What is SLT (SAP Landscape Transformation Replication)?

Real-Time Replication Tools at SAP

SAP offers several real-time replication tools, and it may be difficult for a customer to distinguish among the offerings and find the right tool or the right combination of tools that best satisfies their organization's requirements.

SAP LT Replication Server

SLT is positioned as the standard real-time replication tool for big data for SAP ABAP-based source systems—unicode and non-unicode—to SAP HANA, to all databases supported by SAP, to the SAP Business Suite and to SAP applications. However, it also supports non-SAP sources.

Although the SAP Replication Server is a real-time replication tool for non- SAP source systems, it also supports the SAP Business Suite 7.20 and higher (Unicode-only).

SAP HANA Smart Data Integration (SDI) is a real-time replication and ETL tool from both SAP and non-SAP sources, replicating exclusively to a single SAP HANA instance.SAP Data Services is positioned for all bulk batch ETL scenarios from both SAP and non-SAP application sources where real-time replication is not required, writing not only to SAP HANA and other supported databases, but also to files (comma delimited, fixed width, COBOL, XML, and Microsoft Excel). SAP Data Services can be combined with SLT to retrieve delta data in real-time. This is called changed-data capturing.

SAP LT Replication Server Functionality

SLT is a real-time replication tool with trigger-based technology that captures all updates, inserts, and deletes for a table that is in replication. The cornerstone of SLT’s replication technology is both an effective, zero-impact data change capturing technology and a robust data replication process. 

The replication process corresponds to the real-time movement of data. This means that data is speedily synchronized from a source system to a target system. 

SLT divides this process into two parts:

?The Initial Load

SLT loads existing data or a defined subset of it from the source system to the target system (the initial load), and the source system sets up logging tables for each table to be replicated. You can run the initial load of data while the source system is active. In parallel to the initial load, by means of database triggers, SLT detects any data changes that occur while the initial load process is running.

These changes are saved to the log tables and after the initial load is completed, they are transferred to the target system.

?The Replication Process

After the initial load is complete, SLT continues to monitor the tables in the source system and replicates data changes (also known as delta data) in the source system to the target system in real-time. As long as the SLT system is functioning correctly, temporary downtimes of the source or target systems do not result in the loss of any business data. If the target system were to become temporarily unavailable, SLT continues to record any changes to the source system in the log tables, and updates the relevant target system tables when the system is back online.

Using SAP HANA as the data transfer process. that it is also possible to replicate data without performing an initial load. In addition, you can apply filters and rules to reduce the amount of replicated data or modify the replicated data.

Technically, SLT is an add-on to the SAP NetWeaver stack called DMIS2011. You must install this add-on on the following systems:

?SAP source system

?SLT server

?If you are using the Web Service that writes to the Persistent Staging Area (PSA) in SAP BW, the target SAP BW system You can deploy and update the DMIS add-on without disrupting existing operations in your production landscape. Because SLT is tightly integrated with the SAP system landscape infrastructure, you can connect it to the SAP Solution Manager monitoring and notification framework.