MDM 5.5 Questions

[Former Member]

Dear MDM Specialists,

I have some questions regards to MDM 5.5 :

1) What are the way of integrating MDM server with SAP R3.

Can RFCs or ALE(Idocs) or XI be used ?

(RFC particularly)

2) How is MDM server interfaced with SAP BW.

3) Does the business package for MDM 5.5 have standard

Iviews to create and maintain Business Partners

(Customers,Vendors) ? Can we input all fields as in

SAP master data say for vendor ?

4) Is XI a must ? (looks like it is ..but pls confirm)

5) What are the things NOT provided by Business package for MDM 5.5 ?

6) What are the things that can be done thru the Modeling option of MDM ?

Thanks much.

Josh

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Josh

MDM Integration Issues

General

Within a SAP landscape XI – SAP Exchange Infrastructure would be the best way to integrate MDM with client systems (systems sending or receiving data from MDM) this also fits SAPs vision for ESA - enterprise service architecture. But you should also keep in mind that MDM have a very strong API that enables you to integrate without an additional broker in the middle – the advantage with XI is that with the standard repositories the connection to the standard SAP system is supplied. (you might need to modify them but you have a starting point)

BI

BI is an additional client system that MDM integrates with using the same above technology – keep in mind that for reporting issues you would mainly need the Key Mapping that MDM creates all transactional information still comes from the operational systems.

MDM Portal iViews

MDM comes with pre defined Portal content – you can create portal screens using these iViews in a wizard fashion (I took us about 3 hours to put together a few Portal screens for a custom repository using this technique).

Modeling in MDM

MDM is a extremely flexible tool. Using the MDM console enables you to create a repository that fits your needs – Before doing so it is important to understand your business needs on one hand and properly understand the different modeling component on the other.

Take a look at the following for more information regarding the above issues:

https://websmp101.sap-ag.de/mdm - Select MDM how to Guides from the right pane on the screen. (try: How To proced by Data Modeling within MDM 5.5 )

I hope this information is helpful

Charles

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Regarding the usage of SAP XI and SAP MDM..

If you are familiar with SAP R/3 ALE, then the SAP MDM outbound functionality is really limited. If you need to replicate MDM data to lets say 50 different R/3 systems, then you could set-up 50 different client system in MDM and start setting up syndication for each system so that the right data is selected for each R/3 box. XI would be used then to pick-up the outbound data and transform it into idocs.

However, this seems to be a very complicated scenario and I can imagine that in the future, XI would be the place where the 'single' update from MDM is transferred to the appropriate R/3 boxes. But then, if SAP MDM holds the key-mapping information for each R/3 box..XI can't use this...

I think that SAP has some home-work to do on this...

Regards,

Dirk

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Guys,

So correct me if I'm wrong.

1) I can use ALE without XI from MDM to SAP R3/BW and back.

2) XI is not mandatory for MDM.

Thx.

Josh

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Josh,

Simply saying, the MDM syndicator is able to (1) select data from SAP MDM and (2) create a 'flat'-file on the MDM server. MDM is not able to connect trough ALE, is not able to create XML files etc...

You will always need some software components that take the files from the MDM server and do stuff with it. One approach is to use XI for this and then you can use the pre-configured XI 'maps' to get the MDM files and transform them into IDOCS. But you could also use websphere to do this, or your own custom processes.

So XI is not mandatory, but if you think about using ALE, I think it's the easiest option.

Hope this helps,

Dirk

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks a lot Charles and Dirk.

Have some more questions :

1) Since MDM Syndicator is going to write a flat file

in MDM Server,one could also use TRFCs to connect To

& From SAP R3/BW... Correct ?

2) Pls let me know any documentation on :

"MDM Portal iViews

MDM comes with pre defined Portal content – you can create portal screens using these iViews in a wizard fashion (I took us about 3 hours to put together a few Portal screens for a custom repository using this technique)."

3) Does WAS 640 get installed when one installs the MDM

installables.

4) How can MDM be clustered ?

5) Can we use MDM for any master data other than the

standard scenarios of Customer,Vendor,Product and

Employee ?

6) Also can we have repositories in MDM for any master

data other than that for Product.

7) Is this possible :

When a user from say the Sales dept. logs into the EP,

(Hierachy is Bill to -

---

> under it we have Sold To Parties.) Is there a way for the user to view the hierachical data i.e. the user will see this hierachy from EP.

😎 Happened to see a document which says XI is mandatory ?

Dont know if I am mis-intepreting what is in the

document.Pls refer to "SAP MDM 5.5 SP03 - Master

Guide" (pg 12)

Thanks much.

Josh

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

2) Pls let me know any documentation on :

"MDM Portal iViews

MDM comes with pre defined Portal content – you can create portal screens using these iViews in a wizard fashion (I took us about 3 hours to put together a few Portal screens for a custom repository using this technique)."

<b>As of now we have only the SP3 Business package guide.</b>

3) Does WAS 640 get installed when one installs the MDM

installables.

<b>No, You need to install WAS and deploy the MDM Business content throught Software Deployment Manager(SDM).</b>

4) How can MDM be clustered ?

<b>As of now no.</b>

5) Can we use MDM for any master data other than the

standard scenarios of Customer,Vendor,Product and

Employee ?

<b>Yes.</b>

7) Is this possible :

When a user from say the Sales dept. logs into the EP,

(Hierachy is Bill to -

---

> under it we have Sold To Parties.) Is there a way for the user to view the hierachical data i.e. the user will see this hierachy from EP.

<b>If your repository structure has such hierarchy implemented, then in EP you can have that representation.</b>

😎 Happened to see a document which says XI is mandatory ?

Dont know if I am mis-intepreting what is in the

document.Pls refer to "SAP MDM 5.5 SP03 - Master

Guide" (pg 12)

<b>I don't think so. For sure we need some kind of middleware to interact between the source systems and MDM.

It will be good to use XI if you have R/3 as the source systems.</b>

Hope this helps.

Thanks and Regards

Subbu

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Subbu.

Can you provide me the "SP3 Business package guide".

Also any comments on Question # 1.

Thx.

Josh

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

You can find the SP3 Business Package guide in SAP service market place.

https://websmp102.sap-ag.de/instguides .

Select SAP Netweaver,Installation, SAP MDM. You will see SP3 Business package guide.

Note: You need SAP service market place id to access this document.

Regarding the first question, MDM Syndicator can generate text or XML files. You can use some middleware to push the data back to which ever system you want.

Hope this helps

Thanks and Regards

Subbu

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Subbu.

Some more questions :

1) Does MDM provide a feature by which the user can schedule distribution of data to the MDM Client systems both ADHOC(Immediate) and time scheduled from EP.If so How is it accomplished ?

2) Also after the MDM Syndicator has created a flat file in MDM Server( can the Syndicator be skipped ),is there no way to automate the distribution into/from SAP R3/BW thru scheduled jobs or any other way which would execute Function modules so as to create outbound/inbound IDocs or call RFCs to write to/from SAP R3/BW.

I.e. without any middleware software like XI or custom application. (i.e. MDM Out of the box solution to connect to the MDM Clients )

3) Pls let me the process flow for Outbound and Inbound data movement.

Thanks much.

Josh

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

1. In MDM 5.5SP3 you can write a program using MDM JAVA/COM API to schedule or ADHOC for data distribution process.

If it is a ADHOC process, there are some listners in MDM Java API, which we can use to implement ADHOC distribution.

If it is a scheduled process, write the program which does the data extraction from MDM and use OS scheduled task to perform scheduled distribution.

2. To my knowledge as of now in MDM 5.5 SP3 does not connect directly to any SAP R/3 systems.

If the inbound system needs any mapping we have to have somekind of middle ware which does the mapping for you.

For example if MDM generates an XML file, which is based on some XSD. Then we need some kind of parser, which does the parsing and map to the respective fields in the inbound system.

If the inbound system does not need any mapping and it can automatically pick up the flat file generated by MDM syndicator, then you need a shared place where the inbound system and outbound system (MDM) can communicate.

Hope this helps.

Thanks and Regards

Subbu

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Guys,

Found the thread helpful.

Is there anyway to do clustering for MDM ?

Thx.

JJ.

Message was edited by: Jack Jones

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Jack,

From the info I gathered so far and from the discussion in this thread ...looks like there is no way currently.

Josh

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

One way to "cluster" is to use the master/slave concept to replicate the same "data" to different repositories. For example, use on master to get all data in and feed other application. Then use a slave repository as source for any EP usage and another one to feed various applications trough a web-services layer.

Check the MDM sizing guide, there is a nice picture illustrating what's possible,

Regards,

Dirk

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Guys,

the disadvantage of this is that Slaves (a Slave being a read-only snapshot copy of a master) are only periodically synchronised. So if your master fails - you could potentially failover to an inconsistent server.

A better (if more expensive) solution would be to have 2 master MDM servers, one active & one passive, managed by some 3rd party clustering tool - giving you a 2 node cluster. The database should have its own failover solution out of the box from the vendor; so you should follow the advice that goes with that.

Slave servers have their uses (load balancing for read-only users, potentially archiving etc) but I don't think failover is the best use for the functionality.

Hope this is of help.

Tim.