B.2 Clients and Logical Systems

In the SAP configuration for the driver, a logical system is a representation of either a SAP system or an external system. The logical system is used to distribute data to and from SAP. Every R/3 or SAP system needs to have a base logical system associated with a client. There is a one-to-one relationship between the client and the logical system.

The driver uses an outbound ALE interface. In an outbound ALE interface, the base logical system becomes the sender for outbound messages and the receiver of inbound messages. A SAP user is probably logged into the base logical system/client when making changes to the database (for example, hiring an employee, updating position data, terminating an employee, etc.) A logical system must also be defined for the receiving process. This logical system acts as the receiver of outbound messages.