Manually converting SAP Connections in Syniti Replicate from CData to Syniti’s new SAP Data Provider
In Syniti Replicate 10.7.0.4 we have introduced a new SAP application data provider that supports both Refresh and Mirroring capabilities via the SAP application layer. The new data provider supports data streaming, rather than the previous batch extract mechanism, which improves the extraction times on large tables dramatically.
Example: DD03L 5hours + down to approx. 7 minutes.
In the 10.7.0.4 release we support Refresh streaming on S/4HANA and ECC across all database platforms. We support mirroring (change data capture) on S/4HANA and SAP ECC running on SAP HANA, Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle.
To enable the use of this new functionality on existing connections in Replicate a manual upgrade process needs to be followed. This document details the options and steps involved in upgrading the data provider from our previous CData based data provider and also how to take advantage of the streaming capability to improve existing replication performance.
There are two options for upgrading an existing connection in Syniti Replication Management Center.
Option One: Replaces the CData data provider with the Syniti SAP data provider without enabling the mirroring or streaming capabilities.
Option Two: Replaces the CData data provider with the Syniti SAP data provider and enables the mirroring and streaming capabilities.
Option two builds on top of option one. Below we detail the steps for option one followed by the additional steps for option two. This document does not cover the mirroring / change data capture setup, only the switch to using the data streaming via the new transport and data provider. To enable mirroring please refer to the SAP ECC via Syniti RFC section of the SKT Help documentation (referenced in the Pre-requisites section below).
Pre-requisites
The installation of 10.7.0.4 is required which includes the new Syniti SAP data provider. Additionally, if the Streaming and Mirroring capabilities are to be deployed under option two then the respective SAP Transports must be deployed to each SAP system that you want to extract data from as detailed in the SAP ECC via Syniti RFC or SAP S/4HANA via Syniti RFC help documentation.
Option One Steps (switch data provider)
Note: If you want to test the connectivity using the new data provider there is the options to copy and paste a Connection in Replicate by right clicking on the Connection and choosing Copy Connection and then right click on the Source folder in the left-hand panel and choose Paste Connection. The new copied Connection will appear, and you will be able to edit the name of the Connection. Once you have renamed or clicked off the highlighted Connection it will be saved into the Replicate metadata repository. You can then test the changes to the Connection without affecting your existing Connection and Replications until you are happy with the changes.
1. Click on the Source Connection that you wish to change to select it. Open or select the Replication Monitor tab in the main (right panel) to show all Replications associated with the Source Connection. At this point you have two options; stop the Replication Agent service (Windows Services) which will stop all Replications from running, or alternatively disable any enabled Replications associated to the Source Connection.
Note: No Replication can be enabled or running for changes to the Connection to be made.
2. Once all Replications are in a disabled state or the service is stopped then right-click on the Source Connection and choose Connection Properties. The below screen will be displayed.
3. Click on the … button to the right of the Connection field in the General section of the Properties page to open the data provider window.
Note: You will notice now that under the drop down of the Provider you will have two options CData and Syniti. Do NOT change the provider yet.
4. Open the Connection properties window by clicking on the … button that appears on the end of the Connection String property once you click on the property.
5. On the DSN Configuration window select the Advanced tab and note down the following property values:
- Host
- System Number
- User
- Password (you may need to request this as won’t be visible in the configuration page and is required for transferring the connection to the new data provider)
- Client
- Read Table Function
- Optionally if SNC is being used then record the settings for SNC: i.e. Mode, Name, Qop, Partner Name and Lib Path
6. Close the Configuration window to return to the Connection Properties page.
7. Click on the Provider dropdown control and change the provider from CDATA SAP RFC ODBC Driver 64 bit to Syniti SAP RFC .Net Data Provider and enter the details you recorded in step 5 above.
8. Set the following properties as specified:
-
- AppServerHost = Host value i.e. ip address (from step 5)
- System Id = <set to the System ID of your SAP system> i.e. SD2
- Client = Client value i.e. 100 (from step 5)
- System Number = System Number value i.e. 00 (from step 5)
- User = User value (from step 5)
- Password = Password (from step 5)
- Language = <language that you want to extract with> i.e. EN
- Read Table = Read Table Function i.e. /BOA/SDRM_READ_TABLE_V2 (from step 5)
- Gateway Service = 33<System Number value> i.e. 3300
- Connection Count = 10 (default setting, limiting the number of parallel Replications)
- Optionally set the SNC parameters if configured to use SNC or the Message Server properties if connecting via a Message server.
9. Test the connection by clicking on the Test button at the bottom of the Connection Properties window.
10. If successful, then click on OK button and then Apply and OK on the main Connection Properties window to save the Connection changes.
11. You can now start the Replication Agent service or enable the disabled Replications and test by running a Refresh of a specific Replication.
Note: If you are planning to move to Option Two steps section of the document then do NOT restart the Replication Agent service or enable the Replications.
Note: It is expected that you will not see any change in the performance of the Replication as it is still utilizing the batch read functionality.
Only proceed with Option Two steps if the SAP transports have been deployed to the SAP source system and the correct security / authorization changes have been applied as detailed in the help guide (see above).
Option Two Steps (enable streaming)
1. Right click the source SAP Connection and choose Connection Properties.
2. Click on the … button to the right of the Connection field in the General section of the Properties page to open the data provider window.
3. Edit the following properties on the page:
- Read Table = /BOA/SDRM_READ_TABLE (ECC) or /BS4/SDRM_READ_TABLE (S/4HANA)
- Stream Read Table = /BOA/STREAM_READ_TABLE (ECC) or /BS4/STREAM_READ_TABLE (S/4HANA)
- Destination Server = NCO_SERVER (if following the setup guide in the SKT Help). Aligned to the name of the SM59 destination server you configured. Note: Ensure case matches the destination server in SAP.
- Program ID = SKPStreamServer (if following the setup guide in the SKT Help). Aligned to the Program Id assigned to the destination configured in SAP. Note: Ensure case matches the setting in the destination server registration in SAP.
- Click Test to ensure the Connection can communicate with SAP. Click OK and Apply and OK on the parent window to close out the Connection properties.
- Start the Replication Agent service or re-enable the Replications that you disabled at the beginning of the process and run a refresh on one of the larger tables to test out the performance of the new data provider and streaming based extraction capability. It is expected that a difference in extraction performance is expected over the old batch read based extraction mechanism.
Repeat the above steps for any additional SAP source system connections where you wish to make use of the streaming and mirroring capabilities introduced in the 10.7.0.4 release either individually or in combination.