Architecture Overview of the SLD Data Suppliers 
Besides component information, the SLD stores information about the current system landscape. A data collection process in each technical system in the landscape can provide this information to the SLD. This process is managed by the data supplier administration. The data suppliers collect data not only about SAP systems (SAP products, database parameters, hosts, clients, and so on), but also about any third-party products that are installed.
Data Collection Process
As shown in the figure below, the data suppliers deliver information about the installed elements in a particular system, update this data periodically, and send it to the SLD server by means of CIM over HTTP.
Currently, there are data suppliers available for all ABAP-based systems as of SAP Basis release 4.0B and for all Java EE based systems as of SAP NetWeaver 6.40.
Data Sending Process
The figure below shows how the SLD data suppliers send data to the SLD server:
The ABAP-based data supplier uses an RFC connection to send data to the SLD bridge by means of a gateway and an RFC server.
NoteAs of SAP NetWeaver 7.1, usage type AS Java that comprises SLD also contains an SAP Gateway.
End of the note.The Java EE based data supplier uses HTTP to send data to the SLD bridge by means of an HTTP servlet.
The SLD bridge receives the reported data and converts it into the format that is defined in the Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) standard (see http://www.dmtf.org/standards/wbem). The SLD bridge then stores the data in the SLD server.
Note
If you have installed multiple SLD servers (for example, for security purposes), the SLD bridge can be configured to forward data to each of these servers. In the figure above, one SLD server has been installed locally (indicated by 1 in the figure) and multiple SLD servers have been installed remotely (indicated by 2 in the figure).
For more information, see Configuring the SLD Bridge.