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Brief Summary of SAP Buffers

SAP Buffers are caches specific to each Application Server that store frequently used data to reduce database access and improve system performance. Key types of buffers include Table Buffer, Program Buffer, SAPgui Buffer, Repository Buffer, and Export/Import Buffer, each serving different purposes and configurable via specific parameters. Proper tuning of these buffers is essential to optimize performance, as both excessively small or large buffers can lead to inefficiencies.

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36 views2 pages

Brief Summary of SAP Buffers

SAP Buffers are caches specific to each Application Server that store frequently used data to reduce database access and improve system performance. Key types of buffers include Table Buffer, Program Buffer, SAPgui Buffer, Repository Buffer, and Export/Import Buffer, each serving different purposes and configurable via specific parameters. Proper tuning of these buffers is essential to optimize performance, as both excessively small or large buffers can lead to inefficiencies.

Uploaded by

Arindam Sen
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as TXT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Brief summary of SAP Buffers

Each Application Server(instance) has their own buffers. Buffers are known as
caches. It occupy memory areas that are local to the work processes.

SAP Buffers store frequently used data and make available for local application
server instance. Buffers help to reduce the number of database accesses, load on
database server and network traffic. Thus, improving the system performance.

Buffered data includes ABAP programs and screens, dictionary data and other company
specific data. Therefore, there are several type of buffers in SAP system. Here are
some of the most important buffers listed. We can tune all the buffers from t-code
ST02.

1) Table Buffer
2) Program Buffer
3) SAPgui buffer
4) Roll/Paging buffer
5) Import/Export Buffer
6) Repository Buffer

Let us understand these buffers in some detail :-

1) Table Buffer :- There are 2 kinds of table buffers:-

a) Single Record Buffer :- It stores single table entries. i.e. one record with
its field values. The profile paramaters which define this buffer are :-
i) rtbb/buffer_length :- actual size of single record buffer
ii) rtbb/max_tables :- max number of buffered tables

b) Generic Key Buffer :- Stores range of table entries i.e. range of records
with field values. It can also store all the records of the table depending on the
requirements. It is known as full buffering. You can change the table buffer
attributes from SE13.
The profile paramaters which define this buffer are :-
i) zcsa/table_buffer_area :- actual size of generic key buffer
j) zcsa/db_max_buftab :- max number of buffered objects

2) Program Buffer (ABAP Buffer) :- The program buffer is used for storing ABAP
program loads before they are executed within individual work processes. This
buffer must show 95% hit ratio, otherwise there is a chance of high load and
generation time in instance. The profile parameter of ABAP buffer to configure is
abap/buffersize.

3) SAPgui buffer :- There are two kind of SAPgui buffer.

a) Screen Buffer :- stores the generated screens in SAP system. It is also known
as dynpro buffer. The profile parameter which defines this buffer is
i) zcsa/presentation_buffer_area :- size of screen buffer
ii) sap/bufdir_entries :- max number of buffered screens

b) CUA Buffer :- The CUA buffer stores objects used by SAP GUI, including menus
and button definitions. The CUA buffer is also known as the Menu buffer. Usually
this buffer plays no significant role concerning the performance of your SAP
instance. The profile parameter for this buffer is rsdb/cua/buffersize.
4) Repository Buffer(Nametab buffer) :- The name tab contains table and field
definitions that are activated in SAP system. It is also known as ABAP Dictionary
Buffer. It contains data derived from table DDNTT(table definitions) and table
DDNTF(field descriptions). It has 4 individual buffers. The global profile
parameter of ntab buffer is rsdb/ntab/entrycount which defines the max number of
records buffered.

a) TTAB Buffer :- Table Definition Buffer. The size of this buffer is


100 bytes * rsdb/ntab/entrycount
b) FTAB Buffer :- Field Description Buffer. The size of this buffer is defined
by rsdb/ntab/ftabsize.
c) Short NTAB Buffer :- Short summary of TTAB and FTAB buffer. The parameter
which defines this buffer is rsdb/ntab/sntabsize
d) Initial Records :- It contains the record layout depending on the field type.
The parameter which defines this buffer is rsdb/ntab/irbdsize

The short ntab buffer and initial records are not saved in the database, but they
are derived from contents of the table DDNTT and DDNTF.

The initial record buffer is read at refresh or INSERT command, when the record is
created into buffers before data is inserted and fields are initialized.

5) Export/Import Buffer :- The Export/Import buffer is used to store data that


must be available to several work process. The system fills or reads the buffers
using the ABAP command. EXPORT TO / IMPORT FROM SHARED BUFFER. The parameter which
defines the size of this buffer is rsdb/obj/buffersize.

As there are separate buffers for each application server, there could be the
problem of inconsistency between application servers. For that, SAP system uses
periodical buffer synchronization which is known as buffer refresh. The
synchronization can be controlled by the following parameter.

rdisp/bufrefmode = sendon | sendoff, exeauto | exeoff


rdisp/bufreftime = time in seconds between two synchronizations

Buffer synchronization is required only when there are more than application
server. When the application server restarts, all the buffer are erased and
dynamically reconstructed.

The tuning of SAP Buffers is quite necessary for improving the overall performance
of the system. The main reason for the reduced performance could be :

1) Buffers are too small :- The required data is not stored in buffer and
objects have to be swapped out of the buffers.
2) Buffers are too large :- Memory is wasted. Paging may occur if too much
memory is taken from operating system.

The optimum size of buffers depends on the specific configuration of server like
number of users working in each module.

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