Knowledge Base > Automation Engine and Target Systems > SAP > Interfaces

Interfaces

General Information

Agents communicate with the SAP system via SAP's RFC (Remote Function Call). Functional modules are called in this process. The agent can use the standar interfaces but also the AE interfaces which allows using additional functionalities.

This documentation addresses the two types of interfaces as shown below:

The AE interface
is based on functional modules that have been developed by AE.
The standard interfaces are based upon functional modules that are provided by SAP. AE uses several of these interfaces for various purposes. The interfaces are subdivided:

XMB (eXternal Monitoring Basics)
XAL (eXternal ALerting)
XBP (eXternal Batch Processing) *)
XMW (eXternal Monitoring Write)
BW-STA (Business Warehouse - data STAging)

*) The XBP 2.0 interface must be activated using the program INITXBP2. This is part of the XBP 2.0 installation. Otherwise, you cannot use parent-child relations and intercepted job functions.

In order to be able to us all SAP functions it is required you use XBP 3.0.

The Automation Engine supports the SAP NetWeaver XBP 2.0 and XBP 3.0 interface. Therefore, you can use SAP modules that use this interface (such as SAP 4.7, NetWeaver Stack 2004s, ECC5, ECC6).

The XBP interface version is not relevant for the Kernel version. SAP ensures compatibility by supporting a particular number of new Kernel versions that still support the old interface when a new interface version is released.

The AE interface requires BABP XBP V2.0. Check the version in your SAP system and install an up-to-date support package.