Data archiving: change documents

This blog will explain how to archive change documents via object CHANGEDOCU. Generic technical setup must have been executed already, and is explained in this blog.

Object CHANGEDOCU

Go to transaction SARA and select object CHANGEDOCU.

Dependency schedule: (none):

Change documents are archived as part of other archiving objects. For specific changes you might want to archive the changes sooner to get a grip on CDHDR and CDCLS/CDPOS table sizes and amount of entries.

Main tables that are archived:

  • CDHDR (change header)
  • CDCLS (change details)

Technical programs and OSS notes

Write program: CHANGEDOCU_WRI

Delete program: CHANGEDOCU_DEL

Read program: CHANGEDOCU_READ

Reload program: CHANGEDOCU_REL

Relevant OSS notes:

Application specific customizing

No application specific customizing is required for CHANGEDOCU archiving.

Executing the write run and delete run

In transaction SARA, CHANGEDOCU select the write run:

Select your data, save the variant and start the archiving write run.

Give the archive session a good name that describes change document object(s) and year. This is needed for data retrieval later on.

After the write run is done, check the logs. CHANGEDOCU archiving has average speed and very high percentage of archiving (up to 100%).

Deletion run is standard by selecting the archive file and starting the deletion run.

Data retrieval

Don’t start the data retrieval program from SARA. Start program CHANGEDOCU_READ from SA38 (see OSS note 3395609 – Default read program for CHANGEDOCU in transaction AOBJ):

In the second screen select the archive files. Now wait long time before data is shown.

For faster retrieval, setup data archiving infostructures SAP_CHANGEDOCU1 and SAP_CHANGEDOCU2. These are not active by default. So you have to use transaction SARJ to set them up and later fill the structures (see blog).

Now transaction RSSCD100 can be use for data retrieval:

Don’t forget to select the tick box “Read from archive info system”.

Another option is via transaction SARE (archive explorer) and then choose object CHANGEDOCU with archive structure SAP_CHANGEDOCU1.