Using remote ATC for S4HANA readiness checks

In the blog on readiness check 2.0 we explained how you can perform analysis on your system as preparation for the S4HANA upgrade. This blog will explain how to run detailed analysis on your custom code as preparation for S4HANA upgrade. Pre-condition is that you have installed 7.52 netweaver system and done the configuration for remote ATC as described in this blog.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • What do I need to do in order to set up the remote S4HANA readiness check in ATC?
  • How to run the remote S4HANA readiness check?
  • How to handle the results of the remote S4HANA readiness check?

How to set up remote ATC for S4HANA readiness check?

To run the remote ATC for S4HANA readiness check you must install a netweaver 7.52 system and configure the remote ATC. Instructions can be found in this blog.

In the central 7.52 ATC system you must then apply all the extra OSS notes needed that are listed in OSS note 2436688 – Recommended SAP Notes for using S/4HANA custom code checks in ATC.

In the SAP code inspector (for details see this blog) you can now find the S4HANA readiness variants:

SCI variants

How to run the S4HANA readiness in ATC?

To run the S4HANA readiness variant create in the ATC tool (for all details see this blog) a special S4HANA readiness run series:

ATC S4HANA readiness

In this run it is important to put your analysis system object provider into the variant!

Now start the ATC run and be patient. The run might take a few hours pending on your system size and Z code base sizing.

You can monitor the progress in the ATC run monitor:

ATC run monitor

You can also see here if any tool issues were reported. If tool issues are present, click on the underlined number and see if you can solve them. Most issues are SAP bugs and you need to apply an OSS note. Before creating new message for SAP make sure you have applied all recent notes for the S4HANA readiness check (2436688 – Recommended SAP Notes for using S/4HANA custom code checks in ATC) and all the remote ATC notes as explained in the remote ATC blog.

How to handle the results?

If the ATC run is finished you can look at the results in the central system:

S4HANA readiness check result

The results consist of a code point where a potential issue is. If you click on the code point you jump to the analyzed systems code.

There is also a note number which explains what you need to check.

Now basically 3 things can happen:

  • You can fix the issue directly: nice, the next run the issue is gone.
  • You read from the OSS note the function has changed or is no longer present in S4HANA. Read the OSS note for alternatives or check with your functional consultant on functional alternatives. Example of change is the way output and pricing is done. You know now it will be changed, but you cannot prepare in the current system. Use the list as input for project management for work estimation.
  • You read from the OSS note the potential issue and conclude it is not relevant for your situation. Example is material number length handling. If you use material numbers properly this is not relevant for you, but the tool will generate massive amounts of alerts. But maybe in some cases you need to intervene.

To distribute the results, apply OSS note 2499684. This enables you to download the ATC results into xls spread sheet. From here it is easier to follow up if action is needed for long list (like material number length) or not.

Fine tuning the results

OSS note 2865234 – SAP S/4HANA custom code checks show different number of findings in different check runs contains some explanation on differences in numbers.

More important, you need to run the ATC a few times, after every main clean up round. But some notes you might have detected as not relevant and you want to exclude them.

To do this copy the SCI S4HANAREADINESS variant to your own variant. Then change the SCI variant to exclude the OSS notes you don’t want to see any more:

Exclude S4HANA OSS note

Now rerun the ATC with the new variant. The list you get will be smaller. Repeat this iterations as long as needed.

Don't change the originally SAP delivered SCI variants. New features and bug fixes by SAP will update this variant. If you have an updated SAP variant, simply copy it again to your Z variant and redo the exclusion of OSS notes.

S4HANA 1809 update and beyond

If you previously installed remote ATC for a 1709 check and want to run now for S4HANA 1809 or higher version, there are a few update steps to follow.

First step is to install OSS note 2659194 – Check variant for SAP S/4HANA 1809 custom code checks and carry out the manual aftercare action. This will deliver you the SCI variant for S4HANA_READINESS_1809.

If you now run remote ATC without step 2, you get the issue described in OSS note 2532285 – ATC: Inspection was not executed because target release information cannot be processed.

Step 2 is to update the simplification content to version 1809. You have to download the content from SAP software site and upload it in your ATC 7.52 system. For this step follow the instructions from OSS note 2241080 – SAP S/4HANA: Content for checking customer specific code.

Short summary of these steps in this note: download the most up-to-date simplification database:

Simplification content

In the 7.52 central ATC system use tcode SYCM to upload this file.

Update new content procedure

Now you are good to go for the S4HANA 1809 readiness check for custom code.

For S4HANA 1909, S4HANA 2020 and S4HANA 2021 the notes have different numbers:

The basic process is still the same.

Bug fix OSS notes

Bug fix OSS notes:

S4HANA upgrade sizing

This blog will explain options and tools you have for S/4HANA sizing for both new installations as well as upgrades.

Questions that will be answered are:

  • How can I execute S/4HANA sizing?
  • How do I execute the memory sizing for upgrading existing ECC system on non-HANA database to S/4HANA?
  • How do I execute CPU sizing for S/4HANA?
  • How do I execute disc storage sizing for S/4HANA?

Executing S/4HANA sizing

For both greenfield and existing ECC systems the SAP specific quicksizer for S/4HANA can be used: S4HANA quicksizer, then launch the tool from that page:

Quick sizer

For existing system you can pull data from existing system for greenfield you have to take either existing numbers from legacy system or input from project them.

The term quick sizing can be bit misleading. The tools is nowadays pretty advanced and requires quite some input.

How to fill the quicksizer is explained in OSS note 2467172 – How to size Fiori applications based on number of users.

Memory sizing for upgrading existing system

SAP has delivered a tool to help in sizing memory for S4HANA for upgrading an existing system. In your current ECC system you need to apply OSS note 1872170 – Business Suite on HANA and S/4HANA sizing report. This will deliver ABAP report /SDF/HDB_SIZING. You test this on development system and transport it to production for productive run.

S4HANA sizing program

Best to run this in background. You can then get the results in the spool of the batch job.

Sizing results

The results give an as good as possible estimation of memory sizing after the database conversion.

CPU sizing for S/4HANA

More details on CPU sizing can be found in OSS note 1793345 – Sizing for SAP Suite on HANA.

Disc space sizing for S/4HANA

Disc space storage sizing for S/4HANA can be found in extensive document on SAP site.

OSS notes

Before running the /SDF/HDB_SIZING program it is best to update it with the most recently available updates: 3104284 – HANA memory Sizing report – Advanced correction 15 or higher,  3470136 – HANA Memory Sizing Report – Advanced Correction 21 and any higher correction.
Also apply this note: 3125526 – Report /SDF/HDB_SIZING_CLEAN cannot use dynamic variants.

S/4 HANA readiness check

SAP has released S4HANA readiness check 2.0. Please read this blog on the new tool version.

If you want to use old version, please read on.

This blog explains the new tool for SAP customers to prepare for S/4 HANA upgrade: S/4 HANA readiness check.

Questions that will be answered are:

  • What is the S/4 HANA readiness check?
  • How to execute it?
  • What results can I expect?

S/4 HANA readiness check

The S/4 HANA readiness check is a tool from SAP that can help you prepare for S/4 HANA upgrade. The tool is a web based online tool running in SAP cloud that is using 2 files with data from your system:

  1. Extract from your customer code
  2. Usage data of transactions measured in your system (based on ST03N data)

The outcome is online report with list of potential improvements in S/4 HANA that might be relevant for your business and list of potential issues when upgrading caused by custom code or by generic changes by SAP.

The end user guide of the tool can be found on the SAP site.

Execution of S/4 HANA readiness check

The main note for the readiness check is 2290622. This note describes that there 2 ways to run the check:

  1. Via solution manager
  2. Directly

The direct approach is the most easy. The exact steps are always updated in OSS note 2310438. Carefully implement all the prerequisite notes mentioned in this note.

After this is done 2 programs will be available.

Program SYCM_DOWNLOAD_REPOSITORY_INFO will download the ABAP custom developments.

Program SYCM_DOWNLOAD_REPOSITORY_INFO

The program will check if the where-used index is up to date. If not it will refer to OSS note 2234970. This note can be bit confusing. But basically what you need to do is run program SAPRSEUB in the background (and wait up to 2 days on larger system with many custom code!!).

Please note the following: As a prerequisite for SAP Note 2185390 or the program SYCM_DOWNLOAD_REPOSITORY_INFO, please start only the program SAPRSEUB! Do not start SAPRSEUC. If you use an MSSQL database, you must implement SAP Note 1554667 before starting SAPRSEUB; otherwise, database problems occur. More on ABAP where used index via SAPRSEUB see blog link.

The second program will capture analysis data: TMW_RC_DOWNLOAD_ANALYSIS_DATA.

Program TMW_RC_DOWNLOAD_ANALYSIS_DATA

You will have to start this program a few times. Every time it will launch a new batch job for each tick box you have selected.

Both of the programs will deliver you a zip file that you store on local PC or laptop.

These result files you upload in the SAP cloud part of the tool on the SAP support portal: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#readiness.

Readiness tool import analysis

Now you have to wait until the analysis is done.

Result of the S/4 HANA readiness check tool

When the analysis is finished you first enter the dashboard:

Readiness tool result overview page

When zooming in you will reach the detailed screens with all the small details and relevant OSS note references:

Readiness tool details

Top right in the details list there is the button to create the results document. This is easier for sharing the results with management, since they typically don’t have an S user to logon to the tool.

Running S4HANA ABAP checks in your own system

With the remote ATC tool with special variant S4HANA Readiness you can run the ABAP checks in your onw system. Read this blog for more information.

New content for new S4HANA versions

With every new version of S4HANA (and its intermediate feature packs) SAP will update the simplification list and the corresponding OSS notes. This will also impact the analysis programs. OSS note 2399707 – Simplification Item Check lists down which note version you need to apply to your system to have the checks for the S4HANA version of your choice. For the newer notes you will have to use the TCI based OSS notes (see blog on notes tips & tricks).

If you have installed the latest TCI note, you also get a new program called /SDF/RC_START_CHECK. After start of this program you get this screen:

Readiness check program

You now can immediately see if you have new versions of OSS notes to apply to get most recent checks.

And after the run, you can use the button Application Log to see a more detailed result list on the simplification checks carried out in your system.

Custom ABAP code analysis

For a more detailed analysis on your custom ABAP code you can use the remote ATC tooling for a more detailed analysis. See this blog for details.