R/3 Architecture
What is R/3 Basis Software?
• Set of programs and tools which interfaces
with the computer operating system, the
underlying database, the communication
protocols, and the presentations interfaces.
R/3 Architecture
• This software enables the R/3 applications (FI,
CO, SD, etc) to have the same functionality &
work exactly the same way no matter what
operating system or database the system is
installed on.
• Components of R/3 Basis are: ABAP
development workbench, ABAP repository,
System administration & monitoring tools,
CCMS, Printing, Authorization and profile
management tools, DB monitoring and
administration utilities
R/3 Architecture
R/3 Business Applications
ABAP Virtual machine
R/3 Basis Software or Middleware
Common Common
API API
Common API
Oracle, TCP/IP,
Unix/ RPC
SQL
Windows NT Server,
DB2
Basic Architectural Concepts
• Transactions
• Dialog Steps
• LUW
• Clients
R/3 Architecture
• From the point of view of operating system, the
runtime system of R/3 can be seen as a group of
parallel processes( work processes)
Work processes
• The Dispatcher process or SAP Dispatcher: It is
the control program which manages the
resources of the R/3 applications.
• It works like a transaction monitor, which
receives screens & data from the presentation
services & passes them to the corresponding
work processes.
SAP GUI SAP GUI SAP GUI SAP GUI
Dispatcher
W W W W
O O O O
R R R R
K K K K
P P P P
R R R R
O O O O
C C C C
E E E E
S S S S
s s s s
Database
What is a Work process?
• It is a program in charge of executing the R/3
Application tasks.
• Each work process acts as a specialized system
service.
• From the point of view of the operating system, a
group of parallel work processes makes up the
R/3 runtime system.
What does Work process consist
of?
• Dialog or Dynpro interpreter -- Dialog steps are
interpreted and R/3 screens logic is executed.
• ABAP processor -- It is in charge of executing
the ABAP programs
• Database Interface -- Allows the work processes
to establish direct links with the database.
• Each dialog step needs code, dictionary objects,
and data. These elements may come from the
database server or from the memory buffers
which reside on the application server.
Task Handler – It coordinated activities within a
work process. It manages loading and unloading
of the user session context at the beginning and
end of each dialog step. It also communicates
with the dispatcher and activates the dynpro
interpreter the ABAP processor as required to
perform its tasks.
Work Process Architecture
Task handler
ABAP ABAP Dialog
Processor Database
Processor Dialog
Interpreter
Interpreter Interface
Database Interface
Work Process
Dialog Step Data Flow
SAP GUI Presentation
Server
1 7
Application 2 Request
Dispatcher
Server queues
3 6 Roll
Work SAP
process buffers
Page Main Memory
4 5
Database Server
Database
SAP Memory Management System
SAP Memory Management System
• An application runs in an SAP work process
where an ABAP program is normally executed.
The process requires memory to do this, which
are allocated to it by the memory management
system. The order in which the work process is
assigned the memory type depends on the work
process type, either dialog or non dialog and the
underlying operating system.
• The area of a user context that is directly
accessible is now extended as needed, if the
user context has expanded. For dialog work
processes, the data of the user context,
including internal tables is located in this
expanded area
• SAP Roll Area is used for the initial memory
assigned to a user context, and (if available) for
additional memory if the expanded memory is
full.
• Whenever a dialog step is executed, a roll action occurs
between the roll buffer in the shared memory & the
memory area, which is allocated according to
ztta/roll_first in a dialog process. Then the area in the
shared memory is accessed that belongs to this user
context.
SAP Memory types
Memory management system assigns
memory to a work process.
• SAP Roll Area
• SAP Extended Memory
• Private Memory
SAP Roll Area
• The roll area is a memory area with a set
(configurable) size that belongs to a work
process. It is located in the heap of the virtual
address space of the work process.
• When the context of the work process changes,
the data is copied from the roll area to a
common resource called roll file. To prevent
repeated copying another roll buffer is located in
between that is part of the shared memory.
SAP Extended Memory
• It is the core of SAP Memory management
system. Each SAP work process has a part
reserved in its virtual address space for
extended memory
• To set the extended memory, profile parameter,
em/initial_size_MB is used.
• Extended memory is implemented as an
unnamed mapped file, which means the address
space uses the paging file or uses the swap
space of the operating system as background
memory.
Private Memory
• If a dialog work process has used up the roll
area assigned to it and the extended memory,
private memory is assigned to the work process.
The work process goes to PRIV mode
• The work process if it has used a lot of private
memory, is restarted when the user context is
terminated and the local memory is returned.
The restart makes the local memory available
again for other processes. A restart occurs if a
work process uses more local memory than is
defined in the parameter abap/heaplimit.
Virtual address Space of a Work
Process
• With 32-bit systems, 4 GB of memory can
theoretically be addressed;depending on the
operating system.There are approx. 2 GB of
virtual address space available to a process
• This consist of a text and a data segment, a
dynamically extendible heap and a dynamically
extendible stack.The heap increases in size from
the bottom and the stack increases from the top;
this enables the entire virtual address space to
be used.
Virtual address Space of a Work
Process
• With an SAP work process, there are
special areas reserved on the heap. The
size of these special areas can be set
using a profile parameter
• These areas are : Roll area, SAP Paging
area and Private memory
• The largest reserved area is located
between the heap and stack of the SAP
Extended memory.
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