Navigating the SAP DataSphere: A short Guide to Replication Capabilities

SAP DataSphere is a transformative platform, which offers a unified experience for unleashing powerful S/4 (ABAP CDS) business content as SAP Data Products, easily exposing that content via its Data Catalogue and Data Marketplace to surrounding SAP partner platforms, including but not limited to DataBricks and Cloud Native Storage Layers via its semantic semantic modelling, warehousing, federation, and virtualization capabilities.

With the recent release of replication flows in SAP DataSphere version 2023.24, a new chapter unfolds, introducing powerful capabilities that streamline data replication in a fast and seamless manner also into Cloud Native Storage Layers (AWS S3, Azure DLS G2 and Google Cloud).

Replication Flows in SAP DataSphere present a cloud-based replication tool that simplifies the replication journey. Notably, for on-prem-to-cloud scenarios, on-premise components like Data Provisioning Agent and SLT has become obsolete for more modern SAP ERP versions, streamlining the replication process, meaning no other software than your SAP Cloud Connector is now required.

Key Features of Replication Flows:

Mass Data Replication: Empowers parallelization of the data replication.

Integrated Monitoring: Facilitating real-time tracking of replication processes.

Capture Changes: Supports both initial data replications and delta replications.

ABAP Pipeline Engine: Framework and repository with ABAP operators.

Connectivity: Connection via ABAP using RFC.

SAP DataSphere extends its replication capabilities to various SAP systems, each with specific requirements:

SAP S/4HANA (>= 1909 & SAP S/4HANA CE):

- Using ABAP Pipeline Engine, which comes shipped as a default.

- Direct support is not possible for versions below 1909.

SAP Business Suite (SAP NetWeaver 7.52):

- The ABAP Pipeline Engine is included with DMIS.

- Direct support is not possible for versions below NW 7.52.

SAP Business Warehouse (≥ 7.30 SP14) & SAP BW/4HANA:

- The ABAP Pipeline Engine is included with DMIS.

SAP S/4HANA (< 1909 & SAP S/4HANA CE):

- Central, dedicated SLT server on ECC SAP Netweaver 7.52+ or S/4 recommended.

- Use latest DMIS 2018 / ODP 2.0 for ECC SAP Netweaver 7.52+ or DMIS 2020 / ODP 3.0 for S/4 HANA instance.

SAP ECC (SAP Netweaver 7.52+) (DMIS 2018 / ODP 2.0)

- Requires installation of DMIS 2018 latest 3 support packs.

- In complex ECC landscape where some ECCs are 7.52+ but others not, central, dedicated SLT server is still recommended.

SAP ECC (SAP Netweaver lower than 7.52+) (DMIS 2018 / ODP 2.0)

- Requires installation of DMIS 2011 latest 3 support packs.

- Central, dedicated SLT server on SAP Netweaver 7.52+ acting as middleware between ECC and DataSphere.

ABAP CDS View Replication from S/4 Systems:

- Delta-based data replication via CDC annotation enabled ABAP CDS views.

- Full loads via Data Flow feature in DataSphere, but soon to be enabled also in Replication Flow as well.

ODP Data Sources from SAP S/4HANA, BW, AND ECC Systems:

- Delta-based data replication via ODP/ODQ from SAP BW objects (ADSOs, DSOs, InfoProviders, Business Extractors, etc.).

- Direct integration of ODP-exposed BW objects or SAPI extractors using DMIS addon and ODP API 2.0.

- Ingestion of ODP-exposed business extractors via ODP API 2.0 from SAP S/4HANA on-premise systems.

Architectural Concept for Integration of SAP Business Suite Systems via SLT:

- Real-time data replication via DB triggers & logging tables based on change data capturing concept.

- Automatic non-Unicode to Unicode conversion during data replication.

- Handling of cluster and pooled tables, leveraging table settings and transformation capabilities within SLT.