Basis – Page 21 – Saptechnicalguru.com

DB01 Oracle Lock monitor

This blog will answer the following questions:

How does a deadlock look like in DB01 Oracle lock monitor?
How can I solve the issue?

Deadlocks

A database deadlock can occur when 2 or more processes are trying to update each other and are also waiting for each other. This process will lead to infinite waiting.

DB01 Oracle lock monitor

With the use of transaction DB01 you can get overview of Oracle locks. A deadlock is observed when the status is on HOLD and more processes are in status WAIT.

Solving the deadlock can be done by the Oracle DBA on database level.

Background: 745639 – FAQ: Oracle enqueues.

Shared objects memory

ABAP programs (standard SAP and custom) use the shared memory objects technology.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

How to set the shared objects memory size?
How to monitor usage of shared objects memory?

Monitoring shared objects

Shared objects can be monitored with transaction SHMM:

In the start screen you can see the objects now loaded and how much memory they consume. In the start screen you can also delete and invalidate the shared memory objects.

The deletion can lead to short dumps. Only use this in emergency cases and when you are really sure

In the second tab you can see the total memory overview:

Setting shared memory objects memory size

In RZ11 with system parameter abap/shared_objects_size_MB you can set the shared object size in MB. A restart of the system is required to activate any change.

Older documentation says 500 or 1000 MB is sufficient. In newer systems a value of 3000 to 5000 in not uncommon.

Useful OSS notes

Note on memory consumption: 1322182 – Memory consumption of ABAP Shared Objects.

Dump with shortage of shared objects memory: 972757 – Occurence of the SYSTEM_NO_SHM_MEMORY runtime error.

Guided answer note: 2474021 – [Best Practice] How to solve SYSTEM_NO_SHM_MEMORY runtime error – Guided Answer

Licenses for SAP solution manager

SAP solution manager licenses have been renewed last few years by SAP.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

Do I need a user license for solution manager users?
If I run solution manager on HANA, do I need to pay HANA database licenses?
How can I get Focused Build and Focused Insights?
What about Focused Run licenses?

User licenses for SAP solution manager

Since 1.1.2018 the requirement of having named users was dropped by SAP.

HANA database licenses

If you want to run HANA database below SAP solution manager as database, you need to procure the infrastructure. The HANA database rights are included in SAP solution manager. This is the only exception SAP has. For all other use case you need to pay for HANA as database as well.

Using SAP solution manager for non-SAP components

You can use SAP solution manager to manage non-SAP components as well. Especially the ITSM service desk component can be used for this. When you use this function for non-SAP components, you will need SAP enterprise support rights for SAP solution manager in stead of the SAP standard support.

Focused Insights and Focused Build

SAP offers Focused Insights and Focused Build as extra options on top of SAP solution manager. Both are installed as add-on. Focused Insights brings extra dashboard building capabilities. With Focused Build you can get an extra grip on your solution build process.

As of 01.01.2020 both solutions are part of standard maintenance contract. See also OSS note 2361567 – ST-OST Usage Rights and Support.

If you want to try out these solutions, you can use the available free SAP demo system. Read more about this in the following blog.

SAP Focused run now also covers the functionality of Focused Insights, but in a far superior and more performing way. Read more in this blog.

Focused Run

Focused Run is separate solution with separate license to optimize the running of large SAP landscapes. Focused run does NOT run on SAP solution manager. It runs on a separate environment and only runs on SAP HANA. You cannot combine a Focused Run and SAP solution manager on one single installation. More information on Focused Run can be found on the SAP site. And on the specialized SAP Focused Run Guru site.

For licenses of Focused Run, read this dedicated blog.

Despite the fact that Focused Run is a paid solution, it offers by far the most sophisticated and added value product.

More background information

More information can be found on the SAP solution manager usage rights website.

Transaction SPOOL

Transaction SPOOL can be used as a central starting place for all printing and spool related settings, tools, error analysis.

Simply start transaction SPOOL:

Now switch from Standard Mode to Expert Mode to enable all tool.

Double clicking on the line will start the tool. On the right hand side are the transaction codes and the OSS note numbers for specific additional explanation.

Background OSS note: 2359477 – Transaction SPOOL.

Bug fix note: 2763159 – Transaction SPOOL: Short dump for missing authorization.

SAP support backbone update

The SAP support backbone update is live per 1.1.2020. Blocking started as of 8.1.2020. If you did not prepare your systems for it, you might loose support functions.

Per 31.07.2020 the sending of EWA’s via RFC towards SAP will no longer work. See OSS note 2923799 – Final Shutdown of RFC Connections From Customer Systems to SAP. At the same date OSS notes downloads via RFC will be fully blocked. Also the RTCCTOOL will stop to work (see oss note 2934203 – ST-A/PI 01T* SP01 – 01U SP00: SAP backbone connectivity for RTCCTOOL on basis 700-731 after RFC shutdown).

You can get or will already get messages like:

SAP note 2847665 – OSS RFC Connection fails will refer you to the SAP Backbone connection update site.

Also on the main SAP support site there is this warning message:

Which refers to first-aid kit OSS note: 2874259 – First Aid Kit for Problems Related to SAP’s Support Backbone Switch-Over Starting on 8 January 2020 .

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

Where can I find more background information on the SAP support backbone update?
Why can I find first aid support?
Do I need to upgrade SAP solution manager?
How to switch to digitally signed OSS notes?
Do I need to change my OSS RFC’s?
What else do I need to do?
How to check the correct setup in the SAP EWA report?
Where can I find a checklist to see if I am completely done?

Background information on SAP support backbone update

The landing page for SAP support backbone update can be found by following this link.

The webinar recording explaining all the highlights can be found by following this link.

The official OSS note is 2737826 – SAP Support Backbone Update / upcoming changes in SAP Service and Support Backbone interfaces (latest) in January 2020.

2 important OSS notes for quick start of actions:

And the new first aid kit OSS note:

2874259 – First Aid Kit for Problems Related to SAP’s Support Backbone Switch-Over Starting on 8 January 2020

Quick overview of all your systems in SAP service marketplace

SAP now provides the overview of your systems which are not ok in a special online overview. Follow this link. Your result can look like this:

What will change per 1.1.2020?

Basically the connection from SAP solution manager and the on premise SAP systems connection to the SAP backbone will change. This will impact many areas like OSS notes, EWA’s, landscape planning etc.

What do you need to do if you don’t want to loose any functionality?

Solution manager

If you don’t want to loose any functionality in SAP solution manager you will need to upgrade to Solution manager 7.2 to support package 7 or 8. If you are on 8 you have to do less manual work than on 7. On solution manager support packs 5 and 6 some functions will work, but with manual work and limitations. On solution manager 7.1 and solution manager 7.2 up to support pack 3, the connection to SAP support backbone will be lost on 1.1.2020. You can already upgrade to SP8 now and prepare solution manager.

For the automatic configuration of the connectivity follow the instructions in OSS note 2738426 – Automated Configuration of new Support Backbone Communication.

OSS notes

For OSS notes there are 2 changes: the RFC to SAP and digitally signed OSS notes.

For the RFC connection read and follow the instructions from OSS note 2740667 – RFC connection SAPOSS to SAP Service & Support backbone will change (latest) in January 2020.

OSS notes via SNOTE must be switched to digitally signed OSS notes. How to do this: see blog.

Next to this, you will need to change the OSS note RFC destination. The generic user will no longer work. You will need to change it to named technical user, or change to the connection from RFC to https connectivity.

If you setup digitally signed OSS notes there is an option for fallback to insecure.

Attention: this fallback will no longer work after 1.1.2020.

ANST

ANST is a great function to help you find OSS notes relevant for your issue. For more explanation on ANST look at this blog. The ANST reaches out to the SAP support backbone to check for recent notes. To keep the function working you need to setup a new webservice in SOAMANAGER (if the SOAP runtime is not active follow instructions in this blog). To setup the specific webservice follow the instructions in oss note 2730525 – Consuming the Note Search Webservice. Then apply OSS note 2732094 – ANST- Implementing SOAP Based ANST Note Search and 2818143 – SEARCH_NOTES- Implementing SOAP Based Note Search.

While switching to new SAP support backbone you might get a connection error. Follow the instructions from OSS note 2781045 – ANST / ST22 note search “Connection cannot be established” to solve it.

Other calls

See OSS note 2722027 – Certain OSS RFC APIs calls replaced with corresponding web service calls.

Online checklists

SAP has now published online checklists, based on your solution manager version. You can find the checklists on this link.

Support backbone configuration check in EWA report

If you install ST-A/PI 01T sp02 or higher in your system (see OSS note 2827332 – Service Data not Complete due to ST-A/PI not Up-to-date), the EWA report of that system will give information about the correct connection to SAP support backbone and correct use of technical user for the communication.

Example:

In the process OSS note 2802999 - SDCCN activation fails without errors or red icons in Migrate tab might need to be applied as well to solve an SDCCN error.

All background information can be found in OSS note 2823658 – EWA Checks for SAP Backbone Connectivity.

SDCCN error notes

SAP is having some issues with the SDCCN coding for the backbone connectivity. If you experience issues there, check out the following OSS notes:

DMIS plugin notes analyzer

When you are using DMIS plugin for SLT data replication you will need to regularly apply OSS notes to solve bugs. This blog will explain how to quickly analyze the needed notes using the DMC note analyzer program.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

How to install the DMC note analyzer programs?
How to run the DMC note analyzer programs?

Installation of the DMC note analyzer programs

The new DMC note analyzer programs are delivered via OSS note 3016862 – Note Analyzers with separated scenarios for ABAP-based Migration and Replication Technology (DMIS2011/DMIS2018/DMIS2020/SAP S/4HANA). Minor manual work is required.

These new programs are replacing the old DMC_NOTE_ANALYZER program.

The new programs are separated by function:

Scenario	Report name
Object Based Transformation (OBT)	CNV_NOTE_ANALYZER_OBT
ABAP Integration for SAP Data Intelligence (DI)	CNV_NOTE_ANALYZER_DI
S4HANA Migration Cockpit (MC)	CNV_NOTE_ANALYZER_MC_EXT
SAP Landscape Transformation (SLT) Replication Server	CNV_NOTE_ANALYZER_SLT
Near Zero Downtime Technology (NZDT)	CNV_NOTE_ANALYZER_NZDT

Running the new program for use case SLT

With transaction SE38 start program CNV_NOTE_ANALYZER_SLT:

Now start the run.

After the run is done the missing notes are listed:

Installation of the old DMC note analyzer program

The DMC note analyzer program is delivered via SAP oss note 2596411 – SLT / NZDT / S4HANA Migration Cockpit (DMIS2011 SP11-SP15; DMIS2018; S/4HANA 1610, 1709 & 1809) – Note Analyzer.

Minor manual work is needed for the implementation of this OSS note.

Running the old DMC note analyzer

With transaction SE38 start program DMC_NOTE_ANALYZER. On the start screen select whether you want to check for the central system or the source system:

DMIS notes analyzer program start screen

Now start the run.

After the run is done the missing notes are listed:

From the overview you can start to download the notes and apply them.

SGEN: code generation

After any support pack and upgrade you want to check and make sure the ABAP code in the system is ok and pre-compiled for business use. The SGEN code generator tool does the job for you.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

How to run SGEN?
How can I see the result behind SGEN?

Running SGEN

Starting SGEN is simple by starting the transaction code SGEN. The initial screen looks like this:

Select the option you want to use. The most common feature option is the Regenerate after SAP system upgrade. Press continue. You now reach the load generator screen to distribute the load across many parallel processes:

Select the servers and press continue.

SGEN is a resource intensive process: performance during the run will be pretty low....

In the load monitor you now release the job and you can start to monitor it:

You can also monitor in SM37 the batch job for program RSPARAGENER8M .

Data behind SGEN

Table GENSETM contains the results of the generation run. The field GENSTATUS is the generation status. Values of this field:

X = generated

E or S = error

I = initial

Touch single program or table

SGEN is a mass transaction for large amounts and can run quite long. If you only need to regenerate single program or table, read this blog.

Background

More background information on SGEN can be found in the FAQ note: 1989778 – FAQ: SGEN.

Other notes:

Data archiving improvement notes 2018

In 2018 SAP ran an improvement project which resulted into a set of OSS notes that will make data archiving more robust and easy.

All of these notes come with manual work. Select the ones really useful.

Archiving write process improvements

Write variant maintenance has been made easier by allowing copying of variants (useful if you have many plants and company codes and want to store each one in different archive file): 2520093 – Archive administration: Enhanced variant maintenance (writing, preprocessing, and postprocessing).

To be able to detail the written file name of the archive file implement this oss note: 2637105 – Print list for archiving write jobs: Placeholders for session numbers, archive file key in title.

Archiving storage process improvements

Archiving system technical check button is available in OAC0, but not in SARA. After applying this note you can also check it in the technical settings in SARA: 2599263 – Connection test for storage systems for archiving object.

Deletion process improvements

To be able to quickly continue with interrupted archiving sessions apply this note 2520094 – Continue: Information on existence of interrupted or incomplete archiving sessions.

This note will implement checks to warn you about uncompleted previous store and delete runs: 2586921 – Run selection for deletion: Information about the existence of unstored archive files.

Some archiving object use the AIS (archiving information system) to enable the end user a quick retrieval of archiving information. This note will give warning before start of deletion if the AIS is note active for the object: 2624077 – Starting delete jobs: Check for active info structures.

Archiving overview and logging improvement

To get a better overall overview of all logs apply OSS note 2433546 – Archive administration logs: Information about errors in hierarchy display. Showing only success message is possible after applying OSS note 2855641 – Logs: New option “Success Messages Only” for detail log.

Direct navigation to Archive File Browser: apply OSS note 2544517 – Archive administration: Direct navigation to ArchiveFileBrowser. This note only gives you a link. You can already start the archive file browser using transaction AS_AFB:

Note 2823924 – Archive File Browser: Messages that do not belong to the Archive File Browser are output solves a bug in the Archive File Browser.

TAANA improvement to count dynamic subfields

SAP has done an improvement on TAANA to count dynamic subfields. This blog will explain how. More generic information on TAANA can be found in this blog.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

How to get the new TAANA function for dynamic subfields?
How to run TAANA dynamic subfields?

How to get the new TAANA function for dynamic subfields?

Simply apply improvement OSS note 2614476 – TAANA: Several dynamic subfields with reference to same reference field.

How to run dynamic subfields in TAANA?

We will use table JEST as example. This table as a pretty annoying setup. The main field OBJNR is in fact 2 fields: the first 2 characters are object identification, and the second part is a number for the object. But if you want to analyze how many objects type you have this is problematic with SE16.

In TAANA we can use the dynamic subfields. Start transaction TAANA and create an Ad Hoc Anlysis for table JEST. First hit Execute to start, enter table JEST and in this screen hit the Ad Hoc Variant button:

Now select the OBJNR field:

Ad hoc analysis with offset and subfield length

In the Offset field fill 0. And in Subfield length 2. This means take first 2 characters of field OBJNR. Press ok and start the run in the background.

The end result is a cross section with counts on the types of the first 2 characters in JEST-OBJNR:

SE16S and SE16H

For some searches, also have a look at SE16S and SE16H.

SE16H: HANA specific implementation of SE16

SE16H is a HANA specific implementation of SE16. This blog will explain the additional functions of SE16H.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

How to use SE16H?
Where to find full list of SE16H functions?
Which bug fix notes for SE16H should I apply?

SE16H: HANA specific implementation of SE16

SE16 or SE16N are one of the most used transactions for data analysis on any SAP system. SE16H is the HANA specific implementation which leverages some of the HANA specific strengths.

Transaction code to start is simply SE16H. We now enter VBAK as example table. Just pressing execute will give simple list of first 500 entries. Nothing new.

Now we run again, but tick the Group and Sort tick boxes for the Document Category field:

The output now is a sum of the sales orders in table VBAK grouped by identical Document Category:

TAANA vs SE16H vs SE16S

If you run on HANA, the SE16H transaction is a faster option than the classical TAANA transaction, since SE16H runs online and TAANA runs as batch.

SE16H is for lookup of single table. SE16S can search for content in one or multiple tables. More on SE16S in this blog.

For usage of SE16N, read this blog.

List of all SE16H functions

The full list of all SE16H functions can be found in OSS note 1636416 – CO-OM tools: Functions of transaction SE16H.

Interesting ones are: aggregation, drill down, sorting, totaling, outer joins.

New function is the use of a formula editor. This can be used after applying OSS note 2795867 – CO-OM tools: Implementation of formula editor in SE16H.

SE16H bug fix notes

Please consider the following bug fix OSS notes for SE16H: