Category: Basis

basis

SAP compatibility packages for S4HANA

In the EWA alert solutions or EWA workspace, you might get warnings from SAP regarding usage of S4HANA compatibility packs.

These alerts can look like below:

or

The background explanation

Both lead to the same background OSS note: 2269324 – Compatibility Scope Matrix for SAP S/4HANA.

From the note: “Through the Compatibility Packages (CP) listed in the attachment “Compatibility Scope Matrix”, SAP provides a limited use right to SAP S/4HANA on-premise customers to run certain classic SAP ERP solutions on their SAP S/4HANA installation. Condition is that these customers have licensed the applicable solutions as set forth in their License Agreements. Compatibility Pack use rights may apply to selected private cloud deployments as well, without the prerequisite of an on-premise classic license.”.

Basically it means SAP did not have time enough to redo all the old solutions for S4HANA, but reserved the rights to do so later.

In the first years of S4HANA this did not used to be a big issue. Now SAP is catching up and will remove compatibility functions in upcoming versions, or will stop support.

Next steps

What do you need to do:

  1. Check if you have any systems with this alert in your EWA. The EWA is detecting this based on system usage/configuration settings.
  2. If you have them, read OSS note 2269324 – Compatibility Scope Matrix for SAP S/4HANA carefully. There are good attachments to the note that explain for each use case.
  3. Determine the impact of the note for your situation with both the functional team and your management (since it can have license impact as well)
  4. Create action plan for your situation

Since the compatibility packs are coming from diverse functional background with diverse solution routes, there is no generic advice possible.

Except one advice: don't ignore this alert, but pick it up seriously. Investigate and take appropriate action in time to avoid license rights discussions and/or support issues.

File interface discovery tool

The file interface discovery tool is a nice tool to find out which file processing is happening on your productive system.

The tool is part of the S4HANA readiness check, but can also be used as a standalone tool.

File interface discovery tool background

All the background of file interface discovery tool is described in OSS note 3322944 – File interface discovery for SAP Readiness Check – incl. corrections for ST-A/PI 01V* SP01 or SP02 (or SP03 if AIX).

The tool re-uses the STUSERTRACE trace function.

Launching the file interface discovery tool

In ST13 choose tool FILE_INTERFACE_DISCOVERY:

Start screen:

Before you start using the Activate traces with filter, please make sure you have sufficient authorizations as described in OSS note 3322944 - File interface discovery for SAP Readiness Check - incl. corrections for ST-A/PI 01V* SP01 or SP02 (or SP03 if AIX).

To start the trace, you have to follow a roadmap guided by the Activate traces with filter button:

Activate the traces:

A switch to RZ11 happens:

Rz11 warning:

Make the setting in RZ11:

Jump back to the roadmap screen (click enter and back). Roadmap will launch trace tool:

Entries will be added:

Reconfirm again RZ11 and finalize the roadmap:

The trace is active now.

File interface discovery tool results

After activation you need to wait for the system to record all actions.

When sufficient time has passed, go back to the ST13 tool FILE_INTERFACE_DISCOVERY and select the function to display the results:

Results list:

You can see:

  • Entry point (in this case LSMW)
  • ABAP include that does the actual file call
  • Activity (R = read, W = write)
  • File names involved

Flat file interface as part of S4HANA readiness check

The file interface discovery tool is part of the S4HANA readiness check. If you did not run the tool, you get an errror:

After you run the tool, download the results and upload in the readiness check portal, the results will be available:

Advanced table buffer analysis

SAP has a new program /SDF/ST10 to execute advanced table buffer analysis.

This is a great new program that finally gives a good overview of the buffer status on high level, without swarming immediately into all the details.

Installation and documentation of /SDF/ST10 advanced table buffer analysis program

Apply OSS note 3478095 – Advanced Table Buffer Analysis to get the new /SDF/ST10 program installed.

This note also contains the documentation of the program itself.

Running advanced table buffer analysis

In SE38 on your productive system start program /SDF/ST10. If you have multiple application servers, run it per server, since the buffering can be locally different per application server.

Start screen:

After pressing execute you are reminded this is an expert transaction and you must read the note 3478095 – Advanced Table Buffer Analysis.

Result screen:

By default the screen is unsorted. Sort on the item you think is interesting to analyze in more detail.

Note: on the bottom you can see the double click links to more detailed tools.

Actions that can be done to improve

All the actions below are Expert actions. Don’t execute or propose them if you do not have in-depth understanding of SAP table buffering.

De-buffering

De-buffering of custom or even standard SAP tables can be a solution. For SAP tables, notes can be found for certain use cases.

Example notes:

Change table buffer parameter

OSS note Author saptechnicalguruPosted on Categories BufferTags Leave a comment on Advanced table buffer analysis

SAP and Oracle JRE/JDK

Oracle has started to charge companies for using Oracle JRE and JDK. Questions might come to you on the relationship and use of Oracle JRE/JDK in SAP products.

More background information can be found on for example these sites:

All statements and notes below are only generic and not legally checked in any form! It is your job to check your companies situation and contracts. The listing below is only made to help speed up your research.
This blog is also not complete. See it as hints and starting point. Use Google and Support.sap.com more full search on your specific questions in your specific situation.

Potentially relevant OSS notes and blog

General notes and blogs

FAQ

SAP GUI

Use of JRE in SAP GUI

146505 – SAP GUI for the Java environment (Platform Independent GUI)

Compatibility issues

SIC: Online Simplification Item Check

SAP has an online simplification item check available. This can be used for both a conversion to S4HANA as well as an upgrade of S4HANA to a higher version.

The readiness check inside the system focuses on data used and on mandatory items.

The online check also gives information on changes and potential new features you can use.

Online simplification item check

The online simplification item check can be found here. On the screen select your target version:

Here we simply take the highest version: S4HANA 2023. A new screen comes where you can select the source version and details of the feature pack of the target:

Click on Go to get the result list:

This check does not replace the mandatory readiness check inside the system. It can help you to prepare in planning phase of an upgrade.

SAP Readiness Check for SAP ERP Usage and Data Profiling

To prepare for an S4HANA migration, you can use the SAP Readiness Check for SAP ERP Usage and Data Profiling. This analysis will provide data insights in your current ERP system usage.

Tool installation and run

The tool can be installed by applying OSS note 3112362 – SAP Readiness Check for SAP ERP Usage and Data Profiling. Transport this note to your productive system. The tool needs to have the actual production data. Start program RC_UDP_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA:

Start with the Schedule Analysis. A batch job will collect the data. Once done, you can use the Display Analysis Data button to see the results. The Download Analysis Data allows you to download the data. The data needs to be uploaded to the SAP Readiness site.

Tool result

After uploading to the SAP readiness site, give SAP about one hour to process the data.

Then the analysis result is available:

From left to right:

  • Detailed data profiles
  • Module based data profiles
  • Top list of data volumes

Zoom in on the module based data profiles:

For each part, you can now drill down to table level:

This way you can see if a certain S4HANA change will have much impact or not (due to amount of records).

SAP IGS (internet graphics server)

SAP IGS is a built in graphics server for ABAP.

To determine the version of IGS running start transaction SIGS (or run program GRAPHICS_IGS_ADMIN):

Press execute:

The RFC itself can be tested in SM59 with connection IGS_RFC_DEST.

Background OSS note: 995471 – IGS administration via ABAP.

Graphics test program

To test the graphics start program BW_IGS_CHART_TEST. Output should be:

SQVI: quick viewer

SQVI is a tool to quickly build ad-hoc queries.

Start transaction SQVI:

Enter a QuikView name and press create. Now choose the type (in this case we will make a table join):

First add the table:

And add the second table:

The join between the tables is in this simple cases created automatically. In more complex cases you have to define the join conditions yourself.

Press the back button to go back.

Now enter the output fields:

And the selection fields:

Save the SQVI query.

Now you can start to Execute the query:

Enter the input criteria and press execute to get the wanted results:

Bug fix OSS notes

Bug fix OSS notes for SQVI:

Activate change documents for classification

SAP generates a lot of change documents for a lot of objects. Unfortunately for classification (for example for materials), this is not enabled by default.

The procedure to activate change documents for classification is described in OSS note 1705101 – How to Activate Classification Change Documents.

First you need to run program RCCLUKA2 as described in OSS note 942691 – Information about using RCCLUKA2. Depending on the amount of records this program runs minutes to several hours.

Program RCCLUKA2 convert the key of the classification. Any custom code reading KSSK and AUSP directly might need to be updated!

Once the program is done, you can use transaction O1CL to activate the change documents:

In the material master classification screen the menu option Environment/Change Documents is now enabled and will show the changes to classification done:

Data archiving: production order

This blog will explain how to archive production order data via object PP_ORDER. Generic technical setup must have been executed already, and is explained in this blog.

Object PP_ORDER

Go to transaction SARA and select object PP_ORDER.

Dependency schedule is empty, so there are no dependencies:

Main tables that are archived:

  • AFKO (order headers)
  • AFPO (order items)
  • AUFK (order master data)

Technical programs and OSS notes

Preprocessing program: PPARCHP1

Write program: PPARCHA1

Delete program: PPARCHD1

Read from archive: PPARCHR1

Relevant OSS notes:

Guided procedure on production order archiving issues can be found here.

Application specific customizing

For archiving object PP_ORDER there is application specific customizing to perform. Select the order type:

And set the residence times:

Residence time 1 determines the time interval (in calendar months) that must elapse between setting the delete flag (step 1) and setting the deletion indicator (step 2).

Residence time 2 determines the time (in calendar months) that must elapse between setting the deletion indicator (step 2) and reorganizing the object (step 3).

Executing the preprocessing run

In transaction SARA, PP_ORDER select the preprocessing run:

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

The run will show several functional issues: orders that are not completed and could not be marked for deletion with the functional reason.

Executing the write run and delete run

In transaction SARA, PP_ORDER select the write run:

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

After the write run is done, check the logs. PP_ORDER archiving has low speed, and medium percentage of archiving (60 to 80%).

Proved a good name for the archive file for later use!

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

Data retrieval

Data retrieval is via program PPARCHR1:

Important here to select the correct archive files.

Output is a list on the left side with details on the right hand side of the screen in table format: