Deletion of Serial Number Profile with Serial Nos. already created

[Former Member]

Good morning everyone,

I hope this is the right place to ask this question.

I'm trying to delete the serial number profile from a material that already has serial numbers created for it. The system doesn't allow that, so when I looked for solutions I found this thread describing the following steps:

1. Set deletion flag for all concerned serial nos.
2. Archive the serial number history using object PM_OBJLIST
3. Archive the serial nos. themselves using PM_EQUI

I've done 1., but I'm failing to perform 2. I've never used the TA SARA before, so I might be dping something wrong here. I've entered the archiving object, then clicked "Write". I created the following variant (see screenshot) - all serial numbers that exist are contained within the same delivery and goods receipt document. However no matter how I set this up - entering only delivery, only GR doc, setting the "process control" indicator to any of the options - I end up with the message "Number of Written Data Objects 0" in the results of my archiving job. Therefore I have no data file to use for the "Delete" step of the archiving job. Am I doing something wrong here? Hope somebody can help me - thanks in advance!

[JL23 · Accepted solution]

Your screenshot shows that you selected test run in process control

A test run does not write an archive, hence you cannot do a test for deletion, and certainly not a productive deletion run

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your reply Jürgen! Apparently I haven't been clear enough, sorry for that. I certainly tried to do a productive archive run and also tried the option "archive and delete" - neither did create an archive file. Also, I tried to base my selection on several combinations of material document and delivery, however that also didn't select anything.

[JL23 · Accepted solution]

Had you checked the job log and a detailed spool file for the reasons.

I see that you screen is looking quite different to the screen in my system.

I have a section to select which kind of detail I want in the log, right below the process control section.

What release are you on?

And the spool is the usual place where you can see the reason why something was not archived. And if nothing was archived, then no archive file is written.

Have you defined the residence days in customizing (big button in SARA) ?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Jürgen,

sorry for not coming back to this earlier, I'm a bit busy at the moment. However, your hint regarding the residence time might be correct. Currently, it's set to 99999 days for all documents in the serial number history, which is probably why nothing is found when I try to write the archive file. Could that be correct? (Sorry for asking such simple questions, I don't have any experience at all with archiving.) If so, would it be a reasonable approach to lower these limits temporarily, so that the unwanted documents can be deleted, or can/should we do it permanently? We don't have recurring archive runs for serial numbers or serial number history, so changing the limits permanently should not have any unwanted side effects, right?

Thanks for your support!

[JL23 · Accepted solution]

Yes, this almost eternal residence time is causing your trouble.

Archiving is a process to keep data offline, it is not just an instrument to kill unwanted data.

It has a lot to do with laws and audit.

SAP has usually residence times of 30 days as default, hence I think this are already customized figures and you need to find and talk to the people who designed this in your company before you change such number.

You usually have a project in the beginning where you define the residence times of each object. Too early archiving has a big effect on your reporting.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Okay, now I know my way forward. Thank you very much for your support!