Category: Upgrade

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.

Reducing S4HANA upgrade downtime: ZDO, zero downtime option

Next to nZDTM (near zero downtime) there is now a new option called ZDO (Zero Downtime Option). This new option even further reduces the downtime of an upgrade to a newer version.

The ZDO option is primarily available for S4HANA upgrades (for example upgrade from S4HANA 2020 to S4HANA 20201), but is also available for products based on the same ABAP version, like SAP Focused Run.

How does the ZDO work?

ZDO is the next evolution of the shadow system. Now not only the code is duplicated, but also the data and settings. This is done in a so called bridge system. Postings are duplicated in the main and in the bridge system.

In this way the business downtime is further reduced:

A ramp down, restart and ramp up is still required.

Technical background

All the technical background and restrictions are listed in OSS note 2707731 – Prerequisites and restrictions of Zero Downtime Option of SUM for SAP S/4HANA and training ADM330e.

The note states as well that the basis person must have followed the training ADM330e before the customer is allowed to perform the ZDO option. The option is released for customer, after training. Why is training required? The option is technically very nice, but also complex (updates are done in both the old and new release). The restrictions and execution must be done correctly and in high quality fashion. This cannot be done without proper training.

You should also do a full dress rehearsal of the ZDO upgrade including people posting data in the system during the bridge phase.

The most common use case is an S4HANA upgrade. But the ZDO upgrade can be used in other used cases as well. For example SAP Focused Run can also be upgraded with ZDO. There are special notes, instructions and restrictions: 3269755 – SAP Focused Run 4.0 Support Package 00 – Update Preparation and Postprocessing Documentation. Check the notes carefully for your specific use case.

Memory

ZDO will use more memory since it will have 2 database schemas. Check and monitor this carefully on your test upgrades and extrapolate to production. A ZDO upgrade does require a test run on full production copy size.

Execution of ZDO issues

During execution of ZDO, you will get far more issues and errors as compared to the downtime optimized scenarios. For this reason, the first ZDO upgrade you execute should be on a sandbox system. Preferably as a copy of your productive system. You will learn a lot of things on the sandbox upgrade, to make the real upgrade later on go smooth.

Addons

Some addons might block the upgrade. Some can still be allowed in the upgrade, but cannot be upgraded along with the upgrade and have to remain at the same version. At the bottom of note 2707731 there is an always up to date excel file containing the Allow List for addons.

OSS notes in ZDO checks phase

During the prechecks and later even in shadow system build up, SUM will come with list of OSS notes that need to be applied in main system or in shadow.

For the real upgrade: already apply all the notes on the development system before the upgrade and transport these to production.

Database inconsistencies

All database inconsistencies must be resolved. Repair via SE14, see blog.

BI system settings

ZDO is currently only supported for embedded BI scenario. This might mean you need to get help from your BI team on de-activating some BI content.

To find out what is blocking: go to transaction SE24 and enter class CL_RS_UTILITIES. Start the test tool and launch method GET_SYSTEM_SCOPE. If the answer is DATA_WAREHOUSE, this will block the upgrade. Use your debug skills (or ask ABAP developer) to see which items are throwing roadblocks. Then de-activate or delete that content (with help of your BI team).

Old HANA transport containers

Some old HANA content might block the ZDO upgrade. Read more on this in OSS note 2982320 – HTA for HDI: Error in execution of HDI call: insufficient privilege. Steps to solve: repair privileges on the ABAP HANA user. Run program SCTS_HTA_ADMIN in repair mode.

Background

Background blog from SAP: read here.

S4HANA conversion preparations

You are going for S4HANA conversion if your start release is ECC6.0. Then you are not only upgrading your system, but actually a large part of your data (financial data, stock data, customer data, vendor data, etc) is converted from the ECC 6.0 to the S4HANA data model.

A great amount of preparations are required for a conversion to S4HANA. If you are on a S4HANA start release and want to upgrade to a higher version, the steps are far less. In that case read the blog on upgrading in stead of the blog below, which focuses on the conversion.

Summary of preparations to consider:

Readiness check and pathfinder

A good first step is to run the S4HANA Readiness Check 2.0. This tool will give you a first insight into the use of your current system and potential blocks and work for the S4HANA conversion. How to run the check is explained in this blog.

The readiness check is more based on existing functionality. The pathfinder tool is a tool that can help you more into new and innovative scenarios. Read more about pathfinder in this blog.

Sizing

You need to switch your system from your current database to a HANA database. This has impact on both your database size and your system sizing. Read more about in this blog on S4HANA system sizing, based on your current system usage.

A database migration can be done before the S4HANA conversion, but in most cases the database migration and S4HANA conversion are combined in one step.

Data archiving

To speed up the data migration, data archiving and data deletion is required to execute in many cases. The archiving and deletion can already be done before your S4HANA conversion project starts. For information on deletion of technical data read this blog. For data archiving, you first start with the business discussions on retention times (read this blog). After the discussions are done, you execute the technical execution according to this blog.

Remove unused clients

Unused clients must be removed. Removal of clients 001 and 066 are mandatory and to be removed before the conversion starts. Read more in this blog.

Add-ons

Add-ons can be the worst nightmare in a S4HANA conversion. If an add on is no longer required, first check if it can be uninstalled.

See OSS note 2011192 – Uninstallation of ABAP add-ons for SAP delivered add-ons, and OSS note 2911053 – Uninstallation configuration for 3rd party delivered add-ons.

If you do need to convert your system to S4HANA including the add-ons, please read OSS note 2214409 – SAP S/4HANA: Compatible Add-Ons. This note refers to the list of compatible SAP and 3rd party add-ons for each S4HANA version.

The SAP add-ons will normally be ready within few months after release of new S4HANA version. 3rd party add-ons differ per supplier. Some are really fast and can deliver you the needed ACP file within a week. Some take months or longer than 1 year. If you have such a poor add-on supplier, your complete conversion will block until the supplier has done its work. Best to impose pressure via management (best is via CIO or head of IT procurement) on the supplier to speed up.

Custom code adjustments

During the S4HANA conversion process all custom code must be validated and adjusted in these cases:

  • Changes due to HANA database change
  • Changes due to S4HANA data model changes

You can already change in the existing ECC 6.0 system parts of the code before the actual conversion. To see what you need to change, you need to set up an extra ABAP netweaver stack and run remote ATC checks for S4HANA readiness of the custom code. Read the details in this blog.

Next to S4HANA readiness, you can also scan your custom code for use of unsupported SAP objects. Read the details in this blog.

Custom code performance

You can use the SQLM and SWLT tools on your current productive system to determine your code points that already eat up most of your system performance now. These points are an opportunity to improve in the S4HANA conversion.

Data transition validation tool

During the S4HANA conversion FICO data and other data will be migrated to new data structures. The business needs to validate if the conversion was done correctly and proof this. Consider the use of the DTV tool (data transition validation) for this purpose.

Use of Eclipse for custom code

On S4HANA many new developments are possible in custom code, like CDS views. For these tools the ABAP developers need on their front end the ABAP Eclipse tool. Read these blogs: installation of ABAP Eclipse and backend activation.

S4HANA simplification items

The S4HANA simplification items must be dealt with. Already before starting the conversion, you can run the simplification items checks and assess their impact. Read this blog on how to run the S4HANA simplification items check.

CVI integration / BP integration

The CVI (customer vendor integration), also known as BP (Business Partner) integration can be a very time consuming piece of the S4HANA conversion preparation. More on this topic can be learned on the OpenSAP training dedicated to the Business Partner conversion in S4HANA.

FICO changes

In S4HANA new general ledger and new asset management are mandatory to be used. If your current system does not yet use new general ledger and/or new asset management, you need to plan a lot of time for the FICO consultants and FICO business for the FICO data conversion.

SLT triggers

If you are using SLT triggers, also check this OSS note carefully: 2755741 – Potential Impact of SLT During SAP S/4HANA System Conversion / Upgrade of S/4HANA System. In some cases it is better to drop the triggers and recreate after the upgrade.

Set up of parallel landscape

Most likely your ECC system has a lot of topics to be dealt with. This also means that the conversion project will take between 6 and 12 months in duration. During this time more or less changes must continue to be implemented for diverse business and legal reasons.

For most support packages and upgrades a parallel landscape might be over the top. But for a S4HANA conversion it is definitely not a luxury item.

Best to start your planning and implementation directly with a parallel landscape in mind.

More about parallel landscape in this blog.

Security parameter changes

After the conversion to S4HANA you need to consider new and updated security parameter recommendations from SAP. You can prepare yourself already for this step. Read more in this blog.

Downtime reduction

An S4HANA conversion can take a long time to implement, but also a long time to run in productive system. It can take a complete day, weekend or even extended weekend (including Friday and Monday) to execute the conversion on production.

During your S4HANA conversion you should really spend time on downtime minimization.

First step is to determine the maximum downtime you are allowed to have by the business. If you have this timing, use the first sandbox and development system conversions to measure the expected downtime as first estimate. You can use the downtime recording from the SUM tool. But you have to add time for many more elements:

  • Graceful shutdown
  • Data checks after the migration
  • Transport imports after the migration
  • System validation after the imports
  • Graceful startup

Test the actual downtime on your acceptance system. If required, you can also create extra copy of production to a special conversion upgrade dress rehearsal system to practice the downtime and your optimizations.

Tips for downtime reduction:

  1. Check the SUM options for downtime reduction
  2. Check the downtime optimization app from SAP: see this blog
  3. Consider to include customer transports in SUM: see this blog
  4. Consider to contact SAP if your system is very large and you outage window requirements are not met by the actual times. SAP can offer tailored services to further reduce your downtime. These services are expensive, but can be worth the money to help your project meet the business maximum downtime requirements

Transaction codes that are changed

S4HANA conversion comes with changes to transaction codes. Old ones are replaced by new ones. New transactions are present. FIORI tiles replacing transaction codes. And many more. Unfortunately there is no central list. OSS note 3118651 – How to identify, which Apps/Transaction codes are obsolete or replaced in SAP S/4 HANA? provides hints on assembling a list for your use case.

FIORI app recommendations

The FIORI app recommendations tool can already be used before the start of your S4HANA conversion project. You can use the current ST03N data in your ECC system and upload it to the FIORI app recommendation tool. This can give you insights into parts where you can support the user better with FIORI apps. More information on the FIORI app recommendations tool can be found in this blog.

Use of embedded LiveCache

In case your ECC system is connected to SCM APO system, you might consider to start using the embedded LiveCache in S4HANA as a replacement of the SCM APO system livecache.

This can only be done if:

  • SCM is not used by other ECC systems as well
  • You validated you can replace all functions
  • You have sufficient time in your project for the replacement

If yes, it will save you a complete SCM landscape.

More background on embedded LiveCache setup is in this blog.

SAP best practices

SAP has an excellent best practice document “Upgrading SAP S/4HANA: Why, How, and Best Practices”.

S4HANA upgrade preparations

When you are already using S4HANA, you will still want to regularly upgrade to the newest version. This blog will explain the preparation steps for a next upgrade.

If you are looking for information about S4HANA conversion (from ECC to S4HANA): read this dedicated blog on S4HANA conversion preparations.

Questions that will be answered are:

  • What do I need to check as part of an S4HANA upgrade?
  • Where do I find information on the HANA database revision upgrade?
  • Do I need to run the simplifications check again?
  • Do I need to check my addons again?
  • How can I check for differences in SAP FIORI apps?
  • How can I reduce downtime for my S4HANA upgrade?
  • How can I know about changes to security parameters after the S4HANA upgrade?
  • If I am upgrading an existing S4HANA system to a higher version, do I still need to do the simplification items?

HANA database revision

For each S4HANA upgrade, first you must apply the minimum revision published by SAP before you can start the upgrade.

You can apply this revision already in your running system as well.

HANA DB revision usage for S4HANA can be found in this OSS note: 2655761 – SAP S/4HANA – restrictions and recommendations regarding specific revisions of SAP HANA database for use in SAP S/4HANA.

Add ons

For each upgrade, you need to validate that the addons you use are already released for your target upgrade version.

Generic OSS note is 2214409 – SAP S/4HANA: Compatible Add-Ons. This will refer to version specific OSS note you must read.

Simplification items

For each upgrade, you must update the TCI note for the simplifications items and run the checks. See blog. So you still need to do simplification items between the versions!

For an ECC to S4HANA conversion this list is long to very long (can contain over 100 items). For an upgrade from S4HANA lower to higher version, the list is typically only 10 or less items.

FIORI apps impacted by the upgrade

FIORI apps can change between versions. Older apps are replaced by new ones. You might need to act on this if the apps are used by the business. To get a list of SAP FIORI app differences, follow the instructions from this SAP blog.

Readiness check

Also for S4HANA upgrades from older to newer S4HANA version, you can run the readiness check. Read more about it in this blog.

SLT triggers

If you are using SLT triggers, also check this OSS note carefully: 2755741 – Potential Impact of SLT During SAP S/4HANA System Conversion / Upgrade of S/4HANA System. In some cases it is better to drop the triggers and recreate after the upgrade.

Custom code checks

A quick check on the use of unreleased SAP objects in custom code can help to avoid upgrade issues. To execute the run, check this blog.

Downtime reduction

An S4HANA upgrade can take a long time to run in productive system. It can take a complete day to execute the upgrade on production.

During your S4HANA upgrade you should really spend time on downtime minimization.

First step is to determine the maximum downtime you are allowed to have by the business. If you have this timing, use the first sandbox and development system conversions to measure the expected downtime as first estimate. You can use the downtime recording from the SUM tool. But you have to add time for many more elements:

  • Graceful shutdown
  • Transport imports after the upgrade
  • System validation before startup
  • Graceful startup

Test the actual downtime on your acceptance system. If required, you can also create extra copy of production to a special conversion upgrade dress rehearsal system to practice the downtime and your optimizations.

Tips for downtime reduction:

  1. Check the SUM options for downtime reduction
  2. Check the downtime optimization app from SAP: see this blog
  3. Consider to include customer transports in SUM: see this blog
  4. Consider to contact SAP if your system is very large and you outage window requirements are not met by the actual times. SAP can offer tailored services to further reduce your downtime. These services are expensive, but can be worth the money to help your project meet the business maximum downtime requirements

Security parameter changes

After S4HANA upgrade, there are new and updated security parameters. Read more on this topic in this blog.

SAP best practices

SAP has an excellent best practice document “Upgrading SAP S/4HANA: Why, How, and Best Practices”.

Including customer transports in SUM upgrade procedure

This blog will explain the option of integrating customer transports into the SUM upgrade.

Questions that will be answered are:

  • Why should I integrate customer transport requests into the SUM upgrade?
  • How do I integrate customer transport requests into the SUM upgrade?
  • How to check the RC import code of the customer transport requests included into the SUM upgrade?

Why should I integrate customer transport requests into SUM upgrade?

After an upgrade (especially to S4HANA) there can be a large amount of customer transports needed for S4HANA customer code fixes and fixes for the S4HANA upgrade itself (Z code fixes and OSS notes). All these transports will have to be imported in the production system and take time. For a larger system these transport can add up ranging from 1 to 4 hours import and check time. This is all added to the business downtime of the upgrade. By integrating the customer transports into the SUM upgrade, these transports will now be imported by SUM tool in the system build, saving you the import time. As a result the business down time is decreased. If you have a larger system with high pressure on reducing business downtime, this method is worth while to look at.

How to integrate customer transport request in SUM upgrade?

Activate SICF service SCTS_DIST_CTL_UPGINT_UI. Then start transaction SUPGINT_APP:

Press next to select the system:

Next and select Create new Task:

Now select all the transports (select carefully the ones you want to include):

On the next screen confirm the selection and then download the buffer file.

This buffer file you can use in the SUM upgrade tool.

The transport will be imported as part of the shadow build.

ZDO (zero downtime option)

Please read OSS note 2784699 – Include ZDO compliance checks when creating a customer transport buffer if you want to include customer transport when using the ZDO option.

RC code handling and import history

The RC code handling of the customer transports has to be done from the SUM tool logging. See OSS note 2964187 – customer transports included in upgrade: returncode handling. This explains to check for RC-8 code of the customer transports.

The customer transports are not visible in the import history. When this is wanted, carry out the procedure as described in OSS note 2772908 – Customer transports involved in an upgrade are not visible in the import history.

References

Good references:

SAP downtime optimization app

SAP has create an app for analyzing the downtime for a SAP system upgrade or support package.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How to use the SAP downtime minimization app?

Full references of SAP downtime minimization app

The full specification of the SAP downtime minimization app is maintained in SAP OSS note 2881515 – Introduction to the Technical Downtime Optimization App and on this SAP blog.

Using the SAP downtime minimization app

The app is hosted at SAP and can be reached on this URL: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/downtimeoptimization. When you start you come to the intro screen:

You start with the upload button. Here you can upload the UPGANA and APPLANA xml files:

After uploading, you need to wait 3 hours.

When you come back the result should be there:

Now you can analyze the SUM runtime uptime and downtime phase timing (this is tool time without idle time). There are hints given by SAP on which parts improvements could be made.

Reducing downtime

For reducing downtime, you can read the blog on including customer transport in SUM upgrade procedure as one of the means to reduce the downtime.

Also read OSS note 2351294 – S/4HANA System Conversion / Upgrade: Measures to reduce technical downtime, which contains many hints for downtime reduction.

BI queue deletion

During a SPAM import or during application of a TCI OSS note using SPAM, you can get errors due to BI queues. This blog will explain how to delete these queues.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How to clean up the BI queues in case SPAM or TCI note is being blocked by it?

qRFC clean up

First start in transaction SMQ1 to delete the MCEX BI outbound queues:

SMQ1 BI outbound queues

Select all queues and press the delete button.

More blocks

If it is still blocking run program RMCEXCHK:

RMCEXCHK result

Look for the application number(s) that is blocking. In this example 04. For V3 updates read 2886816 – Supplement to Note 652310 & 67014 & 1083709 about error ‘due to open V3 proc not changed’.

Now start transaction LBWG to delete the setup for this application:

LBWG transaction

Details behind LBWG are explained in OSS note 1752439 – Explanation of transaction LBWG.

SAP upgrade SPAU and SPAU_ENH handling

At the end of each upgrade or support package SPAU and SPAU_ENH handling is required.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How to execute SPAU processing?
  • What is SPAU_ENH?
  • Where to find more background information on SPAU?

SPAU processing

General information on SPAU processing can be found in OSS note 1970888 – How To: SPDD/SPAU handling during the Update/Upgrade.

When you start transaction SPAU it will ask for a Protocol Title. Give it a meaningful name (background information on the protocol is in OSS note 2497863 – A protocol has to be created before SPAU/SPDD can be executed):

Now you enter the main SPAU screen. The first action to do is to push the button Prepare Notes:

This will start a batch job to download latest versions of the OSS notes and will check if they are relevant for your support pack or upgrade. You can monitor this job in SM37:

For a support pack this jobs can take up to 30 minutes. For an upgrade of ECC on large system it can easily run for 4 hours or more.

After the notes download is done SPAU has 3 tabs:

Notes, with assistant and without assistant. For each tab make download or screen shots of the items before starting with SPAU handling. For each item record your action for future reference. If anything is wrong with the note or ABAP object, you can refer back to this recorded decision.

OSS notes processing

First start with the OSS notes processing. Complete all OSS notes before proceeding to the next tab.

The processing sequence is top down: older OSS notes first, then work down all the list.

In principle, you want to return as much as possible to standard SAP. But be careful: the older OSS notes might be valid modification notes which need to be re-applied after support pack or upgrade. Check with these ones with the functional team.

Old modification OSS notes can give a warning like this before you Reset them to original:

Some OSS notes might give download issues:

In some cases the note might not even be available any more on support.sap.com. Check it there. If not available, check if the content can be ignored.

Some notes might give issues with content delivery event:

Check on support.sap.com if the note is still present. Check if the content can be ignored.

Some notes might be locked:

Most likely root cause: in SPDD processing sometimes you have to process OSS notes as well, and have to repeat in SPAU phase. In this case, release the SPDD transport from client 000 and redo the action in SPAU.

If you re-enter SPAU later (next day), you might encounter this screen:

In this case choose Continue with Current Protocol.

With modification assistant

Proceed with the tab With modification assistant only when the Notes tab has been processed. There might be some note items left due to the issues mentioned above. When agreed to ignore, you can proceed with the With modification assistant tab.

Reminder: download the items and record your decisions.

For each item you need to decide to Reset the object (return to standard SAP), or took fully keep the modification, or to do a manual adjustment. SAP can make guided proposals in this section.

It is an expert job to make the right decisions. Never let junior staff deal with this part. And when you do, you will regret it later on. It can take a huge amount of time to discover the issues and find out it was because of wrong handling in SPAU.

Without modification assistant

After you have completely done the With modification assistant tab, move on the to Without Modification tab.

Here the same processing as With Modification Assistant. SAP will not make any suggestions. Same expert warning as above.

Checking and activation

The other 3 tabs in SPAU (deletions, migrations and translations) are optional. Process as much as you can:

After SPAU has been done, goto SE80 and make sure that all objects are activated. If not activated, process each inactive object.

Never report back to the basis team to finalise SUM upgrade if you have inactive objects left. On older releases, when SUM is finalised and you still have inactive objects, you need to call off object keys.

SPAU_ENH

After SPAU, you are not yet done. You need to start SPAU_ENH transaction and take care of all the enhancements (explicit and implicit):

OSS note 2584912 – How to work with SPAU_ENH contains a word manual with tips and tricks.

With an S4HANA upgrade, you will regret the implicit enhancements. The code were they were applied to might simply have disappeared.

Including usage data

In newer versions of S4HANA SPAU processing, you can include SUSG usage data to make SPAU handling easier. Based on usage you can more comfortably decide to return an item back to standard SAP.

TRDIR and TADIR issues

For TRDIR and TADIR issues during upgrades, support packages, read this dedicated blog.

Finding not adjusted items quickly

Run program RS_FIND_NOT_ADJUSTED_OBJECTS to find out quickly which objects have not yet been adjusted. See also OSS note 2742627 – Display of objects still to be adjusted.

Bug fix and reference OSS notes

Reference OSS notes:

Bug fix notes:

Custom Z code

Custom Z code is not part of SPAU handling. This you do after the upgrade.

For S4HANA you need to do custom code adjustments. Read more in this blog.

Further upgrade post-processing

Pending on your use of functionality more upgrade or support package post processing might be required. Read this dedicated blog for more details.

SAP upgrade SPDD handling

When upgrading any SAP system, the data dictionary objects changes done to standard SAP will have to managed. This is done in the SPDD phase of the upgrade.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How to logon to the shadow system?
  • How to process the SPDD items?
  • Why is it important to document the SPDD items?

This blog is followed by special blog on SPAU handling.

Logging on to the upgrade shadow system

Logging on to the upgrade shadow system to perform the SPDD processing can be done in two ways:

  1. Create extra SAP GUI entry based on the data from the SAP basis team
  2. Via SM59 connection SAP_UPGRADE_SHADOW_SYSTEM

In SM59 goto the RFC connection SAP_UPGRADE_SHADOW_SYSTEM. Now press the button Remote Logon:

As processor of SPDD, the basis team will need to create your account in the shadow system and inform you on the password.

SPDD processing

Once logged in to the shadow system, start transaction SPDD:

First start with the With Assistant tab and handle all items, before moving to the Without Assistant tab.

Before starting with any processing, make screen shots/downloads of both tabs. Later when processing the SPDD, write down in any way the decisions you have made. Typically the first upgrade (and SPDD) is done on a sandbox system. Also write SPDD decisions down on the sandbox. If anything appears not ok, you can still do the right thing on the real development system.

The SPDD has to be save in one single transport. This transport will be re-used by basis team from the development system for further on upgrades. This tool (SUM tool) can handle only 1 transport. If there were more transport requests created, merge them to one ( use Include objects functionality) and mark it for transport via Utilities -> Assign Transport in SPDD/SPAU.

SPDD with assistance

On the SPDD with assistance, per item first select the option Compare Versions:

This overview is normally too big to analyse. Press the button Delta display to see the differences:

Based on the content you have to decide to:

  1. Reset (reset back to standard SAP)
  2. Adjust (make you own changes)

This decision is not made in the delta screen, but back in the main SPDD screen. Finalize all the items with assistance, before proceeding to without assistance tab. Record all you decision.

SPDD without assistance

Now proceed on the SPDD tab without assistance:

Red items can only be reset to standard SAP.

For yellow, green and white items there are 3 options:

  1. Reset (back to standard SAP)
  2. Adjust with proposal
  3. Adjust (manually)

A proposal can be accepted or adjusted:

Process each item in the list.

Final checks on SPDD

Before reporting SPDD complete, first check in SE80 that there are no inactive objects left:

If any inactive object is left: activate it. Solve all issues.

Under no circumstance leave issues that DDIC objects cannot be activated. The further on SUM processing will stop due to this inactivation, and you have to redo again till this point, and still have to solve this issue.

Check at the end that all SPDD items are done:

If the list is not empty, discuss with your basis team, before concluding if SPDD is done.

This is reason why you need to create screen shots/download the list in the beginning: it is gone now.

TRDIR and TADIR issues

For TRDIR and TADIR issues during upgrades, support packages, read this dedicated blog.

Background

More information can be found in OSS note 1970888 – How To: SPDD/SPAU handling during the Update/Upgrade.

Interesting is also OSS note 2286852 – SPAU/SPDD: Display report for reset candidates.

Bug fix and explanation notes

Bug fix and explanation notes:

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.