Outboard Archiving for ERP is a content repository solution that runs on the SAP system and is accessed via SAP HTTP service. HTTP Service of Outboard Archiving for ERP is built on SAP Internet Communication Framework [ICF]. Implementation of Outboard Archiving for ERP with Storage Management interface fulfills BC AL 7.40 communication protocol. All implementation related to our Outboard Archiving for ERP is SAP ABAP based.

Prerequisites

SAP release: NetWeaver 7.01 SP-level 018
HTTP enabled
System Service User with all required authorizations listed in the chapter Security

System ICM parameters

Part of the prerequisites that should be pre-configured before deployment of Outboard Archiving for ERP is system ICM parameters which enable communication via an HTTP request with the target storage.

Parameter name	Description	Unit	Recommended value	SAP default value
icm/max_services	Max. number of ICM services	Integer value	30	30
icm/listen_queue_len	Max. number of requests kept in the queue while a connection is open	Integer value	512	512
icm/req_queue_len	Max. number of waiting requests	Integer value	Larger than icm/max_threads	1000
icm/max_threads	Max. number of worker threads of ICM	Integer value	3200	250
icm/min_threads	Min. number of worker threads of ICM	Integer value	10	10
icm/min_spare_threads	Number of worker threads ICM tries to keep free	Integer value	3	3
icm/max_conn	Max. number of opened connections at one time	Integer value	3500	500
icm/max_sockets	Max. number of sockets open (at the same time) in the ICM or in the SAP Web dispatcher	Integer value	icm/max_conn + 100	2048
mpi/total_size_MB	Total memory size in MB used for MPI	Megabytes	(min(0.06 * $(icm/max_conn) + 50, 2000))	80
mpi/buffer_size	Buffer size in bytes for memory pipes	Bytes	131072	65536
mpi/max_pipes	Max. number of memory pipes (MPI)	Integer value	($(icm/max_conn) * 2 + 10)	4000
icm/HTTP/max_request_size_KB	Max. size of a file to be processed	Kilobytes	<should be defined by customer>	102400
icm/server_port_<xx> - PROCTIMEOUT	Max. processing time of one HTTP request	Seconds	1800	60
rdisp/plugin_auto_logout	Max time of no action for plugins	Seconds	1800	1800
icm/keep_alive_timeout	Max. waiting time of HTTP request which was already successfully processed	Seconds	300	60
icm/conn_timeout	Timeout for opening a connection	Milliseconds	60000	5000
icm/traffic_control	Timeout for receiving a request (Centralized deployment)	Character string (NETTIMEOUT in sec.)	300	30
icm/HTTP/client/keep_alive_timeout	Keep-alive timeout for inactive client connections	Seconds	10	10
icm/ms_keepalive_s	Specifies the frequency at which the ICM sends keep-alive messages to the message server to ascertain a message server failover	Seconds	60	60

More information can be found in the following link.

You can check the correct setup of the ICM parameter using health check transaction /DVD/CRP_ICM.

Landscape Integration

Outboard Archiving for ERP supports two scenarios of integration in the customer landscape.

Centralized – Outboard Archiving for ERP runs on a different SAP system than those which are subjects of archiving.
- Pros: One system – one Outboard configuration
- Cons: Potential of performance decrease at high loads (bottleneck effect)
Decentralized – Outboard Archiving for ERP runs on the very same SAP system which is the subject of archiving.
- Pros: No need to dedicate a separate SAP system to host the Outboard service, Mitigation of a potential bottleneck effect
- Cons: Separate maintenance on each SAP instance with Outboard

The decentralized deployment is recommended option based on our best practices from implementation projects.

Content Management

The main responsibility of content management is to manage SAP data and unstructured documents. Content management stores information about a source client and target storage for each stored data and document.

Following functions are provided by content management:

register source client with a storage assignment
create read, update, delete document components (units)
manage document information and metadata
manage component information and metadata
The content management uses binary storage of the storage management solution for storing document components (units) and is responsible for creating and assigning of stored packages

Storage Management

The Storage Management works as a middleware between the Outboard Archiving for ERP and external storage using the set of connectors for supported storage types.

The Outboard Outboard Archiving for ERP uses exclusively binary storages as the data that is a subject of standard SAP archiving is stored as flat files (ADK archive files & document attachments).

More detailed information regarding the Storage Management and supported storage types are available here.

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