Archiving Data in SAP Retail (SAP Library

Archiving Data in SAP Retail

Use

Data archiving can be used to remove mass data from your productive database so that the data can be used for analysis at a later date. Before beginning to archive data, it is generally a good idea to check if you want to avoid creating data, aggregate data or simply delete data. Archiving is used for data that cannot be avoided and that cannot simply be deleted.

Archiving data at the right time enables you to keep your database to a manageable size, making it faster to save data and thereby improving performance. Data archiving is particularly important for retailers as large amounts of data are generated in a very short period of time.

When implementing SAP Retail, it is recommended that data archiving is productive immediately after an SAP Retail system goes productive. This means that it is a good idea to schedule archiving for your most important background jobs at regular intervals. The duration of an archiving project is normally six months. It is therefore imperative that you trigger your archiving project as soon as possible after going productive with SAP Retail.

Caution

Ensure that you start your archiving project at the correct time, if possible immediately after your system goes productive. Archiving projects are often started after a system has gone productive and a high percentage of the database capacity is already filled with data. When this is the case, it is important that the following questions are answered as soon as possible, for example:

Can some data be avoided completely?
Which objects are relevant for archiving?
What residence duration is used for master data and documents?
How is data to be located and extracted from the archive at a later date?
Is the correct data being archived? This question is best answered after tests have been carried out with the specialist departments.

Integration

Data archiving in SAP Retail is handled in the same way as data archiving in the non-Retail environment. It is based on SAP archiving objects and generic SAP tools.

For general information, see the Introduction to archiving. The introduction provides answers to the following questions:

The Archiving Object

Customizing

How does archiving work?

What do I do in the archiving procedure?

The most important characteristics of data archiving in SAP Retail are detailed briefly below:

Due to the fast increase in data volume, it is important that archiving is started as early as possible in your system.

Archiving objects from the following components are normally relevant:

Logistics objects: LO, MM, SD and LE

Cross-application objects: BC and CA

Retail objects: LO and MM, names beginning with "W"

Financials (if used): FI and CO

The greatest volume of data is normally generated for non-Retail objects. Tables with a fast increase in data and high data volume are, for example, MSEG (Document Segment: Material), MARC (Plant Data for Material) and MBEW (Material Valuation), LIPS (SD Document: Delivery: Item data), and COEP (CO Object: Line Items (by Period)).

Prerequisites

Before you start an archiving project, ensure that you have read the following documents (in SAPNet http://service.sap.com/data-archiving, at Media Center ® Literature).

Data Prevention Checklist

The Data Prevention Checklist details options for reducing the volume of data in your system before you start archiving, for example, by aggregating data. Additional information about system performance is available in SAPNet under http://service.sap.com/performancemap.

Guide to Archiving in mySAP Retail

Document details important features of data archiving for the retail sector.

The following document may also be of use for your archiving project (in SAPNet http://service.sap.com/data-archiving, at Media Center ® Literature):

Managing SAP Data Archiving Projects

Details general Best Practices to be observed when archiving data in an SAP system.