Document Management Storage

[Former Member]

I have diff. types of document such as Word, drawing, PDF, What are the pros and cons of saving on shared file server vs. sap database (secure storage area).

What is the configuration steps for each ?

Thank you,

Sam

[Former Member]

service.sap.com/contentserver or alternatively search for "content server" on sdn and other places on service.sap.com

Espen

[Former Member]

Hi Samantha,

Since you are in the DMS area of the expert forums, i assume that DMS is on the agenda. DMS offers much more than a file area, which is somethign to be avoided. Go for DMS, and use the SAP solution for storage.

THe solution offered by SAP is SAP Content Server, which is in my experience a very good solution and i would recommend it.

Using Content Server with database storage gives you a very stable, secure and fast environment. You can store documents in R/3 as well, but that is really only a good solution for few documents.

For SAP Content Server, install it as according to the documentation. Afterwards go to SAP, transaction OAC0 and OACT. In OAC0 create a new content repository and point it to your newly created server. In OACT edit the content reposotiry for content category DMS_C1_ST and point it to the newly created Content Rep.

Please reward if useful.

Espen

[Former Member]

Do you have any documentations on this ?

Thank you,

Sam

[anantharaman_r]

Hi,

You can also check the document available on KPro

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp2005/helpdata/en/15/aea9375d79fb7de10000009b38f8cf/frameset.htm

KPro is mainly used to store and retrive content from Content Server.

Also check this link for KM,

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_erp2005/helpdata/en/42/d289ba46076bb2e10000000a1553f6/frameset.htm

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Ananth.

[Former Member]

Hi Sam

The database isn't recommended for high volumes of documents in production, most customers normally use this only for dev if they don't have development content servers. The best solution for storage is something called a SAP Content Server. Its free software that comes from SAP and allows you to store the documents on a secure external server so your existing SAP database isn't affected. It uses HTTP as the communication method and you can create a secure connection with certificates so there are no security gaps. We have customers with more than a million documents in SAP content servers so as far as security and sizing goes, it is more than capable of handling most requirements, don't let anyone talk you into buying a 3rd party server, most don't offer any benefit over the SAP one.

The manual for installation is pretty self explanatory, so the only question you need to ask is UNIX or Windows and whether you want to store in a database on the server (common) or in a file structure. Personally I normally go with the database option, the preference of UNIX or windows would be dependant on a lot of things so thats more of an architectural questions.

Email me if you have questions.

Regards,

Athol