Process Archiving using

NetWeaver Business Process

Management

Applies to:
NetWeaver Composition Environment 7.2, 7.3. For more information, visit the Business Process Modeling
homepage.

Summary
This document describes how process instances can be archiving using the archiving services provided by
SAP NetWeaver Java Platform.
Author:

Chembrakalathil Venugopal

Company: SAP AG
Created on: 10 January 2010

Author Bio
Chembrakalathil Venugopal has experience in various SAP NetWeaver CE technologies and working closely
with SAP NetWeaver CE customers.

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Process Archiving using NetWeaver Business Process Management

Table of Contents
Process Archiving ............................................................................................................................................... 3
Configuration of Archive Store ............................................................................................................................ 3
Defining Roles ................................................................................................................................................. 3
Configure Destination...................................................................................................................................... 3
Configure Archive Destination using XML DAS Administration ...................................................................... 6
Archiving Process Instances to a remote J2EE system. .................................................................................... 7
Archiving Process Instances using NWA Java archiving cockpit ....................................................................... 7
Accessing the archived process instances from NWA ..................................................................................... 10
Scheduling Archiving ........................................................................................................................................ 11
Related Content ................................................................................................................................................ 15
Copyright........................................................................................................................................................... 16

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Process Archiving using NetWeaver Business Process Management

Process Archiving
This document describes how process instances can be archived using Net weaver Composition
Environment 7.2 and 7.3. It provides a description about how to schedule process archiving in order to
automate the archiving.
Archiving process instances help to remove the process instances which are completed and no more
required by the business. All process instances which are marked for archiving will be taken out from the
database and archived to a location as configured by the administrator. This include the process, task and
business log related content from the Database.
Process archiving frequency depends on many factors.
1. Number of process instances and task instances started in a day.
2. Duration of a process instance
3. Number of users assigned to a task role. If there is a UME role/ group assignment, number of uses
assigned to this role/group.
In BPM process archiving has two phases.
1. Retrieval of the process instances from the Database and persist the instances in the destination.
2. Deletion of the archived process instances from the Database.
Process archiving improves the overall performance of the system. It keeps the database with active process
instances and reduces the data base size.
Net weaver BPM process archiving uses NetWeaver XML DAS framework for archiving. Archiving requires
specific roles for the user. An administrator with required roles needs to configure the destinations using the
XML DAS Administration.
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nwce72/helpdata/en/cf/b2fc3f48ecc742e10000000a1550b0/content.htm
Archiving requires a onetime configuration step and regular archiving of the process instances.

Configuration of Archive Store

Defining Roles
Assign the following roles using NWA->Identity Management

SAP_ARCH_XMLDAS_VIEW;

SAP_ARCH_SUPERADMIN;

XMLDASSecurityRole;

NWA_SuperAdmin

Configure Destination
Goto Configurations->Security->Destinations
Configure the destination by providing connection information. The destination URL points to the J2EE
instance where the archived process instances will be persisted. Once configured, changes in the destination
URL require an engine restart to archive the process instances to the new destination.
It is possible to archive the process instance to another J2EE system as destination system and retrieve the
archived instances thru NWA from both the systems. The customer has to deploy the process model in the
target system to view the archived instances using NWA session from the destination system.

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Process Archiving using NetWeaver Business Process Management

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Process Archiving using NetWeaver Business Process Management

Ping the destination to make sure that the destination connection is correct.

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Process Archiving using NetWeaver Business Process Management

Configure Archive Destination using XML DAS Administration

Go To Operation Management Data and Databases XML DAS Administration (ignore warning about
SLD if you do not SLD)
Define a new archive store
Select the storage type as File system
Provide the windows root which is the directory where process instances will be archived.
Save and test the archive store using the Test Selected button

Assign the newly created archive store to the standard NetWeaver BPM archive path bpm_proc. In the
archiving path properties will have archive path as /sys_id/bpm_proc/. The sys_id is a configurable property
(AHome) and by default it will be system name. This property need to modify only if the archiving location is
a remote J2EE system.

If archive paths are missing in this step do an additional step.

Go to Java Archiving Cockpit and go to the Hierarchy tab. Select the Archiving set bpm_proc .

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Process Archiving using NetWeaver Business Process Management

Archiving Process Instances to a remote J2EE system.

Process instances can be archived to a remote system and viewed the archived instances from the remote
system using NWA.
In this scenario the client system contains both process definition and the process instances. The Server
system which is the archiving destination contains the process model.
Deploy the process model both in the client and server system.
Perform steps described in section 2.1 and 2.2 in both client and server systems. Make sure the client
system destination URL points to the server system.
Perform section 2.3 in the server system where the process instances need to be archived and persisted.

Define the sys_id using the configuration property AHome.

Archiving Process Instances using NWA Java archiving cockpit

Go to Manage Processes->Process Instances view
Select the process instances which should be archived and click on archive

By default the Path extension will be the current date. But this can be changed.
The Process ID list contains the process id of the selected process instances. The check box Start Delete
phase automatically determines the deletion of the process instances from the memory. If this is unchecked
the process instances will be only retrieved and persisted in the destination, but not deleted from the
Database.

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Process Archiving using NetWeaver Business Process Management

Click on Start Write Session button.

The archiving monitor will provide the status and the logs of the current archiving session.

The process instances are archived at the destination.

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Process Archiving using NetWeaver Business Process Management

Accessing the archived process instances from NWA

Go to the Manage Processes:Process Instances
Click on the advanced link and navigate to the advanced search view.
Select the value Archived from the dropdown

In the above search result the status Archived shows that the process instance is in archived state.

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Process Archiving using NetWeaver Business Process Management

Scheduling Archiving
A job can be scheduled to have a regular archiving session. This can be configured the following steps.
Goto NWA Operation management->Java Scheduler->Tasks

Create a new task and select the job name as bpm_proc_write

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Process Archiving using NetWeaver Business Process Management

Set the task parameters. Refer

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nwce72/helpdata/en/45/37367971534c2ee10000000a1553f6/frameset.htm

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Process Archiving using NetWeaver Business Process Management

Note that if you dont check the auto_deletephase , then the process instance will not be deleted from the Database.

Add the start and end time and the frequency at which archiving should be scheduled.

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Process Archiving using NetWeaver Business Process Management

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Process Archiving using NetWeaver Business Process Management

Related Content
For more information, visit the Business Process Modeling homepage.

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Process Archiving using NetWeaver Business Process Management

Copyright
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