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EXTRACTING DATA FROM SAP S/4HANA CLOUD USING THE CUSTOMER DATA RETURN APP AND TRANSFERRING IT

IlianaOlvera7
Advisor
Advisor
2 weeks ago

EXTRACTING DATA FROM SAP S/4HANA CLOUD USING THE CUSTOMER DATA RETURN APP AND TRANSFERRING IT TO ANOTHER SAP S/4HANA CLOUD INSTANCE USING THE SAP S/4 HANA MIGRATION COCKPIT

 

This blog post provides general information for extracting data from SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and transferring data to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. Users and customers who have basic knowledge of SAP data migration and new implementation topics or who are interested in these subjects can benefit from the information provided here. This blog gives more details about SAP tools that support the extraction and transferring of data from and to SAP S/4HANA Cloud and it also gives some useful examples.

There is currently no automated way to transfer data from SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition or SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition. However, SAP provides some standard tools that when used together, support the data extraction from SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and the data transfer to another SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition instance.

 

For extracting data, customers can use the SAP standard tool Customer Data Return and for transferring (migrating) data, customers can use the SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit.

 

Note that there are also other extraction options such as Customer Data Browser, extractors or CDS Views (available in the SAP Business Accelerator Hub). These extraction mechanisms might be simpler if data is only partially extracted or extracted step by step, for example object by object.

 

However, the focus tool for this blog is the Customer Data Return app as it is a straightforward way to download all customer business data at once and it has a simple and user-friendly interface. The main differentiator and advantage of the Customer Data Return app is that all SAP S/4HANA Cloud (public) customer data can be extracted and downloaded.

The use of the Customer Data Return application may conflict with the data protection policies of your organization. The authorization concept does not support any filtering by the Data Controller or by typical attributes reflecting the purposes of processing. In addition, a download of the data is a transfer in a software/environment that is potentially not secured. Hence, before using the Customer Data Browser application, please ensure that you follow the data protection Policies in your organization.

Transfer of business data (Master Data and Transaction Data) using current released SAP S/4HANA Cloud public edition standard meansTransfer of business data (Master Data and Transaction Data) using current released SAP S/4HANA Cloud public edition standard means

The transfer of data to another target SAP S/4HANA system or cloud instance might represent a challenge as the data models, data, and file formats from both SAP tools differ. Therefore, the data extracted by the Customer Data Return app must be transformed and adjusted so to match the data format of the XML or CSV files of the SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit – Migrate your Data app.

ETL Process: Customer Data Return & Migrate your Data -Migration Cockpit appETL Process: Customer Data Return & Migrate your Data -Migration Cockpit app

Below you will find more detailed information about the SAP standard means for extracting and transferring data from SAP S/4HANA cloud data to another cloud instance.

 

For data extraction from SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, one of the possible SAP standard means that extracts all customer data and can be used by Cloud Public Edition customers is the Customer Data Return app:

 

1.- Data Extraction – with the Customer Data Return (CDR)

 

Customer Data Return (CDR)

With the Customer Data Return app, customers can download SAP S/4HANA business data or archived data owned by customers from SAP S/4HANA cloud systems to a local machine. The files can be downloaded in a compressed format, such as ZIP files. The compressed files contain the actual data files in XML or CSV format.

SAP provides two Customer Data Return apps for extracting and downloading SAP S/4HANA business data, namely:

In principle, both apps are used together so that users can extract and then download its SAP S/4 HANA business data.

First, users need to trigger the file preparation (carried out by the extraction user). For more details, see SAP Help Portal - Data Extraction Process. Then, after having created a package, assigned an extraction scope for your package, and started the file preparation task you can then download the files (extracted data).    

To execute the file download, you will need a provisioning user. For more details, see SAP Help Portal - Data Provisioning Process.

For more details about how to work with the Customer Data Return, see:

The system will prepare ZIP files containing one or more XML or CSV files, depending on the package settings and configuration you have set up. Users can change the file format and file size before preparing them as ZIP files.

 

Picture4.png

To see and rework the CDR XML or CSV files, you can unzip the ZIP files in a folder in your computer. The XML/CSV files will be extracted in folders corresponding to their specific topic or area. For example, “CO” for Controlling, and so on.

Picture5.png

Each database table will be extracted to one or more XML or CSV files. The number of XML or CSV files extracted for a particular database table will depend on the size of the table and the File Size (MB) field specified in the package settings of the Customer Data Return app.

For example, for Cost Center; (CDR) structure name CSKS / (Migration Cockpit) data structure S_CSKS one or more files can be generated using the Customer Data Return app.

These files start with the name of the CDR structure name CSKS_<file number>.xml, for example: CSKS_00001.xml, CSKS_00002.xml, CSKS_<XXXXX>.xml. In the example below, only one XML file was generated for structure Cost Center. In contrast, for COEP line Items (by Period), 7 files were generated.

Picture6.png

We recommend opening the CDR XML file using Excel or another spreadsheet application. The data is divided into two parts. First, you can view general information about the structure such as:

  • Structure name
  • (technical) field name
  • Position
  • Key flag
  • Data type
  • Length
  • Decimals
  • Nullable
  • SRS_ID

Picture7.png

After these rows, you can view the customer data for the relevant structure. These column names correspond to the technical field name of the relevant structure.

Picture8.png

 

More details about the Customer Data Return app can be found in the SAP Help Portal and the KBA (Knowledge Base Article) below:

 

2.- Data preparation and transformation – for uploading to another SAP S/4HANA Cloud public instance / target system

 

To transfer (migrate) the Customer Data Return (CDR) downloaded data for upload to another SAP S/4HANA system or cloud instance, you can use the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit. For this, you will need to rework or transform the data in the CDR files and adjust it to the file format and definition used in the Migration Cockpit.

Note that users can also load (migrate) data to SAP S/4HANA Cloud public edition, using the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit. For more details about the migration cockpit see: http://help.sap.com/S4_OP_DM . Consider that the functionality of the SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit for cloud and SAP S/4HANA might differ. Furthermore, the number of migration objects and its definition might vary from SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP S/4HANA. For available migration objects for SAP S/4HANA see: http://help.sap.com/S4_OP_MO.

For data transformation and enrichment, you can either do the transformations and modifications by yourself using, for example, Excel or your ETL (Extraction, Transformation, and Loading) tool of choice and then transfer your data to the corresponding XML or CSV templates of the SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit. Also, you can use other standard SAP tools such as SAP Smart Data Integration (SDI) and SAP HANA Smart Data Quality or XSA to transform the data and generate new files which will match the definition of the migration cockpit. SAP Tools such as Smart Data Integration allow users to transform and enrich data during the integration process. Therefore, these SAP Tools could be used in cases where calculations, filters or modification of business logic are required before the data transfer to other systems or displaying the data to users.

Note that the use of tools such as SAP Smart Data Integration and SAP HANA Smart Data Quality, require particularly good usage knowledge and experience with these tools.

 

The example in this blog will show some general and useful information of the data files and file format for Customer Data Return and the SAP S/4 HANA migration cockpit, including an easy example on how to manually transform the data coming from Customer Data Return. This example applies for cases when customers prefer or must do the transformation using simple tools such as excel or Notepad or do not want or cannot use other ETL tools or other SAP products.

 

As mentioned in Point 1 – Data Extraction – with the Customer Data Return (CDR) app, in the XML/CSV files coming from Customer Data Return, after the rows that contain the general information about the structure, you can view the customer data for the relevant structure. These column names correspond to the technical field name of the relevant structure.

Picture9.png

 

Usually, the Migration Cockpit structure names and field names will be the same or similar to the ones used for the Customer Data Return app.  For example, for Cost Center, the structure name and XML file name will start with the technical structure name, CSKS. Whereas, for the migration cockpit CSV files, the technical structure name will start with an S_ and then the structure name as in XML file(s) of the Customer Data Return app (for example: S_CSKS for Cost Center).

CO - Cost center

Customer Data Return:

  • File name: CSKS_00001.xml
  • Structure name: CSKS

SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit – Migrate your Data app:

  • Migration Object: Z_KOSTL_MASTER_MCE
  • Migration Object – Technical Structure Name:  S_CSKS
  • Migration Object – XML Template Title: Source Data for Migration Object: CO – Cost center

 

The XML template file of the Migration Cockpit – Migrate your Data app looks like this:

 Picture10.png

 

In hidden row 5, you will find the technical names of the fields and in row 8 you will find the field description and other relevant field information.

 

The CSV file template of the Migration Cockpit – Migrate you Data app looks like below:

Picture11.png

In the CSV template file of the Migration Cockpit, only the technical names of the fields and information about if the field is a key and/or required field are included.

 

You can copy the CDR relevant data to the corresponding fields of the CSV or XML file templates of the migration cockpit. For example, Cost Center, Valid From, Valid To, Cost Center Name, Description field data from the Customer Data Browser .xlsx file to the corresponding column and rows in the XML template file Source Data for Migration Object: Co-Cost center.

 

After filling the corresponding data for Cost Center in the Cost Center XML template file in the migration cockpit, the file will look like this:

Picture12.jpg


We recommend that you check for differences between the newest and previous releases:

 

Important Notes:

 

Note 1: In case that you recently have performed a new implementation using the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit you might consider using the XML or CSV migration cockpit's template files from previous new implementations. It is certainly worth considering reusing these files at least for the master data. Nonetheless, these files should be used carefully as you must ensure that the template release, template fields and data is still correct. Otherwise, you must update these files so to avoid upload, validation and/or migration errors.

 

Note 2: While performing the re-formatting of the data to adapt the CDR field information to the migration cockpit template files, you should consider that some information might differ, such as table/structure name, field names, and field format. Usually, the (technical) field names will be the same for both CDR and for the migration cockpit (for example: KOSTL for Cost Center; KOKRS for Controlling Area). However, there are some cases where the field names will be different. Furthermore, CDR XML files usually have a greater number of fields than the XML template files of the migration cockpit. 

 

Note 3: Consider that the Customer Data Return and the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit only handle business data but not configuration information. Therefore, before starting the data migration to the new SAP S/4HANA Cloud instance, you must ensure before that any configuration differences between the SAP S/4HANA Cloud instances have been solved. Additionally, you must ensure that naming conflicts are resolved before the data transfer to the new SAP S/4HANA Cloud instance.

 

Note 4: Note that with the SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit a migration of historical data is not fully possible. Currently, only the data migration of historical balances or GL account is possible (for more details see KBA 2943035 - Migration of historical balances to SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud. For migrating data of all other historical transactional data, customers could use the SAP Datasphere, SAP BW Bridge-Data Tiering. 

 

 

3.- Data load to the target instance (S/4HANA cloud, public edition) - with the SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit.

 

For loading data to SAP S/4HANA, you can use the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit – Migrate your Data app.

 

 SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit (MC) for Data load to SAP S/4HANA Cloud

The SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit is designed for customers who have just installed SAP S/4HANA and want to move their legacy data from SAP or non-SAP software systems. It allows you to migrate your master data and transactional data (open items and balances) to SAP S/4HANA, and it facilitates this process by providing predefined migration content and mapping. It can be launched using the Migrate Your Data app in the Fiori Launchpad (Data Migration Launchpad). The migration cockpit is part of both SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud and is included in these licenses.

 

Note: The SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit is a tool that provides multiple methods of migrating data from as many legacy systems, SAP or non-SAP, as needed. It has a comprehensive library of migration object templates with the necessary fields already defined to help you migrate data to the HANA database. To perform a data migration using the SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit – Migrate your Data app, users must perform some activities. The tool automatically maps source data from the templates to the SAP S/4HANA target system and guides you through a series of step-by-step activities to confirm the mappings and finalize migration, with validation checks occurring in the background.

 

With the migration approach “Migrate Data Using Staging Tables” of the migration cockpit you can:

 

For uploading the reworked customer data files, you downloaded from the CDR app to another SAP S/HANA cloud instance, you can use SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit - Migration approach Migrate Data Using Staging tables. If you use the migration approach Migrate Data Using Staging Tables, the SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit automatically creates staging tables for each migration object that is relevant for your project. You can fill the staging tables with data either using XML templates, CSV files, or manually using the SAP HANA Studio or by using third party or SAP’s ETL tools (for example SAP Smart Data Integration or SAP Agile Data Preparation).

You must upload the new and reworked data using these XML templates or CSV files of the migration cockpit. This should be done for each migration object XML template or each CSV file, for which you need data to be transferred to the new target system or cloud instance.

 

For more details on how to load data using the migration cockpit, you can check the following blogs:

 

 _____________________________________________________________________________________

Customer Data Return (CDR) References, and Useful Links

 

 

 

 __________________________________________________________________

SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit (Public Cloud) References, Blog Posts, and Useful Links

 SAP help portal:

       – Cloud:

SAP Communities:

Training Materials & Videos:

Blog posts (SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit)

Relevant SAP Notes/KBAs:

  • 2538700 – Collective SAP Note and FAQ for SAP S/4HANA Migration Cockpit (Cloud)
  • 2733253 – FAQ for SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit – Transfer option: Transfer data from staging tables

 Newsletters:

Other Useful Links (Data Migration, Data Transformation):

 

______________________________________________________________________________________ 

Other Extraction Mechanisms

 CDS Views (in the SAP Business Accelerator Hub):

 

Customer Data Browser:

 

SAP BW/4HANA Content for SAP S/4HANA Cloud / CDS View Based Extractors from SAP S/4HANA Cloud:

  • Extractors / SAP BW/4HANA Content for SAP S/4HANA and SAP S/4HANA Cloud (based on CDS-Views):  SAP BW/4HANA Content.
  • To extract data from SAP S/4HANA Cloud to SAP Datasphere: see best practice scope item 53L.

 

ABAP Core Data Services Extraction for SAP Datasphere (53L):

 

Other useful information:

See also: Blog: Extract Data from SAP S/4HANA Cloud and Integrate Data to Target systems

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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