Migrating SAP R - 3 Systems To SAP NetWeaver 7.4
Migrating SAP R - 3 Systems To SAP NetWeaver 7.4
Migrating SAP R - 3 Systems To SAP NetWeaver 7.4
3-2016
Recommended Citation
Muppidi, Rakesh, "Migrating SAP R/3 Systems to SAP NetWeaver 7.4" (2016). Culminating Projects in Mechanical and Manufacturing
Engineering. Paper 42.
This Starred Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering at theRepository at St.
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Migrating SAP R/3 Systems to SAP NetWeaver 7.4
by
Rakesh Muppidi
A Starred Paper
March, 2016
Abstract
1990 it founded Transitions Optical as a joint venture with Essilor. On April 1, 2014, PPG
finalized the sale of Transitions Optical to its joint venture partner, Essilor International of
France, however, PPG’s technical center in Monroeville will continue to provide research and
This Capstone project focused on migrating SAP R/3 systems to NetWeaver 7.4 for
better performance and efficiency. It focused on the 24*7*365 customer support through
various interfaces like mobile, PDA and web to avoid delays and errors in the manual process
and emphasizes on integrating SAP applications with the non-SAP customer applications
which gives better support and quick resolution to customer grievances. It allowed the
integration and alignment of people, information, and business processes across business
and technology boundaries. It reduced the time while converting and deploying the data
between SAP and non-sap systems by using SAP’s own interface component PI (Process
Integration). Successfully accessed SAP systems outside the intranet by using web browser
Acknowledgements
This project document wouldn’t be possible without the valuable guidance and
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Hiral Shah, Associate Professor, for
Engineering Management Program, at St. Cloud State University without whose support,
encouragement, and guidance this project would not have been a reality.
It gives me an immense pleasure to thank Dr. Ben Baliga, Professor and Graduate
Director for Engineering Management Program, at St. Cloud State University for his support
and guidance.
Also, I would like to thank Prof. Balasubrahmanian Kasi for serving on the committee
Table of Contents
Page
List of Tables ...................................................................................................................... 6
Chapter
1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 9
Introduction ..................................................................................................... 9
Summary .......................................................................................................... 13
Introduction ..................................................................................................... 14
Summary .......................................................................................................... 20
3. Methodology ......................................................................................................... 24
Introduction ..................................................................................................... 24
Chapter Page
Timeline ............................................................................................................ 46
Summary .......................................................................................................... 46
Introduction ..................................................................................................... 47
Summary .......................................................................................................... 52
Introduction ..................................................................................................... 53
Results .............................................................................................................. 53
Conclusion ....................................................................................................... 55
Recommendations ........................................................................................... 56
References ......................................................................................................................... 57
6
List of Tables
Table Page
1. Timeline ................................................................................................................. 46
List of Figures
Figure Page
Figure Page
Chapter 1: Introduction
Introduction
Founded in 1883 by Captain John Baptiste Ford and John Pitcairn, Jr., as the
Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company at Creighton, Pennsylvania; the company changed its name
to PPG Industries, Inc., on 19 December 1968 to show its diverse offerings. Ditzler Color
Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company (now PPG) in 1928. In 1990 it founded Transitions Optical as
a joint venture with Essilor. On April 1, 2014, PPG finalized the sale of Transitions Optical to
its joint venture partner, Essilor International of France, however, PPG’s technical center in
Monroeville will continue to provide research and development services for transitions.
Pennsylvania, PPG operates in more than 70 countries around the globe. Sales in 2013 were
$15.1 billion.
This Capstone project focused on migrating SAP R/3 systems to NetWeaver 7.4 for
better performance and efficiency. Focused on the 24*7*365 customer support through
various interfaces like mobile, PDA and web to avoid delays and errors in the manual process
and emphasizes on integrating SAP applications with the non-SAP customer applications
which gives better support and quick resolution to customer grievances. It allowed the
integration and alignment of people, information, and business processes across business
make quick and profitable decisions to improve the growth. In addition, this document also
includes the problem statement, objective and nature and significance of the problem.
Problem Statement
PPG was using SAP R/3 systems. The major limitations of R/3 systems were
customers couldn’t able to access the systems through web browser and integration
between SAP and non-SAP systems were possible by using third party tools only. These
Migrating SAP system version (4.6) to SAP NetWeaver 7.4 which has more capability
2. Able to access SAP systems outside the intranet by using web browser or mobile
3. SAP R/3 supports only German and English languages whereas NetWeaver has
functionality made SAP edge in the ERP field. It improved the business of the PPG
and customers throughout the globe can easily understand the day-to-day
business transactions.
11
Because of these issues, PPG was losing their customers adversely, which affected
the business. Customers were moving to other companies due to poor response/service
received from PPG. Due to R/3 systems PPG was unable to connect to the customers
applications. Converting the non-SAP systems applications data and deploying in to SAP
systems was time taking process in PPG. The possibility of getting errors was high while
converting and deploying the data from SAP to non-SAP and vice versa and this lead to delay
in the business process. As R/3 systems does not have the web functionality, employees of
the PPG Company couldn’t able to access the SAP systems through web browser and they
were not able to support the customers round the clock. All these reasons had severe impact
in the terms of revenue and business on PPG. R/3 systems can support German and English,
but the company had customers in 70 countries which needed more supporting languages.
(560 languages) which given major advantage in the service and day-to-day transactions.
Three system landscape which was Development, Quality and Production servers
shown in Figure 1. After successful migration to NetWeaver version 7.4, development server
would have ECD, PID, BWD and EPD systems, quality server would have ECQ, PIQ, BWQ and
EPQ systems and production servers would have SMP, ECP, PIP, BWP and EPP systems.
Project Questions
1) What is the need for migrating SAP R/3 systems to SAP Net weaver and what are
its benefits?
2) After migrating the complete landscape, does the PPG Company data secure and
reliable?
4) Can we really reduce the time of converting code by using SAP PI interface and is
The major limitations of the project were customers couldn’t able to access the
systems through web browser and integration between SAP and non-SAP systems were
possible by using third party tools only and these were solved after migrating systems to SAP
NetWeaver.
Definition of Terms
Unicode–Multilanguage Support.
Host–Either a client or a server. A host has its own address on the network, and is its
own machine.
Summary
The chapter briefly covered the Problem Statement, Objective of the project, Nature
and Significance of the project. In later part of the report, it will cover the background and
literature review, which explains how the migrations completed successfully to NetWeaver
version.
14
Introduction
This chapter briefly describes about on how the problem is originating and narrows
down the root causes with the background details and relevant literature. It also draws light
on the methodology used and implemented towards the project with the proposed
approach.
Pennsylvania, PPG operates in more than 70 countries around the globe. Company was using
SAP R/3 systems and the major limitations of R/3 systems were customers unable to access
the systems through web browser and integration between SAP and non-SAP systems were
possible by using third party tools only. Converting the non-SAP systems applications data
and deploying in to SAP systems was time taking process in PPG and possibility of getting
errors were high and this lead to delay in the business process. Due to R/3 landscape PPG
was unable to connect to customers’ applications and eventually it was losing customers
because of poor service. These above mentioned reasons had severe impact in the terms of
A team from PPG raised a request to SAP in order to solve the unique problems
which was caused because of R/3 systems. SAP had come up with the solution and provided
15
several books. They were SAP Administration-Practical Guide, Migrating data from R/3
systems to NetWeaver Version, The SAP OS/DB Migration Project Guide, Upgrading SAP and
Efficient SAP NetWeaver BW Implementation and Upgrade Guide (Knox, 2015; Neil, 2013;
Vanstechelman, 2005).
Major problem with the R/3 systems was integration between SAP and Non SAP
systems by using third party tool was much time taking process when compare with
less time for integration and it would support all languages whereas R/3 systems were
supporting only German and English language. And the Company has customers around the
globe and they were not able to access through web. We migrated all the legacy systems to
NetWeaver version systems to solve all the limitations of the R/3 systems.
SAP is software provided by SAP AG, Germany. It stands for Systems Applications and
Products (SAP) for (in) data processing. It is preferred software by most of enterprises,
industries. SAP is OS and DB independent. SAP runs on almost all the OS’s (Linux, Windows,
Z/OS, and AIX). It also supports almost all the Databases (DB2, Oracle, Sybase, MaxDB, and
Hana). SAP has rich set of modules (FI, CO, SD, PP, MM, HR, PP, PS, QM, and PM Etc.). SAP
supports small, midsized to large enterprises. PPG was using SAP R/3 system landscape. R/3
SAP uses the industry specific 3-Layer Architecture and named it as R/3 Architecture
(Schreckenbach, 2015a).
16
2. Application Server
3. Database Layer
1. Presentation Server: It is a client for all the SAP Solutions. It is also referred as
ii) SAP GUI for JAVA (On all OS where JAVA is supported)
SAP provides various versions of GUI (4.6c, 620, 640, 700, 710 and 720). To install SAP GUI
use presentation server DVD and go to the respective OS win32 and run setupall.exe and
follow the onscreen instructions (Vanstechelman, 2005). Figure 2 is the SAP GUI entry screen
2. Application Server: It is used to handle the user request and process them to the
database. It has dispatcher to process and monitor the user request, work process to process
and interpret the requests, Buffer areas to store the frequently accessed data. It absorbs the
It is a physical server, which is used to handle and process the user request. In SAP
naming convention we define them as an Instance and it is possible to install more than one
instance on a single server provided they should be differentiated by the instance number.
Instance number is a 2-digit number that varies between [00 to 97] 98 and 99 are reserved for
i) Database Instance.
ii) Central Instance: This is the Instance where Application Server/ Tier/ Layer are
iii) Dialogue Instance: These are the instances, which are used to handle the load on
the central instances. We can install as many instances as possible assuming that
each instance can serve up to 200 - 500 users depending upon the type of the users.
3. Database server/ layer/ tier: It is the area where the complete data resides. It has
its own queue, process, buffers, and request handling mechanism. Most of the databases are
on Oracle. SAP is pushing MAXDB (without any license key), Microsoft SQL Server & IBM DB2
18
with discounted prices. Figure 3 is the pictorial view of SAP R/3 architecture explains the
presentation layer, application layer and the database layer (Schreckenbach, 2015b).
Supporting Platforms:
SAP can be installed on Microsoft windows 2000, win 2008 and win 2012. It can be
installed on 32bit or 64bit operating systems. 64 bit means a single process can serve the
user with 4GB RAM/ Memory whereas in 32 bit it is 1.9GB Memory. 264, 232 / 8 bytes.
IBM Specific operating system with version 5.3 technical (TL) level 7 (TL7)
This is also IBM specific which provides more consistency, reliability, mileage than
Note: Linux with MaxDB is supported by SAP and provides more leverage (Finance)
Microsoft windows and SQL Server This is the best combination for interactive usage.
PPG had decided to migrate all their legacy systems to SAP NetWeaver systems. Here
SAP NetWeaver:
SAP Net Weaver provides core functions for the infrastructure of your business
solutions in four integration levels. Listed below are the core functions of SAP NetWeaver
(Schreckenbach, 2015b).
Application Platform.
Mobile Infrastructure.
20
Figure 4 is the pictorial explanation of SAP NetWeaver architecture and explains how
EP, PI, BI (BW), XI/PI and MI interconnected with each other. With inbuilt components of
NetWeaver, integration and accessibility issues can be solved. PPG had faced integration
problem with R/3 systems after migrating to NetWeaver version integration problem has
been solved. With the third party tool integration was taking much more time when you
compare with the SAP PI component. After migration, SAP systems are accessible through
Migrating SAP R/3 systems to NetWeaver systems was achieved by below mentioned
1. Project Preparation
3. Realization Phase
21
4. Final Preparation
5. Go live / Support
1. Project Preparation: During this phase the business requirements were gathered
and documented. The core team was defined from SAP, Implementing partner, Customer,
Business owners, etc., also referred as Steering Committee (With some management skills).
These committees assembled from time to time and review the progress of the project.
Author gathered all the important data and requirements to begin the project (Mergaerts &
Vanstechelman, 2015).
2. Business Blueprint: In this phase, the project was documented and the blue print
got signed off from the customer. In this phase required scenarios were selected. Scenario
was nothing but a group of transactions that were related to a specific module like ECC, PI,
BW, and Solman. Author reviewed the documents before it actually executed (Mergaerts &
Vanstechelman, 2015).
3. Realization: In this phase where the actual migration took place (Vanstechelman,
2005).
Below mentioned steps were very important in migrating R/3 systems to NetWeaver
systems.
i) SAP Basis team took export of the source system by using export/import method.
Author had taken the notes of prerequisites and preparation steps before
ii) Team downloaded the software from SAP service market place. Checked the
iv) Post migration steps. Author reviewed each and every phase of the realization step
4. Testing & Final Preparation: Testing took place in the testing client, integration
i) Unit testing: This was used to test the customizing in its test client within the same
system. Tcode: SCCl was used to copy the requests between clients before change
requests released.
It was used to prepare the quality and as well as production system. The integration
testing signoff from the users, MTP (Mote to Production) and readiness of production
system communicating with SAP to conduct GO-Live sessions, End user training, End user
acceptance, SAP Early watch report, internal and external security (Vanstechelman, 2005).
Figure 5 explains the testing strategy in a pictorial format. Unit testing was
performed in DEV and TEST clients and Integration testing was performed in QTST and TRNG
4. GO-LIVE: Where SAP NetWeaver systems worked as production systems. All the
teams made sure system was stable and performed up to the expectations and also checked
Summary
The concentration of this chapter has been focused towards making the readers
understand more about the background of the problem, in depth details of the literature
related to the problem. Also, all the background literature review towards the methodology
Chapter 3: Methodology
Introduction
In this chapter, various steps were involved to make progress towards the
accomplished objective. Migration of SAP R/3 systems to SAP NetWeaver 7.4 version
includes very important phases like Project Preparation, Business Blue Print phase,
Realization Phase, Final Preparation and Go live / Support (Kalluri, 2014). This chapter would
explain all the phases clearly and also covered the data collection and analysis with the
proposed timelines.
Migrated legacy systems to NetWeaver 7.4 version by moving all the core data to a
Project Preparation, Business Blue Print phase, Realization Phase, Final Preparation
and Go live / Support phases were very important for migrating legacy systems to
NetWeaver 7.4 version. In Project preparation phase the business requirements were
gathered and documented. In business blue print phase the project was documented and
the blue print got signed off from the customer. Actual migration took place in the
realization phase by taking the export of legacy systems and importing it to the NetWeaver
Core data had been taken from legacy systems by using below methods.
25
1. Source System
- System Copy
- Source System
Review the inputs and continue the import. Figure 6 screen was displayed after running the
sapinst executable.
26
After running sapinst executable Figure 6 was prompted. In order to start the export
In Figure 8 author marked for Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) and given the
DNS name.
29
Export location path had been provided in figure 9. This export had imported after
In Figure 10 author provided the Source system details, Database ID (DBSID), Source
In Figure 11 author chose the option to update statistics before the export start and
sap recommended to update database statistics before the export started to determine the
Parameter summary shown in Figure 12 and author checked all the parameters once
After running sapinst executable again Figure 14 was prompted. In order to start the
actual export of SAP R/3 systems data and objects we chose the below option.
In Figure 15 profile directory of the legacy systems path had been given in the screen.
36
Export of the data and objects of PPG legacy systems had been taken successfully.
A detailed report was made of what content legacy systems had across an
Earlier Third-party tools used to integrate between SAP and NON SAP systems and
usually it would take more time for converting the core data and deploying to the systems.
The time taken by the third party tool for integrate between SAP and NON SAP systems was
calculated by Objective evaluation. We had calculated time for all the seven tasks before and
after migration.
37
i) Conducted objective evaluation to calculate the time taken to integrate SAP and
Non SAP systems by the third party tool and SAP PI component. Noted time for all
the 7 tasks before and after migration and calculated the average time for both
the components.
ii) Tested the configuration, Unicode feature and web accessibility tested by the
iii) System usability tested by the testers and administrators by the subjective
After migrated to SAP NetWeaver 7.4 version it would not need of any third party
tools for integration. SAP NetWeaver 7.4 version had PI (Process Integrator) to integrate
between SAP and Non SAP systems. Validation went good after migration. Validating the
source and target environments had been correctly migrated and that all metadata and
Calculated time in both the cases before and after migration. And usability of the
organization’s systems should also be audited. This includes documenting and auditing the
Permissions, Users, Features, Customizations, Core data and Integration with other
systems.
38
The export data had imported to newly installed NetWeaver systems to enhance the
integration capability and accessibility. JDK directory path had shown in Figure 17.
39
In Figure 18 it shown the JCE Unlimited Strength Jurisdiction Policy Files archive path.
Which were very important in the import. JCE policy files were downloaded and placed in
SAP system Parameters SAP system ID (SAPSID), Installation drive details had been
given in the above screen Figure 19. SAP system ID is an identifier for your SAP system. It
SAP system user domain model had shown in the Figure 20 and here in PPG we chose
In Figure 21 it shown the installation method we followed during the import. Here we
followed heterogeneous migration method to import the data in to the newly installed
NetWeaver systems.
43
Given the export folder location in Figure 22. Sapint had taken the export package
UC kernel NW 7.0 SR3 software folder path and oracle client folder had been given in
In Figure 24 SAP system archives paths had been given. Sapinst unpacked the archive
After running for several hours SAP migration had finished successfully and it shown
Timeline
Table 1: Timeline
Summary
This chapter focused on explaining in detail about the process of the project life
cycle. It explained in detail the stages involved in the project implementation. The
implementation and analysis techniques which best suited the project scope were detailed.
47
Introduction
This chapter will focus on the data, interpretation and strategies used to analyze and
formulate the recommendations. Also this chapter will outline the process and evaluations
Data Analysis
The data analysis was performed using Objective evaluation and Subjective
evaluation.
Objective evaluation:
Success by task–Did a tester/administrator complete given task successfully.
Average time on task–how long would integration take place before and after
migration.
Subjective evaluation:
System usability scale–After migration, was its experience satisfied by the tester.
Objective evaluation:
All the tasks performed successfully during migration and after the migration. SAP
Time taken by the third party tools to integrate SAP system to Non SAP system in
Time measured for integration by third party tool shown in Table 2. Table 2 has two
columns and they were task no and time taken by the third party tool in min.
49
integration=(120+150+140+130+125+115+135)/7
=(915)/7
=130.7
Time taken by the SAP inbuilt component PI to integrate SAP system to Non SAP system in
Time measured for integration by SAP PI component shown in Table 3 and it had two
columns they were task no and time taken by the PI component in min.
= (15+10+14+20+12+18+14)/7
= (103)/7
= 14.71
Hence the time taken by the PI component for the integration is nearly 10% of time taken by
Subjective evaluation:
After migrating the systems to NetWeaver 7.4 version the presentation, usability and
In response to these requirements a simple table was developed. Below scale gives
Yes No
There are no performance issues found after migrating systems to NetWeaver 7.4 version.
The above table explains the performance and efficiency of the new migrated SAP
PPG Technical architecture data center partitioning shown in the Figure 28.
Summary
Data presentation and analysis explains how migration was done, and also the
performance of the newly migrated SAP systems. Different evaluation methods helped to
identify the functionality and performance of the NetWeaver 7.4 version systems. Additional
information was detailed. The next chapter will cover the result of the project, conclusions
based on the results and possible recommendations for the betterment of the organization.
53
Introduction
This chapter focuses on providing the final result of the project. Subsequently, the
project questions posed before conducting this study are answered briefly. Possible
recommendations are made based on the result and conclusion for further possible
improvement opportunities.
Results
In order to migrate PPG company legacy systems to NetWeaver 7.4 version systems
1. Project Preparation
3. Realization Phase
4. Final Preparation
5. Go live / Support
SAP NetWeaver 7.4 version has PI component and it integrated SAP and Non SAP systems in
a very effective way. The time taken for integration is very less and bug free when compared
with third party tools. After migration customers and employees were able to access SAP
1) What is the need for migrating SAP R/3 systems to SAP Net weaver and what are
its benefits?
PPG was using SAP R/3 systems. The major limitations of R/3 systems were
customers could not able to access the systems through web browser and integration
between SAP and non-SAP systems were possible by using third party tools only. Because of
these issues PPG was losing their customers adversely it effects to the business. Customers
were turning to other companies due to poor response/service received from PPG.
Migration was performed in order to reduce the time in integration and it had taken nearly
10% of the time taken by the third party tool. Customers and employees were able to access
SAP systems through web outside the intranet after migration. SAP R/3 supports only
German and English languages whereas Net weaver has Unicode functionality it supports
around 90,000 characters (560 languages). SAP Migration Successfully finished screen shown
in Figure 29.
2) After migrating the complete landscape, is the PPG Company data secure and
reliable?
Data was safe and secure and validated by testers and developers after migration of
4) Can we really reduce the time of converting code by using SAP PI interface and is
Yes. SAP PI interface component is a bug free product and it tested by testers and
developers. SAP and non-SAP systems are integrated by using PI component after migration.
Time taken for integration measured before and after migration. Time taken by PI
component is nearly 10% of the time taken by the third party tools. Data was safe and
Conclusion
Migration of the legacy systems to NetWeaver 7.4 version for better performance
and efficiency. Customers couldn’t able to access the SAP R/3 systems through web browser
and integration between SAP and non-SAP systems were possible by using third party tools
only.
Migrated SAP system version (4.6) to SAP NetWeaver 7.4 which has more capability
in handling customer requests and simplifying the working areas. Migration was performed
in order to reduce the time in integration and it had taken nearly 10% of the time taken by
56
the third party tool. The administrators measured it successfully after migration. Customers
and employees were able to access SAP systems through web outside the intranet after
migration. SAP R/3 supports only German and English languages whereas Net weaver has
Recommendations
Reduce the customizations and code changes, to make the future migrations simple
At regular intervals, the team must reflect on how to become more effective through
meetings and interacting with the prospective customers, fine tune and adjust the behavior
accordingly.
If possible extend the timeline rather than hiring new resources, which increases the
budget.
57
References
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from http://scn.sap.com/community/web-dynpro-java/blog/2014/10/17/nw-portal-
upgrade-70-to-74.
Knox, S. (2015). OS/DB import process. Retrieved November 15, 2015, from
https://websmp105.sap-ag.de/~sapidb/011000358700000887102012E.
Mergaerts, M., & Vanstechelman, B. (2015). Upgrading SAP (pp. 34-75). Quincy, MA:
Rheinwerk Publishing.
Neil, K. (2013). OS/DB migration export process. Retrieved August 25, 2015, from
https://websmp101.sap-ag.de/osdbmigration.
Nolan, G., & Khaitan, D. (2010). Efficient SAP NetWeaver BW implementation and upgrade
Rheinwerk Publishing.
Schreckenbach, S. (2015b). Migrating data from R/3 systems to NetWeaver version (pp. 40-
Vanstechelman, B. (2005). The SAP OS/DB migration project guide (pp. 21-69), Quincy, MA:
Rheinwerk Publishing.