SAP PIPO Guru99 Tutorials3
SAP PIPO Guru99 Tutorials3
Objective
The objective of this tutorial is to make you understand - what is SAP Process
Integration? We will not go into the nitty-gritty of the subject but we will
discuss about the architecture and different features of SAP PI. We will cover the
basic features only and will avoid discussing all features in this tutorial.
Next there are a set of case studies which will give you an idea about the industry
level utilization of SAP PI. Once you get more acquainted with the subject, you
should try to solve them. The test cases are prepared in a manner so that it will
take you down into the subject from simple to more complexes with each lesson and
will give you an overall idea of the subject.
For any business - large or small, these are the standard business functionalities
it must carry out i.e. Material Management, Sales and Distribution, Finance, Human
Resources etc. There is much software in the market which is utilized by the
industry. You will notice the simplest one - the teller machine generating sales
invoice if you visit a small shop to a network of computers in a large retail
store, hotel etc operating on an ERP.
Enterprise Resource Planning i.e. ERP is an effective approach that most businesses
implement to enhance their productivity and performance. SAP ERP is SAP AG's
Enterprise Resource Planning, an integrated software solution that incorporates the
key business functions of the organization. The basic functionalities i.e. HR, MM,
SD, FICO etc are called business modules in SAP. SAP builds them as products and
sells them in the market. There are two more modules which do not support business
functions directly but are utilized for presentation and integration. The former is
called EP (Enterprise Portal) and the latter is called PI (Process Integration).
All the business modules are developed in ABAP while EP and PI are developed mostly
in Java. These modules are not executables but they need to be deployed in an
Application Server i.e. ABAP Web Application Server for ABAP modules and Java Web
Application Servers for Java modules.
There are few points we should know before we jump into the subject.
Legacy System
While implementing the SAP ERP in a large business establishment, it is found that
not all sections can be brought under the SAP ERP. Many of the business sections
may have their own proprietary tools which are highly complex and may not be
possible to be replaced. They run parallel to the SAP System. They are called the
Legacy Systems. Then it becomes necessary to integrate between the SAP Systems and
such pre-existing non-SAP System. This is where the SAP PI comes into play.
Architecture of SAP PI
The SAP PI consists of a hub and spoke structure; the spokes connect with external
systems while the hub exchange messages between them. The source system is known as
the sender system and the target system is known as the receiver system. The PI is
not a single component, but rather a collection of components that work together
flexibly to implement integration scenarios. The architecture includes components
to be used at design time, at configuration time and at run time.
Integration Server
Integration Builder
System Landscape
Configuration and Monitoring
Integration Server is the central processing engine of the SAP PI. All messages are
processed here in a consistent way. It consists of three separate engines
Integration Engine
Adapter Engine
Business Process Engine
Integration engine can be considered to be the hub and the Adapter engine the
spoke. Regarding the Business Process Engine, I will explain it later.
Two together, we built integration processes which are commonly called scenarios.
When PI was first released, not all components were built on the same platform.
Integration Engine and Business Process Engine was built in ABAP while Adapter
Engine, Integration Builder, SL, CM and Mapping Runtime were built in Java. So PI
needs both the Java and the ABAP environment to run and is known as the dual stack.
ABAP Stack
Java Stack
Integration Engine
Business Process Engine
Integration Builder
Runtime Workbench
System Landscape Directory
Adapter Engine
Mapping Runtime
But in the later version all the components are built in Java. Some of the dual-
stack components are either dispensed off or modified to work on the Java stack. So
PI needs only the Java environment to run and is known as the single stack.
There are pros and cons between the two stacks but they are not covered in this
tutorial.
Integration Engine
The Integration Engine is responsible for central Integration Server services i.e.
the pipe-line steps - routing and mapping. If the source message structure is
different from the target message structure, then integration engine calls the
Mapping Runtime, where source structure is converted to the target structure. The
Mapping Runtime is based on the Java stack. The integration engine can also
utilize an ABAP program for the conversion, which is based on the ABAP stack.