SAP stands for Systems Applications and Products and was originally aimed at providing customers with the ability to interact upon a common database along with comprehensive applications. It was founded in 1972 by five IBM employees in Germany and has since expanded to include many modules that large companies like Microsoft and IBM use to manage finances, production, personnel and more. SAP uses instances, systems IDs, and logical names to uniquely identify systems and allows communication between systems using protocols like RFC, IDoc, and BAPI.

1. SAP
SAP stands for ‘Systems Applications and Products’ and
was originally aimed providing customers with the ability
to interact upon a common database along a
comprehensive application range. It was originally that the
more applications began to be assembled and today, SAP
is being used by thriving companies like Microsoft and
IBM.

2. SAP History
• SAP was in fact founded by five IBM employees in 1972
from Mannheim, Germany. SAP applications have gone
through different changes and modifications and the latest
R/3 (business applications from SAP) provides immense
capabilities to manage financial assets, production
operations, plants, personnel, materials, archived
documents and cost accounting. The latest R/3 framework
runs on several platforms that include Windows 2000 and
use client/server models. It also includes internet enabled
packages for better information exchange.

3. SAP Modules - Ultimate Guide
• Following is the list of module available in SAP system.
• SAP FI Module- FI stands for Financial Accounting
• SAP CO Module- CO stands for Controlling
• SAP PS Module - and PS is Project Systems
• SAP HR Module - HR stands for Human Resources
• SAP PM Module - where Plant Maintenance is the PM
• SAP MM Module - MM is Materials Management -
• SAP QM Module - QM stands for Quality Management
• SAP PP Module - PP is Production Planning
• SAP SD Module - SD is Sales and Distribution

4. • SAP BW Module - where BW stands for Business (Data) Warehouse
• SAP EC Module - where EC stands for Enterprise Controlling
• SAP TR Module - where TR stands for Treasury
• SAP IM Module - where IM stands for Investment Management
• SAP - IS where IS stands for Industries specific solution
• SAP - Basis
• SAP - ABAP
• SAP - Cross Application Components
• SAP - CRM where CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management
• SAP - SCM where SCM stands for Supply Chain Management
• SAP - PLM where PLM stands for Product LifeCycle Management
• SAP - SRM where SRM stands for Supplier Relationship Management
• SAP - CS where CS stands for Customer Service
• SAP - SEM where SEM stands for STRATEGIC ENTERPRISE
MANAGEMENT
• SAP - RE where RE stands for Real Estate

5. What is SAP Instance & SID
• What is an Instance?
• An SAP R/3 instance defines a group of resources such as
• memory
• work processes
• dispatcher
• gateway
• usually for a single application or database server within an
SAP R/3 client-server environment.
• Basically there are three types of instances:-
• Dialog instance
• Central Instance
• Database Instance

6. For one SAP system all three instances share
the same directory.
• Dialog Instance:- Dialog instance exists in the application layer.Its purpose is to
maintain load on the server.Dialog instance exists on different host.If number of
dialog instance increases hardware resources,dispatcher,workprocesses also
increases so that more number of users can login at a time.
• Central Instance:- Central instance can also work as dialog instance.But the
main thing is that it contains Enqueue and message servers. All dialog instances
communicate with central instance before requesting database with message
server. When an instance is started, the dispatcher process attempts to establish
a connection to the message server so that it can announce the services it
provides (DIA, BTC, SPO, UPD, etc.).Lock table is managed in central instance
by enqueue service.
• Database Instance:- As normal database instance accepts requests from central
instance to fulfill the user's requests. As lock management system provided by
enqueue server it will provide service to users.
• What is SID ?
• Each R/3 installation (SAP system) of a database server and several app servers
running the application logic is uniquely identified by a single SID (SAP System
Identification), SAPSID — a three-character code such as C11, PRD, E56, etc.),

7. Logical System Names:-
• When data is distributed between different systems, each system
within a network has to be clearly identifiable. The "logical system"
deals with this issue.
• A logical system is an application system in which the applications
work together on a common database. In SAP terms, the logical
system is a client.
• Since the logical system name is used to identify a system uniquely
within the network, two systems cannot have the same name if they
are connected to each other as BW systems or as source systems, or
if there are plans to connect them in any way.
• Example for production system logical system name might be:-
• SID – PBG
• SID Description - P=Production(type) , B=BW(component) ,
G=Germany.(plant name)
• Logical System name-
• PBGCLNT100.This form is easy to understand.

8. What is RFC (Remote Function Call)
• RFC is a SAP protocol to handle communications
between systems to simplify the related programming. It is
the process of calling a function module which is residing
in a different machine from the caller program. RFCs can
be used to call a different program in the same machine
as well, but usually it is used when 'calling' and 'called'
function modules/ programs are running on separate
machines.

9. IDOC and BAPI
• IDoc
IDoc (for intermediate document) is a standard data
structure for electronic data interchange (EDI) between
application programs written for the popular SAP business
system or between an SAP application and an external
program. IDocs serve as the vehicle for data transfer in
SAP's Application Link Enabling (ALE) system. IDocs are
used for asynchronous transactions: each IDoc
generated exists as a self-contained text file that can then
be transmitted to the requesting workstation without
connecting to the central database. Another SAP
mechanism, the Business Application Programming
Interface (BAPI) is used for synchronous transactions.

10. • IDoc types define different categories of data, such as
purchase orders or invoices, which may then be broken down
into more specific categories called message types. Greater
specificity means that an IDoc type is capable of storing only
the data required for a particular transaction, which increases
efficiency and decreases resource demands.
An IDoc can be generated at any point in
a transaction process. For example, during a shipping
transaction process, an IDoc may be generated that includes
the data fields required to print a shipping manifest. After a user
performs an SAP transaction, one or more IDocs are generated
in the sending database and passed to the ALE communication
layer. The communication layer performs a Remote Function
Call (RFC), using the port definition and RFC destination
specified by the customer model. The IDoc is transmitted to the
receiver, which may be an R/3, R/2, or some external system.

11. More Information
• BAPI stands for Business Application Programming Interface. It
is a library of functions that are released to the public as an
interface into an existing SAP system from an external system.
RFC is the protocol used to call functions in an R/3 system by a
caller external to R/3 or to call programs external to R/3 from
an R/3 system.
• BAPI is a business object. An RFC is functional code. IDOCs
OR intermediate documents are standard data structures for
electronic data interchange (EDI) between application
programs. IDocs are used for asynchronous transactions: each
IDoc generated exists as a self-contained text file that can then
be transmitted to the requesting workstation without connecting
to the central database.