This blog contains experience gained over the years of implementing (and de-implementing) large scale IT applications/software.

Tag: Connection

SAP Secondary Oracle DB Connection–EasyConnect

When you run an SAP system on a non-Oracle database platform, you may sometimes need to connect to a secondary Oracle database (for example, in a SAP BW environment you could need a connection to multiple source database systems).

The process that is usually followed, is to create the TNSNAMES.ora in the appropriate location on *every* SAP application server of the SAP system.  Then put the TNS service name and username/password into the DBCO transaction within SAP.

There are a couple of downsides to this approach:

1, You generally have to put the TNSNAMES.ora file in /sapmnt/<SID>  as this is already shared across the SAP system’s application servers.

2, You have to keep the TNSNAMES.ora file updated.  Any changes require a complete restart of the SAP system in order for the file to be re-read.

This is where the Easy Connect string can be used.
Instead of entering the TNS service name into the DBCO transaction, you simply enter all the service details, removing the need for the TNSNAMES.ora file.

An example of the Easy Connect string is:

“servervname.com:1521/tns-service-name”

We are supposing that:

– “tns-service-name” is the TNS service name for your target database (listened for on the target Oracle listener)
– Port 1521 (default port) is used by the listener.
– The server on which the listener is located is servername.com.

You must include the double quotes in the DBCO entry.

Based on the above entry, you can then dynamically change the value as and when needed.
No need for a restart of the SAP application server.

Reference: SAP note: 808505 – Secondary connections to Oracle database

Native or Direct HANA Connection

When using the SAP HANA Studio, you can configure the connection to the HANA DB as NATIVE or DIRECT (from Window -> Preferences -> General -> Network Connections).
When NATIVE is selected, this means that the internet connection details of the native Operating System are used.

In Windows this is usually the same as the “Internet” settings configured through Windows Control Panel, or through Internet Explorer’s options menu.

In this setting, HANA Studio will utilise whatever proxy server you have configured for internet access.
When DIRECT is selected, any proxy settings are controlled from within HANA Studio and any Operating System settings are ignored.

This is the reason that SAP say to select DIRECT whenever you experience connectivity issues.
Are there any performance benefits from DIRECT?   maybe.  Since the HANA Studio doesn’t need to query for any proxy server settings in the Windows registry, it’s possible that the initial connection could be established quicker.  Once connected it probably doesn’t make any performance improvement over NATIVE.

SAP DBCO Connection Without TNSNAMES

In order to create an external database connection to another database, so that an ABAP program can access it, you normally create the connection details in transaction DBCO.

However, if you use the ST04 transaction, it provides additional fields where you can enter the connection details such as Oracle listener port number, which will allow you to construct a connection string which will not require an entry in the server’s TNSNAMES.ora file.

SAP PI 7.0 JDBC Connectivity Issues

The following SAP Notes contain useful information about fixes in the SAP PI Adapter Framework Core (SAPXIAFC) and Adapter Framework (SAPXIAF) components.

The notes were found whilst searching for component: BC-XI-CON-JDB (JDBC Adapter).

SAP Note 1483974 – File and JDBC sender adapter’s retry not working after error
SAP Note 1510659 – Improvement in Locking, Logging and Monitoring in JDBC
SAP Note 1083488 – XI FTP/JDBC sender channel stop polling indefinitely(04/04S)
SAP Note 1398891 – XI/PI Adapter for Oracle: Overcoming DB Connection Issues

I was seeing a constant problem whereby the JDBC Adapter would not restart after the destination database system went down for backup or had a failure, or was not started at the time that the SAP PI system was started up.

The SAP note 1483974 was interesting as it highlighted the use of the Scheduler, which I didn’t know existed.