Overview

Universal Connector for SAP is a command line application that controls background processing within an SAP system. This allows any computer on the network to manage SAP background processing tasks via the local command line.

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All of the Universal Agent components can interact with Universal Connector for SAP.

Universal Connector for SAP Functionality

Universal Connector for SAP provides the functionality to integrate SAP systems into both local administrative tools and enterprise system management infrastructures.

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• Define SAP jobs using a job definition file or by copying existing jobs.
• Modify SAP jobs using a job definition file.
• Start SAP jobs.
• Check the status of SAP jobs.
• Retrieve the joblog of SAP jobs.
• Retrieve the spoollists of SAP jobs.
• Delete SAP jobs and their associated output.
• Query jobs in the SAP system.
• Define SAP variants using a variant definition file.
• Modify SAP variants using a variant definition file.
• Query variants in the SAP system.
• Process/monitor Batch Input sessions.
• Retrieve the SAP syslog.
• Define SAP FS job networks to the SAP system using a definition file.
• Start SAP FS job networks.
• Check the status of SAP FS job networks.
• Delete SAP FS job networks from the SAP system.
• Export SAP calendars.
• Interface with the MHP Communication Management product.

Universal Connector for SAP Communications

Universal Connector for SAP communicates with an SAP system using an SAP RFC connection. Through this RFC connection, Universal Connector for SAP utilizes SAP's external interfaces to perform background-processing tasks.

Supported SAP Versions

Universal Connector for SAP supports SAP 3.1G and above.

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• Purge
• Display select
• Target Server parameter for START and RUN commands

XBP 2.0 Support

Universal Connector for SAP supports the SAP XBP 2.0 interface. The XBP 2.0 interface introduces important new feature sets and many enhancements to basic functionality.

The following features are the most notable additions to the XBP 2.0 interface:

Parent / Child Functionality

This feature allows Universal Connector for SAP to identify the parent/child relationship between jobs and work with them accordingly. For example, monitoring a submitted job can now take into account the activity of all child jobs.

Job Intercept Functionality

This feature allows Universal Connector for SAP to define and modify criteria used by the SAP system to intercept jobs (prevent jobs from starting).

Raise Events Externally

This feature allows Universal Connector for SAP to trigger SAP events.

XBP 3.0 Support

Universal Connector for SAP supports the SAP XBP 3.0 interface. All functionality will go through the XBP 3.0 interface if it is available.

The following features are the most notable additions to the XBP 3.0 interface:

Application Information

This feature set includes the ability to retrieve application logs and application return codes for jobs on the SAP system.

SAP Factory Calendars

This feature involves the implementation of the BAPI_XBP_FACT_CALENDARS_GET function module.

SAP Holiday Calendars

This feature involves the implementation of the BAPI_XBP_HOL_CALENDARS_GET function module.

SAP User Authentication Requirements

Universal Connector for SAP requires a user ID defined in the SAP system for RFC logon/user authentication. The user ID used with Universal Connector for SAP requires certain SAP authorizations to perform tasks within the SAP system.

If the instance profile parameter auth/rfc_authority_check is set to 1, the system checks authorization for the function group of the RFC function module against the authorization object S_RFC. In this case, the following authorizations are required:

SAP 3.1 - 4.0

User IDs that will run Universal Connector for SAP should be assigned an authorization for the authorization object S_RFC with the following fields:

• Type of RFC object to be protected (RFC_TYPE)=FUGR.
• Name of the RFC object (RFC_NAME)=SXMI, SXJI, SQUE, STUS.
• Activity (RFC_ACTVT)=16 (execute).

SAP 4.5 (and Higher)

User IDs that will run Universal Connector for SAP should be assigned an authorization for the authorization object S_RFC with the following fields:

• Type of RFC object to be protected (RFC_TYPE)=FUGR.
• Name of the RFC object (RFC_NAME)=SXMI, SXBP, SQUE, STUS.
• Activity (RFC_ACTVT)=16 (execute).

RFC Connection Types

Universal Connector for SAP communicates with SAP systems using the SAP RFC communication protocol. The connection parameters required to establish an RFC connection can be referenced from stored values in SAP RFC configuration files or supplied directly on the command line (bypassing the need for an RFC configuration file).

For command line-based connections, Universal Connector for SAP supports Type A (specific application server) and Type B (load balancing) RFC connections.

Business Warehouse Support in Universal Connector for SAP

Universal Connector for SAP provides functionality that enables the external automation of work in the SAP Business Warehouse system. Functionality is available for working with both #Process Chains and #InfoPackages.

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Process Chains Process Chains

Process Chains

Process Chain functionality consists of the following set of commands:

• Display list of process chains on the SAP system matching specified criteria.
• Display Process Chain (schedule view and instance view).
• Display Process Chain start condition.
• Display Process Chain log.
• Display Process Chain status.
• Run Process Chains.
• Start Process Chains.
• Monitor Process Chains to completion.
• Return status log and output from Process Chain execution.
• Restart failed Process Chains.
• Interrupt Process Chains.

Process Chain Monitoring

When Universal Connector for SAP is instructed to monitor a process chain, it will detect all processes associated with the chain. Any sub-chains that are started as a result of the monitored chain execution will be evaluated and monitored to completion.

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Finally, when the Process Chain monitoring is complete, the Process Chain log is optionally printed and the exit code of the Universal Connector for SAP instance is set to an appropriate value associated with the state of the Process Chain.

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InfoPackages InfoPackages

InfoPackages

InfoPackage functionality consists of the following set of commands:

• Display list of InfoPackages on the SAP system matching specified criteria.
• Display InfoPackage status.
• Run InfoPackages.
• Start InfoPackages.
• Monitor InfoPackage executions to completion.

InfoPackage Monitoring

Infopackage monitoring relies exclusively on the functionality exposed by the SAP BW-SCH interface. Universal Connector for SAP does not monitor backing XBP jobs for InfoPackage executions.

It should be noted that the InfoPackage functionality described in this section is specific to the InfoPackage scheduler (transaction RSA1). InfoPackages executed as processes in a Process Chain (transaction RSPC) will be monitored in the fashion described in #Process Chains. Specifically, when executed as processes in Process Chains, the backing XBP jobs associated with InfoPackage processing can optionally be monitored.

Job ID Requirement for Universal Connector for SAP Commands

Universal Connector for SAP supports automatically selecting an appropriate model job from an SAP system without requiring a job ID on the command line for the following commands:

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Detailed Information

The following pages provide additional detailed information for Universal Connector for SAP:

• Universal Connector for SAP for z/OS
• Universal Connector for SAP for UNIX
• Universal Connector for SAP for Windows
• Universal Connector for SAP Commands
• Universal Connector for SAP Exit Codes
• Universal Connector for SAP Configuration Options for Program Execution
• Universal Connector for SAP Configuration Options
• Universal Connector for SAP Job Definition Files

Universal Connector for SAP Examples

See Remote Execution for SAP Systems for examples of how to implement remote execution for SAP via Universal Connector for SAP.

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