Manage Logical Components

Logical components describe a concrete functionality and group the systems providing this functionality in different roles. When business processes planners and software maintenance responsible talk about systems, they are typically not concerned with the technical details and overall layout of the system implementation. In fact, the systems do not even need to physically exist when the logical component is created.

A logical component allows referring to a high level view of an application for the purpose of planning and maintenance.
Business processes refer in their descriptions to logical components as “processing unit”.
Logical components are sets of technical systems that are supposed to be synchronized during change processes (e.g. the set can contain development system, test system, and production system).
Logical components form the link between the business perspective and technical perspective of a landscape. They are the interconnection between the technical system landscape and the planning landscape.
A logical component can group technical systems that belong together to perform a specific business process step.
When you are planning a system landscape, a logical component can already be defined without a technical system assignment.

Activities

Display the Logical Components Using a Product System

To see to which logical components a product system is assigned, choose SAP Solution Manager: Work Centers Solution Manager Administration Landscape Product Systems .

(Alternatively, you can access the Landscape Management Database with transaction LMDB directly.)

Select an existing product system and choose Display and choose Where-Used.

Create and Change Logical Components

Other than information about product systems and technical systems, logical components are still maintained in transaction SMSY.

SAP delivers some predefined logical components.

To create a new logical component, proceed as follows:

In the SAP Solution Manager system, start transaction SMSY.
Choose System Groups and Logical Components Logical Components .
Right-click on Logical Components, choose Create New Logical Component.
Enter the required information.
Select a product, product version, and product instance. (To create and assign a new product, choose Create Product.)
Save your changes.

To edit a logical component, choose it from the list on the left and switch to Change mode. You can make the following settings:

Active/Inactive indicator: To use a logical component in system groups, that is in solution landscapes for operations, or in projects, set the Active indicator.
To hide the logical component, system-wide, from the New Uses input help, but retain existing uses of the logical component, set the Inactive indicator.
You can change the Product Version that is assigned to a specific product. For example, you could change product version SAP CRM 5.1 to SAP CRM 7.0 of the product SAP CRM.
System Roles: Assign systems to the logical component to form system roles, for example a development system.
Consistency Check: Checks the consistency of the system assignment.
Shipment Routes (only relevant to Change Request Management): Display the transport routes in which the systems are involved.
Where-Used List: Display the system groups in which the logical component is used, for example the projects that use the logical component. You can also navigate directly to the system group and, delete the usage.
System Roles: Change system roles or their sequence, assign system role types for the Change Request Management, e.g. Subsequent System in a transport route. For further information, see Change Request Management.
Namespaces: Assign development namespaces to the logical component. You can request namespaces from SAP.
Related Logical Components: Display and assign logical components that are related to this logical component, for example, all logical components to which you want to assign the same systems in the future.

System Roles:

The systems in a logical component are assigned to the following system roles and usually linked by transport routes:

System Role	Use
Evaluation System	Business Blueprint
Development System	Configuration, upgrade
Quality Assurance System	Testing
Production System	Leading system role in operational processing for system and business process monitoring. EarlyWatch alerts are supported for all system roles.
Training System	Training
Demo System	Demonstration
Reference System	Reference

In addition to the predefined SAP system roles, you can define ten user system roles:

In the SAP Solution Manager system, start transaction SMSY.
Choose Utilities System Settings System Roles
You have the following options:
- Define and change system roles:
  You can change Change Request Management system role types or their sequence, for example as subsequent system in a transport path.
  
  The new or changed system roles are displayed under Project Administration System Landscape Systems and can be selected in the relevant SAP Solution Manager UIs.
  
  Exception: The unchanged system roles from the client definition are available in the role selection for ABAP-based main instances, in the Clients tab in transaction SMSY.
- Delete system roles:
  Predefined SAP system roles cannot be changed or deleted.
  
  If you are using user-defined system roles in the system landscape, you can change their names, but not delete them.
- Transport system roles:
  Choose Transport to transport system roles to other systems.

Assignment of Systems in a Logical Component

When you assign product systems to a logical component, the input help includes those systems to which the same product versions are assigned as to the logical component. (For more information, see Create Product System Information.) If you have not assigned a product version to a product system yet, the input provides those product versions that can be assigned to the product instances.

A logical system identifies individual clients of a product system and AS ABAP technical systems. To an ABAP-based product instance in a logical component, you assign a logical system. To a non-ABAP-based product instance, you assign the product system to which the technical system, on which the product instance is installed, belongs.

Result

Logical components in projects: Assign the logical components to a project under Project Administration System Landscape Systems . Then you can navigate from within a project to the managed systems. For more information, see Assign Logical Components to the Project.

Operational logical components: To monitor systems and business processes, assign the logical components to a solution. For more information, see Defining Leading System Role and Adding, Changing or Deleting Other System Roles.

Clean-Up Inconsistent Logical Components

Upgrading a product system can change the active product version. If you have assigned systems to a logical component via this product system, the product versions of the logical component and the systems will no longer match, after the upgrade. The logical component is inconsistent.

Recommendation

Only increment the product version of a logical component in transaction SMSY after you have upgraded all product systems.

End of the recommendation.

Start transaction SMSY and switch to change mode. The affected logical component is indicated in the overview tree by an exclamation mark.

Case A: The active product version of the product system and the product version of the logical component do not match

Check that the product version is correct. There are the following possibilities:

The product system is being upgraded: Ignore the inconsistency until after the upgrade, and then resolve it.
The product system is not being upgraded: To resolve the inconsistency, change the active product version of the product system to match the product version of the logical component in which you use systems of this group.

Case B: The logical component is internally inconsistent

A logical component can be inconsistent if not all product instances exist in all product versions.

Example Example

The product instance E-Selling for product SAP CRM exists only in the product version SAP CRM 4.0. If a logical component contains the product instance E-Selling with another product version than SAP CRM 4.0 (such as SAP CRM 3.0) this logical component is inconsistent.

End of the example.

Existing product instances have the Product Instance Exists flag in the product version input help.

Use another logical component, with a product instance that exists in this product version:

Create a logical component
Choose an existing product instance for this logical component.
To see in which system groups of projects and solutions the logical component is used, generate a where-used list for the old, inconsistent logical component.
To replace the old logical component with the new one in these system groups, choose Replace Logical Component.
The system shows a warning message if the logical component is used in a solution for which business process monitoring is active. You must deactivate it before you can change the logical component. Proceed as follows:
1. Call the Business Process Operations work center for your solution.
2. Under Common Tasks, choose Setup Business Process Monitoring. The system lists the active solutions in a dialog box.
3. Select your solution. The system opens a session in the background to set up business process monitoring.
4. In the new session, go via the Business Processes node to the Generation/Activation/Deactivation node, per process.
5. Choose Deactivate Monitoring if it is available. If it is not available, the selected business process is not being monitored, so you do not need to deactivate it.
Delete all systems from the old, inconsistent logical component.
The old logical component is no longer used. The inconsistency flag (exclamation mark) in the overview disappears.