The ImageMaster Information Lifecycle Management Services for ERP are provided by an SAP certified module which enables a new and storage-efficient way of archiving SAP data in ImageMaster. It is used as an external archive.
Unlike the SAP ArchiveLink interface, the SAP ILM interface allows storing business data based on the idea of lifecycle management as described in Information lifecycle management. An ArchiveLink interface typically supports connections of one or several SAP systems with one or several content repositories. However, no retention times, legal holds or metadata can be set on the documents via the standardized interface.
In opposite to this, the ILM interface provides a folder-based structure and supports connections to multiple SAP systems with retention times and legal holds on folders and documents.
SAP ILM integration is based on XML based archiving [SAP ILM WebDAV], which relies on HTTP requests and WebDAV methods. The following use cases are supported:
-
Archiving: Storing a resource in an immutable manner (reliably, i.e. atomically and durably).
-
Retention Management:
-
Getting or setting an expiration date for a resource (whilst ensuring deletion protection until expiry).
-
Prolonging retention (increasing an expiration date for a resource).
-
-
Legal Hold: Removing or setting a legal hold a resource (with deletion protection independent from retention expiry).
-
Destruction of objects obeying retention constraints and legal hold constraints.
The documents created by ArchiveLink or SAP ILM with an expiration date or legal hold are protected against updates or deletion even if accessed via any other interface.