What is the Client? IN SAP

What is the Client?

The Client is a ‘Customer’. We can say that each customer maps to one client. 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.

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 does client contain?

1. Application Data- Application data is the data that are stored in the database tables.
2. Customizing Data – Customizing data is data created by customers when they customize their systems
3. User Master Record- A user master record defines the authorizations assigned to a user. Basis consultants are responsible for maintaining the user master record and assigning authorizations.

Advantages of Client concept :-

1. Clients enable SAP SAS providers to install a small number of SAP Systems, but still cater to a large number of customers.
2. Costs are not only saved by sharing hardware and software but multiple customers also use the same application solution, including administration and support.
3. Clients help establish your SAP landscape. For instance , you can have a client for the development team , a client for a test team and a production client.

SAP comes with three “standard clients” :-

1. 000
2. 001
3. 066

000 Client :- We can find this client in the system as soon as we install SAP r/3 software. This is called master client. Client 000 contains a simple organizational structure of a test company and includes parameters for all applications, standard settings, and configurations for the control of standard transactions and examples to be used in many different profiles of the business applications. It contains client independent data.

001 Client :- This client is a copy of the 000 client including the test company. This client’s settings are client-independent if it is configured or customized. People normally use 001 client to create a new client.

066 Client :- This client is called early watch client. The SAP earlywatch alert is a diagnosis service, for solution monitoring of SAP and non-SAP systems in the SAP Solution Manager. Alert may contain Performance issue, average response time, current system load, Database administration,etc..

How to create a new client ?

Theoretically we can create clients from 000 to 999.But maintenance of such a large number of clients becomes a challenge.

Step 1) Execute T-Code SCC4

Step 2) . It will bring you to the initial screen of SAP clients.

Click New Entry to make a new SAP Client

Step 3)

1. Enter basic details as given below.

• Client number & description
• City to which client Belongs (etc, NY-New York)
• Logical system may be <SID>CLNT<Client Number>
• Std Currency may be (etc EUR)
• Client roles may be Customizing,Demo,Training/Education,Production,etc..

2. Enter your client specific data and set permission for the clients as per your requirement
3. Save
4. Press F3 to come back to SCC4

Step 4) New client will be there in the list.Here we have created client 100.

How to Transport a Request

How to Transport a Request

You will transport from DEV to QA and then QA to PROD. You will not transport from QA to DEV.

For your clarification you will not change any thing in QA. You will make the changes in DEV and transport them to QA. QA is only for testing.

For more information about the SAP Change and Transport System (CTS), 

Transport Request is generated in following scenarios:

1. Customizing Request - When doing or changing some customization.
2. WorkBench Request - When configuration is cross-client. Eg Generating new Table, making changes in access sequence, Abap development, etc.

Transport request is not generated for Master Data. For eg: Customer Master, Material Master, price master, etc.

Benefit of Transport Request:

SAP Landscape normally has 3- Tier system:
Development Server - Where customization takes place. Transport request is generated at this level & then first transported to Quality server for testing whether it meets the requirement or not. Once the requirement is met in Quality server then Request is transported from Development Server to Production Server (Actual / Live System)
Quality Server - Mainly useful for testing.
Production Server Actual / Live server, where the real transactions are created & posted.

Procedure to Release & Transport Request:

1. In development server, go to T.Code: SE10 & select the check box Modifiable & enter
2. In the next screen, you will see list of transport request created.
    Note: Transport request consist of main request along with sub request. These sub request hold

    the object to be transported.
3. Expand the main request & you will be able to view the sub requests attached to main request.
4. First release the sub requests.
    Note: To release the request, select the request ni & click on release request individually (Do not

    select release all request)
5. Next release main request.
6. Once the request is released sucessfully, imform the basis person to import the request to

   QA server.

     or
    If the authority is with you, through T.Code: STMS, select development server --> select request no

    & release to QA server. Here when it pops up client no, user id & password, maintain it of QA

    server & release the request to QA server.

    

Project types

Projects:

The SAP projects are categorized in the following: the consultant may involve any of the project based on the experience.

Implementation Project – A project to implement SAP solution as a part of regular implementation or a roll out. This is considered for single-site implementations. Predefined scenarios can be selected from template projects.

Template Project – A project to create a global template for subsequent roll out in multiple divisions / plants. This is considered for multi-site implementations.   It can be used for developing best practices as templates.Template projects can be transported to other SAP solution manager systems.

Upgrade Project – A project to upgrade existing SAP systems. An upgrade project can be a technical upgrade or functional upgrade or a strategy upgrade

Optimization Project - A project to optimize the flow of business processes, or the use of a software solution. For use in SAP Services

Safeguarding Project – A Project to resolve a critical situation in the implementation or use of an SAP Solution. It shows the reasons for a critical situation and coordinate the steps required to resolve the problems

Maintenance Project – This project is to maintain a solution during Change Request Management. The project contains all maintenance activities and urgent corrections of a solution

Solution Manager

What is Solution Manager?

Solution Manager is a natural extension of Accelerated SAP and ValueSAP methodology.

SAP Solution Manager is a separate system providing both Implementation and Operational tools

Solution Manager provides tools, content, procedures, and services to implement and operate your SAP solution

Solution Manager enables process-oriented design, configuration,testing, and on-going system monitoring during operations,regardless of the complexity of the system landscape

Evolution of Solution Manager

ASAP methodology (1996)

Offline CD set of tools, content and a methodology forcomponent-based implementation projects. 

The CD-ROM contained the first implementation Roadmap and associated tools

ValueSAP (1999)

Offline CD set with tools, content and methodologies for evaluation, implementation and continuous businessimprovement. 

The CD-ROM contained advanced tools such as the QADB, BPML etc

ASAP CD set is used as a tool platform. 

ASAP content is included to cover the implementation phase SAP Solution Manager (200X) Online Platform (SAP WebAS based) to support key

implementation activities including any key ASAP concepts and tool features

Enhanced concepts due to new challenges of SAP implementation

Integrated platform to support Implementation and Operation of

SAP solutions

With the advent of Solution Manager, SAP has moved the ASAP

methodology tools into an integrated systems which can help

manage SAP solutions from implementation to Operations and

Continuous improvement.

SAP’s Solution Manager Strategy

The latest version of SM is 7.0. SAP SM 4.0 officially got renamed

to 7.0 as of May 1, 2008. 

The reason is to align SAP NetWeaver and SM having the same release number.

As SAP SM is a matured product which provides sufficient standard out of the box application management functionality for SAP solutions to Customers, SAP has moved away from ‘annual’ releases of new versions.

SAP SM 7.0 will be enhanced continuously through Integration

Packages and focus group specific Extensions.

SAP SM is mandatory for all Business Suite 2005 and beyond.

Per each project, all products and related DEV, QAS, PRD systems need to be defined in Project Admin

Prior to the definition of a project system landscape, products,

systems and related RFC destinations need to be created in

System Landscape Maintenance transaction (SMSY)

A system landscape for the project contains the following:

Logical Component

Product Version

Logical Systems for dedicated system roles

A logical component reflects a set of logical systems (instances) for a product. 

If you need to handle multiple instances of systems for a product, create additional logical components.

The selection of the logical component influences the selection of scenarios / processes using the BPR in the Blueprint phase. 

Only those scenarios / processes that comply with the defined logical

component and product version are released for selection.

SAP List Viewer

SAP List Viewer for SAP GUI (Classic)  

Use

SAP List Viewer unifies and simplifies the use of lists in SAP systems. A uniform user interface and list format is available for all lists. This prevents redundant functions.

SAP List Viewer can be used to view both single-level lists and multilevel sequential lists.

●      Single-level lists contain any number of rows that have no hierarchical relationship to each other.

●      Multilevel sequential lists consist of any number of rows that have two hierarchical levels. Multilevel lists have header rows and item rows; the item rows are subordinate to the header rows. For each header row there can be any number of subordinate item rows.

You can view subtotals and totals rows in both single-level lists and multilevel sequential lists.

SAP List Viewer is used in controlling for reports such as the following:

●        Reports from cost centers and business processes

●        Actual line item reports from cost centers and business processes

●        Commitment line item reports

●        Plan line item reports from cost centers, orders, business processes, cost objects

●        Budget reports

●        Cycle reports

●        Order selection (CO-PC)

●        Flexible itemization (CO-PC)

Features

Not all lists in SAP components use the full range of functions available in SAP List Viewer. Some lists in SAP system components offer special functions that extend beyond the normal range of SAP List Viewer.

This documentation covers all the functions of SAP List Viewer. The description of the lists in the applications includes all the functions available in SAP List Viewer as well as the additional functions.

SAP Testing

SAP Testing is same as manual testing but here the applications are SAP R/3 and Enterprise portal. Whenever there is change in R/3 and Portal and You need to design test cases according the change request and test the application. 

If you have knowledge in the module (like HR, CRM, SD, SRM), which you are going to test would be helpful to you. 


UAT means USER ACCEPTING TESTING. Suppose end user raised an issues that we solved and send to end used it is working fine. then we get confirmation from him that it is fine. that is call UAT. 


UNIT TESTING - This is done by developer and anyone who did any customizing or any code to ensure what they did is working properly 

INTEGRATION testing - Done by tester by developing some scenarios which are most unlikely and get the result to ensure the integration is correct 

Apart from that, regression testing, functional testing and other cross functional testing are there done by testers 

In realization phase, unit testing are done by developers 
After unit testing, Integration testing and other testing are done by testers/functional depending upon the object to test. 

Testing usually follows two paths. Firstly, System Integration Testing (SIT) which is performed by the SAP team in the development client, and secondly User Acceptance Testing (UAT) which is performed in the QA client after transport from the development client. UAT is performed by end users or the testing team. 

Unit Tests are defined and performed by developers. A process consists usually of several functions. Each of this function usually consists of "sub-functions" corresponding to a single method or a group of methods (if you are developing OO-based). 

Unit Tests could be described as white-box tests whereas a normal tester (which should be not identical to the developer) will test entire functions (black-box tests). 

--- During the entire life cycle of a SAP solution, it is necessary to test the functions and performance of your solution. With the SAP Test Workbench, SAP provides you with an environment for all test phases, which you can use for testing in the following cases: 

• Implementation of SAP solutions 
• Integration of new components and business scenarios 
• Customer developments 
• Function tests 
• Integration tests with other components 
• Upgrades, regression tests 
• Importing support packages 

Integration 
Features 
Test Preparation 
• Creation of manual and automated test cases 
• Management of manual and automated test cases 
• Creation of test plans 
• Definition and management of test series 
Test Execution 
• Execution of mass tests using Extended Computer-Aided Test Tool and Computer Aided Test Tool 
• Integration of test cases and test scripts of non-SAP providers 
• Assignment of work lists (test packages) to individual testers 

Test Evaluation 
• Permanent overview of test progress and test results 
• Complete documentation of test processes in the test plans (test cases, test case descriptions, test results, test case notes, error messages) 
• Detailed tabular and graphical evaluation of all test plans 
• Export of test results to Office applications 
• Message processing 

Testing usually follows two paths. Firstly, System Integration Testing (SIT) which is performed by the SAP team in the development client, and secondly User Acceptance Testing (UAT) which is performed in the QA client after transport from the development client. UAT is performed by end users or the testing team. 

What is SAP Landscape?

What is SAP Landscape?

Landscape is like a server system or like a layout of the servers or some may even call it the architecture of the servers viz. SAP is divided into three different lanscape DEV, QAS and PROD.

-  DEV would have multiple clients for ex: 190- Sandbox, 100- Golden, 180- Unit Test. 

-  QAS may again have mutiple clients for ex: 300- Integration Test, 700 to 710 Training. 

-  PROD may have something like a 200 Production.

            These names and numbers are the implementer's discreet on how they want it or they have been using in their previous implementations or how is the client's business scenario. 

Now whatever you do in the Sandbox doesn't affect the other servers or clients. Whenever you think you are satisfied with your configuration and you think you can use it moving forward, you RE-DO it in the golden client (remember, this is a very neat and clean client and you cannot use it for rough usage). As you re-do everything that you had thought was important and usable, you get a transport request pop up upon saving everytime. You save it under a transport request and give your description to it. Thus the configuration is transported to the Unit Test client (180 in this example). 

You don't run any transaction or even use the SAP Easy Access screen on the 100 (golden) client. This is a configuration only client. Now upon a successful tranport by the Basis guy, you have all the configuration in the Testing client, just as it is in the Golden client. The configuration remains in sync between these two clients. 

But in the Testing client you can not even access SPRO  (Display IMG) screen. It's a transaction only client where you perform the unit test. Upon a satisfactory unit test, you move the good configuration to the next SERVER (DEV). The incorrect or unsatisfactory configuration is corrected in Golden (may again as well be practised in the sandbox prior to Golden) and accordingly transported back to 180 (Unit Test) until the unit test affected by that particular config is satisfactory. 

The Golden client remains the 'database' (if you wanna call it that) or you may rather call it the 'ultimate' reference client for all the good, complete and final configuration that is being used in the implementation.

In summary: 
Landscape : is the arrangement for the servers

IDES : is purely for education purpose and is NOT INCLUDED in the landscape.

DEVELOPMENT ---> QUALITY ----> PRODUCTION

DEVELOPMENT : is where the the consultants do the customization as per the company's requirement.

QUALITY : is where the core team members and other members test the customization.

PRODUCTION : is where the live data of the company is recorded.

A request will flow from Dev->Qual->Prod and not backwards.

1. Sandbox server: In the initial stages of any implementation project, You are given a sandbox server where you do all the configuration/customization as per the companies business process.

2. Development Server: - Once the BBP gets signed off, the configuration is done is development server and saved in workbench requests, to be transported to Production server.

3. Production Server: This is the last/ most refined client where the user will work after project GO LIVE. Any changes/ new develpoment is done is development client and the request is transported to production.

These three are landscape of any Company. They organised their office in these three way. Developer develop their program in Development server and then transport it to test server. In testing server tester check/test the program and then transport it to Production Server. Later it will deploy to client from production server.

Presentaion Server- Where SAP GUI have. 
Application Server - Where SAP Installed. 
Database Server - Where Database installed.

What is the meaning of "R" in R/3 systems?

R/3 stands for realtime three tier architecture. This is the kind of architrecture SAP R/3 system has.

R/3 means three layers are installed in Different system/server and they are connected with each other.

1) Presentation 
2) Application 
3) Database

Why do we call client 000 as golden client?

Golden client contains all the configuration data and master data so some extent. All the configuration settings are done in golden clients and then moved to other clients. Hence this client acts as a master record for all transaction settings, hence the name "Golden Client".