Relevance of CIF_IM* tables for APO

[former_member209769]

Hi,

Could someone share with me details on the relevance of the CIF_IM* tables in R/3?

I understand that they are relevant during CIF related transfer, and also relevant during CCR to identify teh APO relevant master data/transaction data. Also, these tables must be relevant during GATP checks.

As per my understanding, the records in these tables must be getting created/updated when we activate an IM (integration model).

If someone has more detailed understanding of how the records in these tables are created, or get updated, and also in what kind of scenarios and when are they accessed, could you please share the same?

PS: Reason for asking is that there is a comment from the R/3 Basis team that this table is being accessed too many times, and could be causing performance issues in R/3. I have already run RCIFIMDL to delete the superfluous entries, but I am not able to think of way in which somehow the number to access to these tables could be reduced (Also don't know if that is even possible).

Thanks - Pawan

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Pawan,

These tables should only be accessed when you are in development, before you build your runtime version with RCIFIMAX.. If the tables are being regularly accessed, it implies that the runtime version has either not been built, or it has become inconsistent. SAP Help on the subject:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_scm70/helpdata/EN/81/21699c7a6a924d93f4f955c398fada/frameset.htm

Your Basis People might want to read

http://service.sap.com/~sapidb/011000358700000715082008E

Best regards,

DB49

[former_member209769 · Accepted solution]

Hi DB,

Thanks for your reply. In the meantime, I could check that RCIFIMAX is already running regularly in our R/3 system. Consistency check did not throw any error for active runtime versions.

At least CCR report is accessing the CIF_IM* tables (e.g. storage location stock) and also the CIF_IMOD table.

I could not find any good information on the use of CIF_IM* tables (including the CIF_IMAX and the CIF_IMOD tables). I have already raised an OSS for SAP, and waiting for their response.

Would you by any chance have any document or link that could throw some more light on the relevance of the above CIF_IM* tables during data transfer between APO & R/3?

Thanks - Pawan

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Pawan,

I don't know what else you want to know about these tables that is not covered in the links I published in my last post.  If your are interested in technical arcana, I would suggest you search SAP notes.  SAP will occasionally document their logic within notes.

It is not enough to use RCIFIMAX to generate an inconsistency report.  You must generate the runtime model before the SAP CIF programs will use the runtime model.  Don't make any assumptions, run the program with 'generate'.  There is no downside, as long as you are not running any RIMOD* or other CIF programs at the same time.

Best Regards,

DB49

[former_member209769 · Accepted solution]

Hi DB,

I think my comment was not clear enough. We are daily running RCIFIMAX daily with the option of "generate". I tried the "consistency check" option just to cross-check if there are any issues in the run.

I am not able to locate any SAP note apart from the one for RCIFIMDL. SAP is taking quite some time in replying back to my OSS message, so I thought of checking in the forum if someone has some more info (As I could see that at least CCR report is currently using the CIF_IMOD table and also the relevant data table e.g. CIF_IMMARD in case of storage location stock CCR. ) The link for active runtime model gives a kind of high level information.

Thanks - Pawan

[Former Member]

Pawan

The CIF_IM* tables are updated when you generate/ activate the Integration Model. There is a CIF_IM* table for each CIF object that lists the filter criteria for that object - for example, CIF_IMATP has material/ plant combinations for all ATP Integration Models. There is also table CIF_IMOD that has a list of all integration models (active as well as inactive).

The CIF_IMAX table contains the filter criteria for ALL Active integration models. In this table, the filter values are 'optimized' for storage in a LRAW field format, which means that its unreadable by us people and needs to be decoded by the accessing program. Storing redundant information in this manner is supposed to improve read performance.

Where are you seeing performance issues that prompted your BASIS team to look at table access statistics ?

Rishi Menon