Tag: S4HANA

SAP compatibility packages for S4HANA

In the EWA alert solutions or EWA workspace, you might get warnings from SAP regarding usage of S4HANA compatibility packs.

These alerts can look like below:

or

The background explanation

Both lead to the same background OSS note: 2269324 – Compatibility Scope Matrix for SAP S/4HANA.

From the note: “Through the Compatibility Packages (CP) listed in the attachment “Compatibility Scope Matrix”, SAP provides a limited use right to SAP S/4HANA on-premise customers to run certain classic SAP ERP solutions on their SAP S/4HANA installation. Condition is that these customers have licensed the applicable solutions as set forth in their License Agreements. Compatibility Pack use rights may apply to selected private cloud deployments as well, without the prerequisite of an on-premise classic license.”.

Basically it means SAP did not have time enough to redo all the old solutions for S4HANA, but reserved the rights to do so later.

In the first years of S4HANA this did not used to be a big issue. Now SAP is catching up and will remove compatibility functions in upcoming versions, or will stop support.

Next steps

What do you need to do:

  1. Check if you have any systems with this alert in your EWA. The EWA is detecting this based on system usage/configuration settings.
  2. If you have them, read OSS note 2269324 – Compatibility Scope Matrix for SAP S/4HANA carefully. There are good attachments to the note that explain for each use case.
  3. Determine the impact of the note for your situation with both the functional team and your management (since it can have license impact as well)
  4. Create action plan for your situation

Since the compatibility packs are coming from diverse functional background with diverse solution routes, there is no generic advice possible.

Except one advice: don't ignore this alert, but pick it up seriously. Investigate and take appropriate action in time to avoid license rights discussions and/or support issues.

GTS Edition for Hana readiness check

If your company is running a GTS (global trade system) it might consider a conversion to GTS Edition for HANA. The GTS version for HANA has a different functional scope than a regular GTS system. It might be some functions are no longer supported on GTS Edition for HANA, some might be different, but also new functions might be available.

SAP GTS, edition for SAP HANA: Conversion readiness check

To get the right input for your business, you can run the conversion readiness check. Load OSS note 3033398 – SAP GTS, edition for SAP HANA: Conversion readiness check into your development system and transport it to your productive GTS system. The tool you can already run on development to get an impression, but must finally be run in production to make sure the data checks are done properly.

The note delivers program /SAPSLL/READINESS_CHK_V8000. This program you run in the system. The output is directly a list of items that might require your attention:

OSS note 2973223 – SAP Global Trade Services, edition for SAP HANA: Conversion readiness check – conflict clarification contains extra explanation on the checks.

Unlike most of the other readiness checks, no upload to SAP is required. You just run the check locally.

Bug fix and clarification OSS notes

S4HANA conversion DTV tool (data transition validation)

When you are running S4HANA conversion, this will include financial data conversion. For compliancy reasons the FICO business will demand you run reports before and after the conversion to show that the data is converted ok.

To structure these checks the DTV tool (data transition validation tool) was developed by SAP.

How to install the DTV tool

Master note for the DTV tool is 3117879 – DTV Tool – Central Note.

DTV tool can be used for S4HANA 2021 and higher as target system. There is no installation needed there.

For the source system you need to be on the right support package or install via TCI delivery note 3103342 – DTV Tool Initial Delivery.

Technical reference blog from SAP: link.

How to run the DTV tool

Start of the tool is transaction code DVF:

The detailed steps are described high level in this SAP blog.

All detailed steps (including how to setup connections to source system) are explained in the SAP help file for the DTV tool.

SAP Activate methodology for S4HANA implementations

In the past there was the RunSAP implementation methodology. This is now succeeded with the SAP Activate methodology. The most important one is the S4HANA implementation.

You can go to the methodology using this link.

The roadmap now opens:

The methodology is split into several phases:

  • Discover
  • Prepare
  • Explore
  • Realize
  • Deploy
  • Run

The method is focusing more on using out-of-the-box SAP software and focused on Agile/Scrum way of implementing S4HANA.

On the tab content you can find useful content per phase:

And accelerators per phase:

Keep in mind the method is focusing on green field implementation. Nevertheless you can still use the content and accelerators in your own projects.

SAP Process discovery

SAP offers new tool called Process discovery.

This tool can help you to prepare for an S4HANA conversion.

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

Preparation

Apply OSS notes 2758146 and 2745851  and move them to your productive system.

Then run program RC_VALUE_DISCOVERY_COLL_DATA in productive system with the business scenario recommendation option.

The first option is for the pathfinder tool. You can read more on this option in this blog.

Let the batch job collect the data. Run the program again and use button Download Analysis Data to download the data.

The analysis

Now you can upload this file to the SAP site. Wait about 5 working days for SAP the process the data.

You can look at a sample report on this link:

And you can see the demo results:

Background

Background on SAP process discovery can be read in this SAP blog.

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.

S4HANA security parameter baseline changes

If you convert your ECC system to S4HANA or upgrade a S4HANA system to a higher version, you should check the security parameters. A lot of parameters have a different recommendation in S4HANA.

Questions that are answered in this blog are:

  • Where can I find information on security parameter changes after S4HANA conversion or upgrade?
  • How can I check if the changed security parameter are properly implemented in my S4HANA system?

Security parameter changes S4HANA

OSS note 2926224 – Collection Note: New security settings for SAP S/4HANA and SAP BW/4HANA using SL Toolset and SUM is the master note. This note contains an important excel attachment that is listing all the changes and recommendations per S4HANA target version.

This note is also referring to OSS note 2926224 – Collection Note: New security settings for SAP S/4HANA and SAP BW/4HANA using SL Toolset and SUM, in which more details are explained on the background.

Checking implementation of security parameter changes in the system itself

After your upgrade to S4HANA, you can run program RSPFRECOMMENDED to check how well the security parameters are implemented:

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”.

S4HANA upgrade preparation steps for simplification items

This blog will explain on the S4HANA upgrade preparation steps for the simplification items.

Questions that will be answered are:

  • How to prepare for the S4HANA upgrade?
  • How to get an overview on the S4HANA preparation items that need action?
  • How to re-run a single S4HANA preparation item check?

For more information on other preparation steps:

  1. For S4HANA conversion (start is ECC): read this blog
  2. For S4HANA upgrade (start is lower S4HANA version): read this blog

Upgrade pre-check OSS notes

Before you can start the upgrade install the pre-check OSS notes. First install OSS note 2399707 – Simplification Item Check. This might seem an old note, but it is constantly updated. If you did do the S4HANA readiness check before this note is already installed. But still always download and install the most recent version of this note. The second OSS note is 2502552 – S4TC – SAP S/4HANA Conversion & Upgrade new Simplification Item Checks.

These are TCI notes. During the implementation, you might need to clear all BI queues.

Per S4HANA version there is a third OSS note to apply. This note is different per S4HANA and feature pack version.

The OSS note for S4HANA 2020 is 2910131 – SAP S/4HANA 2020 Initial Shipment Stack Conversion & Upgrade – TCI Note #9. For S4HANA 2021: 3028788 – SAP S/4HANA 2021 Conversion & Upgrade checks – TCI Note #10. For S4HANA 2022: 3143951 – SAP S/4HANA 2022 Conversion & Upgrade checks – TCI Note #11. Also these are TCI notes.

For the functional preparation: 3226469 – SAP S/4HANA 2022 – application specific notes in system conversion / release upgrade preparation phase. And after the upgrade: 3226548 – SAP S/4HANA 2022 – application specific notes in system conversion / release upgrade follow-on phase.

Running the pre-checks

Start program /SDF/RC_START_CHECK. First update the catalog:

And check that the OSS notes are up-to-date:

After updating the OSS notes all lights should be green:

Then select the right Target SAP S/4HANA Version and run the program.

This run might take a while based on the performance of your system and the size of your database.

You now get an overview list of the items:

The top one is the famous CVI (Customer Vendor Integration). Now select all the items and press the button Check Consistency for All, to get all the details (again this might take a while). Per item you get the details on the fixes required:

The red items need to be fixed.

There are some items you can exempt. Judge carefully first before applying the exemption. This exemption function is only available in the first overview screen.

Check single item again

You can use program /SDF/RC_TROUBLE_SHOOT to run a single check again. As input you need to provide the full text of the Simplification ID:

This way, you don’t need to wait for the complete run to finish.

DTV tool

Consider the use of the DTV tool (data transition validation) for the real migration testing and execution.

Client 001 and 066

Some of the checks might return items in clients 001 and 066. For an S4HANA upgrade these need to be deleted. In stead of fixing the issues in these clients, delete them. See more about this deletion in this dedicated blog.

The real S4HANA upgrade

The SUM tool will execute the real S4HANA upgrade. It will call the same /SDF/RC_START_CHECK program. SUM tool will abort if even a single item is not ok.

S4HANA blacklist

With S4HANA SAP has deprecated some parts of their old code. In some weird cases this old code might still be required.

This blog will explain on the S4HANA blacklist. Questions that will be answered are:

  • How do I see a dump is caused by the S4HANA blacklist?
  • Where to find more background information on the S4HANA blacklist?

The S4HANA blacklist dump

If for whatever reason the S4HANA system gives an ABAP dump with the error SYSTEM_ABAP_ACCESS_DENIED, this is a S4HANA blacklist dump. See note 2476734 – Runtime error SYSTEM_ABAP_ACCESS_DENIED. Or a reference to OSS note 2295840 – Outbound / Inbound calls from external to RFC FM are blocked when the FM is blacklisted and the UCON-Check is active.

Blacklisted RFC calls

When calling a blacklisted RFC from an external application you can get similar dump with reference to OSS note 2295840 – Outbound / Inbound calls from external to RFC FM are blocked when the FM is blacklisted and the UCON-Check is active. This note itself is old and refers to newer OSS note 2416705 – Outbound / Inbound calls from external to RFC FM are blocked when the FM is blacklisted using Blacklist Object. You can run program RS_RFC_BLACKLIST_COMPLETE to see which function modules are blacklisted:

2259818 – RFC enabled Function Modules with incompatible signature change compared to its version in ERP are blocked from external access.

What to do when you hit a blacklisted item?

The best approach is to avoid doing what you did and look for the functional alternative provided by SAP. Search for the correct simplification item OSS note. In almost all cases SAP provides a solution.

Activating a blacklisted item

OSS note 2249880 – Dump SYSTEM_ABAP_ACCESS_DENIED caused through Blacklist Monitor in SAP S/4HANA on premise, contains the procedure to activate a blacklisted item. For the RFC calls follow the instructions of OSS note 2408693 – Override blacklist of Remote Enabled Function Modules.

Please make sure you have both the clearance from SAP and the system owner in writing before executing this procedure. Support can be lost and system upgrade in the future can be facing severe blocks. Only execute as last resort after explicit approval.