Category: Basis

basis

Checking RFC security settings

RFC security is a cumbersome job. There are programs to help speed up the security checks for RFC connections.

Questions that will be answered in this blog:

  • How to quickly check all the RFC’s in my system?
  • How to quickly check the trusted RFC’s in my system?

Hacking using RFC connections

RFC callback hacking: read this blog.

RFC jump hacking: read this blog.

Check RFC connections

Program RSRFCCHK (which also has the same transaction code RSRFCCHK) can quickly scan all your RFC’s. In the selection screen, please make sure to select the 2 extra boxes for “Also check RFC destinations without explicit password” and the “Select destinations without target system too”:

The connection test is optional. But if the RFC is not working, then you might consider it old and no longer needed. In this case you can perform the clean up by deleting the RFC.

The output of the report RSRFCCHK, you can use to look for:

  • RFC’s with personal user ID
  • Cross system layer RFC’s (from production to development, or from development to production)
  • Trusted connections where you don’t expect them
  • Old destinations no longer in use
As a best practice at least yearly check on every system the RFC's that are setup there. Read this blog on how easy it is to use wrongly configured RFC's to hack a system.

OSS notes:

Check trusted connections

To check trusted connections run program RS_SECURITY_TRUST_RELATIONS. Output example:

The red lights should be investigated and fixed.

More on setting up trusted RFC’s is written in this blog.

SAP standard on RFC security

OSS note 2008727 – Securing Remote Function Calls (RFC) contains a very extensive PDF explaining all ins and outs on RFC security.

BRF+ transport issues

BRF+ rules are nice for developers to use, but can give you some serious issues at transport level.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • Which tools and analysis programs are available in case I have issues with BRF+ transports?
  • How to recognize BRF+ transport issues?
  • Which relevant OSS notes to check in case of transport issues?

BRF+ transport issue detection

BRF+ rules can cause both issues at export (RC-8) and at import (RC-8 or content not updated while transport shows RC-0 or RC-4). Check the transport for BRF+ rules: they start with FDT.

Troubleshooting BRF+ with FDT_HELPERS

The main basis troubleshooting transaction is FDT_HELPERS.

FDT helpers start screen

It contains many tools that can assist in issue solving.

BRF+ transport issue support programs

BRF+ versioning and transport information is not displayed by default. You have to switch to expert mode first. See OSS note 2830979 – Versioning and transport information missing in the BRF+ workbench.

Support program FDT_TRANS can be used to put BRF+ rule into a transport (the person that runs this program must be owner of the transport as well):

FDT_TRANS

For mass checking run program FDT_TRANS_MASS_CHECK:

FDT_TRANS_MASS_CHECK

RC-8 upon export

If somebody is still in Edit mode in the BRF+ transport you want to release, then the transport export of the BRF+ transport will end in an RC-8. This is quite hard to detect in the RC-8 export log of the transport. So in case you are faced with export RC-8 of BRF+: ask everybody to go away from the BRF+ edit modes and re-export the transport.

Transport issue OSS notes

You can also check the following OSS notes:

EWA workspace

SAP Eearly Watch Alerts (EWA) has always been a primary tool delivered by SAP for system administrators to get an automated report on their SAP system.

The last few years SAP has been working very hard to get the EWA online as part of the support.sap.com pages. This development is now so far and good, that you can consider to switch using the online EWA workspace in stead of the EWA’s generated by your local solution manager system.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How to access the online EWA workspace?
  • Can I still get my EWA in PDF or word format?
  • What are extra functions the online EWA workspace offers versus the traditional EWA?
  • Can I set up e-mails for EWA workspace to receive early watches?
  • Can I get an overview of all the alerts across all EWA’s?

EWA workspace

The EWA workspace can be reached on this URL: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/ewaworkspace.

The first page is the overview page:

By clicking on the tiles you can zoom in on the diverse topics.

EWA for single system

In the overall rating tile, you can click on the donut graph to goto the list of separate EWA’s:

Here you can open the word or PDF doc, or by clicking on the line goto the online EWA for the single system:

On each topic you can zoom in by clicking on the line:

Sending EWA data to SAP

To get the information to SAP still the local SAP solution manager system (or Focused Run, see this blog) is used to collect the data, and submit it to the SAP market place. In the past the sending was once per month. With the switch to the new backbone infrastructure this is now once per week. If the EWA is not received on SAP EWA workspace page, please check the reference OSS notes in OSS note 1684537 – EarlyWatch Alert not sent to SAP: troubleshooting guide.

Setting up mails on EWA workspace

Follow the instructions of OSS note 2530034 – How to set up e-mail, SMS, and/or launchpad notifications – SAP ONE Support Launchpad to setup mail notifications for the SAP early alert workspace. You can also read these instructions from the SAP Focused Run expert portal, which are very clear: link.

EWA Alert solutions

In me.sap.com there is a special tile which has an overview of all the alerts of all EWA’s: the EWA alert solution page. Read more on this useful tool in this blog.

Background on EWA workspace

The primary background site about the EWA workspace can be found here.

A great start for first users is this blog on the effective use of EWA workspace.

One of the functions on EWA workspace that add value over the traditional EWA is the performance evaluation. Read more on this SAP blog.

EWA tips & tricks

More on EWA tips & tricks in this dedicated blog.

SAP pathfinder

SAP pathfinder is an SAP tool to give you insights into your system and let SAP tell you where they think you can improve, optimise and innovate.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • What is SAP pathfinder?
  • How do I run it?
  • Can I see a sample report of what I will get?

SAP pathfinder will most likely by succeeded by Signavio process insights. Read this blog for more information on Signavio process insights, discovery edition.

SAP pathfinder

SAP pathfinder is part of the innovation and value support part of SAP. The full background can be read on the SAP pathfinder site. This site includes video’s that explain everything.

On this site you can also find an example output report.

Background OSS notes:

How to run SAP pathfinder?

Apply 2 OSS notes: 2758146 and 2745851.

Move the OSS notes to your productive system and run program RC_VALUE_DISCOVERY_COLL_DATA:

Let the analysis run and then download the data. To do that start the program again and push the Download Analysis Data button.

You will need as well a PDF copy of your production system EWA.

If you have the files, upload them at the SAP site, confirm, and wait about 1 to 2 weeks before SAP has finished your report.

Main screen shot from the sample:

In case of issues you can read the troubleshooting guide: 2977422 – Process Discovery (evolution of SAP Business Scenario Recommendations) & SAP Pathfinder report – troubleshooting guide.

Read more in OSS note 2918818 – Usage and Performance Data Collection for Process Discovery (evolution of SAP Business Scenario Recommendations) and SAP Innovation and Optimization Pathfinder on Spotlight on the inclusion of usage and performance data.

Content server migration of documents

If you have configured attachments of document info records to be stored in the content server, you still might have a lot of old document stored into the SAP database.

This blog will explain how to migrate these documents from the database to the content server.

Questions that will be answered are:

  • How to migrate documents from database to content server?
  • What are relevant background OSS notes?

Running the migration

The main OSS note is 389366 – Relocation of documents. This basically tells you to run program RSIRPIRL. The exact use is explained in OSS note 2459712 – How to use report RSIRPIRL.

To run start transaction SE38 and start program RSIRPIRL and fill out the required data:

Select a time frame that has little documents in a test environment first. Check how long it takes and that it ends correctly. After the relocation is done you get a list of technical ID’s migrated. When confident in a test environment, run in production environment, and monitor the storage of the content server (so it does not fill up to 100%).

New modification note for delayed deletion: 2991944 – Introducing the Delay mode in report RSIRPIRL.

Migration of GOS objects

The program RSIRPIRL does not have many selection criteria. You might also find out that the time to migrate takes too long. If you need to migrate GOS document (global object services attachments), you can use program RSGOS_RELOCATE_ATTA:

This program migrates the GOS documents specified per type and page. GOS documents are normally the bulk of the documents. This way you can migrate most of the documents before running the full run with RSIRPIRL. Full background of program RSGOS_RELOCATE_ATTA can be found in OSS note 2293171 – RSGOS_RELOCATE_ATTA: Relocating attachments from generic object services.

Copying content repository

If you want to copy content from a content repository to another (not re-locate), install the program Z_DOC_COPY from OSS note 2774469 – Program to copy SAP content repositories.

Relevant OSS notes

OSS notes:

Chat bots via SAP conversational AI

This blog will explain how simple you can set up a chat bot via SAP conversational AI.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How can I set up a test chat bot with SAP conversational AI?
  • How can I test the chat bot?

Setting up the chat bot

SAP conversational AI is the technology behind the chat bots of SAP. It only runs in the cloud. It does not run on premise.

You can register for a free test account at https://cai.tools.sap/.

After registration you can create your first bot:

Here we choose Perform Actions and press the CREATE A BOT button:

Continue with the wizard:

Now create the bot.

First thing to add is an intent:

And enter the detailed words (expressions) for the intent:

When the user keys in one of these words, it will trigger the bot.

But this is only the trigger. There is no action yet. Goto the build tab and create a skill first:

Now open the skill. In the skill you can goto the details to add a trigger:

Here we use our test intent we created before as trigger.

Now goto the Actions tab and create the wanted action:

In our simple case, we respond back with a text saying “Me too!”.

Testing the chat bot

Now we will test our chat bot. Test result:

First thing we say is “tell a joke”. Then the bot will tell a joke.

Then we ask: I need a holiday. Since we have set the word “holiday” as an intent, the bot responds with the action and says “Me too!”. The same for I need beer. Any response question that is not in the chat bot script it goes to fallback.

OpenSAP course

SAP has a nice OpenSAP training on chatbot building. Follow this link.

Data archiving: reducing amount of parallel batch jobs

When executing data archiving you have to be acting careful. The data archiving write and delete processes can be consuming a lot of CPU power from the database. Also, if you are not careful you might, by accident, claim all background processes. This blog will explain how to limit the amount of batch jobs used for data archiving. The data archiving run process itself is described in this blog.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How can I limit the amount of deletion jobs?
  • How can I restrict the archiving jobs to run on a specific application server only?

Limit amount of deletion jobs

When the write run of data archiving is finished, this can have delivered many files. If you are not careful with the deletion, you select all files and each file will start a deletion run. This will consume a lot of CPU power on database level, since the deletion run will fire many DELETE statements to the database in rapid sequence. Also you might consume all batch jobs, leaving no room for any business batch job.

In stead of running the deletion from SARA, you can also run the deletion via program RSARCHD:

With this example, MM_EKKO files will be deleted. Maximum of 50 files from 1 archiving run will be processed, with a maximum of 2 deletion batch jobs running at the same time.

The general OSS note for this program is 133707 – Data archiving outside transaction SARA.

Relevant OSS notes bug fix notes:

General application server restrictions via batch job server group

In SM61 you can setup a special batch job server group. Here can assign a single application server for you data archiving batch job processing. We assume here you created a group called DATA_ARCH.

In SARA you can now goto the general data archiving settings:

Now you can link the batch job server group:

With the button JobClasses you can specify the job priorities per data archiving function:

A = high priority, C = low priority. The above screen shot is an example.

The second part of OSS note 2269004 – How to reduce parallel archiving jobs on Integration Engine describes the procedure as well. The first part of the note is only relevant for SAP PI.

SAP interfacing: consuming web services

In the previous blog we have exposed a web service. Now we will show how to consume a web service in ABAP. As example we will consume the web service we exposed in the previous blog. This blog assumes you have configured the basic web service SOAP runtime (if not, read this blog).

Questions that will be answered in the blog are:

  • How to generate a web service consumption proxy?
  • How to setup SOAMANAGER for web service consumption?
  • How to test the web service consumption setup in SE80?
  • How to use the generated web service consumption proxy in ABAP code?
  • What are the authorisation and security aspects for web service consumption?

Generating web service consumption proxy

Start in SE80 by exporting the WSDL file from your previously generated webservice. Goto the WSDL tab and press export to save the WSDL file locally:

In SE80 in your package select Enterprise Services and right click on it to create a new service:

In the object type screen select Service Consumer:

Now select External WSDL/schema:

Select local file:

Select the local file:

Select the package, transport and use Z as prefix:

Then select Finish to complete the roadmap.

Wait for the system to compile the software:

Save and Activate. Now the design time proxy is ready.

SOAMANAGER settings

In the previous steps we have setup the design time proxy. Now we add the runtime artefacts as well.

Now goto transaction SOAMANAGER:

Select Web Service Configuration, and search for the newly created design time object:

Click on the blue internal name to reach the configuration screen:

On the screen press Create and then manual configuration:

Give the logical port a name and description and mark the logical port is Default tickbox to true. Then continue with the roadmap.

Now fill out user ID and password. Continue and fill out user ID and password:

You can lookup the access URL from the service defined in the previous blog and check on the transport settings tab:

Do not use the WSDL URL address, but the binding URL!

Now fill out the URL details in the next screen.

Now finish the roadmap. And on this screen hit the ping web service test button to check if all is ok:

The design time artefacts can be transported. The SOAMANAGER settings need to be repeated in each system. This is wanted as well, since on a test system you might want to call a test web service URL and on production the same web service from the production URL.

Testing the web service consumption setup

Now go back to SE80 and test the web service consumption:

Select the port you created above in SOAMANAGER:

Edit the data:

And press test to get the results:

Using the web service consumption proxy in ABAP code

Now we are ready to use the web service consumption proxy in our ABAP code. ABAP code example:

*&---------------------------------------------------------------------*
*& Report ZCONSUMEWS
*&---------------------------------------------------------------------*
*&
*&---------------------------------------------------------------------*
REPORT zconsumews.

* Data Declarations
DATA: zcl_proxy TYPE REF TO zco_zbapidemowebservice, " Proxy Class
      zdata_in  TYPE zzbapidemo, " Proxy Input
      zdata_out TYPE zzbapidemoresponse, " Proxy Output
      zfault    TYPE REF TO cx_root. " Generic Fault

* Instantiate the proxy class providing the Logical port name
CREATE OBJECT zcl_proxy EXPORTING logical_port_name = 'ZDEMOWS'.

* Set Fixed Values
zdata_in-zimport = '1'.

TRY .
    zcl_proxy->zbapidemo( EXPORTING input = zdata_in
                          IMPORTING output = zdata_out ).
    WRITE: / zdata_out-zexport.
  CATCH cx_root INTO zfault.
* here is the place for error handling

ENDTRY.

Run the ABAP and see the result:

How to get the right parameters? All the required structures can be found on the SE80 ABAP web service consumption proxy internal view:

Authorizations

The end users using the ABAP that is consuming the web service must be given the rights for the correct S_SERVICE object. Otherwise they will get an error that they are not authorized to call the proxy service object.

Monitoring the availability of the web service

It was explained you can test the connection. Unfortunately there is no out of the box way to test this connection in a batch job on a frequent basis. If you want to frequently test and be alerted on issues with connection to the web service, you can read this blog to deploy a simple custom program that executes this function and can be planned in the background.

Background notes and blogs

More information and details can be found in these 2 SAP wiki’s: wiki1 and wiki2.

Relevant OSS notes:

Load balancing settings

Larger productive systems have multiple application servers to spread the workload. But if the system is not configured properly one application server can be overloaded while others are almost idle. This blog will explain the load balancing settings.

Questions that will be answered are:

  • How can I check my current load balancing situation?
  • How can I load balance SAP GUI users?
  • How can I load balance SAP to SAP RFC traffic?
  • How can I load balance external system to SAP RFC traffic?
  • How can I load balance qRFC traffic?
  • How can I load balance batch jobs?
  • How can I load balance web traffic?
  • How can I load balance workflows?
  • How can I configure MRP parallel processing settings?
  • How can I configure load balancing for TMS transport system (STMS)?
  • How can I validate if load is properly balanced?

How to make parallel processing settings

Parallel processing settings are explained in this blog.

How to check current situation of load balancing

You can start transaction AL08_OLD (in older systems AL08) to get an overview of the distribution of your logged on users and how they are spread over the application servers:

Or use the new load balancing tool: read this blog for the new tool installation and usage.

Load balancing for GUI logon

With transaction SMLG you can setup logon groups that can be used for SAP GUI logon and RFC logon. In the details of each logon group you can make dedicated settings:

The Fav.Typ setting indicates the load balancing mechanism (round robing, best performance, weighted round robin). Set Ext RFC-enabled to also do load balancing in this group for external RFC calls.

You can set limits per application server on response time and amount of users. This limit is not a hard limit, but a soft limit to influence the quality calculation. The setting is per application server and it is across the logon groups (you cannot make settings per logon group). The background of these limits is explained in OSS note 118093 – Concepts of defining ‘limits’ in logon load balancing and on the SAP wiki page.

In SMLG you can choose menu option Goto / Load distribution to get an overview of the current load distribution and quality:

A higher quality number means it has the best quality. New users that logon will be routed to this server if you have set the SMLG settings to Best Quality.

Relevant OSS notes:

RFC traffic load balancing for SAP to SAP connections

For SAP to SAP connections using RFC you have to set the load balancing to Yes in SM59 and fill out the proper message server and logon group details:

RFC traffic load balancing for external system to SAP connections

Many external systems connect to SAP via the SAP JCO connector. The JCO connector can do load balancing, if configured properly. The problem here is that the developers form the other application using JCO have no idea on the settings to be made. The other problem is that on a development system the settings are typically pointing to one server only and the basis team did not configure load balancing. Now suddenly in production (or in a quality environment) they have to switch to load balanced settings using different parameters.

The parameters settings to be made are explained in:

Tips for basis team:

  • Also setup the logon group in development system and assist the external team with the needed settings. The best way is that the external team uses load balancing settings from the start in development as well
  • Setup extra application server in quality landscape to test load balancing

RFC server group

With transaction RZ12 you can setup RFC server groups that also can be used for load balancing purposes.

RFC load balancing for qRFC

If you use qRFC (this is used for example in the CIF interface to SCM and EWM), then you need to configure the RFC group (settings made in RZ12) in transactions SMQS and SMQR. See blog on qRFC.

Web traffic load balancing

For web traffic load balancing, you have to set up the SAP web dispatcher. In the SAP web dispatcher you can configure to which back-end application servers to use.

Batch job load balancing

Batch job load balancing can be done by setting up batch job server groups in transaction SM61. See this blog.

Workflow load balancing

For workflow load balancing read OSS note 888279 – Regulating/distributing the workflow load.

Inbound Idoc processing load balancing

Inbound idoc processing program RBDAPP01 has an option for parallel processing:

Make sure you apply OSS note 3167309 – Delay in IDoc processing when using RBDAPP01 report (and 3142563 – Parallel processing in RBDAPP01, 3064890 – ALE: Endless loop during IDoc processing).

MRP run parallel processing

The MRP run (material requirements planning) is a very intensive process from the system perspective and very important from business perspective. It is important that the MRP run finishes in time, but is also should not overflow the system by occupying all work processes and CPU. In this customizing action you can defined the MRP run parallel processing settings:

Now you can assign the specific application servers that the MRP run is allowed to use in parallel and the maximum amount of work process it can use:

For background on MRP parallel processing settings, read OSS note 568593 – FAQ for parallel MRP: MD01, MS01, MD40, MDBT – Number of parallel planning processes in OMIQ, settings, server load, and so on.

There is also specific MRP tool now available. Not related to parallel processing, but is can help you in technical optimization of the MRP run. See blog.

Load balancing for GRC access control SOD risk analysis

View V_TBANK_PP_DISTR (via tcode S_GF1_13000059) determines the load balancing for GRC access control SOD risk analysis:

Load balancing TMS transport system (STMS)

OSS note 943334 – TMS setup in high-availability systems describe the enabling of load balancing via logon group SPACE for TMS via program TMS_MGR_LOADBALANCING. A different logon group is not possible via this program.

User measurement load balancing

User management transaction USSM can cause significant load on the system. Apply OSS note 3028252 – USMM2: Background Jobs Lastverteilung and the settings to have the user measurement program jobs load balanced.

How to validate correct load balancing?

To check if load balancing has done its job, go to transaction ST03, and open the section Load History and Distribution, Instance comparison, then the time frame:

Check that the load is evenly distributed among the application servers. The central instance will off course have a different load profile.

Troubleshooting OSS notes and blogs

The following OSS notes can be useful for troubleshooting:

Useful background blogs:

Workflow tips & tricks

SAP workflow is used for many different business scenarios. This blog will give tips and tricks for the basis part of SAP workflow.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How can I send a reminder email to the workflow owners?
  • How to check how many items in the inbox a user has?
  • How to delete the items in the inbox of a user?
  • How to delete the items in the outbox of a user?
  • How can I terminate workflow(s) as administrator?
  • How do I execute general workflow activation?
  • Where can I find more FAQ and manuals on workflow?
  • How to solve workflow transport issues?
  • How can I add a general task to a transport?
  • How can I setup forwarding of workflow as admin?
  • How can I check if a user has setup a substitution?
  • How can I restart workflows?
  • What to check in case of delays in workflow?
  • How can I trigger workflow processing again after a system crash?
  • How to solve the Workflow error “maximum number of 10,000 nodes reached” error?

Workflow FAQ note

SAP has created an excellent FAQ note: 2214571 – Collection Note: Workflow troubleshooting guides, FAQs and important notes. This is a good starting point for find solutions to workflow issues.

Sending reminder email to workflow owners

Program RSWUWFML2 can be used to send reminders to workflow owners that they still have open workflow items:

It is important to know that only reminders will be send in mail if the workflow owner user ID’s mail address in maintained in SU01.

Important explanation OSS note:

Important bug fix OSS notes:

Changing the message subject of the reminder mail

To change the message subject of a mail, create a new message in SE91. Example is class Z_CUSTOM message 010 with text: “Gentle reminder of workflow”. Now put in field message class for subject field the name of your class (Z_CUSTOM) and the message number in message number for Subject:

Changing the body of the message of the reminder mail

Goto transaction SE61 and select text type Text in Dialog. First the default text SWU_NOTIF_INBOX:

Now use the copy button to copy the text to a Z text. For example Z_SWU_NOTIF_INBOX. Change the text as per you requirement and activate the text.

Now you can use this new text in the workflow reminder mail program:

SAP workflow inbox

Using transaction SOY5 or via program RSSOINBO you can get an overview of the amount of workflow items per user:

Via program RSSOINBD you can delete the inbox of a user:

Removing work items from user inbox

There are many ways to remove work items from and end users inbox: 2382266 – How to remove work items from user’s Inbox.

Removing work items from user outbox

To delete expired items from the users outbox, run program RSSOEXDA: 2774728 – Remove entries from user Outbox.

Changing priority of a work item

To change priority of a work item in SBWP follow the instructions in OSS note 2863528 – How to change the priority of a work item from SBWP.

Terminating workflows as administrator

Start transaction SWIA:

In the second screen select all the items you want to terminate and use menu option Edit / Work Item / Logically Delete. The workitem will now to status CANCELLED. Then they can be archived (see blog).

See also OSS note 2422812 – How to delete workflow item from inbox and OSS note 1705866 – “Logically Delete” for a large number of work items.

For execution of mass logical deletion in SWIA, you must select all items and in the command area enter ADMC as command and press enter:

Or select all and choose menu option Edit/Work Item/Logically Delete.

Please note: mass cancellation is possible. Mass completion not. Only via ABAP code (read this blog for the custom code which performs this). See OSS note 2650820 – Mass complete work items manually.

Workflow administrator determination

Determination of workflow administrator is explained in OSS note 3205526 – Determination of Workflow Administrator.

Restarting workflows

Transaction SWPR can be used to restart a workflow:

When there was a system crash transaction SWPC can be used to continue workflows:

Bug fix note: 3270257 – Multiple selection value help does not work for input field “Multistep task” in transaction SWPC.

Reprocess agent rules

Agent rules can be reprocess with transaction SWI1_RULE.

How to find top level ID for a workflow item?

To find the top level for a workflow, follow the instructions in OSS note 3277360 – How to find the Top-Level work item ID of a workflow.

Reducing size of workflow tables

Workflow tables start with SWW. They can grow very large in a productive environment. For analysis see blog. For deletion and archiving see blog.

For workflow from idocs specifically, read OSS note 1813141 – How to delete unnecessary workitems of IDoc processing.

Specific note: 2847116 – SWF_TRC_CONT table huge growth.

Deleting workflow trace can be done via program RSWEQDELETE (see note 2162503 – Deleting trace records from Workflow tables).

Basic workflow activation in a new system

For activating workflow in a new system or after an S4HANA upgrade, please read this dedicated blog.

Delays in workflow

When you are experiencing delays in workflow, read OSS note 2146408 – Delay in executing a Workflow. Also check OSS note 888279 – Regulating/distributing the workflow load for load balancing on workflows.

Transport issues with workflow

Workflow development objects can give some issues in transports, since not all objects are immediately put into a transport upon development.

If you have set a workflow task to general and want to transport it, use program RHMOVE30 to put it into a transport. For more background read this SAP blog.

Substitution and forwarding

Using transaction SBCS_EXTCOM you can setup forwarding for a user ID towards different user ID as admin. This might be needed in case of illness of a user:

In the third tab of this transaction you can see if a user has setup a substitution himself.

See also OSS note 3289193 – Email notifications to substitutes.

Workflow error “maximum number of 10,000 nodes reached”

If you get this error, increase the value Maximum node number in transaction SWPA:

Do not just increase, but read OSS note 2397114 – Workflow error “maximum number of 10,000 nodes reached”, which advices to check the workflow definition, before increasing this value.

Use report RSWP_CHANGE_MAX_NODES to solve your immediate issue.

Workflow delegation and substitution

SAP workflow has options for delegation and substitution (for example when person is on holiday). Read more on this in the SAP wiki for substitution.

Workflow and system copy

After a system copy, check the workflow configuration again. See OSS note 3227538 – Workflow background steps are not getting completed after system copy.