Technical System Landscape 

XML-based archiving involves two logically separate systems, which are generally also physically separate: The application system whose database is to be cleaned up and which contains the data to be archived, and the archiving system in which XML DAS is running. XML-based Archiving is available for Java applications.

The application system contains another important component for XML archiving, called the XML DAS Connector. If you are working with a Java application system, the archiving sessions are started and monitored using the Java Archiving Cockpit, which is part of the SAP NetWeaver Administrator (NWA). It is also possible, however, that some archiving sets use their own UI for starting archiving sessions.

XML DAS is part of the Application Server Java (AS Java). The meta data and the property indexes (used for value-based searches) are kept in the database of the AS Java, while the actual data that is archived is saved in a file system connected via the WebDAV protocol. Alternatively, you can also use a robust file system, which must be made available to all servers of the AS Java. The file system or rather, a part of it (folder or WebDAV collection) is used as an archive store for an archiving object via the XML DAS Administration. The XML DAS Administration is also part of the NWA. Because these and other settings are cross-application-system settings, the XML DAS Administration must be configured for XML data archiving.

The following figure shows how all of these components fit together:

¹ The diagram only shows the SLD connections that are relevant in a service-oriented archiving scenario.