Is it possible to read archive files outside of SAP?

[Former Member]

Hi Experts,

I would like to read SAP archived data (*.ARCHIVE.ARCHIVING)  with non-SAP application. I already know, that data is automatically compressed (and maybe encrypted?).

My question: Is there some possibility to read archive files outside of SAP? I suppose that would be needed to do some decompress first.

Your help is appreciated. Thank you!

Jan

[Former Member]

I don't know what is your actual requirement to do this but as far as my experience says it is not worth reading the Archived data out side of SAP. The data that got archived is been created by SAP to cater its own reporting requirements and may not be supported by outside application to read , secondly the data archving tool kit ADK is used to archive the data from SAP, So it will encrypt and will save on the disk and the same tool is been used to read it back and displays in the SAP screen, If you see all these logic then it makes sense that you can download the data from tables directly before archiving , but after archiving it would be difficult to do so.

[Former Member]

Hi Manjunath,

I know this logic and you definitely right, but we need to turn off current SAP system and have accessible some historical data stored with ADK for audit purposes. Unfortunately, we cannot transfer old data to new ERP system. So, there is need to find some solution how to access this old files. In fact, we need something like Archive File Browser on non-ABAP platform.

Best Regards,

Jan

[Former Member]

Hi Jan,

please have a look at SAP Note 460620 - Migrating archive files.

Best Regards

Stefan

[Former Member]

Hi Stefan,

Thanks for your reply. I found some points with your hint. Some summary for others:

460620 - Migrating archive files:

"Archived data may have to be migrated. One solution is to perform an SLO service archive migration. You can also perform an archive migration for archive files using the Archive Development Kit (ADK)."

153433 - Access to archived data from other logical systems

"For data security reasons, the ADK checks whether an archive file was created in the same system and client where it is to be read. If the client, system or file key do no longer correspond to the meta data that were valid at the time of archiving, you can no longer always access the archive file, particularly for reloading. If only the system ID changes when a new installation due to a system copy is carried out, read accesses are still possible. No solution is provided in the standard system. The access to archive files from other logical systems must be taken into account and carried out in a migration project."

Unfortunately, I still do not know if it is possible to read archived data outside of SAP.

Best Regards,

Jan

[JL23]

Do you just mean to read the archive from outside SAP or do you even want to take the archive file off the archive architecture?

The latter case is explained in note 153433: for security reasons it is not possible.

[Former Member]

Hi Jan,

the ADK files are in a proprieatry format, can only to be read by an SAP System. You have to use the ADK to read the files which is part of NetWeaver.

Theoratically you may read the archive files and export them in a open format (i.e. XML).

But the information contained in the archive files would not be self sufficient. Master and Customizing data is missing. Without this you may not completely interpret the data (i.e. Chart of accounts or Customer Master would be missing). This is the approach SAP offers in SAP Netweaver ILM (System Decommisioning).

But anyhow all solution SAP offers in this context would require a SAP system to interpret the data, which are:

1. Archive migration
2. SAP Netweaver ILM System decommisioning
3. DART extraction

Best Regards

Stefan

[Former Member]

Hi Jürgen,

As i said above, we need to read archive files with non-SAP application using migrated infostructures.

Best Regards,

Jan

[Former Member]

Hi Stefan,

Thanks for your idea. Data export to XML should be the right solution. We assume to use existing infostructures for necessary metadata.

Best Regards,

Jan

[Former Member]

Hi Jan,

please include the required master and customizing data in your exports! The current DART model can be used for orientation. And make sure that you get the approval from your tax auditors for this approach.

Best Regards

[Former Member]

Hello,

the archive information structures are an easy (non coding) approach to read archive files and persist them into a table. They can subsequently accessed by 3rd party tools for an export. But keep in mind archive information structures have to be created in the original system.

So you have to implement a migration of the required data.

The existing archive information structures are inteded to support a fast single document access. Meaning, the do not include all tables, fields of an existing archiving object. So you would have to create your own.

Archive information structures are only aplicable for archiving objects. So they can be used for master data, but most customers do not archive master data. For customizing data, no archiving objects exist. So you have to create extracts using the original table. This is pretty much comparable to the DART extraction process.

Best Regards

Stefan

[Former Member]

Hi Jan,

Based on my knowledge, I would suggest go for DaRT.

DaRT extracts will be very useful and not dependent on SAP environment.

You can align with your legal and Tax auditors and based on the need create DaRT extracts.

Thnx,

Yogesh Soman.

[former_member188883]

Hi Jan,

If the archive files are created using SAP tools , it could not be read without any SAP system.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Deepak Kori

[Former Member]

Hi Deepak,

Thanks for your reply. Why it is not possible? Because of encrypted data? What if I do some preprocessing first?

Best Regards,

Jan