Business Process Analysis/Analytics part of SAP Innovation Camp end of July

Posted by Volker von Gloeden Jun 19, 2013

Like last year, SAP America will be hosting an SAP Innovation Camp (July 30-31, 2013 | Chicago, Illinois) where you can learn how SAP can help solve your business challenges and introduce you to new groundbreaking innovations. Also the SAP “mission control center” approach will be shown to help keep your organization running at peak performance. The camp is spread over two days and divided into four main tracks

Enable the Real-Time Enterprise for all Lines of Business
Development and Projects: Mobile and User Experience
Development and Projects: Two Value Releases per Year Based on SAP HANA Innovation
Transforming Infrastructure and Operations

New this year are “Meet the Experts Hours” when you can visit each track and meet with SAP experts, as well as your peers, to discuss your own organization’s current business challenges.

As part of the Enable the Real-Time Enterprise for all Lines of Business track, it is planned to have a session Business Process Analysis: "Know your Baseline" (1:30 pm on Tuesday, July 30). During that session you will learn how the Business Process Analysis (as a service) and Business Process Analytics in SAP Solution Manager (as a tool) can help measuring your current baseline for a Business Process Improvement project, and how this can be the starting point for a larger Value Chain Optimization process.

If this, or the other tracks, sound interesting to you, then you can find further information and registration links on the event's landing page http://www.sap.com/sapinnovationcamp.

See you in Chicago...

Solution Manager 7.1 Return of the widget - Code in additional systems

Posted by Tom Cenens Jun 14, 2013

On popular demand:

How do you add multiple SAP systems to the Solution Manager 7.1 – Technical Monitoring widget? I gave away some hints in the original blog post: “Solution Manager 7.1 Return of the widget” but still many questions came in my direction on how to exactly go about changing the widget.

In this example I show you have you can end up with seven managed SAP systems. I don't know if there is any upper limit in terms of how many you can add so you can follow these steps & change them to your liking in order to add <n> number of managed SAP systems.

So here we go:

Call up the System Monitoring widget, right click & choose Widget Preferences

In the preferences, you only have 5 input fields to insert managed SAP systems.

So this is the first place where we have to make a change in order to allow more inputs to be given to the widget.

Open up Main.kon with notepad ++ (or another editor)

If you look for “FavoriteSystem” you will soon notice XML that is related to the five input fields.

Copy one block (not the last one) & insert it twice

Change the <name> of the copied blocks as shown above into FavoriteSystemFive & FavoriteSystemSix

Rename the last block from FavoriteSystemFive to FavoriteSystemSeven

To check the result, zip your folder back into a zip file and rename it to .widget ~use another name than the original widget.

Now open up this widget with the Yahoo Widget Engine

Right click and navigate to preferences

So we have two additional input fields. It’s not very clean yet because the * text is displayed twice but we’ll fix that in a second.

You can use the find in files function in notepad ++ to detect other spots in the coding where FavoriteSystem is used

One of the first hits is in controller.js

Here you can see where the “Enter at least” text is coming from on the Fifth system. Since we added two more systems, we now change FavoriteSystemFive into FavoriteSystemSeven

Pack the widget back in, run it to check and you now see the text “*Enter …” is only displayed on the last system in the preferences.

Moving forward, the next “hit” on FavoriteSystem is still in controller.js

Here add && ( preferences.FavoriteSystemSix.value == 00) && ( preferences.FavoriteSystemSeven.value == 0) before the last )

Result

Moving forward, the next “hit” on FavoriteSystem is in Model.js

We are not going to change line 155 – 159 or add lines since this is purely commented code //

So we end up on line 166 in Model.js

Before line 180, add two blocks for six & seven

Result

Pack in, load widget again

You can see now that we have more than five systems!!!

But as you can see, the widget seems to be too small.

Two options, we can increase the widget pane and we can let the widget “scroll” by adding lines to the table.

C:\widget\sysmon\SAP System Monitor.widget\Contents\components\Main\js\view\view.js

Adjust the line for(var j=0; j<5; j++) into (var j=0; j<7; j++)

The screenshot above also represents the result!

Main.kon defines the main widget pane so we have to take a look there

C:\widget\sysmon\SAP System Monitor.widget\Contents\Main.kon

In Main.kon we see a <height> tag for the mainWindow so this looks like the value we need. So we have enlarged the “placeholder” of the content by 138 pixels (original value was 262).

In the config.xml file that accompanies the “skin” of the widget, you also have height values which define the height of the respective rows.

To add some height here, we add 30 pixels to tools_height (from 255 to 285) and we add 30 pixels to <row height=”160” /> which makes us end up with the above result <row height="190" />

Again pack up & widget it

Voila, you now have more than five systems configured, seven to be accurate.

You don’t see all seven in above screenshot because I didn’t enlarge the pane to display them all. The bar on the bottom indicates you can scroll up / down to display the system(s) that are not visible at first sight. In order to scroll click next to the System Monitoring header and then you can just mouse scroll up & down the list.

Of course you can also enlarge the widget further if wanted using the instructions in the blog post (if you want to avoid scrolling).

Have fun!

A SMP trick for SAP Notes/KBA search for Solman "SV...." [fixed]

Posted by Lluis Salvador @l_salva Jun 14, 2013

Problem:

You are looking for sap notes to solve your problem, and the limit to display the result is to short, I hate paging trough hundreds of sapnotes

You can short, can filter but if you have more than 10 page result you can’t di a quick search through results

Now just try that trick to “tune-up” SAP Marketplace

1.- open sap note search on a browser with an sourcecode inspect tools, G.Chrome for my case

2.- Configure sort criteria for dysplay results by release date descending and application area that you are interested, and just right click with the mouse and “Inspect” on field Results Per Page like that screenshot

Once on “Inspect mode”, search for “select” and change 50 to 500

Now, you will se that Results per page has been changed to a higer number

Just click and enjoy

We pass from 45 pages of results to only 5 that we can export to excel, search with CTRL+F in-site and sure that can found if there is something related to our search.

Hope that this trick can do someone the notes search more accurate and quick

P.D. don’t try to change calue to 99999, it dosen’t work ;-)

Regards,

Luis

Deep-Dive ChaRM and the User Status. Some Light on Customizing and Analysis via Debugging on Message 'Not authorized to perform the activity selected last'

Posted by Michael Vollmer Jun 6, 2013

For customers, consultants and developers ;-)

When a user status is changed via PPF action HF_SET_STATUS in the ChaRM Framework, sometimes the message 'You are not authorized to perform the activity selected last' comes up and the user status is reset.

A bit more information on the ChaRM Framework can be found here in the screenshot 'Request for Change - Standard Process Overview':

http://scn.sap.com/community/it-management/alm/solution-manager/blog/2012/07/31/status-flow-of-the-request-for-change-including-approval-procedure-and-charm-framework

The message can have different reasons, described in note 1706259. As they are connected to wrong customizing or missing authority, I would like to give you some more information at hand, so the developers out there are able to analyze this for there own.

The possible reasons known to me are:

1.) authority B_USERSTAT

2.) status Lowest/Highest customizing

3.) status history

4.) Implemented Customer BadI Implementation for the User Status

1.) Missing authority for B_USERSTAT is the simplest thing. To check this via debugging set break-points (4 places) in class

CL_IM_CHM1_HF_CHECK_SET (set a break-point for all statements AUTHORITY-CHECK OBJECT 'B_USERSTAT' ).

2.) The Lowest/Highest Customizing defines if you are allowed to go from one user status to another user status. Each user status has a Status Number.

The Lowest - Highest value range defines to which status number you can go back from the current user status.

Take the example below. It is allowed to go from 'Approve Functional Spec' to 'Hard Release Approval', meaning from 15 to 35 because status 15 'Approve Functional is customized to allow next user status from 10 to 90 and 35 is in that range 'Hard Release Approval'.

But back from 'Hard Release Approval' (35) to 'Approve Functional Spec' (15) is not allowed because 'Hard Release Approval' (35) is only customized to set the next user status to 35 to 50 and 'Approve Functional Spec' (15) is out of range.

Please be aware that the user cannot jump to different user status without the customized PPF action to set the user status :-). So, this is just theoretically.

3.) Status history.

This is the most hardest case to explain. The status change history of a document is recorded. In our example again if we go from 'Create Functional Spec' (10) to lets say 'Hard Release Approval' (35) and then to 'Released for Production' (40) our status history from lowest to highest reads...

Number	Status	Lowest	Highest
10	Create Functional Spec	10	90
35	'Hard Release Approval'	35	50
30	Released for Production	20	50

If I now try to go to 'Development & Unit Test (20) this is forbidden. From a Lower/Highest point of view user status 'Development & Unit Test (20) is allowed to be set because the range is 20-50 and 'Development & Unit Test (20) is in the range but the status history remembers that we were already in status 'Hard Release Approval' (35) and this status has a lowest/highest range customized from 35 to 50 and then this is out of range for 'Development & Unit Test (30).

Note 159553 describes this behaviour.

Then the error comes up like in the screenshot.

And unfortunately it is the same exception for 2.) The Lowest/Highest Customizing which makes it hard to create a specific message for the user.

4.) Implemented Customer BadI Implementation for the User Status

Be aware that there can be additionally BadI implementations for the BadI CRM_ORDER_STATUS which hinder user status change. Described in note 1627673 f.e.

Here is a taste of this :-)...it comes back with the same exception 2 NOT_ALLOWED as well.

The function CRM_ORDER_CHANGE_STATUS is hard to debug as it contains a lot of logic and layers, down from CRM to the user status management.

I had the feeling there are further issues not yet described or recognized by me which can lead to exception 2 NOT_ALLOWED and they have are connected with system status issues but as I was not able to understand and explain it in detail, I will skip this and leave this to more experienced colleagues,

Hope that sheds some light on the issue,

best,

Michael

More information:

I currently discussed my 'feelings' that there are further influences with another collague and I want to share this with you.

5.) If the User status sets an system status this can have further relations as well.

I want to explain this via another example. Take the user status profile of an the standard Request for Change (SMCRHEAD).

The user status 'Approved' (german: Genehmigt) has the 'CAAP' indicator assigned in the 'Transaction'

(User Status Triggers Business Transaction) column. The implications what happens behind can be checked if you choose 'Enviroment->Transactions' in this screen. Then transaction 'BS33' ('Transactions') is displayed which lists all the available transactions.

You can search for CAAP and see it approves the approval procedure. But what does it really do in the background?

If you double-click on the line, you get another screen, listing all the internal system statuses and which ones are set, deleted or not changed when this specific transaction 'CAAP' is set.

Most system status are uneffected but you can see, the system status 'I1385' for 'Approved' is set, the 'I1386' and 'I1387 for 'Rejected' and 'To Be Approved' are deleted. If you know set the cursor on the Business Transaction 'CAAP' field and choose the 'Where-used' icon, you get an overview screen which sheds some light on the dependencies...

Here, it is listed...

which object types are supported
which system status is set
which system status is deleted
and (important) which system status have dependencies which do not allow the setting of this business transaction
where the business transaction is used in regard of user statuses in user status profiles

You can see that it is possible to set the 'CAAP' when the document is 'Open' (I1002) but not when it 'Contains Errors' (I1030).

In short that means if you have an standard Request for Change and it contains errors (error messages) you cannot set the status E0004 ('Approved') as the business transaction 'CAAP' cannot be set. This would lead to the same exception 2 NOT_ALLOWED.

SAP Solution Manager Mobile Apps - Highlights and Videos

Posted by Lluis Salvador @l_salva Jun 5, 2013

YouTube Videos

SAP IT Incident Management Mobile App

Create and track incident messages from your mobile device – with our IT incident management app

http://www54.sap.com/pc/tech/mobile/software/lob-apps/it-incident-management/index.html

SAP User Experience Monitor Mobile App

Evaluate the performance and availability of your IT landscape with our user experience monitoring app

http://www54.sap.com/pc/tech/mobile/software/lob-apps/it-user-experience-monitoring/index.html

SAP System Monitoring Mobile App

Get real-time insight into system availability and performance – with our system monitoring app

http://www54.sap.com/pc/tech/mobile/software/lob-apps/it-system-monitoring/index.html

SAP IT Change Approval Mobile App

Access and manage your IT change requests on the go – with our IT change approval mobile app

http://www54.sap.com/pc/tech/mobile/software/lob-apps/it-change-oder-approval/index.html

YouTube Videos

SAP IT Change Approval (3:45 long)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8X2U-Gs6zSY

SAP IT Incident Management (5:03 long)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UQ3_sU7aTU

Application Porfolio & compatibility

Prerequisites:

Enterprise Support or Higher
SAP SOlution Manager 7.1 SP6 or Higher

Limit the number of displayed operations inside ITSM (CustomCode & Customizing)

Posted by Lluis Salvador @l_salva Jun 5, 2013

That's an update for that post where i sho how it's possible to control the view of operation in ITSM withour autorization or customizing, but on a last update ( i don't remember when ) i found a change on VAR GUIDE for service provider https://websmp204.sap-ag.de/~sapidb/011000358700001075532012E.PDF on page 66, "How to Display all Messages of an Organization/Company".

You can control the operation view in 2 options:

1.- With Custom Code:

http://scn.sap.com/blogs/lsalvador/2013/05/19/limit-the-number-of-displayed-operations-inside-itsm-beside-authorization-profiles

2.- Trough customizing using AGS_WORK_CUSTOM, :

* I don't have test if that work as well on ITSM as on in workcenter

6.7 How to Display all Messages of an Organization/Company
("Employee responsible for")

The BP Relation "Is the Employee
Responsible For" (technical name "BUR011") must be maintained for the
user.
To do this, follow the same steps as described for "Replaces" relationships, but instead maintain the
relationship "Is the Employee Responsible For".
If the system finds an "Is th
e Employee Responsible For" relation for the current user, all messages of the
related Business Partner (for example, Messages where the related Business Partner is entered as the
"Sold
-
to
-
Party") will be added to the "Processing by my team" list in the Wo
rk Center overview.
This behavior is turned off by default.
Adding an entry to table AGS_WORK_CUSTOM overrides the default:
IM_RESPONSIBLE_REL_ENABLE = X (Turned on)
IM_RESPONSIBLE_REL_ENABLE = blank (Turned off)
The Business Partner relationship catego
ry "BUR011" may also be overridden with an entry in table
AGS_WORK_CUSTOM:
IM_RESPONSIBLE_REL_CATEGORY= <new relationship category>

Regards,

Luis

Added Value in ChaRM: Automatically Opened 'Create Transport Request' Dialog Window for the Normal Change

Posted by Michael Vollmer Jun 4, 2013

Standard functionality:

When an Urgent Change is set into status 'In Development' from the status 'Created' a dialog window is opened up automatically. This dialog window allows the user to create transport requests.

Some background for developers and consultants:

Technically, the dialog window 'Create Transport Request' has an UI usage to the change document header UI component (which is AIC_CMCD_H) and is registered in the ChaRM Dialog Window Framework where you can register dialog windows to a PPF (Post Processing Action) action.

Depending from the customizing dialog windows can be started before or after the PPF action is executed.

The 'Create Transport Request' is from an implementation view an independent dialog window which means if it is called the code which does the real functionality is executed in the dialog window itself (this is different in the Transport to sandbox dialog window for example).

This means it just has to be called.

New use case for the Normal Change or (untested) the Defect Correction:

There might be customers who like the dialog window in the Urgent Change as much for the Normal Change or Defect Correction because it fastens up the process.

The nature of the implementation of the 'Create Transport Request' dialog window allows it to implement this dialog window for the Normal Change for an experienced PPF customizer in about 15 minutes which is a fine ROI :-).

How to do it:

1.) Maintain the PPF container class as an element in the PPF action which sets the user status 'in development'.

This is done in the IMG activity 'Define Action Profiles and Actions'. Normally if you copy the SMMJ to ZMMJ the PPF action is named 'ZMMJ_IN_PROCESS_MJ'.

2.) Here, you have two options. The one with and the one without modification:

2.a) Small modification (You need a developer key from the service marketplace for that): Enhance the filter for the BadI.

go to transaction SE19 and display the AIC_POPUP_EXAMPLE enhancement.

The filter looks for implementation AIC_CREATE_TRANSPORT_REQ like this:

Change the BadI filter to the value '*IN_PROCESS*. You need a developer key for the object R3TR ENHO AIC_POPUP_EXAMPLE to do that.

Save everything to a transport.

2.b) Without modification: Copy the PPF action which set the status 'In Development' to the name <transaction type>_PROCESS

Please be aware that we copy and then delete the old PPF action. This means you have first to check which schedule and start conditions the old PPF action ZMMJ_IN_PROCESS_MJ has (or have to look it up later in the productive system).

We do that in the IMG activities 'Define Conditions'. Switch to the Technical Name so you find the action profile more easily.

Be aware that you might have adopted the schedule and start condition as shown in the screenshot here. Note down the name of the schedule and start conditions assigned.

Then go to IMG activity 'Define Action Profiles and Actions' and to the action. Mark the PPF action and copy it

Rename it to 'ZMMJ_IN_PROCESS'

Copy all dependnet entries:

Save your changes in the transport request.

Delete the old PPF action ZMMJ_IN_PROCESS_MJ:

Now you have to create the PPF condition, so go back to the IMG activities 'Define Conditions' in the action profile. Create the PPF condition.

And assign again the start and schedule conditions which you marked down first:

Do it for the schedule and start condition (if you have any). Save your changes.

3.) Register the dialog window for the PPF action

Last action is to register the dialog window to the Dialog window framework and to the PPF action. If you have chosen variant 2.b) please notice that the name of the PPF action is ZMMJ_IN_PROCESS instead of the ZMMJ_IN_PROCESS_MJ as displayed in the screenshot. You can use the marked SMHF entry as a copy template.

Save your changes.

Now the dialog window 'Create Transport Request should be opened if you set a Normal Change from status 'Created' to status 'In development'.

The same should be possible for the Defect Correction of course I have to admit that I have not done it yet. The PPF action which is relevant for the Defect Correction is ZMTM_IN_PROCESS_TM. You have to create the same PPF container element in step 1.). You can skip 2a.) if you have done that. If you choose 2.b) you have to do it for PPF action ZMTM_IN_PROCESS_TM as well. For 3.) just fill in the entry with PPF action ZMTM_IN_PROCESS_TM and action profile ZMTM_ACTION.

As always if you find errors or have comments, please give me feedback,

Best,

Michael

New key figures: Analyzing/monitoring exceptions in Controlling (CO-PC)

Posted by Volker von Gloeden May 31, 2013

With ST-A/PI 01Q* several new exception key figures were introduced for different areas (e.g. SAP ERP sales, SAP CRM sales & services, SAP APO). The feedback of first customers in our Business Process Improvement projects was overwhelming as root cause analysis becomes a quick and straighforward task. Hence we decided to provide further such key figures in the future. In my previous blog about exceptions during Period End Closing I already gave some heads-up that we will develop further such key figures in the area of Controlling. Now with the shipment of support package 1 for ST-A/PI 01Q* several new monitoring objects and key figures are available in the area of CO-PC. In Business Process Monitoring and Business Process Analytics you can find now some new application area Controlling for filtering. Under this application area you find some "old" monitoring objects like Cost Estimates and Schedule Manager Monitor that were already available in the application area Fincancials (where they still resides as well). But now we also provide new objects and key figures in Controlling.

In product cost planning (CO-PC-PCP) you can find now the new monitoring object Exceptions in Costing where you find two new key figures. One key figure is Exceptions during costing run which checks for alle error messages (no matter if it happened during the selection, costing, marking or releasing process) that were raised during any costin run in the defined reference period.

The other key figure is Exceptions during cost calculation CK11N which checks fr errors during costing itself that were performed in dialog mode.

In the are of cost object calculation (CO-PC-OBJ) one new monitoring object Exceptions in Cost Object Controlling was introduced with two new key figures Exceptions in WIP calculation

and Exceptions in Variance calculation

Finally in the area of actual costing (CO-PC-ACT) we introduced one new object Cost Calculations from Confirmations with the new key figure

Incorrect Cost Calculations from Confirmations which lists all cost posting errors that happened during order confirmation (no matter if it comes from a production, process or maintenance order etc.)

Email to Approvers in Approval Assigment Block

Posted by Daniyar Kulmanov May 31, 2013

In this blog i will show how you can send Emails to Approver Partner ID's in approval assignment block.

Hence there is not standard customization yet, you need some development.

In this example we will Send Emails to Approver Partner ID's whose step have initial value <> not approved/rejected/not relevant.

If approval result is not empty email will not be send.

Solution consist of 2 steps:

1) Read conent of Approval Assigment block ( static - from tables or dynamic - from BSP )

2) Send mails via ppf_action to recipients collected in step 1

Step 1 Read content of Approval Assigment block

You can read content of Assigment block directly from crm table CRM_APPROVAL_S.

How to read this table:

take CRMD_ORDERADM_H-GUID go to CRMD_LINK-GUID_HI = CRMD_ORDERADM_H-GUID

now get CRMD_LINK-GUID_SET where Object_type = 50

CRM_APPROVAL_S-PARENT_GUID = CRMD_LINK-GUID_SET.

But this table conatins of values as is, so if you change content of it f.e. change partner_id to new, changes will be available only after save. So if you schedule action "processing after save" this will not work. For this we will Enhance related BSP application "BT_APPROVAL".

How to enhance BSP application = http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/CRM/How+To+Enhance+a+Web+UI+Component+in+SAP+CRM

Ok now our BT_APPROVAL is enhanced, next enhance View BT_APPROVAL/ApprovalStepEL ( right click -> enhance )

As you can see we have 2 Context nodes BTADMINH and BTAPPROVALSTEPS

To read data from BTADMINH in BTAPPROVALSTEPS methods you can use technology from this wiki

How to read one context node data in other context node http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=201066680

You can use your own field or methods i tooked field Partner_no and its method Get_parnter_no

you can collect value of all lines dynamicly in this method

example code :

* call super
  CALL METHOD super->get_partner_no
    EXPORTING
      attribute_path = ''
      iterator       = iterator
    RECEIVING
      value          = value.

  DATA:
        lv_current TYPE REF TO if_bol_bo_property_access
       ,l_approval_result TYPE string
       ,l_guid TYPE string
       ,ls_recipients TYPE crmt_approval_s_wrk
       ,lr_btadminh TYPE REF TO cl_crm_bol_entity
       ,l_object_type TYPE string
       .

  IF iterator IS BOUND.
    lv_current = iterator->get_current( ).
  ELSE.
    lv_current = collection_wrapper->get_current( ).
  ENDIF.

*get data from BTADMINH
  IF gr_owner IS BOUND.
    lr_btadminh ?= gr_owner->btadminh->collection_wrapper->get_current( ).

*current transactions GUID
    IF lr_btadminh IS BOUND.
      l_object_type = lr_btadminh->if_bol_bo_property_access~get_property_as_string( iv_attr_name = 'GUID' ).
    ENDIF.
  ENDIF.

  l_approval_result = lv_current->get_property_as_string( 'APPROVAL_RESULT' ).
  CHECK sy-subrc = 0.

  l_guid = lv_current->get_property_as_string( 'GUID' ).
  CHECK sy-subrc = 0.

* collect partner_no and approval result
  ls_recipients-partner_no = value.
  ls_recipients-approval_result = l_approval_result.
  ls_recipients-guid = l_guid.
  ls_recipients-parent_guid = l_object_type.

  TRY .

      CALL FUNCTION 'ZSOLE001_RECIPIENTS' " FM collects actual values of assigment block
        EXPORTING
          i_recipients = ls_recipients.
    CATCH cx_root.

  ENDTRY.

Step 2 Send mails via ppf_action to recipients collected in step 1

Okay now we need to send emails to recipients, in this example i will use ppf action with processing type - method call

First we need to create BADI SE18 BADI name = EXEC_METHODCALL_PPF - filter value - create

Here im getting table from FM 'ZSOLE001_RECIPIENTS' where i did collected recipients.

    LOOP AT lt_recipients INTO ls_recipients
      WHERE approval_result = space AND step_type = 'O'.
          send_mail( EXPORTING i_recipients = ls_recipients
                           io_partner = io_partner
                           io_appl_object = io_appl_object

                           i_output = ls_output

                           ip_application_log = ip_application_log

                           i_control_parametrs = ls_control_parametrs

                 CHANGING  rp_status = rp_status ).
    ENDLOOP.

ok now done

If somebody need more details, please fill free to ask.

SAP Solution Manager 7.1 required for PCOE

Posted by Lluis Salvador @l_salva May 28, 2013

IMPORTANT: SAP Solution Manager 7.1 required for PCOE

If you are preparing for the PCOE certification or re-certification and you are supporting SAP Business All-In-One and/or SAP HANA, SAP Solution Manager is the mandatory platform for service delivery to your customers. This system must always be on the current or immediately preceding support package, which means only version 7.1 SP 8 and 9 will be accepted for any certification or re-certification requests starting July 1st 2013.

https://websmp107.sap-ag.de/partneredge/pcoe

How to delete a solution in Solution Manager

Posted by Adi Jabkowsky May 26, 2013

*** Use the following procedure ONLY if deleting solution from solman_workcenter does not work well ***

In order to delete a solution do the following:

first deactivate:

1. Call the SAP Solution Manager Administration work center with the Solutions view.

2. Flag the solution.

3. Choose the Deactivate pushbutton.

Delete Solution:

1. Start the transaction ABAP Editor (SA38).

2. Run the program RDSMOPDELETESOLUTIONS.

3. Choose a solution from the possible entries help.

4. Confirm the confirmation prompt.

You get a list of the deleted data.

That's it - your solution is deleted

Common issue with SNOTE and Note 1821188

Posted by Michael Vollmer May 24, 2013

Dear ChaRM experts,

I just wanted to share some solution to a common issue when implementing the ChaRM master note.

Note 1821188 which is a prerequisite for the ChaRM master note and introduces a new Badi implementation causes sometimes issues.

I had some messages where often the implementation of the master note in SNOTE is canceled with an internal error and implemented code coming from prerequisite notes stays inactive because SNOTE stopped the implementation with an 'Internal error'.

The note 1821188 itself stayed in status 'Incompletely Implemented'.

The reason for all this is an issue in SNOTE which has problems with implementing special objects like BadI implementations in some netweaver stack.

Make sure note 1685578 and 1720495 are implemented into the system before implementing the ChaRM master note, then you will not encounter the issue.

We have added the notes to the general Solution Manager master note but we still encounter customers who did not have the newest version of this note in the system,

If you already have the issue, implement the notes 1685578 and 1720495 and re-implement note 1821188.

It is as well possible to activate the objects of SAP Notes manually in case youalready had the 'Internal Error' when the transaction SNOTE was canceled.

best regards,

Michael

How to preselect a Work Center in the SAP Solution Manager

Posted by Frank Buchholz May 23, 2013

You can start the SAP Solution Manager Work Centers in your browser using the transaction SM_WORKCENTER. (Transaction SOLMAN_WORKCENTER starts the same function within the SAPGUI.) It's a nice idea to add this transaction to your Easy Access Menu favorites in the SAPGUI. However, if you have access to several work centers, it's useful to add several links in various folders to access specific work centers directly.

Instead of adding the transaction you can add the Web Dynpro Application AGS_WORKCENTER to the Easy Access Menu.

This application offers parameters to define the entry point.

If you omit these parametes you will see all work centers and the first one is active.

Setting the parameter WORKCENTER defines which work center will be displayed. All others are hidden.

Setting the parameter PRESELECTED_WORKCENTER defines which work center will be active. All others are visible as well.

Unfortunately, there is no value help for the work center available.

Here is the list of work centers you can choose:

Work Center	Work Center Text	Work Center Order
AGS_CONTROL_CENTER	My Home	1
AGS_WORK_BP_ITERF_MON	Business Process Operations	2
AGS_CUSTOM_CODE	Custom Code Lifecycle Management	3
AGS_WORK_CHANGE_MAN	Change Management	4
WD_SISE_MAIN	SAP Solution Manager: Configuration	5
DIAGNAV_MAIN_COMP	Root Cause Analysis	6
AGS_WORK_DVM_NAV	Data Volume Management	7
AGS_WORK_IMPLEMENTATION	Implementation / Upgrade	8
AGS_WORK_INCIDENT_MAN	Incident Management	9
AGS_WORK_ITEST	Test Management	10
AGS_WORK_JOB_SCH_MAN	Job Management	11
AGS_RBE	Solution Documentation Assistant	12
AGS_WORK_SERVICES	SAP Engagement and Service Delivery	13
AGS_WORK_SM_ADMIN	Solution Manager Administration	14
TECHADMIN_COMP	Technical Administration	15
WDC_WBA_SYSTEM_MONITORING	System Monitoring	16
TECHMON_COMP	Technical Monitoring	17

You can construct the resulting URL manually as well. Here's an example:

https://server:port/sap/bc/webdynpro/sap/ags_workcenter?PRESELECTED_WORKCENTER=DIAGNAV_MAIN_COMP&sap-language=EN

A Deeper Look: Process Maps for the Administrative Change

Posted by Michael Vollmer May 23, 2013

In Change Request Management, the Administrative Change is designed to be used for system specific changes which cannot be transported via transport request. Examples are here number ranges or changes in batchground jobs.

The speciality of the administrative change is that it contains the special assignment block 'Job Scheduling Management' which contains information about the the job request and the job documentation, an integration with the Job Management functionality in SAP Solution Manager.

Further on the job documentation is linked in the 'Related Transactions' assignment block.

I created two process maps, one for the Administrative Change stand-alone case and one with the Request for Change which I would like to share.

You can use it to get an overview or for customers and consultants who think about adopting the standard process.

The process maps are drawn from ST 7.10, Support Package 8.

In case you find errors or have questions, please get in tou´ch,

best regards,

Michael

The ChaRM actions and consistency checks which are mentioned in the maps are described here:

ChaRM Consistency Checks:

http://scn.sap.com/community/it-management/alm/solution-manager/blog/2013/05/15/charm-framework-an-overview-of-existing-consistency-checks

ChaRM Actions

http://scn.sap.com/community/it-management/alm/solution-manager/blog/2013/05/08/charm-framework-an-overview-of-actions

RCA - E2E – Workload Monitor Problems

Posted by Lluis Salvador @l_salva May 21, 2013

Hello forum, after getting again issues with the E2E Workload Monitor i decide to share that info to the forum.

A common issue on workload performance is system available resources, the perfect configuration for table E2E_RESOURCES & Special RFC resources are:

Offical documentation

SOLMAN_DIALOG_WORKPROCESSES:

Maximum number of work processes on Solution Manager, which can be used by the

Extractor Framework.

SOLMANDIAG:

Used for RFC calls to Java-Stack of Solution Manager via JCO.

NONE:

Used for local RFC calls.

Some words from SAP Support friend.

Entries like SM_<SID>00000CLNT<CLNT>_TRUSTED are customer are related to RFC destinations to ABAP systems. Default RESOURCECAP is 1. This is to avoid high load in the source system. I would not recommend to use a value higher than 2.

There are some standard entries. These standard entries are:

RFCRESOURCE RESOURCECAP

SOLMAN_DIALOG_WORKPROCESSES: Value MUST be less than the number of Available dialog processes of the Solution Manager. I would recommend minus 4 (in SMP 14 - 4 = 10)

SOLMANDIAG 2 or 3, maximum 5-> number of WEBADMIN server count MUST be higher. May be the SOLMANDIAG value plus 5, avoid higher values.

NONE 5 would be fine

<CTS> 2

Overall this table restricts the usage of resources (dialog processes)

Take care of that table with periocy to to avoid an overload in Solution Manager, that table content change after each managed system setup

How to compress BI data

Normally the problems on E2E workload analysis come from object 0SMD_PE2G as you can see after execution of report SAP_INFOCUBE_DESIGNS.

0SMD_PE2H /BI0/F0SMD_PE2H rows: 16.373.372 ratio:

0SMD_PE2H /BI0/E0SMD_PE2H rows: 0 ratio:

0SMD_PE2H /BI0/D0SMD_PE2HP rows: 544

The bad table has 16 million records ¡, and the /HIO/D0SMD_PE2HP information 544 means that there are 543 partitions, you have to make a compression after that situation and you will work with E2E Workload much faster

For compress data on BW follow that steps:

Transaction RSA1 -> InfoSources -> search (0SMD_PE2H)-> manage -> Compress tab -> Release and wait after job finish correctly

More information about BI compression, from EDW homepage in scn: http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-11982

Regards,

Luis

SAP Solution Manager

Business Process Analysis/Analytics part of SAP Innovation Camp end of July

Further reading

Solution Manager 7.1 Return of the widget - Code in additional systems

A SMP trick for SAP Notes/KBA search for Solman "SV...." [fixed]

Deep-Dive ChaRM and the User Status. Some Light on Customizing and Analysis via Debugging on Message 'Not authorized to perform the activity selected last'

SAP Solution Manager Mobile Apps - Highlights and Videos

YouTube Videos

SAP User Experience Monitor Mobile App

SAP System Monitoring Mobile App

SAP IT Change Approval Mobile App

SAP IT Change Approval (3:45 long)

SAP IT Incident Management (5:03 long)

Prerequisites:

Limit the number of displayed operations inside ITSM (CustomCode & Customizing)

Added Value in ChaRM: Automatically Opened 'Create Transport Request' Dialog Window for the Normal Change

New key figures: Analyzing/monitoring exceptions in Controlling (CO-PC)

Further reading

Email to Approvers in Approval Assigment Block

SAP Solution Manager 7.1 required for PCOE

IMPORTANT: SAP Solution Manager 7.1 required for PCOE

How to delete a solution in Solution Manager

Common issue with SNOTE and Note 1821188

How to preselect a Work Center in the SAP Solution Manager

A Deeper Look: Process Maps for the Administrative Change

RCA - E2E – Workload Monitor Problems

Offical documentation

Some words from SAP Support friend.

How to compress BI data

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