BASICS

What Is ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems integrate internal and external
management of information across an entire organization—embracing
finance/accounting, manufacturing, sales and service, customer relationship
management, etc. ERP systems automate this activity with an integrated software
application. ERP facilitates information flow between all business functions inside the
organization, and manages connections to outside stakeholders.

The central feature of all ERP systems is a shared database that supports multiple
functions used by different business units. In practice, this means that employees in
different divisions—for example, accounting and sales—can rely on the same
information for their specific needs.

Elements of an ERP Solution

Since the first ERP system was designed and built over 25 years ago, ERP software
solutions have evolved to where most business activities can be captured in a single
system. The following is a review of the primary functional areas of ERP software, but
is by no means a comprehensive list. The primary functions include:

Accounting and Finance

 General Ledger
  Accounts Payable
 Accounts Receivable
 General Journals
 Trial Balance and Financial Reporting
 Bank Reconciliation
 Cash Management and Forecasting
 Budgeting
Distribution
 Purchasing, Tracking & Sales Shipments of Inventory Items
 Track by Lot and/or Serial numbers
 Track Quality Tests
 Warehouse Management functions
Manufacturing
 Track the conversion of raw materials into finished goods
 Track Labor, Overhead and Other manufacturing costs
 Provide the total cost of production

ERP Vendors
Depending on your organization's size and needs there are a number of enterprise
resource planning software vendors to choose from in the large enterprise, mid-market
and the small business ERP market.

Large Enterprise ERP (ERP Tier I)

The ERP market for large enterprises is dominated by three companies: SAP, Oracle
and Microsoft. (Source: EnterpriseAppsToday; Enterprise ERP Buyer's Guide: SAP,
Oracle and Microsoft; Drew Robb)
Midmarket ERP (ERP Tier II)
For the midmarket vendors include Infor, QAD, Lawson, Epicor, Sage and IFS. (Source:
EnterpriseAppsToday; Midmarket ERP Buyer's Guide; Drew Robb)
Small Business ERP (ERP Tier III)
Exact Globe, Syspro, NetSuite, Visibility, Consona, CDC Software and Activant
Solutions round out the ERP vendors for small businesses. (Source:
EnterpriseAppsToday; ERP Buyer's Guide for Small Businesses; Drew Robb)
What Is SAP (Systems,Applications and Products)
SAP (Systems,Applications and Products) is a name of a company which offers
ERP solution for various industries to integrate information from various
functions of that industry under one system.

What Is ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning)

Five former IBM employees founded SAP in 1972 in Germany.

In this there are various Modules

1. SAP FI Module- FI stands for Financial Accounting

2. SAP CO Module- CO stands for Controlling
3. SAP PS Module – and PS is Project Systems
4. SAP HR Module – HR stands for Human Resources
5. SAP PM Module – where Plant Maintenance is the PM
6. SAP MM Module – MM is Materials Management -
7. SAP QM Module - QM stands for Quality Management
8. SAP PP Module – PP is Production Planning
9. SAP SD Module – SD is Sales and Distribution
10. SAP BW Module – where BW stands for Business (Data) Warehouse
11. SAP EC Module – where EC stands for Enterprise Controlling
12. SAP TR Module – where TR stands for Treasury
13. SAP IM Module – where IM stands for Investment Management
14. SAP – IS where IS stands for Industries specific solution
15. SAP – Basis
16. SAP – ABAP
17. SAP – Cross Application Components
18. SAP – CRM where CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management
19. SAP – SCM where SCM stands for Supply Chain Management
20. SAP – PLM where PLM stands for Product LifeCycle Management
21. SAP – SRM where SRM stands for Supplier Relationship Management
22. SAP – CS where CS stands for Customer Service
23. SAP – SEM where SEM stands for STRATEGIC ENTERPRISE MANAGEMENT
24. SAP – RE where RE stands for Real Estate
What Is SAP Basis Administration
If you are one of the persons who is interested about the technical part of SAP systems than
you are definitely interested about what is sap basis and what is its place in the system.

SAP Basis – The Administration Focus of SAP

First of all it describes the fundamentals of the administration of the SAP system. When you say
SAP Basis, you must think about the guys who will install, configure, update, patch, migrate,
troubleshoot any technical problem on your SAP system and manage all the daily operations for
that specific sap system or system landscape. Basis area emphasize the administration of
RDBMS(Relational Database Management System - or simply the database sap system is
using), client-server architecture and the SAP GUI.

Roles and responsibilities of sap basis consultant-

. Installation of SAP servers and post installation activities

. Applying Support packs and Kernel Up gradation
. Generating Solution manager key for the Landscape as required
. Time based and event based Scheduling of background jobs and monitoring them
. Client Administration including client copy / export / import / delete
. User Management like User Creation, deletion of user, users locks
. Analyzing of missing authorizations and assigning Roles to users
. Profile maintenance through PFCG
. Transport setup and management
. Download and applying Support Patches and SAP Notes
. Performance monitoring and fine tuning
. Maintaining Profile parameters
. SAP spool configuration
. Analyzing short dumps
. Transports in ABAP and Java Environments(Using SDM)
. Performing Pre & Post System Refresh activities
. CUA Configuration
. Core Knowledge in DBA
. Publishing Internal ITS
. Installing WebAS Java as add-on
. Apply java patches through SDM
 What is SAP R3 Architecture
SAP R/3 is one of the main product of SAP,where R stands for RealTime and the number 3
relates to three tier application architecture(Data base,Application Server and Client).
Most of the business in todays world runs on SAP R/3 system.About 80% of the companies
implemented this software.

lets go to history first, what is one, two & three tier Architecture ?

SAP R/3 Architecture

SAP based architecture of R/3 on a three-tier client/server model.

 Presentation Server
 Application Server
 Database Server
What is One, Two & Three System Landscape in SAP
System Landscape
The system landscape contains all the SAP Systems that you have installed. It can
consist of several system groups, whose SAP Systems are linked by transport routes.

Three-System Landscape
SAP recommend a three-system landscape in which each of the central clients has its
own SAP System.
This consists of a development system DEV, a quality assurance system QAS and a
production system PRD.

Make all changes to DEV client. When you release the corresponding change requests,
they are transported into the quality assurance client. In the quality assurance client you
can test whether the transports are complete,

If the test is successful, the change requests are transported into the production client.
The production client is completely separate from the other clients as regards cross-
client data.

Two-System Landscape
The two-system landscape does not include a separate quality assurance system QAS.
The quality assurance client is also in the development system DEV.

As in the three-system landscape, the production client is completely separate from the
other clients. The disadvantage of a two-system landscape is that cross-client data is
used in both the Customizing and quality assurance clients. This means that any
changes that are made to cross-client data in the Customizing client can affect the tests
in the quality assurance client. You can also not guarantee that transports from the
Customizing client will be complete. Although all tests in the quality assurance client
were successful, errors could still occur after the transport into the production client.
This problem is caused by changes being made to cross-client data and then not being
transported.

One-System Landscape
SAP do not recommend a one-system landscape containing all central clients in a
single SAP System. Joint usage of hardware resources and cross-client data places
serious restrictions on how a single system operates. In particular, once the system is
used productively, you can no longer develop in it, unless you stop productive operation
for the development and test phases.
Presantation Layer , Application Layer & database layer in
SAP
LOGON Process Flow in SAP
What are Work processes in SAP
SAP Work Processes
The SAP work process is a component of the application server that executes an ABAP application. SAP
work processes are started as operating system processes, each with its own process ID (PID) when the
system is started. The majority of the processing of the application is performed by the SAP work
processes.

1. DIALOGUE 'D'
It is only the process which communicates interactively with the users. There should be atleast 2
Dialogue work process per instance. Dialogue work process initiates Update, Background and
Spool.
2. UPDATE 'V'
It is used to update the transactions in the database. It is initiated by Dialogue process. There
should be atleast 1 Update in the entire system. It is also recommended to have an update
process for every 5 Dialogue. 26
3. ENQUEUE 'E'
It is used to provide locks for the records that are going to be updated. It ensures consistency
for updates. There will be only 1 Enqueue configured in the system during the installation. It is
possible to have more than one enqueue provided they are installed or configured on the
central instance.
4. BACKGROUND 'B'
The tasks which are expensive or time consuming are scheduled to run in the background mode
non-interactively. There should be at least 2 background work process in the system
5. MESSAGE 'M'
There should be only 1 message server in the entire R/3 system. It is used to manage all the
dispatchers. It is used to load balance the requests to identify the least loaded dispatcher.
It is also used to provide locks to the request that are coming from Dialogue instances.
6. GATEWAY 'G'
It is used to provide a means of communication with SAP and NON-SAP systems. There will be
only 1 gateway for each instance.
7. SPOOL 'S'
It is used to print the documents to a printer or output to a fax machine etc. There should be atleast 1
Spool process in the entire system. It is also possible to configure more spool process depending on the
print/ spool volume
Work process status are -status : Waiting, Stopper, Running

What are SAP Buffers

What does mean by Object Swapping ( SWAP ) in SAP
Swapping occurs when the buffer is full, and the SAP System has to load additional
objects into the buffer. Objects in the buffer that were used the least recently are
removed. In this context, the term “swap” means the objects removed from the buffer
are lost and cannot be replaced until a new database access is performed

In simple language,

the accessed data seats on the buffer, If someone is trying to access the same data,
that will be retrieved fastly from the buffer.

If the buffer is full and some one is retrieving the data which is not there in the buffer
then
that data will be placed in the buffer and the oldest data in the buffer will be swapped
(Removed) for this.

More number of swaps means more DB hits.

SWAPS in ST02

There are two possible reasons for swapping----

● There is no space left in the buffer data area
The buffer is too small. You should increase the buffer size.

● There are no directory entries left

Although there is enough space left in the buffer, no further objects can be loaded
because the number of directory entries is limited.
For the Repository buffers (nametab buffers), the number of directory entries is
determined by the number of entry counts, all other buffers have there own parameter
for entries.
What is Dispatcher in SAP
Memory Management in SAP
What is Client in SAP
A client is organizational and legal entity in the SAP system. All the business management data is
protected here because other clients can not access them. The main objective of the client is to keep the
data isolated. The data in a client can be only visible within that client; it can not be displayed or changed
from another client. In a physical SAP system there can be multiple clients

SAP R3 comes with 3 inbuilt standard client,

SAP Clients
Client 000 – Client 000 is a special client in SAP since it has client independent settings. Client 000 in
SAP R/3 comes with a simple organizational structure. It is a sort of test company. Client 000 contains all
standard configurations, parameters, standard transactions, etc that are normally used in the SAP R/3
business environment.
Client 001 – Client 001 is a copy of client 000. Client 001 also includes a test company. Client 001 can be
customized to prepare it to move it into the production environment. However, once client 001 is
customized, it does not behave like client 000.
Client 066 – Client 066 is used to perform “Early Watch” service for customer systems. One important
thing to remember is that during SAP R/3 implementation, once SAP is installed, the first thing to be done
is copy a standard client included in SAP R/3 package. With the help of this, SAP users can start using
SAP for creating tests, training, or even start using it for customization.

Within one SAP instance, a number of Clients can be created. No need to install separate software’s for
each and every customer.It provides isolation ,one client cannot see the data of other client.

What is a client and how to create client in SAP BASIS.

As depicted above 100 and 200 clients exist under one roof. We can create a number of clients in SAP
Application (from 000 to 999)
 What is Client Specific & Cross Client Data

What is golden client in SAP

The Development Client is also the Golden Client because it
has all the correct configuration settings which have been
tested and are error free. The Golden Client is taken a
reference while performing some other configuration
settings.You cannot change any settings in the golden client.
 What is NetWeaver
NetWeaver is SAP’s integrated technology platform ,and is not a product in
itself.In fact, new version of basis is called the Netweaver.

The core capabilities of SAP NetWeaver are the integration of people, information, and process

People integration
It simply means that it enables you to bring people together and help them work more efficiently.

Examples:-

 Portal: - provides industry leading portal technology that delivers unified, personalized,
and role-based user access
 Collaboration: - Collaboration promotes cooperation in enterprises using virtual team
rooms (Collaboration Rooms), real-time communication (chat and application sharing) and the
use of third-party groupware and synchronous collaboration tools (for example, Microsoft
Exchange, Lotus Notes, and WebEx)
 Multi-Channel Access :- With Multi-Channel Access, you can connect to enterprise
systems through web-based, voice, mobile, messaging, or radio-frequency technology.
Information integration
It means you can bring together information from a variety of locations and have it make sense
in the context of what your folks do everyday!
Examples:-
  Business Intelligence:- It provides you with reliable tools for creating individual and
interactive reports and applications.
 BI Content & BI Content Extensions :- Enables quicker implementation using pre-
configured role and task oriented information models in SAP Business Intelligence.
 Knowledge Management:- Allows common access to unstructured information and
documents in a distributed storage landscape
like Search,Classification,Subscription,Versioning,etc..
 Search and Classification (TREX) :- Provides SAP applications with numerous
services for searching, classifying, and text-mining in large collections of documents
(unstructured data) as well as for searching in and aggregating business objects (structured
data).
Process integration
It means coordinating the flow of work across departments, divisions, and between
companies. Usage type process integration includes all functions previously covered by SAP
NetWeaver Exchange Infrastructure that you use to realize cross-system business processes.
This SAP NetWeaver usage type enables different versions of SAP and non-SAP systems from
different vendors running on different platforms (for example, Java ABAP, and so on) to
communicate with each other. SAP NetWeaver is based on an open architecture, primarily uses
open standards (in particular those from the XML and Java environments), and provides
services that are essential in a heterogeneous and complex system landscape. These include a
runtime infrastructure for exchanging messages, configuration options for managing business
processes and the flow of messages, as well as options for mapping messages before they
reach the receiver.

Application Platform
SAP Web Application Server provides a complete development infrastructure on which you can
develop, distribute, and execute platform-independent, robust, and scalable Web services and
business applications. SAP Web Application Server supports ABAP, Java, and Web services.
SAP BASIS OS Level (UNIX) Commands

Commands Description
dpmon d Dispatcher queue monitor

Sapdba (up to SAP R/3 -4.7)/ database administration

brtools

PS Running work process

ps -eaf|grep dw process overview

ps -eaf|grep ora check oracle service is running

Ps –eaf | grep dw kill -9 Kill work process

msmon pf=profile path name=sid to check the message server status

gwmon pf=profile path nr=num to check the gateway status

Ps –eaf | grep lsnrctl Listener status

Rslgview pf =-r –ft | pg System logs

Disp + work –v to check the version of r3 kernel

R3trans –d ,tnsping Checking the connection with database

Df –k File system monitor

Du –k Display all directories and size of current

directory

Sqlplus SQL prompt and database connection

“/as sysdba” (new versions)

Saplicence -get to get hardware key

saplicense -install to install license

sappfpar all pf=profile path display all profile parameters

sappfpar check path=profile path checks the required space for memory

memlimits to check the available space for heap and

 swap memory

telnet Remote system login

telnet to check the remote sap system is up and

<ipaddress><dispatcherportnum> running

ftp file transfer protocol

rcp remote copy of files

Start/stop sap Start / stop Sap instance

ping check destination host reachable

niping check connection between server and a client

by transferring packets

systeminfo check the configuration of system

Ps -aef Processes status

lsps -a Swap space

topas Memory