Category: Basis

basis

SQLM SQL monitor

This blog will explain about the SQLM tool to monitor expensive SQL statements in a productive environment.

Questions that will be answered are:

  • How to start and configure the SQLM tool?
  • How to analyze the results?

Configuration of SQLM tool

The SQLM tool does not require specific configuration or installation if you have a bit modern SAP system. To activate it start transaction SQLM and click on the Activate button for All Servers:

The trace is active now until the given time frame.

Example use of the SQLM transaction

First we start by writing a very bad performing Z program:

This program is really inefficient. After activation of the SQLM monitoring we run this program a few times.

Now we goto the SQLMD transaction (or from SQLM and then press display data button) to display the SQL monitoring results:

Selection can be done on total number of executions, execution time, amount of records. Result:

You see now the impact of our badly written program. Double click on the line will jump to the ABAP code point.

Creating snapshots

At the bottom of the SQLM start screen there are the buttons to create snapshots:

This results into the Snapshot screen:

You can create a snapshot here for later re-use. You can also download the snapshot to a different system by using these buttons: first export to file:

When you have the file, goto the target system and start SQLM and press create snapshot. Now use the option Create with Data Source File Import.

It is common practice to capture data in production by a basis administrator who exports it. Then the data download is handed over to an ABAP developer using the data as upload in SQLM database in the development system to improve poorly performing Z code. The developer can use the SWLT tool (see blog) to combine the SQLM data with the static code review data taken from the ATC tool (see blog).

Follow up use in SWLT

The SQLM data can be used as input in the SWLT tool: SQL performance worklist tool. This tool combines the SQLM data with the ATC tool results. Read more about SWLT in this blog.

Background information

More background information can be found in OSS note 1885926 – ABAP SQL monitor and 3242700 – ABAP SQL Monitor: Implementation Guide and Best Practices.

Useful blog (which is start of blog series on SQLM): link.

Impact on performance and memory is minimal. Description is fully documented in OSS note 3100598 – Memory Requirement and Performance Impact of the SQL Monitor.

OSS notes

Relevant OSS notes:

Solution manager demo system

This blog will explain about the free available SAP solution manager 7.2 demo system. If you are looking for a Cloud ALM demo system, read this blog.

Questions that will be answered are:

  • How can I access the free available SAP solution manager 7.2 system?

SAP solution manager 7.2 demo system

To promote the use of SAP solution manager 7.2 SAP has made a system available for everybody to test drive.

Follow this link to go to the main page. Then scroll down to the access link:

This will bring you to the launchpad by using one of the roles (with user ID and password on the site):

After logon you reach the launchpad, for that specific role (example here is Business Process Expert):

This will enable you to test drive the new functionality for Solution documentation:

This is just one of the examples. You can also test drive Focused Build and Focused Insights functionality. Both are free to use as of 1.1.2020 (see blog).

The system that SAP offers does have regular updates and resets of data. Read the SAP blog for the actual dates.

I18N internationalization

This blog will explain about the I18N internationalization transaction.

Questions that will be answered are:

  • How can I see which languages are installed in my system?
  • How is my system configured for internationalization?

Transaction I18N

Almost all internationalization topics in SAP are centrally maintainable from transaction I18N:

In the menu on the left you can select all the topics and tools. More background on the transaction itself can be found in OSS note 848036 – Transaction ‘I18N’ (Internationalization).

Installed languages

By selecting the installed languages tool you can see which languages are installed in your system and which ones are allowed for logon:

Current internationalization configuration

By selecting the troubleshooting tool Current I18N system configuration, you can list all the related current system settings:

Time zones

For internationalization of time zones read this dedicated blog. For daylight saving, read this dedicated blog.

Webservice message monitoring

This blog will explain about webservice message monitoring.

Questions that will be answered are:

  • How can I display webservice messages?
  • How can I set the deletion retention timing for webservice messages?

This blog assumes that you have correctly activated the basic SOAP webservice runtime. See separate blog on this topic.

Webservice message monitoring

You can start the webservice message monitoring with transaction SRT_MONI. In the selection screen fill out filtering parameters are per need:

Result will look like:

By clicking on the message itself you can see the content in XML format.

Monitoring OSS notes:

Web service error log

Use transaction SRT_ELOG to go to the web service error log.

Setting retention period of webservice message deletion

Webservice messages will get deleted automatically in the SAP system. The default value is one week. You might need to keep the messages longer. The setting that controls this retention period is quite hidden. To change the setting, you need to start transaction SXMB_ADM and then select the option Schedule Delete Jobs:

Then you change the retention settings as per need:

Web service tracing

Web service tracing can be activated in transaction SRT_UTIL.

Be careful when switching the trace to on, on a productive system: it can generate a lot of load. Do apply and read OSS note 3084970 - SRT_UTIL: Show disclaimer when enabling tracing for URIs.

Payload trace is explained in OSS 3195367 – ESI – How to use the SRT_UTIL Payload Trace.

OSS notes for tracing and SRT_UTIL:

Generic search frame work

SAP has create in S4HANA 2020 extra search framework. Transaction code SRT_MONI_GSF starts up a specialised search frame work:

To get this new framework you need to apply these 4 OSS notes:

Bug fix OSS notes

SAP buffers and buffer refreshes

This blog will explain the SAP buffer setup and the SAP buffer refresh process.

Questions that will be answered are:

  • What is the use of table buffers?
  • Which tables are buffered?
  • How can I check on my productive system which buffered table is using a lot of memory?
  • How to force a buffer refresh in general?
  • How to force a buffer refresh for a specific table?
  • How to force a buffer refresh on a specific application server?

Background of table buffers

The primary reason of a table buffer is pretty simple: performance improvement.

SAP has a 3 tier setup of:

  1. Front end GUI
  2. Application server
  3. Database server

If data is read from the database server it is processed on the application server. This data is buffered on the application server. If a user asks the same data twice, the application server already has the data. Also very frequently read tables (like company code and plant data) are buffered on the application server.

In transaction SE11 in the technical settings of a table you can see if a specific table is buffered or not, and the type of buffering. Example is for table T000, which is fully buffered:

When to set buffering?

Buffering is extremely useful on small and infrequently changing tables, which have a lot of read access. For these tables buffering will help a lot. That is why a lot of customizing table have buffering activated. You can do the same for your Z tables if they are used for customizing like purposes.

How to check buffering in productive system?

Read this blog to understand and use the new advanced table buffer analysis program.

Old method:

Follow the instructions from OSS note 2806927 – Remove table buffers to check table buffering in production.

Go to transaction AL12:

Then select menu option Monitor, Buffers, Table buffer, All Generic tables. Then sort by size:

How to reset table buffers?

In some specific case you might want to force a buffer reset.

For this reason you can enter specific commands (enter same way like transaction code or the famous /h for debugging):

/$TAB – Resets all the table buffers on the application server

/$TAB <table name> – Resets the TABLE buffers on the application server for that specific table (also consider program TOUCHTAB after transporting a table definition)

/$SYNC Resets the buffers on the application server

/$CUA Resets the CUA buffer of the application server (the CUA buffer is not for central user admin, but holds screen elements like menus, buttons, etc)

/$DYN Resets the screen buffer on the application server

/$ESM Resets the exp/imp shared memory Buffer on the application server

/$PXA Resets the program (PXA) buffer on the application server

/$OBJ Resets the shared buffer of the application server

ST02 buffer overview

You can use transaction ST02 to get an overview of the buffers:

By clicking the button Current parameters you get an overview of the currently set relevant parameters:

Explanation notes:

Other buffer and caching resets

There are other buffer and caching resets:

  • User buffer reset: go to transaction SU53 and select menu Authorization Values / Reset User Buffer
  • User role combination refresh: transaction PFUD, see dedicated blog.
  • FIORI buffers, see dedicated blog.

ABAP update administration

This blog will explain about the ABAP update administration. Questions that can be answered are:

  • How to check if the ABAP update process is active?
  • How to check and fix update errors?

Update administration

You can use transaction SM14 to goto the ABAP update administration:

SM14 overview screen

Update errors

The update errors can be seen with transaction SM13 (do take care to have the right date selection):

SM12 update processing errors

Double clicking on the line will give you more information:

SM13 update processing error detail

Double click again on the error for more information. This information can be used to find the OSS note to fix the issue in case of standard SAP failure. In case of Z code failure, you will have to go to you own ABAP developer to fix it.

Reprocessing

Reprocessing is sometimes possible, and in most cases not. After you have captured the information on a update failure you can delete it.

When reprocessing is possible, check first with the user. He might have posted the data already in a different way. Only when he did not post in different way, you can try to reprocess the failed update.

Alerting

You can set parameter (RZ11) rdsip/vbmail to 1 to activate mail sending. Parameter rdisp/vb_mail_user_list contains the mail addresses (separation by comma).

Automatic deletion

By setting parameter rdisp/vbreorg to 1 the automatic deletion of failed updates is activated. Parameter rdsip/vbdelete is the amount of days the SM13 entries are kept.

Background OSS notes

S4HANA setup FIORI manage KPI tiles

Inside S4HANA there is a very powerful FIORI tile called the Manage KPI and Report function. This blog will explain how to setup this FIORI tile and how to make sure it is working properly.

It is assumed you have already enabled your S4HANA system for FIORI (see this blog).

Note: this blog will only explain the S4HANA 1909 and higher implementation. Previous versions of this functionality have more tiles and setup work.

Activating the Manage KPI and report function

Goto transaction STC01 and select task list SAP_FIORI_CONTENT_ACTIVATION:

In the task list select the business role SAP_BR_ANALYTICS_SPECIALIST:

Now run the task list and wait. If you have issues, please read this blog.

Assign then activated PFCG role SAP_BR_ANALYTICS_SPECIALIST to your user ID.

Checking the KPI and report FIORI tile

Start the FIORI launchpad (transaction /UI2/FLP) and check that the manage KPIs and Reports tile is now available:

Click on the tile and you come into the first screen. Top left you can choose between KPI and Reports. We will first start with inspecting the KPI. We will use Purchase Order Changes as example:

Details of the KPI:

Here you can see the Data source: CDS view C_POITEMCHANGECOUNT.

On the visualize tab you can see a preview of the tile:

Now we will inspect the report:

Here you can see it is a Generic Drilldown on the datasource C_POITEMCHANGECOUNT. Click to open the details:

You can push the button Show Preview to get a preview of the report:

In the section application details you can see the details for the tile:

Very important here is the catalog it belongs to. In PFCG assign the correct business role to your user: SAP_BR_BUYER. You can find this role in the FIORI reference library documentation for this tile.

After the role is assigned, start the FIORI app finder and search for the app:

Now this tile should work:

Background information

There is an excellent OpenSAP course on this topic: link.

More background information can be found on the FIORI reference libary for the Manage KPIs and Report app:

S4HANA rapid activation of FIORI lighthouse apps

This blog will explain how you can execute a rapid activation of a set of FIORI lighthouse apps.

Questions that will be answered are:

  • Which apps can be used for rapid setup?
  • How to execute the rapid activation of FIORI lighthouse apps?

This blog assumes you have finished the basic activation of embedded FIORI on S4HANA, which is explained in this blog.

FIORI lighthouse apps

FIORI lighthouse apps are enabled for rapid activation. On the FIORI reference library site click on the Lighthouse scenario link to get a PDF full of all possible apps you can activate:

In the app finder you can also search for specific lighthouse apps:

Rapid activation of FIORI lighthouse app

We will take the following app as example to execute the rapid activation: app ID F1600A: Manage Purchase Contracts (Version 2):

In the implementation information scroll down to the authorization information section:

For now you can ignore the catalog and business group. Important here is the business role: SAP_BR_PURCHASER.

Go to transaction STC01 and select task list SAP_FIORI_CONTENT_ACTIVATION:

In the scope definition select the needed role SAP_BR_PURCHASER:

In the task list set the mandatory parameters process mode to co-deployment and Prefix to Z. Now start the task list execution and be patient. This might run up to 10 minutes.

This task list will now activate all ODATA services for the app group (not only for this single app, but the complete group!). It will activate all SICF nodes for the app group (yes, again the whole group). And it will generate the PFCG authorization role SAP_BR_PURCHASER.

If the task list is finished, assign the role SAP_BR_PURCHASER to your user ID.

Content activation for catalogs

For some scenarios it might be needed to activate catalog content. To do this, first apply OSS note 3339909 – Fiori Setup: Content Activation for Catalogs. This note delivers STC01 task list SAP_FIORI_FCM_CATALOG_ACTIVATION.

Testing

Start the FIORI launchpad (transaction code /UI2/FLP):

You see that the tile Manage Purchase Contracts is visible. Since we activated a complete group, also the other tiles are immediately visible.

Clicking on the Manage Purchase Contracts tile gives immediate result:

This shows we can activate complete group of apps that immediately work, with minimal effort.

Issue detection

You can use the FIORI app support function to quicly analyze an issue in your newly activated FIORI app. Read more in this blog.

In app extensibility

All the FIORI lighthouse apps are built for in app extensibility. This allows you to change the look and feel of a standard SAP app and to add custom fields to standard SAP app. Read more in this blog.

Transport and activation after transport

After transport everything is present, but in inactive state. You need to perform the activation after transport.

OSS note 2886433 – Fiori Setup: Activation of OData Services in Prod Systems with task lists contains a perfect PDF that describes how to carry out the activation in a productive system using the proper selections in the task list.

Embedded activation and system refresh

If you refresh your sandbox, quality or development system with production copy, read this note 3111069 – Task list clarification post System copy/System Refresh in Embedded deployment on activation of embedded FIORI after the refresh.

OSS notes

Background OSS notes:

Bug fix notes to apply:

Include usage data in S4HANA custom code migration FIORI app

With the new S4HANA custom code migration FIORI app you can include system usage data (from productive system) to see which code blocks are used and which ones are not.

This blog will give answers to the following questions:

  • How to collect usage data from productive system?
  • How to include the usage data in the S4HANA custom code migration FIORI app?

This blog assumes you have already setup the S4HANA custom code migration FIORI app. If you have not done this, follow the instructions in this blog.

Collecting usage data in production with transaction SUSG

General recommendations for the use of transaction SUSG can be found in OSS note 2701371 – Recommendations for aggregating usage data using transaction SUSG. SUSG assumes you have already activated the SCMON ABAP call monitor. If that is not done, read this blog.

In your productive system start transaction SUSG and activate the usage data aggregation:

If you don’t have sufficient authorizations, you might get this weird screen:

If you see this screen, first check your user authorizations.

SUSG performance impact

SUSG performance impact is negligible. SCMON might have an impact. See the blog on SCMON.

Background: 3100194 – Memory Requirement and Performance Impact of transaction SUSG.

SUSG installation

If SUSG does not start in your productive system it needs to be installed first. To install SUSG apply OSS note 2643357 – Installation of Transaction SUSG. This is a TCI based OSS note (see blog).

After the TCI note also apply these OSS notes:

Creating the snapshot

Now that the data collection and aggregation is activated, you will need to be patient. Let the system collect the data for the next few days. Now go to transaction SUSG and check the log that the aggregation went fine:

Now you can create a snapshot in the Manage Snapshots section:

Create the snapshot and download it to a file on your desktop or laptop. If wanted you can setup RFC connection as well.

The security and basis team normally does not like any RFC going from production system to non-production system. So the file option is normally the best way.

Loading the data into your upgraded S4HANA system

In your S4HANA system where your custom code analysis runs now start transaction SUSG and make sure it is active. Now you can upload the snapshot from the productive server you have downloaded in the previous step.

Please make sure that the OSS notes on both your productive system and your S4HANA system are identical. The notes have changes to file format of the download file. If the notes are notes identically applied, you will have file format upload issues. Recommendation is to apply all recent SUSG note to both your productive server and the S4HANA system.

S4HANA custom code migration app with usage data

Now you can finally launch the S4HANA custom code migration app. Create a new analysis. In the usage data part of the app, you can assign the snapshot you have uploaded in the previous section:

Now start the custom code analysis and let it run.

The end results of code being used or not can be seen in the column Usage Information in the Analyze Findings section:

See also OSS note 3505318 – How to start SCMON/SUSG on custom code migration app?.

Different view of usage

OSS note 3410478 – How to utilize and display usage data collected in SUSG? explains to use view SUSG_I_DATA.

Background information

More background on SUSG setup can be found on this blog.

Deletion of SUSG data

Deletion can be done after applying OSS note 3130631 – SUSG: Report to delete programs from usage data.

S4HANA setup FIORI my Inbox app

If you have followed all the instruction in the blog about embedded FIORI activation in S4HANA, you will find that the my Inbox app is still not working.

This is correct since extra steps are required to setup the FIOIR my inbox app. This blog will answer the following questions:

  • Which extra steps to perform to activate the FIORI my inbox app?
  • Where to find more background information on the FIORI my inbox app?

Basic setup of FIORI my inbox in S4HANA

After you have finished the embedded FIORI activation in S4HANA (see blog), you must follow the extra steps in OSS note 2902673 – Rapid Activation for SAP Fiori in SAP S/4HANA – Overview. This note refers to specific version like 2834415 – Composite SAP note: Rapid Activation for SAP Fiori in SAP S/4HANA 1909. In this note there is a special section on the extra steps to activate the myInbox.

Goto the following customizing tree entry:

Now setup an extra system alias, name can be freely chosen:

It is very important here to notice 2 things:

  1. The local GW (gateway) tickbox must be set
  2. The software version MUST be set to /IWPGW/BWF

In transaction /IWFND/MAINT_SERVICE activate the service TASKPROCESSING version 2 for the system alias you just created.

It is very important to take version 2 and not the version 1.

In SICF activate the FIORI inbox tile itself: CA_FIORI_INBOX.

In PFCG activate role SAP_BR_MANAGER and assign it to your user.

MyInbox app

Now goto the FIORI launchpad (/ui2/flp transaction) and the MyInbox tile should be visible with the number showing you the amount of workflows:

If you see the number zero, you might not have any workflows assigned to your user. See the blog on S4HANA workflow activation to make sure the workflow system is properly activated and instruction to generate some test items for you.

Background information

The best source of public information is the SAP wiki on myInbox.

Official SAP note: 2676990 – Release Information note for SAP Fiori My Inbox. (this note contains the list of patch notes for the My Inbox FIORI side).

Release information note, which refers to patch notes: 2221151 – Release Information note for SAP Fiori My Inbox 2.0.

Specific useful notes on how-to OSS note for my Inbox FIORI app :