data
supplier programs

When you have activated all of the appropriate settings, use

the “Start Data Collection” icon to trigger data collection

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ Select the Proposal icon in RZ70 the first time you activate the data collection programs (you only need to
do this once); in 4.0b systems, use the Import icon.
„ The system displays a dialog box asking you whether you want to use the default installation settings -
Choose Yes.
„ Click the Activate Current Settings (Matchstick) icon.
„ Make sure the Schedule Batch Job checkbox is selected, and that the job data collection interval is
maintained.
„ Click the Start Data Collection icon to trigger the data collection and schedule the background jobs.
„ For more information, see Note 584654.
 Data Suppliers for J2EE-Based Systems

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ There are two ways of sending data from J2EE-based systems to the SLD server: the data supplier can send data to the SLD bridge by using an
HTTP connection (in this case the data supplier acts as an HTTP client); Alternatively, the data supplier can use an RFC connection to send data
the SLD bridge by means of an SAP gateway (option 2 in the figure above). In this case, the data supplier acts as an RFC client. The
recommended method is HTTP.

„ An initial configuration of the data supplier for J2EE-based systems is performed by the SAP installation tool SAPinst when you install the SAP
J2EE Engine. However, if you want to change the default settings, or if you used a different method to install the SAP J2EE Engine, you can use
the SAP J2EE administration tool (the Visual Administrator) to configure the data supplier manually.

„ To configure the J2EE client, log on to the visual J2ee administration tool as an Administrator (The property SynchPermissionsWithDatabase
under Services → Security Provider must be set as "true“). In the Visual Administrator tool, do the following: 1. On the Cluster tab page, select
any server, and expand the corresponding node.

2. Expand the Services node. 3. Select the service SLD Data Supplier.

4. On the Runtime tab page, select HTTP Settings.

5. Enter the data required for the HTTP connection from the SLD service to the SLD as follows:

a. In the Host field, enter the name of the host where the SLD bridge runs.

b. In the Port field, specify the HTTP standard access port of the SLD.

c. In the User field, specify an SAP J2EE user that already exists on the host where the SLD Bridge runs.

d. Enter the user password.

6. Save your entries. If an error occurs, an error message appears. If your entries were saved successfully, the connection data is saved in encrypted
form in the secure store in the database.

7. To apply the new configuration immediately, restart the SLD service as follows:

a. On the Cluster tab page, click SLD Data Supplier with the secondary mouse button.

b. Choose Stop. c. When the service has been stopped, click SLD Data Supplier with the secondary mouse button again, and choose
Start. The service is restarted within a few seconds, and the first data transfer to the SLD takes place after two minutes.
 Create System Message

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ You can create a system message that will be seen by all users who log onto the SLD. From the
Administration page choose System Message.
„ Create your message and (optionally) an expiry date/time. Choose Set.
„ You can clear an existing system message with the Remove button.
 Maintaining SLD Content
There are two ways to maintain SLD content:

For Certain Content Types (3rd

party software products and
components, Technical Systems,
and Business Systems), SAP
provides wizards.

All other Content is

created using the
generic CIM data
maintenance interface

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

 Technical System Type SLD

Roles

CIMOM URL

Object Server

Description

Primary Contact

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ An example of creating content using a wizard is the creation of the technical system for the SLD server
itself. To create the SLD server, from the main screen of the SLD, choose Technical Landscape and from
the Technical System Browser choose New Technical System.
„ Select system type System Landscape Directory and choose Next. Enter the data on the next screen:
„ Roles:
The role "Landscape Server" is assigned to a System Landscape Directory (SLD) that collects all
information about installed elements. The role "Name Server" labels an SLD that provides the name
allocation service in a development environment. Both roles may be assigned to the same SLD
instance simultaneously.
„ CIM Server URL:
The URL of the CIM server servlet. HTTP requests to the SLD object manager can be addressed to this
URL. It typically looks like "http://host:port/sld/cimom". The servlet path may be omitted, and only
host and port may be specified. The default path "/sld/cimom" will then be implied.
„ Object Server:
The logical identifier for the CIMOM that is used as an element in the compound CIM namespace path.
Example for a namespace path: "http://myobjserver/sld/active". Use an ABAP prefix reserved at SAP
(without the slashes) as value. If such a prefix cannot be reserved, use the name of the computer
which hosts the SLD server. By default, host names in SLD are written lower case without any
network domain.
„ Description and Administrative Contact:

The Description property provides a textual description of the object; The administrative contact holds
any type of address for contacting the system administrator (maximum length: 256 characters).
 Maintaining CIM Data

An Administrator works with CIM Content to:

„ Import, Export, and Backup the CIM database

„ Create certain content types, such as XI Domains

„ Manage Namespaces for distributed development

„ Remove Automatically reported data that is no longer valid

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

 Doing the (Initial) Data Import

The component description and the system landscape

description are based on the standard Common
Information Model (CIM). To insert these descriptions
into a system, or to update a description that already
exists in a system, you have to import the corresponding
instances from a master file.

The CIM standard is based on the object-

oriented approach. When you import instances
from multiple files, make sure that you import
them in the correct sequence since this has an
effect on the inheritance hierarchy.

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ You have to do an initial import of the CIM data model as well as importing updates to the SLD. Proceed
as follows:
1. Choose Content → Import. The browser displays the Import Selection screen.
2. Next to the Import File field, choose Browse.
3. To import the component information data, navigate to the following file:
\\<server>\usr\sap\<SAPSID>\SYS\global\sld\model\cr_content.zip
4. If you do not want to import the instances into the current namespace, you can change the namespace.
5. Choose Import.
 Exports and Backups

Before you maintain your system, you should create a

backup copy of the CIM instances in the component and
system landscape descriptions. The system creates an
XML file when exporting instances. This file contains all
relevant data regarding the instances.
We also recommend that you transfer instances from one
system to another system. The simplest method is to
export the instances from the source system and then to
import them into the target system.
There are two ways of creating backups of CIM instances:
• With versioning (Exporting CIM Instances)
• Without versioning (Backing Up CIM Instances)

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ The difference between Backing up the CIM data and Exporting it is that Exporting the data will create a
new version of the instance, while backing up does not. In either case, however, the system will create a
(zipped) xml file that can be archived to tape (in the case of a backup) or imported into other SLD systems
(in the case of an export).
 Creating CIM Content
If there is not a Wizard for Content creation, choose “Content
Maintenance” from the main SLD Screen or from the Administration
Screen

This takes you to the generic interface for maintaining CIM data.

From here, you work with the various classes and subclasses of the CIM
model.

The system logs all changes to the CIM Instance.

You can view the Change Log through the SLD Administration screen

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ For an example of how to create generic CIM data, see the following slides on the XI Domain.
 XI Domain

The XI domain bundles all systems that belong

to the Exchange Infrastructure into a single
logical system, which is monitored as a whole.
Exactly one integration server belongs to an XI
domain.

Important Associations:

•XI Contained Adapter

•XI Contained Integration Directory
•XI Contained Integration Repository
•XI Contained Integration Server
•XI Contained Runtime Management Server

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ An XI Domain is a CIM subclass of the superclass Logical Application System (Abstract). This is the
superclass of all "logical" systems. These systems can be user-defined views as a part of a physical or
"real" system, or they can be a view on a group of physical systems. Different classes are invented by
different applications, like ALE and the application integration infrastructure. Many logical systems are
created during some type of configuration work in the system landscape. In contrast to this application-
specific view concept, the landscape groups are simple sets of systems, which can be defined by all
administrators to collect a subset of systems so as to give this subset a name.
„ In an XI Domain, all of the components which logically belong to a single XI system (Integration
Repository, Integration Directory, Integration Server, etc.) are grouped together. Information about the XI
domain is used, for example, by the monitoring architecture. If the domain is not correctly maintained
then the monitoring infrastructure will not operate properly.
 XI Domain

View in Technical
System Browser

View in Content
Maintenance

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ If the information for the XI domain is not correctly maintained, the components (such as the Runtime
Workbench) will not be able to communicate correctly with other components.
 Creating an XI Domain

From the main screen of the SLD choose:

Content Maintenance
From Content Maintenance choose:
Subset: Landscape Description
Class: XI Domain 3
On the XI Domain list screen choose:
New XI Domain

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ To create the XI Domain, from the main screen of the SLD choose Content Maintenance (you can also
select this from the Administration screen). This takes you to the Content Maintenance screen. From
there, select Subset Landscape Description and Class XI Domain. This will take you to the XI Domain
list screen. From there click the button labeled New XI Domain.
„ Enter the appropriate data values according to the guidelines below.
„ CreationClassName:
CreationClassName indicates the name of the class or the subclass used in the creation of an instance.
For an XI Domain this is fixed as “SAP_XIDomain.”
„ Name:
A unique identifier for the logical system, as determined by CIM_System. The standard SAP schema for
any type of logical or physical system qualifies some properties with "sap_key". Together with a
leading value, all these properties are concatenated to the name value with the format
"value{.name.value}". The leading value is not derived, it is called the "internal value" of the
composite string. An example: “domain.00.iwdf5238.wdf.sap.corp". This rule implies that the
properties are ordered. The corresponding value of the property NameFormat (see below) is "SAP
standard".
A simple alternative for the SAP standard rule is a user-certified name. The creator of the name uses any
mechanism to guarantee the uniqueness of the name. This name format has the value "user-driven“
(see NameFormat below). It is applicable only for systems that are created solely with a user
interface. Maximum length: 256
„ Caption:
The Caption property is a short textual description (one-line string) of the object. Maximum length: 64
„ Description (optional):
The Description property provides a textual description of the object.
„ InstallDate (optional):
A datetime value indicating when the object was installed. A lack of a value does not indicate that the
object is not installed.
„ NameFormat (optional):
A name for the way in which the SystemName property is constructed. Maximum length: 64 Drop-
down values: SAP Standard, user-driven, others
„ PrimaryOwnerContact (optional):
Any type of address for reaching the system administrator. Maximum length: 256
„ PrimaryOwnerName (optional):
The name of the system administrator. Maximum length: 64
„ Roles (optional):
All roles that this system can play in a system landscape or for any user. This concept is a poor one
since no support is given to find possible values or to get a description for any value. For this reason,
use the Rules[] property only if you need a "stamp" that indicates that this system plays that role from
now on. More general concepts for identification and classification are the logical systems itself and
the system landscape groups. These instances and their associations to physical systems are created
by the system administrators manually to introduce a structure in the system landscape and to define
different views on it.
„ Status (optional):
The current state of the system. The possible values and their meanings are defined in the subclasses.
Possible values for an XI Domain (select from drop-down):
OK
Error
Degraded
Unknown
Pred Fail
Starting
Stopping
Service
Stressed
NonRecover
No Contact
Lost Comm
Stopped
 Administering Namespaces
The component and system landscape description contains current
information about your system landscape. Using SLD simulations, you
can also plan the future system landscape.

We recommend that you test simulations in a different area to the current

system landscape.

The SLD takes this consideration into account with the namespace
concept. This means that you can create various namespaces as logical
areas. The namespace sld/active mirrors the real system landscape. You
can copy data from the standard namespace to other namespaces, and
then modify and test the data there.

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille

„ The component and system landscape description contains current information about your system
landscape. Using SLD simulations, you can also plan the future system landscape.
„ We recommend that you test simulations in a different area to the current system landscape.
„ The SLD takes this consideration into account with the namespace concept. This means that you can
create various namespaces as logical areas. The namespace sld/active mirrors the real system landscape.
You can copy data from the standard namespace to other namespaces, and then modify and test the data
there.
„ You have the option of switching between different namespaces.
„ You can add or remove namespace instances by choosing Namespaces from the SLD Administration
screen.
 Summary

You should now be able to:

z Administer the System Landscape Directory (XI-specific).
z Describe and Create a Technical System of type “Exchange
Infrastructure.”
z Create an XI Domain.

© SAP AG 2004, System Landscape Directory, Paul Médaille