Few days before I saw interesting discussion in solution manager Forum, It is regarding basic questions about EEM, it is been raised by Neni, later it was guided by Thomas.
http://scn.sap.com/thread/3186528
At the starting of the discussion itself Neni gave links for all the sources of EEM documents which she referred, finally Neni commented, “I read all, but none of stated about ..... I don’t know what is ... how to.. Where to...”.
This question asked by Neni motivates me to go some deep into EEM. Through this blog I would like to share some of my learning about EEM and its configuration on Solution Manager 7.1. SP04.
In the blog, the only question asked multiple times to Thomas is about EEM robot. What is an EEM robot? It is executes script? But what is it? Is it again new agent from sap?
Drill down on this and found that it is not the new agent, it is the same SMD agent. From technical point of view EEM robot is a java application running on ordinary SMD agent, there is nothing different to the SMD agent used in E2E RCA besides the location, to receive a representative of end user experience.
EEM Robot (SMD agent) installed on the client side (End user host) .
How to Configure EEM Robots in client side?
Here Client side represent any end user host. Remember that SMD agent is already installed in all the managed system host and SMD agent which is running on solution manager host is considered as server side.
Configuration consist three steps.
- For EEM configuration, first you need install the SMD agent in End user host (Like Printer server which never closed down for continuous monitoring). Please follow below nstallation http://help.sap.com/saphelp_sm71_sp01/helpdata/en/be/bce177403c4861b2664133f7e06210/content.htm
- After the installation and if you have central SLD register the SMD as regular SMD registration, check the below for SLD registration http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/SMSETUP/Diagnostics+Agent
- Now go back to step 2.6 Configure EEM Robots in EEM setup, click the button “Check EEM Robots”, display all the SMD agents installed and registered in SLD. Select the SMD agent which you to use as EEM Robot, click the
“Enable EEM Robot”.
Now you can view the robots in the left side table, and check the status by clicking “Check Robot Status”. Remember that end user host must have JDK >= 1.5 and SAP GUI for http and SAPGUI session monitoring.
What is EEM Recorder/EEM Editor, is it same as EEM Robots?
From Thomas’s reply there are three concepts are involved in EEM.
- EEM_Editor and EEM_Recorder are tools for preparation of scripts, only needed on one machine, for the engineer who prepares the scripts, ( Remember Here scripts are nothing but the recorded session of mission critical transactions)
- EEM Robot is for the runtime and replays the scripts. You need 1 robot per monitoring location.
- SMD Agents can be reused as EEM Robots, if it is installed on the End user Hosts.
How to get EEM Recorder/ EEM Editor?
In SM 7.1 SP04, You can get the EEM recorder/ EEM Editor from EEM Setup wizard itself. Go to step 3.1 Create scripts.
What are EEM scripts? How to record and edit the scripts?
Scripts are just xml representation of the business transactions (regular transaction codes). Later EEM robots replay the scripts.
My Motivation of this blog to reveal the technical background of EEM , Hence I left this query about "How to" by point out the video tutorial wiki link.
http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/EEM/VideoTutorial
How doesEEM work in monitoring scenario?
EEM starts end user scripts according to the configuration, scripts performs some business actions on the back end. If a problem occurs it is recorded immediately and often be solved before real end user experiences the problem.
With the help of the EEM administrator can automatically opting detail information about what went wrong together with the notification of issue itself. If the information is not sufficient for some reason, the effective script can be triggered again with the difference trace level.
How can I easily understand the EEM architecture?
It is very simple, The Architecture the technical flow of EEM has four steps.
- First EEM Robots perform the business transactions on the back end by starting the scripts in periodic routine.
- Next EEM robots receive a responds from the managed systems, and delivers two types of information to the solution manager Performance information, such as the time needed to perform actions or scripts, availability information such knowledge if server responds shares the expected content. Both type of information are immediately displayed in the EEM monitoring application UI.
- Later SAP solution Manager will follow up with the performed scripts will collect additional server side data related to the execution. With the result the administrator can then differentiate where in the landscape script was computed, analyzed and compared behavior in the monitoring UI.
- Last step is to aggregate the monitoring data for reporting purpose and push back to BI.
Does EEM replace RCA?
This is other interest query raised by my current client; EEM is not the replacement of RCA. In fact EEM makes heavy uses, especially of the E2E Trace analysis tool. And the Monitoring character of EEM provides proactive access to the sap landscape.
Technical Point of view SAP EEM is one part of monitoring and alerting infrastructure of sap solution manager. Due its specific mechanism of script based execution of business transaction it is positioned between technical monitoring and business process monitoring. It should be seen as more as an enhancement, which gives more detail information to the administrator about how business processes as well as technical components work on end users perspective.
This is the other questions raised from the client that EEM used to calculate performance and availability information, but it is recording real user activity also, so can be considered as spyware?
No. It just replays scripts (the business transactions) which are recorded explicitly from the real user activity. Even the scripts are running even when no user is active in the system; Motivation of EEM is for detecting problem before it is notified.
What are the document sources helped me to successful implementation of EEM setup?
I just completed my first EEM implementation, where I felt the sap guided wizard is more useful to follow.
However you cannot get the information about how to use EEM robots, scripts, editor and much more. I followed the wiki, the central place to get the entire eem documets as below
SAP Community Network Wiki - End-User Experience Monitoring - Home
Below interesting 10 min demo, gave me more insight about EEM
SAP's End-User Experience Monitoring (EEM) Introduction
And last but not least the conversation between Neni and Thomas in the below blog
End-User Experience Monitoring (EEM) - What it is and why you should consider it
SAP notes I referred
Note 1357045 - End-User Experience Monitoring Central Note
Note 1698275 - Database error during EEM setup
0001651279 - Corrections for EEM 7.1 SP04
Now, if any of them knows something really interesting as unknown myths about EEM, request you to share here.
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