BPMon Setup Guide

Business Process Monitoring Set-up and User Guideline

Business Process Monitoring with SAP Solution Manager Releases 7.1 SP05+

November 2012 If you are below 7.1 SP05 please refer to Guide

for Release < 7.1 SP05

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

ABOUT THIS SETUP GUIDE................................................................................................... 6

1.1 1.2

2

Goal ......................................................................................................................................................... 6 Structure .................................................................................................................................................. 6

INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 8

2.1 Business Process Monitoring (BPMon) ................................................................................................... 8 2.2 Functional Scope of BPMon .................................................................................................................... 8 2.2.1 Upload BPMon Template Solution ........................................................................................................ 8 2.2.2

Additional functionalities of BPMon ...................................................................................................... 9

2.2.3

Functionalities of SAP Solution Manager used by BPMon ................................................................... 9

3

TECHNICAL INFRASTRUCTURE ......................................................................................... 10

3.1 SAP Solution Manager Infrastructure .................................................................................................... 10 3.2 General Infrastructure of Business Process Monitoring ........................................................................ 11 3.3 BPMon Data Collection and Alert Processing ....................................................................................... 11 3.3.1 Data Collection via Central CCMS ...................................................................................................... 11 3.3.2

Data Collection via Local CCMS ......................................................................................................... 13

3.3.3

Alert Processing .................................................................................................................................. 13

4

PREREQUISITES FOR BUSINESS PROCESS MONITORING ............................................. 14

4.1 Software Prerequisites .......................................................................................................................... 14 4.1.1 Add-ons on SAP Solution Manager System ....................................................................................... 14 4.1.2

Add-ons on Managed System(s) ........................................................................................................ 14

4.2 Roles and Authorizations ...................................................................................................................... 14 4.2.1 Roles on the SAP Solution Manager System ..................................................................................... 15 4.2.2

Roles on the Managed System(s) ...................................................................................................... 15

4.3 System Landscape Maintenance in SAP Solution Manager ................................................................. 15 4.3.1 Maintain Managed System(s) ............................................................................................................. 16 4.3.2

Create RFC Destinations .................................................................................................................... 16

4.3.2.1 4.3.2.2 4.3.2.3

Authorizations for ‘READ RFC Destination’ ............................................................................................... 16 Additional Information for ‘Login RFC Destination’ .................................................................................... 17 Additional information for the ‘Local RFC Destination’ .............................................................................. 17

4.3.3

RZ21 Topology Entry .......................................................................................................................... 17

4.3.4

Create Logical Components ............................................................................................................... 19

4.4 Prerequisites for BPMon Configuration ................................................................................................. 19 4.4.1 Create Solution via Work Center ........................................................................................................ 19 4.4.2

Maintain the Solution Landscape / Solution Directory ........................................................................ 19

4.4.2.1 4.4.2.2 4.4.2.3 4.4.2.4 4.4.2.5 4.4.2.6

Assign Logical Components, i.e. Managed Systems ................................................................................. 20 Create Business Scenario ......................................................................................................................... 21 Create Business Process .......................................................................................................................... 21 Create Business Process Steps ................................................................................................................ 22 Arrange Business Process Graphic ........................................................................................................... 22 Create Interface......................................................................................................................................... 23

4.5 Prerequisites for Alert Notification Messages ....................................................................................... 24 4.5.1 Notifications ........................................................................................................................................ 24 4.5.1.1 4.5.1.2

4.5.2

BPMon Features ....................................................................................................................................... 24 SAPconnect Administration ....................................................................................................................... 24

Service Desk Configuration ................................................................................................................ 25

4.5.2.1

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Additional Prerequisites for creation of Service Desk messages through BPMon ..................................... 25

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager

5

BUSINESS PROCESS MONITORING SETUP/CONFIGURATION ....................................... 26

5.1 Accessing the BPMon Setup Tool ......................................................................................................... 26 5.2 BPMon Setup Structure ......................................................................................................................... 26 5.2.1 Solution ............................................................................................................................................... 27 5.2.2

Logical Components ........................................................................................................................... 28

5.2.2.1 5.2.2.2 5.2.2.3 5.2.2.4

5.2.3

Cross Functions .................................................................................................................................. 32

5.2.3.1 5.2.3.2 5.2.3.3 5.2.3.4 5.2.3.5

5.2.4

Notification Templates ............................................................................................................................... 32 Analysis Tool Sets ..................................................................................................................................... 34 Monitoring Teams ...................................................................................................................................... 36 Monitoring Activities Templates ................................................................................................................. 40 Alert Parameter Sets ................................................................................................................................. 41

Business Process/Step/Interface ........................................................................................................ 41

5.2.4.1 5.2.4.2 5.2.4.3

5.2.5

Load Monitor Definitions ............................................................................................................................ 28 Load BW Master Data ............................................................................................................................... 29 Periodicity of Data Collection (ABAP Systems) ......................................................................................... 29 ABAP Connections .................................................................................................................................... 30

Create Monitoring Object........................................................................................................................... 43 Configure Monitoring Object ...................................................................................................................... 47 Technical Information ................................................................................................................................ 54

Monitoring Object List ......................................................................................................................... 55

5.3 Generation, Activation, Deactivation and Deletion ................................................................................ 58 5.3.1 Generation .......................................................................................................................................... 58 5.3.2

Activation ............................................................................................................................................ 59

5.3.3

Deactivation ........................................................................................................................................ 61

5.3.4

Deletion ............................................................................................................................................... 63

6

CONFIGURATION OF MONITORING OBJECTS .................................................................. 65

6.1 Configure Background Job Monitoring .................................................................................................. 65 6.1.1 Create Monitoring Object for Background Processing ....................................................................... 65 6.1.2

Simple Job Monitoring ........................................................................................................................ 66

6.1.2.1 6.1.2.2 6.1.2.3 6.1.2.4

6.1.3

BW Process Chain Monitoring ............................................................................................................ 78

6.1.3.1 6.1.3.2 6.1.3.3 6.1.3.4 6.1.3.5

6.1.4

Job Identification ....................................................................................................................................... 67 Data Collection .......................................................................................................................................... 71 Alert Configuration – Simple Job Monitoring ............................................................................................. 71 Job Use Cases and Corresponding Key Figures ....................................................................................... 75 Process Chain Identification ...................................................................................................................... 79 Start Procedures in Detail.......................................................................................................................... 79 Schedule ................................................................................................................................................... 80 Data Collection .......................................................................................................................................... 80 Alert Configuration – BW Process Chain ................................................................................................... 80

BW Chain Element Monitoring ............................................................................................................ 83

6.1.4.1 6.1.4.2

Schedule of BW Process Chain Element .................................................................................................. 84 BW Process Chain Element - Alert Configuration ..................................................................................... 84

6.2 Configure Interface Monitoring .............................................................................................................. 85 6.3 Configure Log Monitoring ...................................................................................................................... 86 6.3.1 Configure Application Log Monitoring ................................................................................................. 86 6.3.1.1 6.3.1.2 6.3.1.3 6.3.1.4

6.3.2

Monitoring Configuration: Detail Information ............................................................................................. 87 Parameter for External ID .......................................................................................................................... 87 Key Figures for Application Log ................................................................................................................. 88 Alert Creation – Remarks .......................................................................................................................... 90

Configure Due List Log Monitoring ..................................................................................................... 91

6.4 Configure Dialog Performance Monitoring ............................................................................................ 93 6.4.1 Performance Monitoring for Alerting CCMS Based ............................................................................ 94 6.4.2

Performance Monitoring for Alerting (BOPERFMO) ........................................................................... 96

6.4.2.1

4

Example for Data-Volume Dependent Performance Monitoring .............................................................. 100

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager 6.4.3

Performance Monitoring for Reporting and Dashboards .................................................................. 101

6.5 Configure Throughput Backlog Monitoring .......................................................................................... 102 6.5.1 Throughput and Backlog Indicators (TBIs) ....................................................................................... 102 6.6 Configure Data Consistency Monitoring .............................................................................................. 103 6.7 Configure Technical Monitoring ........................................................................................................... 104 6.7.1 Configure Document Volume Monitoring .......................................................................................... 105 6.7.2

Configure Update Errors Monitoring ................................................................................................. 106

6.7.3

Configure CCMS Monitoring ............................................................................................................. 108

6.7.4

Configure Cross Application Monitoring ........................................................................................... 110

6.7.4.1

Use the generic ‘Table Entry Counter’ ..................................................................................................... 112

6.8 Configure Non-ABAP Monitoring ......................................................................................................... 113 6.9 Configure Procedures for Alert Handling ............................................................................................ 114 6.10 Configure Automatic Alert Notification................................................................................................. 114

7

ALERTING ........................................................................................................................... 115

7.1 Alert Rating .......................................................................................................................................... 115 7.2 Accessing and Handling of Alerts in Work Center .............................................................................. 115 7.2.1 Overview ........................................................................................................................................... 115 7.2.2

Solutions ........................................................................................................................................... 116

7.2.3

Business Processes.......................................................................................................................... 118

7.2.4

Alert Inbox ......................................................................................................................................... 119

7.2.4.1 7.2.4.2 7.2.4.3 7.2.4.4

7.2.5

8 8.1 8.2 8.3

9

Filter Area ................................................................................................................................................ 120 Alert Types List........................................................................................................................................ 120 Business Context .................................................................................................................................... 121 Alert Detail List ........................................................................................................................................ 121

Access to Alerts via Notification (Mail / Message) ............................................................................ 123

REPORTING FUNCTIONALITIES FOR BPMON ................................................................. 125 BW Trend Analysis Reporting ............................................................................................................. 125 Service Level Reporting ...................................................................................................................... 126 Business Process Analytics ................................................................................................................ 126

TROUBLESHOOTING BUSINESS PROCESS MONITORING ............................................ 127

10 ENHANCING BUSINESS PROCESS MONITORING .......................................................... 128 10.1 Customer-defined Monitoring .............................................................................................................. 128 10.1.1 Customer Specific data collector via Customer Exit ......................................................................... 128 10.1.2 Customer Specific data collector via CCMS ..................................................................................... 128 10.2 Enhance Alert Notifications in BPMon ................................................................................................. 128 10.3 Integrate Third-Party Service Desk Software with SAP Solution Manager ......................................... 129

11 INFORMATION SOURCES ON BUSINESS PROCESS MONITORING .............................. 130 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5

Quick link 'BPM' on SAP Service Market Place .................................................................................. 130 Blogs in SAP Community Network ...................................................................................................... 131 Frequently Asked Questions about BPMon ........................................................................................ 131 Business Process Monitoring Related Best Practice Documents ....................................................... 131 Important SAP Notes for BPMon ......................................................................................................... 132

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager

1 About this Setup Guide This Setup Guide explains the setup / configuration of functionalities of Business Process Monitoring which are part of the SAP Solution Manager 7.1 Support Package Stack 5 and the add-on ST-A/PI 01P. If you are below 7.1 SP05, please refer to Setup Guide - Business Process Monitoring up to 7.1 SP5 . For the latest information regarding software requirements (Support Packages and SAP Notes) please refer to SAP Note 521820.

1.1 Goal The goal of the setup guide is to provide:  an idea how BPMon can be used to optimize your Solution Monitoring  an overview of the functional scope of BPMon  an overview of the technical infrastructure of BPMon  the technical prerequisites for BPMon  an overview of how BPMon is embedded into SAP Solution Manager and how it interacts with other basic features within the SAP Solution Manager  a detailed explanation on how to set up BPMon  an idea how users can finally work with BPMon Because of the wide range of different functionalities in BPMon, this Setup Guide cannot comprise every detailed description, but refers also to other sources of information generally available to the customers.

1.2 Structure Chapter 2 Introduction This section comprises an overview of the functional scope of SAP Business Process Monitoring and what needs to be considered when setting up a Monitoring Concept also with regards to Integration Management (interfaces), as well as Service Level Management and Reporting. Chapter 3 Technical Infrastructure This section provides an overview of the technical infrastructure of the SAP Solution Manager in general, as well as for BPMon. It also comprises a high-level technical description on how the data collection works and how alerts are created by BPMon. Chapter 4 Prerequisites for Business Process Monitoring This section includes the software prerequisites for BPMon and describes all necessary activities to be executed before the setup of Business Process Monitoring can be started. Chapter 5 Business Process Monitoring Setup/Configuration This section describes all necessary activities to set up and activate a business process monitoring. This section exemplifies the complete setup of one data collector of type Application Monitor. Chapter 6 Configuration of Monitoring Objects This section provides an overview of all available monitors in BPMon. Special features regarding the setup will be also explained in detail wherever necessary. Chapter 7 Alerting This section explains how Business Process Monitoring can be used in the operative mode, once Business Process Monitoring was activated, i.e. how alerts can in general be accessed directly in the work center, and how via Alert Notifications or Service Desk Messages specific alerts can accessed. Chapter 8 Reporting Functionalities for BPMon This section describes the functionalities of Business Process Monitoring delivered for reporting purposes, such as BW Trend Analysis Reporting and Service Level Reporting. With the functionality of BP Analytics, you can also detect potentials for business process stabilization and improvement.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager

Chapter 9 Troubleshooting Business Process Monitoring This section provides help, if you encounter technical problems during the configuration or active usage of Business Process Monitoring. Chapter 10 Enhancing Business Process Monitoring This section explains the possibilities to enhance the BPMon standard functionality by  creating or including your own data collectors  adapting the auto-reaction methods to your customer-specific requirements  connecting an external ticketing system to BPMon in SAP Solution Manager Chapter 11 Information Sources on Business Process Monitoring This section gives an overview of all important information sources on BPMon available to all customers and SAP partners.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager

2 Introduction 2.1 Business Process Monitoring (BPMon) BPMon – as one essential aspect of Business Process Operations – means the proactive and processoriented monitoring of a company’s core business processes, i.e. the related documents (e.g. sales orders) and corresponding dialog transactions (e.g. VA01) and background jobs as well as interfaces. BPMon is intended to create alerts for detect problem situations as early as possible so that the problems can be solved, before they become critical for the business. With BPMon in SAP Solution Manager you can also provide specific error handling procedures in case of alerts and to enable the Solution Support Organization to solve problems without the need to involve the experts. Additionally, BPMon can support the process owners improve the processes by detecting backlog situations with the help of Business Process Analytics. Improvement means cleaning up old & open business data, close process design gaps, adjust customizing, and/or configuration. In general, BPMon includes the process oriented cross system observation of: 

Business process performance (i.e. response times)



Background processing (single jobs as well as BW Process Chains)



Business application logs (such as any error log, general application log, due list logs etc.)



Data transfer via interfaces between software components



Data consistency



Technical infrastructure and components (which are required to run the business processes)



Backlog situations for application related key figures

SAP Business Process Monitoring is not only a tool for configuring the monitoring but also comprises detailed procedures for error handling and problem resolution, the precise definition of contact persons and escalation paths, and the tight integration into the customer’s Solution Support Organization.

2.2 Functional Scope of BPMon BPMon in SAP Solution Manager provides on the one hand technical monitoring capabilities for background jobs, for job log and application log content, for common SAP interface technologies, for ABAP dumps and for update errors. On the other hand BPMon provides around 750 application specific key figures (the so called Throughput and Backlog Indicators (TBIs)) covering currently SAP ERP, SAP CRM, SAP SRM, SAP APO as well as industry specifics for SAP Apparel and Footwear, SAP for Automotive, SAP for Banking, SAP for Retail and SAP for Utilities. The target group for the technical monitoring capabilities is the Business Process Operations Team (i.e. 2nd level Application Support - people with application as well as IT knowledge) who is responsible for a stable and reliable flow of business processes. The target group for the application specific key figures and monitoring capabilities is the group of people in the business departments who are responsible e.g. for a sales or purchase organization or warehouse. The above mentioned capabilities depend mainly on the ST-PI and ST-A/PI version implemented in the monitored systems. For further information on all monitoring objects please refer to http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Overview and Demos  Business Process Operations Key Figures - Overview .

2.2.1

Upload BPMon Template Solution

In case you want to get a BPMon solution set up for very first testing purposes, you can accelerate the setup part by uploading a BPMon Template Solution into your Solution Manager. Further information you can find also in BPMon blog Business Process Monitoring - Template configuration available for download. The BPMon Template solution is a solution containing business processes for the most common ERP scenarios (Procure to Pay, Order to Cash, STO Replenishment, Manufacturing, Plant Maintenance, and Warehouse Management) including BPMon key figures.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager The file BPM_TemplateSolution.zip can be downloaded from http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Technical Information  BPM Template Solution - ST-SER2008_2 or BPM Template Solution - STSER2010_1 and higher (depending on the ST-SER release of your SAP Solution Manager). In the next step you upload the BPMon Template Solution into your SAP Solution Manager. Further information about the content of the BPMon Template Solution and the necessary steps to make it running actively in your SAP Solution Manager you can find at http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Technical Information  Template Solution for BPMon - Detailed Description . The necessary prerequisites for uploading and successful activation of the BPMon Template Solution are described in chapters 4.1 Software Prerequisites to 4.4.1 Create Solution via Work Center.

2.2.2

Additional functionalities of BPMon



Auto-Reaction Methods via Email, Fax, SMS or Service Desk messages (triggered automatically by alerts). For detailed information please refer to http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Technical Information  Setup Guide - Auto-reaction Messages.



Alert and Metric Reporting: Feature of BPMon using SAP Business Warehouse in order to o

store measured values (metrics) and assigned alerts for a long-term availability

o

display metrics in graphical charts for a period of time to visualize a trend

o

make further analysis of metrics and alerts possible with usage of BW tools and queries.

For detailed information regarding setup and features please refer to http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Technical Information  Setup Guide - BPMon Trend and Alert Analysis 7.1 SP05. 

Business Process Analytics for Reporting: Feature of BPMon using SAP Business Warehouse functionality in order to enable o

Benchmarking

o

Age structure analysis of document backlog

o

Trend Analysis

For detailed information please refer to http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Technical Information  Setup Guide - Business Process Analytics 7.1 SP5

2.2.3 

Functionalities of SAP Solution Manager used by BPMon

Service Level Reporting aggregated per day, week or month and business process, business process step, monitoring type, and key figure based on: o

Statistical performance data (EWA) for Service Level Agreements

o

Alerts created by Business Process Monitoring

For detailed information please refer to http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Technical Information  Setup Guide - Service Level Reporting (BPMon) 7.1 

Service Desk including a solution database

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager

3 Technical Infrastructure The technical infrastructure is based on the central CCMS (see below). The communication technique that is used between the SAP Solution Manager and the corresponding managed systems is established via the RFC technology.

3.1 SAP Solution Manager Infrastructure The SAP Solution Manager gets all necessary information for Business Process Monitoring from so-called managed systems. These managed systems can be SAP basis systems connected with application components such as CRM or BW or components from other vendors (i.e. Non-SAP).

SAP Solution Manager and Managed Systems

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager

3.2 General Infrastructure of Business Process Monitoring

BPMon Infrastructure The BPMon infrastructure is contained in various software components and add-ons. On the SAP Solution Manager system, the BPMon Engine and the Setup Tool is part of the ST component. On the managed system data collectors are called by SAP Solution Manager. Those data collectors are part of the ST-A/PI or ST-PI add-on. For infrastructure reasons, the ST-A/PI add-on is also required on the SAP Solution Manager system. The functional scope of business process monitoring depends mainly on the version of the add-ons installed on the monitored systems. Therefore, if you want to have the full functional scope available, you should have the most current of these add-ons installed. This setup guide describes the functionalities available with SAP Solution Manager 7.1 SP05 and ST-A/PI 01P. For further information regarding the BPMon Infrastructure refer to http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Technical Information  Troubleshooting Guide for BPMon.

3.3 BPMon Data Collection and Alert Processing For understanding how the BPMon infrastructure does data collection and alert processing, you have to differentiate between two cases:  Data collection, i.e. data collectors are triggered via the central CCMS on SAP Solution Manager. This is the most common case.  Data collection is executed by the local CCMS on the managed system, and the CCMS nodes of the managed system are replicated to the central CCMS via the CCMS topology. This case is only relevant for monitoring types Update Errors and CCMS Monitor.

3.3.1

Data Collection via Central CCMS

This chapter describes how the BPMon infrastructure works for the following monitoring areas:  Application Monitors (i.e. all monitors contained within the application monitoring framework)  Background Job Monitoring  Application Log Monitoring

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager

SAP Solution Manager System CCMS

Managed System

AUTOABAP (every 5 min)

Via RFC destination BPM_LOCAL_

BPMon Data Collectors running via background job

BPMon engine Pick up results from data collection via background job

Start Data Collection

Automatic Alert Postprocessing (e.g. sending of alert emails)

Create Alerts in BPMon infrastructure

Via READ RFC destination

Via LOGIN RFC destination or

BPMon Data Collectors called directly by BPMon engine

Result Table

Analyze alert and execute error handling

TRUSTED RFC destination

Data Collection via Central CCMS Every 5 minutes the AUTOABAP runs as part of the CCMS of the SAP Solution Manager system in order to check whether or not a data collection for Business Process Monitoring is due. If a data collection is due, an RFC call via the local RFC destination (named BPM_LOCAL_) is executed to start the BPMon engine in the BPMon client of SAP Solution Manager. The BPMon engine now runs with the user maintained in the local RFC destination, usually user SM_BPMO. The BPMon engine then checks which data collections are due according to their scheduling information and triggers the corresponding RFC calls for the data collection on the managed system (via the Read RFC Connection), using a dialog work process on the managed system. The data collection determines the measured value and in most cases (the application monitors) the alert rating is determined during the data collection as well. Once the data collection has been completed, the alert rating and the measured value are transferred back to the BPMon engine in SAP Solution Manager. For monitoring objects of type Application Monitors an additional scenario is possible to deal with the case that the duration of the data collection will take a long time, because of the size of the involved application tables on the managed system, the complexity of the configured selection criteria for the monitoring object, or because no suitable indexes exist on the managed system. Since the data collection is executed in a dialog work process on the managed system, a time out might occur, if the defined maximum runtime for a dialog work process has been exceeded (parameter rdisp/max_wprun_time). To ensure that long-running data collections can be executed nonetheless, the BPMon infrastructure provides the possibility to execute the data collection via a background job. This is done automatically by the BPMon framework, if a data collector runs longer than 300 seconds or can be set explicitly, by flagging DC in Background for the monitoring object in tab Monitoring Schedule. If there are monitoring objects of type Application Monitors configured, where a data collection is supposed to be executed in the background, the BPMon engine schedules background job BPM_DATA_COLLECTION_1 on the managed system the first time the engine is started after the activation. This background job runs every 5 minutes with the user maintained in the READ destination and handles all

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager data collections that are due and supposed to be executed in background. If the runtime of the background job takes too long, a second background job BPM_DATA_COLLECTION_2 is scheduled ad-hoc to parallelize the data collection. The results of this background data collection are saved in an ST-A/PI cluster table on the managed system. The next time the BPMon engine is triggered by CCMS (i.e. 5 min later) the BPMon engine triggers an RFC call to read the result of the data collection (i.e. alert rating, measured value etc.) from the result table. After the information has been read from the result table, the data is deleted there to avoid unnecessary data growth. Regardless of whether the data was collected directly or in background, once the alert is created on SAP Solution Manager it is stored there in table DSWP_BPM_ALERTS. This table is the central alert storage of the BPMon engine. All BPMon alerts are stored here until they are reorganized by background job SM:REORG BPMON ALERTS (executing report DSWP_BPM_REORGANISATION). The moment the alert is stored in table DSWP_BPM_ALERTS it is visible in the work center for Business Process Operations. For historic reasons, the alert information is also replicated to the respective MTE in the CCMS. After the alert has been created, the post processing of the alerts starts. The BPMon engine checks whether or not the thresholds for sending notification emails or for creating SAP Service Desk messages have been exceeded by the number of alerts and triggers the sending of an email via SAPconnect (transaction SCOT) or creates a SAP Service Desk message.

3.3.2

Data Collection via Local CCMS

For monitoring types Update Errors, Dialog Performance and CCMS Monitor the data collection is not triggered by Central CCMS on Solution Manager and the BPMon engine, but runs independently according to its own scheduling mechanisms. Alerts are created according to the logic of the respective CCMS data collection method. The BPMon engine checks for results for these monitoring types each time it runs (i.e. every 5 minutes) and if new alert information is found, the alert is transferred to table DSWP_BPM_ALERTS. It is not replicated to and visible in the BPM area of CCMS of SAP Solution Manager, but you can make it visible by creating an own CCMS monitor after activating the maintenance function in Solution Manager CCMS. Once the alert has been created in table DSWP_BPM_ALERTS, the further processing (emails, service desk messages) is executed as described in the previous scenario.

3.3.3

Alert Processing

Once alerts are created by BPMon you get an email or a service desk message notifying you about alert. These notifications contain links to further information related to the alert and a direct access to the alert inbox, which is part of the work center Business Process Operations. There you can access all alerts and their details and history. The alert information is displayed according to the information stored in the table DSWP_BPM_ALERTS. The Current Status of a key figure is the rating of the latest execution of a key figure, while the Open Status is the worst rating of all unconfirmed alerts for this key figure. You can use the Detail Info functionality for an alert or execute one of the configured Analysis Transactions to directly access details of the alert on the managed system. In both cases the managed system is accessed via the configured RFC destination for dialog logon. If the error handling does not solve the alert situation, you can manually create an SAP Service Desk message for one or several alerts. If an alert situation has been solved, you can confirm the alert and the alert entry is no longer considered for the determination of the Open Status of the alert.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager

4 Prerequisites for Business Process Monitoring There are some technical prerequisites which have to be fulfilled before using the SAP Solution Manager for BPMon. The latest information in addition to this chapter you can find in SAP Notes 784752 (BPMon in SAP Solution Manager – Prerequisites) and 521820 (Availability of Business Process Monitoring). As of Solution Manager 7.1 SP05 the technical prerequisites and the technical preparation (i.e. the content of chapters 4.1, 4.2 and 4.3) are covered by SOLMAN_SETUP. This means, if you do the activities in the views System Preparation, Basic Configuration, Managed System Configuration and Business Process Monitoring you have done all that is needed or you have verified, that everything is done. However, as SOLMAN_SETUP supports all scenarios, it contains steps that are not necessary for BPMon.

4.1 Software Prerequisites In order to operate and use BPMon some technical components must be installed on the SAP Solution Manager System and the connected managed systems that will be monitored. The relevant Add-Ons and Plug-Ins are listed in the following sections. It is recommended and important for BPMon to stay up-to-date with the corresponding Add-Ons, Plug-Ins, and their related Support Packages. The newest releases and latest versions are always available on SAP Service Marketplace at http://www.service.sap.com/swdc or http://www.service.sap.com/supporttools. This Setup Guide explains the functionalities of BPMon which are part of the SAP Solution Manager 7.1 Support Package Stack 05 and ST-A/PI 01P. Minimum required for BPMon is SAP Solution Manager 7.0 EhP 1, i.e. Support Package Stack 18. However, we recommend implementing the newest Support Packages available for ST when installing Business Process Monitoring from scratch. For the latest information regarding software requirements (Support Packages and SAP Notes) please refer to SAP Note 521820.

4.1.1

Add-ons on SAP Solution Manager System

 ST: The SAP Solution Manager Add-On itself is called ST (abbreviation for Support Tool). This AddOn can be installed on each SAP R/3 or Web Application Server (WAS) system.  ST-SER: The Add-On SAP Solution Manager Service Tools (ST-SER) is part of SAP Solution Manager and contains the services that are available in the SAP Solution Manager.  ST-PI: For technical reasons it is necessary to install the latest version of the Solution Tools Plug-In (ST-PI) on the SAP Solution Manager itself. For more information refer to SAP Notes 539977, 560475 and 560630.  ST-A/PI: For technical reasons it is necessary to install the latest version of the Solution Tools PlugIn (ST-A/PI) on the SAP Solution Manager itself. For more information can be found in SAP Note 69455. If you want to use the full scope of Application Monitor functionality available with ST-A/PI 01P* we strongly recommend to implement at least SAP Solution Manager 7.1, Support Package Stack 5.

4.1.2

Add-ons on Managed System(s)

In order to have the full scope of monitoring, on the monitored SAP Systems the newest releases of the AddOn ST-PI and ST-A/PI are required. Those can be implemented for almost all supported SAP releases. For BPMon the minimum release on the monitored system is SAP R/3 Rel. 4.0B. Dialog transaction performance as well as interface monitoring is possible as of SAP R/3 Rel. 4.6B.

4.2 Roles and Authorizations To configure BPMon, users require specific authorizations on SAP Solution Manager and the monitored Systems. With 7.1 SP05 Business Process Monitoring has been integrated into SOLMAN_SETUP, i.e. with SOLMAN_SETUP the technical prerequisites for BPMon can be executed. Beside others template users are created. Regarding the necessary authorizations for the entire SAP Solution Manager please refer also to http://www.service.sap.com/instguides  SAP Components  SAP Solution Manager  SAP Solution

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager Manager  Release 7.1  Operations  Security Guide SAP Solution Manager 7.1 section ScenarioSpecific Guide: Business Process Operations.

4.2.1

Roles on the SAP Solution Manager System

To configure BPMon a user requires role SAP_SOLMAN_DIRECTORY_ADMIN (to be able to maintain business processes in solution directory) and role SAP_SV_SOLUTION_MANAGER (For more information about the authorizations, see SAP Note 834534.). [Optional] If the user wants to be able to use the detail lists function in BPMon, as of Support Package Stack 23, the authorization object BPM_DETAIL with the corresponding authorization for the relevant application areas, application monitors, key figures, and monitored SAP system is required. Important: Currently, this object is not assigned to an SAP role. For this, Z roles (for example, Z_BPM_DETAIL_*) should be created to restrict access to detail lists for specific managed systems, application areas, and so on. For the usage of work center Business Process Operation the roles SAP_SMWORK_BASIC (fundamental role for using work centers), SAP_SMWORK_BPM and SAP_SM_BPMON_REPORTING (role to access the reporting functionality Business Process Analytics via work center Business Process Operations) are required. [Optional] If a new solution for business process monitoring needs to be created you need access to the work center for Solution Manager Administration, i.e. the role SAP_SMWORK_SETUP. Important: All roles must be generated in the latest version and assigned to the user. For details regarding authorizations for specific Business Process Operations functions, please refer to the individual setup guides, most importantly Setup Guide - Business Process Analytics 7.1 SP5 and Setup Guide - Interface Monitoring.

4.2.2

Roles on the Managed System(s)

[Optional] If the user wants to be able to use the detail lists function, he needs (beside BPM_DETAIL in Solution Manager) in the managed system the following authorization. As of ST-A/PI 01M the authorization object S_TABU_DIS with: authorization field DICBERCLS: SS authorization field ACTVT: 03 As of ST A/PI 01P and ST-PI 2008_1_* SP6 additionally the authorization object SM_BPM_DET* with: authorization field APPARA_MS: e.g. ERP_SD authorization field OBJECT_MS: e.g. KPSD000101 authorization field FUNC_MS: e.g. BENCHMARKING_ADV_USR, BENCHMARKING_ADV_VAL

* Please see Setup Guide - Business Process Analytics 7.1 SP5, if you also use BP Analytics.

4.3 System Landscape Maintenance in SAP Solution Manager In Solution Directory Business Process Steps and Interfaces need to have so-called Logical Components assigned, which define on which managed-systems they reside. Logical Components can be defined using SOLMAN_SETUP, i.e. through the work center SAP Solution Manager: Configuration  System Preparation, by performing the following steps: 1. The system to be monitored (the Managed System) needs to be maintained as a system in the System Landscape Maintenance. 2. The RFC destinations to the managed systems must be set up and working.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager 3. The system (and the correct client) must be assigned to a logical component in the system landscape maintenance.

4.3.1

Maintain Managed System(s)

Managed Systems (that means, systems to be monitored) can be maintained either manually in the System Landscape, or the information can be imported from TMS (Transport Management System) or SLD (System Landscape Repository). Details on how to create and maintain all the necessary RFC destinations can be found in the BPMon Setup Roadmap under http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Technical Information  Business Process Monitoring Setup Roadmap.

4.3.2

Create RFC Destinations

There are some RFC destinations that are relevant for the operation of BPMon within the SAP Solution Manager:  The ‘Read RFC Destination’ and the ‘Login RFC Destination’: Usually those RFC destinations will be created and assigned when a new managed system (or a new client) is connected to the SAP Solution Manager. There should be two RFC destinations created and assigned for monitoring for every managed system. In the following, and describe the SID and client of the managed system to be monitored.  The ‘Local RFC Destination’: For technical infrastructure reasons a RFC connection is needed from client 000 of the SAP Solution Manager to the productive client of the SAP Solution Manager, where you configure and run BPMon.

4.3.2.1 Authorizations for ‘READ RFC Destination’ If the connection has been created in the system landscape maintenance in SAP Solution Manager, it is called SM_CLNT_READ. The connection must contain a communications user that has been assigned the current versions of the profiles S_CSMREG and S_CUS_CMP in its authorization profiles in the managed systems (see Note 455356). [Optional] If IDoc content monitoring is wanted, as of ST-A/PI01M, the user also requires the following authorization objects in the read connection: 

Authorization object S_IDOCDEFT with the instance: Authorization field EDI_TCD: WE30 Authorization field ACTVT: 03



Authorization object S_CTS_ADMI with the instance: Authorization field CTS_ADMFCT: TABL

[Optional] If retail point-of-sale (POS) transactions monitoring is wanted (technical name of the monitoring object is KIRET001), the user requires the following additional authorization objects in the read connection as of ST-A/PI 01M: 

Authorization object W_POS_TRAN with the instance: Authorization field /POSDW/PAC: 03 Authorization field /POSDW/STO:* These optional authorization objects are not automatically assigned to the user in the read connection when the RFC connections are generated. To assign these objects to the user, a Z-role should be created in transaction PFCG (for example, Z_BPM_IDOC, Z_BPM_RETAIL), and the objects should then be assigned to this role manually with the relevant instances. The role must then be generated and assigned to the user in the read connection.

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4.3.2.2 Additional Information for ‘Login RFC Destination’ This connection has not been assigned a user. Instead, the connection uses a logon screen to log on to the managed system. If the connection has been created in the system landscape maintenance in SAP Solution Manager, it is called SM_CLNT_LOGIN. Instead of using a login connection, you can also use a trusted connection if the trusted relationship between the systems has been maintained correctly. SAP Solution Manager uses the RFC connection for the dialog login into the Managed System that is maintained in System Landscape Maintenance on the Clients tab for the relevant system in the RFC for Solution Manager column.

4.3.2.3 Additional information for the ‘Local RFC Destination’ As mentioned above, for technical infrastructure reasons a RFC connection is needed from client 000 of the SAP Solution Manager to the productive client of the SAP Solution Manager, where you configure and run BPMon. For recognition reasons it is usually called BPM_LOCAL_. The connection is created as of Solution Manager ST 7.1 SP05 in SOLMAN_SETUP in Business Process Monitoring activity 1.2 Create Local BPMon Connection. You only need to create a BPM_LOCAL_ destination once for every client on SAP Solution Manager in which you want to run BPMon. 1. Ensure that a suitable user exists for the BPM_LOCAL_ destination. a) This user (for example, CSM_REG or SM_BPMO) must have appropriate authorizations. Therefore copy the following SAP standard roles to customer-specific roles, and assign those to the user (transaction SU01, Roles tab page):  SAP_S_CSMREG  SAP_SUPPDESK_CREATE (required for automatic creation of service desk messages)  SAP_IDOC_EVERYONE (required to trigger automatic notifications, e.g. emails) b) Ensure that this user's personal time zone corresponds to the system time zone (transaction SU01, Defaults tab page -> Personal Time Zone). This will determine the time zone used by BPMon with regards to the time stamps of retrieved alerts in BPMon. If the field is empty, the system uses the CET time zone. If the icon in field Status is, you need to check whether the RFC connection is working fine. Check this using transaction SM59 for the entry BPM_LOCAL_200. A double-click on the User name (here SM_BPMO) leads you directly to corresponding user profile in transaction SU01 where you can check if all necessary authorizations are given. Technical background: The monitoring data collection in the satellite system is triggered by the AutoABAP SAPMSSY6, which runs in client 000 of the SAP Solution Manager system and is executed by the standard user SAPSYS. This user, however, does not have the authorization to call other systems via RFC and is not able to parallelize the data collection via RFCs. Therefore, the RFC destination BPM_LOCAL_ which points from client 000 to the Business Process Monitoring setup client on the SAP Solution Manager system is used in order to transfer the task of actually calling the satellite system to the user maintained in the RFC destination BPM_LOCAL_. This user has the necessary authorizations (profile S_CSMREG and others optionally) and triggers the data collection on the satellite systems.

4.3.3

RZ21 Topology Entry

For the monitoring objects that use Data Collection via Local CCMS it is mandatory to have the monitored system entered in the RZ21 topology, i.e. an entry needs to exist in the table containing the Monitored, Remote SAP Systems (Screenshots see below) As long as managed systems have been connected to Solution Manager using the SMSY transaction the CCMS topology entries have automatically be created. With Solution Manager 7.1 the RZ21 entries are not created automatically any more as SMSY shall be replaced. As of 7.1 SP05 the necessary RZ21 entries can be created using SOLMAN_SETUP (Business Process Monitoring  4 Configure Monitored System(s)  Add monitored systems (RZ21)).

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager Alternatively you can create the RZ21 entry manually as follows: 1) Call RZ21 2) Enter the o.k.-code REMS 3) Enter the remote system into field Target System ID and the ‘Read RFC Connection’ into field Collecting Data and the ‘Trusted RFC Connection’ into field Executing Analysis Method.

Entering o.k.-code REMS after calling RZ21

Input screen for monitored system and read and trusted RFC

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager System Topology

4.3.4

Create Logical Components

A logical component represents a logical unit of systems, usually representing a transport layer consisting of a development system  test system  production system with the respective client. You can create your own logical component and assign your systems. A logical component comprises all systems with the same installation number for one product version, e.g. development, test and productive system. For details on how to create and maintain all the necessary information please refer to http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Technical Information  Business Process Monitoring Setup Roadmap.

4.4 Prerequisites for BPMon Configuration As a prerequisite to use BPMon all the processes and steps have to be available in an active Solution. After the creation of these processes the monitoring objects can be assigned to the relevant steps, business interfaces or – as of ST 7.1 SP05 to the process itself. The solution can be created via the work center SAP Solution Manager Administration.

4.4.1

Create Solution via Work Center

The work center SAP Solution Manager Administration can be used to create, copy, activate, deactivate, and delete Solutions in SAP Solution Manager. For the necessary roles which need to be assigned to users to work with work center SAP Solution Manager Administration, please see chapter Roles on the SAP Solution Manager System.

1. Access the Work Center via transaction SOLMAN_WORKCENTER and go to tab SAP Solution Manager Administration. 2. Go to Solutions and create a new solution by pressing button New. 3. Assign a meaningful name, choose the language and save.

Create Solution via Work Center

4.4.2

Maintain the Solution Landscape / Solution Directory

The Solution Landscape (also named Solution Directory) contains all information about your solution. You can create business scenarios, business processes, steps and interfaces which represent the basic structure of BPMon. Additionally you can maintain here e.g. documents, transactions and the graphic of the processes (which is not part of this Setup Guide). For information about the setup of business processes please refer also to http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Technical Information  Business Process Monitoring Setup Roadmap. August 2012

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager In case you want to get a BPMon solution set up only for very first testing purposes, you can abbreviate the setup part by uploading a BPMon Template Solution into your Solution Manager. Further information see also chapter 2.2.1 Upload BPMon Template Solution.

The solution directory can be accessed as soon as the solution is created and saved via button Solution Directory.

Create Solution via Work Center The solution directory can also be accessed via the Work Center SAP Solution Manager Administration, by choosing the solution and via the button Solution Data Settings.

Access Solution Directory via Work Center SAP Solution Manager Administration

4.4.2.1 Assign Logical Components, i.e. Managed Systems Assign the Logical Components to the Solution Directory in tab System Group of the top node via the value help. Observe that the Leading Role for the Solution determines which of the systems contained in the Logical Component will be relevant for monitoring. Make sure that the Logical Component has a system assigned in the Leading Role. 1. Select a Leading Role (here in our example Production System). Changing the Leading Role of a solution is only possible if none of the logical components are used in a business process.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager 2. The Logical Components which include the systems you want to monitor have to be added to the Solution Directory. Use the F4 help to select the Logical Component(s). If you chose Production System as Leading Role the column Production System is marked green.

Assign Logical Component For the detailed description of the necessary steps please refer to http://service.sap.com/bpm  Technical Information  Business Process Monitoring Setup Roadmap.

4.4.2.2 Create Business Scenario 1. Select node Business Scenarios and enter a name for your Business Scenario (here in our example . Logistics) and set the field status to Production. Instead of manually creating scenarios and processes you can also select as Source (Project, Solution, or Business Process Repository) and copy business scenarios into your solution using the F4 help in the field Scenario Name. This will copy all information (such as Business Processes, and linked documentations). If the source is Solution, BPMon configuration will be copied together with the processes.

Create Business Scenario For the detailed description of the necessary steps please refer to http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Technical Information  Business Process Monitoring Setup Roadmap.

4.4.2.3 Create Business Process 1. Open the new node of the Business Scenario and select its subnode Business Processes and enter a name for your Business Process (in our example Order to Cash) and set the status to Production. Just like for Business Scenarios, you can select as Source (Project, Solution or Business Process Repository) to copy business processes via choosing the F4 help in the field Process Name.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager

Create Business Process For the detailed description of the necessary steps please refer to http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Technical Information  Business Process Monitoring Setup Roadmap.

4.4.2.4 Create Business Process Steps 1. Click on the new node for the business process, where you can create Business Process Steps. a. Specify a Step Name. b. Assign a Logical Component by using the F4 help of field Logical Component which will offer you all Logical Components assigned to this solution. This defines on which managed system the process step is executed. Just like for Business Processes, you can select as Source (Project, Solution or Business Process Repository) to copy business process steps via choosing the F4 help in the field Step Name.

Create Business Process Steps

4.4.2.5 Arrange Business Process Graphic After maintaining the business process steps you can adapt the graphical layout in the tab Component View. This is the only place where you can change the graphical representation of the process.  Via drag and drop you can change the position and size of the boxes for logical components and business process steps.  Via the properties icon or right mouse click on the boxes you can change the color of the boxes and the text font size.  You can assign arrows to business process steps in order to represent the business process flow in a graphical way.  You can create (business) interfaces (For details see chapter 4.4.2.6 Create Interface below) by linking steps that reside on different logical components.

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Business Process Graphic in Solution Directory For detailed description of possible steps please refer to http://service.sap.com/bpm  Technical Information  Business Process Monitoring Setup Roadmap.

4.4.2.6 Create Interface Most data collectors for Interfaces of BPMon can be assigned also to Business Process Steps. However, if you wish to assign data collectors to an Interface for layout reasons, you can create an Interface within the Business Process Graphic (tab Component View of node , see also last chapter above). a) Connection lines between Business Process Steps executed on two different Logical Components are always interpreted as Interfaces

b) Connection lines between Business Process Steps executed within the same Logical Component are interpreted as Interfaces if an Interface has been assigned to the arrow (right mouse click  Assign Interface)

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager

Details on how to maintain Interface Scenarios, Interfaces and assign them to a connection line within the business process graphic are explained in the guide Interface Documentation with SAP Solution Manager available in the SAP Service Marketplace in http://www.service.sap.com/solutionmanagerbp.

4.5 Prerequisites for Alert Notification Messages BPMon offers an easy way to automatically send out alert notification messages (e.g. e-mails or SMS to single recipients or shared distribution lists) or SAP Service Desk messages to the persons responsible as soon as a critical situation is detected on the managed systems. The sending of these auto-reaction messages can be configured directly in the BPMon Setup (see chapter 6.10 Configure Automatic Alert Notification).

4.5.1

Notifications

The BPMon framework uses SAPconnect via SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) to send out Notification messages to external recipients (single recipients or shared distribution lists). The SAP system transfers those e-mails to a specified mail server. Since SAP Release 6.20, fax and SMS/paging messages can also be sent. The SMTP functions must be activated on the application server of an SAP system. In this case, the SAP Solution Manager System is the sending system. To make use of this feature within the SAP Solution Manager, some configuration has to be done. Please see also SAP Note 455140 for more information.

4.5.1.1 BPMon Features 

The customizing, that means the setup of SAPconnect, has to be done in the client where the monitoring will be set up (see chapter below).



A user in the SAP Solution Manager system is needed as the Sender of the alerts who has assigned a valid e-mail address in its user profile (SU01). Typically, BPMon user SM_BPMO should be used for that purpose.



Configure the automatic creation of notification messages within the BPMon Setup (see chapter 6.10 Configure below)

4.5.1.2 SAPconnect Administration The customizing of SAPconnect has to be done with transaction /nSCOT. SAPconnect has to be configured in the monitoring client of SAP Solution Manager. After calling the transaction, make sure the view is system status, which can be set via the menu View. Under the node INT there must be an entry SMTP. This should be already available in every SAP system. After a double click on this node the general node data has to be entered. If it is not explicitly mentioned differently here the default values can be taken.  General information

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o

Maximum waiting time for repeat send attempt procedure should be set to 1 minute.

o

Node in use must be ticked.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager  SMTP Connection o

Mail Host and Mail Port are where outbound mails are to be transferred to (If a user has not maintained an Internet mail address in his master record, the mail host is taken together with the user name as a senders address. It could be also necessary to define the default domain that can be found under Settings in the main menu. Usually, it is the same address as the mail host).

o

A code page has to be selected e.g. 1100 SAP internal, like ISO 8859-1.

 Supported address types Press button Set adjacent to Internet and in the address area enter ‘*’.

o

 Mail Processing o

All e-mails which should be sent from the SAP system are put into a queue. A periodically running background job processes those e-mails. To set up this job the following has to be done in /nSCOT , where via the menu View you can navigate to Jobs to display the jobs that are already scheduled (displayed as a calendar icon). If there is no job to process the mail queue: o Press button Create to create a new job. o Select variant SAP&CONNECTALL and press button Schedule. o Press button Schedule periodically. o Enter a time (e.g. 5 minutes) and confirm by pressing button Create.

If paging/SMS messages are also to be sent via SMTP: o

Press button Set adjacent to Pager(SMS).

o

Specify Address Areas of recipient addresses that are to be reached via this node (usually ‘*’ if all paging/SMS messages are to be sent via SMTP).

o

For Conversion into Internet Address, enter the domain of the paging or SMS server or paging or SMS provider. The local part of the internet address is generated automatically by the system. The address then has the form SMS=+recipientnumber@domain.

4.5.2

Service Desk Configuration

The Service Desk in the SAP Solution Manager provides a central message-handling tool for a customer’s solution landscape. Support Messages created in the managed systems can be automatically transferred to the Service Desk in the Solution Manager where processors can either solve the problem or forward the message to SAP. In addition to that, it is also possible to create messages for BPMon alerts that can be handled via the Service Desk. In order to use the Service Desk functionality of the SAP Solution Manager the Service Desk has to be set up explicitly in the SAP Solution Manager system. Since the Service Desk uses CRM functionality this includes the implementation of CRM-customizing as well as the setup of RFC destinations in order to transfer messages between the various systems, the creation of business partners and the generation of the IBase. For details please see the Implementation Guide for Service Desk in SAP Solution Manager.

4.5.2.1 Additional Prerequisites for creation of Service Desk messages through BPMon 

IBase components for the systems to be monitored: If you want to call the screen for the creation of a Service Desk message, you must make sure that there is an entry for the system to be monitored and for the correct client in the input help for the System/IBase field (use transaction IB53 to ensure this).



Business partner for the creation of messages is Reporter and for editing messages is Processor: More details see SAP Note 1244982 ‘Users & Business partners for Service Desk messages’



Necessary authorization for the creation of Business Partners is contained in the role SAP_SUPPDESK_ADMIN.



Configure the automatic creation of Service Desk messages within the BPMon Setup (see chapter 6.10 Configure )

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5 Business Process Monitoring Setup/Configuration The setup of BPMon is done with the BPMon setup/configuration tool, with which you can configure all features including solution specific and basic settings. Most importantly with the Setup Tool you can configure monitoring objects (data collectors) and assign them to business process steps or business interface of a solution. To handle alerts you can maintain analysis and monitoring tools, monitoring activities, as well as the auto-reaction methods. Within the setup tool you can also activate and deactivate BPMon for a solution. After activation data is collected from the monitored systems and alerts are created containing measured values including a rating according to the thresholds specified. Those alerts are accessible via the Alert Inbox of the work center Business Process Operations. Beside that are available in:  Alert Reporting (For detailed information regarding setup and features please refer to http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Technical Information  Setup Guide BPMon Alert Reporting Analysis (7.1 SP05).  Service Level Reporting for detailed information please refer to http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Technical Information  Setup Guide BPMon Service Level Reporting (7.1).

5.1 Accessing the BPMon Setup Tool The BPMon Setup tool can be accessed via the work center Business Process Operation. Transaction solman_workcenter -> Business Process Operations -> Setup Business Process Monitoring.

Work Center Business Process Operations

5.2 BPMon Setup Structure The BPMon setup tool is mainly divided into two panes: On the left side is the Context Navigation, which lists all the solutions created in the solution manager and enables the navigation through the scenarios, business process and the steps. On the right side details are displayed for the Current Context. The view on the right changes based on the selection made on the left to display the configuration details.

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BPMon Setup/Configuration Tool

5.2.1

Solution

On solution level the solution specific settings such as the RFC Server Group for BPMon and the Solution Rating Hierarchy can be maintained. RFC Server Group for BPMon: This allows you to control the resources used in the SAP Solution Manager for executing remote function calls to the connected managed systems. By default the RFC server group is set as parallel_generators, but you can assign a dedicated RFC server group for BPMon as well. Therefore you can choose a suitable RFC server group from the input help. The input-help table contains all the server groups defined in the SAP Solution Manager system that are maintained using the transaction RZ12. Solution Rating Hierarchy: The rating hierarchy controls the way how an alert rating is propagated from a monitoring object level via the step or interface up to the business process level. You can define the severity level of grey alerts in the alert hierarchy defined for a solution. (A grey alert is displayed in all those cases, where a monitoring object is activated, but no alert data is available, which should only be the case right after activating alerting). One possible hierarchy is e.g. Red > Grey > Yellow > Green, which means that in case of a yellow alert, if there is also a grey alert grey is reported to the higher level unless there is also a red alert.

Solution Settings

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5.2.2

Logical Components

On logical component level the system specific settings such as the maintenance of the Periodicity of Data Collection and the loading of BW master data for analytics and the loading of monitor definitions can be done. For BPMon, the add-ons ST-PI and ST-A/PI must be installed on the managed system. The displayed information in the ST-PI and ST-A/PI columns is taken from different sources: From the system landscape maintenance (transaction SMSY), and directly from the managed system (retrieved via RFC). For ST-A/PI, the release information is also stored in central application monitoring repository. The release information from the different sources should be identical. For each system listed under Logical Components the following options described in the next chapters are available.

Logical Components Level

5.2.2.1 Load Monitor Definitions Several monitors in BPMon are delivered via the ST-A/PI add-on, which needs to be implemented on the managed systems. To make these monitors available in the SAP Solution Manager, the monitor definitions need to be transferred from the managed system to a central repository in the SAP Solution Manager system. You can check the ST-A/PI version of the managed system via SMSY, RFC and from the Repository. You can load or update monitors from the different managed systems via the button ‘Load Monitors. After the update process you can see the status under the column ‘Last Monitor Definitions Reload’. A reload of the monitors is required in following cases: o ST-A/PI version was updated on the managed system(s) o ST-A/PI SP was updated on the managed system(s) o New Monitoring objects via customer exit have been developed and transported to the managed system

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Logical Components: Load Monitor Definitions

5.2.2.2 Load BW Master Data Load BW Master Data is used to load the Semantic ID definitions from the managed systems, which are used by BP Analytics for the dimensions that have been selected for analysis. For more information regarding BP Analytics refer to Setup Guide – Business Process Analytics 7.1 SP5

Logical Components: Load BW master Data

5.2.2.3 Periodicity of Data Collection (ABAP Systems) Under Periodicity of Data Collection, a periodicity has to be specified for the following monitoring use cases: 

For monitoring Background Processing (Simple Jobs, BW Process Chains) you can distinguish between ‘critical’ and ‘non-critical’ jobs. By default, the data collection for critical jobs is 5 minutes and for non-critical jobs the data collection is 60 minutes.



For monitoring of Due List Log, you can define a suitable time period for the corresponding monitoring data collector. By default, the data collection period is 60 minutes. Due to technical reasons the data collection time periods for the following monitoring types cannot be changed: o

Dialog Performance

o

Update Error

o

Other CCMS Monitor

o

Document Volume

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Logical Components: Periodicity of Data Collection

5.2.2.4 ABAP Connections Section ABAP Connections displays the ABAP connections relevant for BPMon:

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

RFC Read Access (SMSY): Used for the data collection for all monitoring types, except the (local) CCMS-based once, i.e. CCMS Monitor, Dialog Performance (classic) and Update Error. The destination is taken from transaction SMSY. As most monitors look at client-dependent data, it must point to the client of the relevant logical component.



RFC for Analysis (SMSY): Used to launch the analysis (transaction, report, etc ...) on the managed system. The destination is taken from transaction SMSY. As most analysis tools are clientdependent, it must point to the client of the relevant logical component.



RFC Read Access (CCMS): Used for the data collection for the CCMS-based monitoring types (CCMS Monitor, Dialog Performance (classic), Update Error). The destination is taken from the CCMS system topology (transaction RZ21).

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Logical Components: ABAP Connections Monitoring objects for reporting can be created at the logical component level. The following scenarios that can be set up:  Setup for the data volume monitor ‘DVMon: Table Analysis’. This monitor requires add-on ST-A/PI, Version 01L or higher to be installed on the system assigned to a logical component.  Setup for Business Process Analytics for selected Throughput & Backlog Indicators (TBIs). Detailed information about the setup procedure can be found in SAP Note 1430754 or under http://service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Technical Information  Setup Guide - Business Process Analytics 7.1 SP5. If you want to setup alerting for reporting monitoring objects (formerly called ‘Create with Reference’), please see the above guide regarding chapter ‘Setup for Business Process Monitoring Alerting’.  Setup for the master data collector for PI monitoring ‘Master Collector for PI incl. JAVA’. Detailed information about the setup procedure can be found under http://service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Technical Information  Setup Guide - Interface Monitoring.  Setup of Alerting Monitoring Objects on Logical components level is not supported, but only on business process level as business process related alerts need a business context. If alerting monitoring objects are setup on step / interface level, they are implicitly also linked to the logical component of the step / interface. So even though you cannot create alerting monitoring objects on logical component level you will get also alerting monitoring objects listed on logical component level.

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Monitoring Objects on Logical Component level

5.2.3

Cross Functions

Generic templates specific to a solution such as the ‘Notification templates’, ‘Analysis Tool Sets’, ‘Monitoring Teams, ‘Monitoring Activities Templates’ and ‘Alert Parameter Sets’ can be maintained under the cross functions section.

Cross Functions

5.2.3.1 Notification Templates BPMon offers the possibility to automatically create and send alert notification messages (e.g. e-mails to a single recipient or a shared distribution lists, SMS) or create a SAP Service Desk messages to the persons responsible as soon as a critical situation is detected on the managed systems. The sending of these autoreaction messages can be configured in the BPMon configuration. Each monitoring object instance can be assigned a specific recipient for the auto-reaction message which enables you to distribute different kinds of alerts (e.g. if it is a technology-related alert or any problem within the application itself) to the different teams responsible.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager As of 7.1 SP05 notification templates can be maintained and linked to monitoring objects, i.e. the notification does not need to be defined per monitoring object, but can be defined for a group of monitoring objects. You can create several notification templates using the ‘Add’ button. These notification templates can then be assigned to one or more monitoring objects within the solution. For further information regarding the notification parameters to be maintained refer to Setup Guide - Automatic Alert Notifications 7.1 SP5+.

Notification Templates Notification Grouping: With the concept of Notification Routing, it is possible to determine the email or incident recipient dynamically based on the alert content and consequently send the notification to the responsible processors. This can be configured by assigning a ‘Decision Table’ to the monitoring object in the ‘Notification Grouping’ section. For further information on using the notification grouping for notification routing refer to Setup Guide - BPMon Notification Routing using BRF+

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Notification Grouping via Decision Table assignment To define decision tables you need to go to the ‘Notification Groups’ via the Page setting

Notification Groups

5.2.3.2 Analysis Tool Sets The analysis tool sets are used to define the analysis transactions and URLs that can be used to understand and analyze the alerted error situation. The analysis transactions can be used to analyze the errors or problems either locally in the SAP Solution Manager system itself or directly in the respective managed systems. This is specified via the Executable Type. The transaction or the report to be used is specified under the Executable Unit. In some cases, standard analysis tools are delivered with the SAP content, e.g. transaction SM37 for background job monitoring that provides a job overview in an SAP System or transaction SLG1 for application log monitoring to have a look into the application log. It is also possible to add new transactions. This can be standard transactions or customer self-written transactions.

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Analysis Tool Set: Analysis Transaction It is also possible to specify a URL which should be called in order to further analyze the given problem. This is especially interesting if you have knowledge documents stored in a portal. You can define a Short text and the URL to be called. For web pages to be called, specify the full URL, e.g. http://help.sap.com. For content available on file servers, specify the full file path, using the nomenclature: file://\\\\..., e.g. file://\\\server1\operations_documents\operations-handbook.txt

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Analysis Tool Set: URL

5.2.3.3 Monitoring Teams With the help of Monitoring Teams it is possible to configure the solution support organization involving the different teams, team members and roles. These teams and the team members can be used to define or document escalation paths and error handling procedures for respective monitoring objects. First the contacts have to be maintained for a solution within the solution directory. This data can be entered using the work center option Business process OperationMaintain Solution and then choosing the solution for which you configure business process monitoring.

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Maintain Solution In the solution directory you can maintain the contacts for a solution using the button ‘Contacts’.

Maintain Solution – Contacts

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager Here it is either possible to maintain contacts directly with the corresponding information or get existing users which are already maintained in transaction SU01.

Contacts Maintenance Once the contacts are maintained for a solution, they can be assigned to a monitoring team in the BPMon setup tool. The monitoring teams can be created under Cross Functions  Monitoring Teams.  Use the button ‘Add’ under ‘Teams’ to create a monitoring team.  To add the team members to the monitoring team, use the ‘Add’ button under ‘Team Data for ’

Monitoring Team – Team Members

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager  Different monitoring roles can be assigned to the monitoring team in the tab ‘Monitoring Roles’ by flagging the ‘Assigned?’ checkbox.

Monitoring Team – Monitoring Roles The ‘Number of Usages’ column shows the number of monitoring objects the monitoring team is assigned to. Clicking on the number lists all the monitoring objects that use this monitoring team. Note: Later in our example we assign this monitoring team to the application monitoring object ‘Sales documents’. Hence you see the ‘Number of Usages’ as 1 in this screen shot.

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Monitoring Team – Number of Usages

5.2.3.4 Monitoring Activities Templates To ensure the effective monitoring and efficient problem resolution, it is required to define problem resolution procedures and the escalation paths. This can be achieved by creating a monitoring activities template and later assigning it to one or more monitoring objects. Monitoring activities templates can be created under Cross FunctionsMonitoring Activities Templates

Monitoring Activies Template You can create a monitoring activity template via the ‘Add’ button. The following text information can be specified for the template.  Problem Indicators: A description about what indicates a problem

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager  Error handling: Describes how to react on problems or errors, i.e. how to solve the problem/correct the error.  Escalation Path: Describes the escalation path in case that the person responsible could not solve the problem. Persons who can be contacted should be maintained here. The ‘Number of Usages’ column shows the number of monitoring objects the monitoring activity template is assigned to. Clicking on the number lists all the monitoring objects that use this monitoring activity template.

5.2.3.5 Alert Parameter Sets The reorganization and aggregation of the collected alert data is maintained within the ‘Alert Parameter Set’.  Alert Retention [d]: Indicates the number of days the individual alert records are kept in the system. The alerts older than the number of days specified here are deleted from the database.  Alert Aggregation Start [d]: Indicates the number of days after which aggregation of alert records starts. The alert data is summarized by day, week, and month, and can be used for the Alert Statistics for the corresponding business process within Service Level Reporting. This value must be less or equal to Alert Retention [d], otherwise the alerts are deleted before the aggregation starts.  Aggregated Data Retention [d]: Indicates the number of days for which the aggregated alert data is kept.  Alert Message Language: Indicates the language in which the alert messages are created.  Log Messages Language: Indicates the relevant message language of the T100 messages in log monitoring (general application log, job log and duelist log).  Keep Data for BW: If this indicator is set, the alert data is stored in BW cube 0SM_BPM for later analysis.  Is Default: The ‘default’ parameter set will be assigned to the newly created monitoring objects.  Number of Usages: Indicates the number of monitoring objects the alert parameter set is assigned to. Clicking on the number will list the monitoring objects.

Alert Parameter Sets

5.2.4

Business Process/Step/Interface

All the relevant business process/step/interface level information is displayed when the business process/step/interface node is selected in the context navigation. For example, if you select a process, the steps and interfaces assigned to a business process are listed under the business process node when expanded.

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Selection of Business Process The monitoring objects created under each step/interface are listed in the ‘Monitoring Objects’ tab when the business process node is selected. It is possible to ‘generate’, ‘activate’ and ‘deactivate’ the monitoring object(s). The monitoring objects from one step can be assigned to another step using the ‘Assign’ button. The assignment can also be removed using the ‘Unassign’ button, if the ‘No. of Assigend Contexts’ is bigger than one. It is possible to ‘Create’, ‘Copy’ and ‘Delete’ the monitoring objects at the process level.

Business Process - Monitoring Objects

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager In the ‘Steps’ tab all the steps belonging to the selected business process are listed.

Business Process - Monitoring Objects In the ‘Interfaces’ tab all the interfaces assigned to the selected business process are listed.

Business Process - Monitoring Objects In the ‘Monitoring Requirement’ tab all the monitoring requirements linked to the selected business process/ step are listed. For further information regarding the usage and handling of monitoring requests refer to Usage and Handling of BP Monitoring Requirement. Similarly when the business process step/interface is selected, the monitoring objects assigned to the step/interface are listed under these tabs.

5.2.4.1 Create Monitoring Object Alerts are generated based on the configuration maintained for a monitoring object, i.e. for its key figures.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager Configuring a monitoring object will be explained in this chapter by means of an application monitor key figure ‘Sales Documents (Created)’. The alerting will be set up at the business process step. This Key Figure is part of the monitor ‘Sales Documents’ which belongs to the application area Sales & Services’. All the steps of a business process are listed under the process in the Context Navigation. The names of the different steps along with the Logical Component and the step/interface information are displayed at the node level in the navigation tree.

Business Process Steps Monitoring objects can be created for a business process, business process step or business process interface by choosing the relevant node from the navigation context. The ‘Create’ button enables the creation of the monitoring objects.

Create Monitoring Object

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager The next step is to choose an application area that you want to monitor and the monitor itself in the pop-up screen ‘Create New Monitoring Object’.  The ‘Application Areas’ are listed under the ‘Filter Criteria:’ According to the pre-selected ‘Application Area’, the dropdown list for the available ‘Monitor’ is filtered.

Create Monitoring Object Note: The application monitors are divided into different monitoring types according to the areas and application scenarios. In our example, we will select as ‘Application Area’ the ‘Sales & Service’ area and as ‘Monitor’ the ‘Sales Documents’ monitor.  It is required to specify a Name for the monitoring object. By default Name is filled with the name of the chosen monitor.

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Create Monitoring Object If application areas are not in the list above, then a reload of monitor definitions might be required to update the central repository of application monitors (Logical Components -> Load Monitor Definitions). For detailed information about features and setup of available Monitoring Types in the SAP Solution Manager, refer to chapter 6 Configuration of Monitoring .  After the selection has been made clicking on ‘OK’ creates the monitoring object with an ‘Initial’ status.

Create Monitoring Object

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5.2.4.2 Configure Monitoring Object For the configuration of a Monitoring Object click on the link as displayed below.

Navigation into Monitoring Object Configuration This link leads you to the configuration page of the monitoring object, where you can maintain all relevant settings, e.g. select the relevant key figures, maintain the monitoring schedule, and configure the notifications and so on. Please note that you have online help for the monitor (via link Display Help for Monitor) and for the key figure (via link Display Help for Key Figure) available.

Monitoring Configuration

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager In the Monitoring Configuration tab under ‘Key Figure Selection’ the list of all the key figures of the monitor is available for selection. 1. Select the key figure(s) you want monitor with this Monitoring Object. The selection is made by checking the check box in the Select column.

Monitoring Configuration: Key Figure Selection 2. For the selected key figure the selection criteria and thresholds can be maintained in the section ‘Parameter Sets for Key Figure’. Additional counters can be added by using the Add button. The example key figure ‘Sales Documents (created)’ is a typical ‘Throughput Key Figure’, which represents the number of sales order documents created during a day. This key figure is used to get an overview of the current activities in your system, normally on a daily basis. As shown in the screenshot below for the throughput key figures a 4-step rating is possible, (Red < Yellow < Green > Yellow > Red). You can set a minimum value which has to be reached and a maximum value which should not be exceeded. Both the minimum and the maximum are available as a red rating and a yellow rating to distinguish between a critical situation and a warning.

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Monitoring Configuration: Maintaining Thresholds 3. For each selected counter various selection parameters can be specified. In addition to the application relevant data like ‘Sales Org’ and ‘Documents Types’, you can also specify the data collection from a specific day (see figure below).

Monitoring Configuration: Maintain Selection Criteria

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager Monitoring Schedule In the Monitoring Schedule tab all the necessary data regarding the collector start time and the periodicity of data collection can be maintained. Schedule Type: Here you can choose the kind of the schedule. Based on the selection the relevant fields have to be maintained. Simple Schedule will enable you to maintain the weekly schedule to indicate the relevant days of the week when the data collectors should run. If not explicitly specified, weekdays Monday to Friday are set automatically.

Monitoring Schedule: Simple Schedule Extended Schedule will enable you to use a factory calendar.  Flag Refer to Factory Calendar on Remote System to specify that the Factory Calendar is located in the remote system. Maintain the Factory Calendar field.  Work Day: Specify the working day on which data evaluation has to take place. If you choose All working days, the fields for the First Month and the Period [Months] do not have to be maintained.  First Month: Specify the first month to be taken into account when calculating the monitoring schedule. The initial value is the current month.  Period [Months]: Specify the time period (in months) required for calculating the monitoring schedule. If not explicitly specified, a period of one month is used.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager Monitoring Schedule: Extended Schedule Further Settings: Here you can specify the periodicity of data collection during the day.  If data collection is to be performed periodically during the day, specify Period [min].  If data collection is to be executed once a day, specify Start Time.  If you want the data collection to run periodically during a time window, specify Start Time and End Time for the window and a period in minutes.  You can use the Data Collection in Background indicator to separate the process of actual data collection in the satellite system and the alerting on the collected data. This is advisable if you expect long-running data collections. In this case we recommend that you schedule the monitor infrequently as possible (for example, once a day) especially for the long-running collectors, and during the time periods when it does not disturb dialog activities.

Monitoring Schedule: Further Settings

Notification The notification settings for a monitoring object can be maintained in the Notification tab. Notification templates are created for the auto-reaction messages under Cross functions Notification Templates. Refer to chapter 5.3.1 Notification Templates. These templates can be assigned to any monitoring object within the solution. However the notification template settings can be overridden by maintaining specific settings for the monitoring objects within the notifications tab. For further information on setting up notifications and auto-reaction messages refer to Setup Guide Automatic Alert Notifications 7.1 SP5+

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Notification: Email, SMS and Incident Analysis Tools You can specify analysis transactions or URL addresses (including file directories) per monitoring object. You can assign a predefined Analysis Tool Set to the monitoring object. This can be defined under Cross Functions Analysis Tool Sets (Refer to chapter 5.3.2 Analysis Tool Sets) Additional analysis tools specific to the monitoring object can be added using the Add button. For each tool that you define or assign on this screen there will be a pushbutton in the BPO Alert Inbox at the corresponding alert level, with which you can launch the tool, e. g. call a transaction code.

Analysis Tools: Analysis Tool Set Monitoring Team Under this tab you can assign a monitoring team that is responsible for error handling or define or document the escalation paths. It is also possible to flag certain members of the team as responsible via the Is Responsible flag. 52

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager The creation and maintenance of monitoring teams can be done under Cross Functions  Monitoring Teams (Refer to chapter 5.3.3 Monitoring Teams)

Monitoring Team

Monitoring Activities Within this tab you can assign a monitoing activities template defining the error handling procedure and the escalation paths. It is also possible to define a monitoring object specific monitoring activity when there is no template assigned. You can change the inherited contents from the template within this tab and these changes will be applicable for this specific monitoring object.

Monitoring Activities

Alert Reorganization and Others In this tab you can assign an Alert Parameter Set to the monitoring object. By default the parameter set that is flagged as Is Default is assigned when the monitoring object is created. The alert parameter sets can be created under Cross Functions  Alert parameter Sets (Refer to chapter 5.3.5 Alert Parameter Sets).

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Alert Reorganization and Others

5.2.4.3 Technical Information The technical information of a monitoring object such as the Solution ID, Monitor ID, Monitor name etc. can be displayed via the link Technical Information as shown in the screenshot.

Monitoring Object – Technical Information You can also access this information from within the monitoring object configuration edit page.

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Monitoring Object – Technical Information

5.2.5

Monitoring Object List

Mass maintenance of the monitoring objects can be done via the Monitoring Object List.

Monitoring Object List

You can select the monitoring objects for maintenance based on the slection criteria shown in the screenshot. F4 helps are available for each of the selection parameter.

Monitorig Object List – Selection Criteria

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager Monitoring Objects In the Monitoring Objects tab you can change the Notification Templates, Monitoring Activities, Monitoring Team, Alert Parameter and Analysis Tool Set assigned to a single or a set of monitoring objects. It is also possible to generate, activate and deactivate monitoring objects.

Monitorig Object List – Monitoring Objects

Monitoring Schedules In the Monitoring Schedules tab you can change the scheduling of the monitoring objects.

Monitorig Object List – Monitoring Schedules Parameter Values (Application Monitors) In the Parameter Values (Application Monitors) tab you can adjust the selection parameter values of application monitoring object key figure parameter sets.

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Monitorig Object List – Parameter Values (Application Monitors) Thresholds (Application Monitors) In the Thresholds (Application Monitors) tab you can adjust the threshold values of application monitoring object key figure parameter sets.

Monitorig Object List – Thresholds (Application Monitors)

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5.3 Generation, Activation, Deactivation and Deletion 5.3.1

Generation

Before the generation of the configuration you should check again the key figure setup and all general settings from the node and Logical Components. During the generation of the configuration, the setup will be checked for plausibility and transferred into Solution Manager DB tables for later use. The generation of a monitoring object can be triggered from 3 different places. Business Process Node: All the monitoring objects created under the different steps and interfaces of a business process are listed when the business process node is selected in the context navigation. You can select the monitoring objects you want to generate and use the ‘Generate’ button to trigger the generation. The generation protocol messages are displayed in the message area as shown in the screenshot.

Business Process Node - Generation Business Process Step Node: All the monitoring objects created for a step are listed when the business process step node is selected in the context navigation. You can select the monitoring objects you want to generate and use the Generate button to trigger the generation.

Business Process Step Node – Generation

Monitoring Object Configuration Page: The generation of a specific monitoring object can be triggered from the monitoring object configuration page. This option is more useful when you want to check the plausibility of the monitoring object immediately after the configuration is complete. 58

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Monitoring Object Configuration Page - Generation

The generation process has no effect on the managed system. The monitoring object configuration is only stored in the Solution Manager system. More information about the error messages can be found in SAP Note 705569 ‘BPMon: Important Msg's in Activation and Generation Protocol’. The generation, activation and deactivation can be triggered either for a single or a list of monitoring objects.

5.3.2

Activation

When a monitoring object is activated, the data collection process in the managed system is activated and triggered based on the maintained time schedule. Depending on the frequencies and the configuration of the monitoring types, it takes some time until the alerts are available in the alert inbox. The monitoring objects must be generated before you can trigger the activation. Similar to generation, the activation of the monitoring object can also be triggered either from the business process node, business process step node or from the configuration page. When the Business Process Node is selected in the context navigation, all the monitoring objects created under the different steps and interfaces of a business process are listed. Similarly when the Business Process Step Node is selected, the monitoring objects created for the particular step is listed in the Monitoring Objects tab. You can select the monitoring objects you want to activate and use the Activate button to activate the monitoring object. The activation protocol messages are displayed in the message area as shown in the screenshot. Once the activation of the monitoring object is successful the Status changes from Initial to Activated.

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Business Process Node – Activation Monitoring Object Configuration Page: The activation of a specific monitoring object can also be triggered from the configuration page of the monitoring object via the Activate button.

Monitoring Object Configuration Page – Activation After the activation, the activation protocol messages as well as the warnings and errors during the activation process are displayed in the message area as shown in the screenshot. If the activation of the monitoring object was successful then the Deactivate button is visible as shown in the screenshot below.

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Monitoring Object Configuration Page – Activation More information about the error messages can be found in SAP Note 705569 ‘BPMon: Important Msg's in Activation and Generation Protocol’. It is possible to activate/deactivate either a list of monitoring objects or a single monitoring object.

Technically, the last generated customizing is transferred to the connected managed systems and the respective Monitoring Tree Elements (MTEs) are built up in CCMS during the activation process.

5.3.3

Deactivation

The activated monitoring objects can be deactivated via the button ‘Deactivate’ which is dispalyed for active monitoring objects. The data collection of the monitoring object will be stopped and all the MTE’s specific to the monitoring object within CCMS will be deleted. Similar to generation and activation, deactivation can also be triggered from the business process node, business process step node or monitoring object configuration edit page. When the Business Process Node is selected in the context navigation, all the monitoring objects created under the different steps and interfaces of a business process are listed. Similarly when the Business Process Step Node is selected, the monitoring objects created for the particular step is listed in the Monitoring Objects tab. You can select the monitoring objects you want to deactivate and use the ‘Deactivate’ button to deactivate the monitoring process. The deactivation protocol messages are displayed in the message area as shown in the screenshot. Once the deactivation of the monitoring object is successful the ‘Status’ of the monitoring object changes from ‘Activated’ to ‘Deactivated’.

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Business Process Node – Deactivation

Monitoring Object Configuration Page: The deactivation of a specific monitoring object can also be triggered from the monitoring object configuration page via the ‘Deactivate’ button.

Monitoring Object Configuration Edit Page – Deactivation After the deactivation, the deactivation protocol messages as well as the warnings and errors during deactivation process are displayed in the message area as shown in the screenshot. If the deactivation of the monitoring object was successful then the ‘Activate’ button is visible as shown in the screenshot below.

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Monitroing Object Configuration – Deactivation

The actual customizing can be changed at any point in time. If there is already an active monitoring, the changes would have no effect on the current monitoring. To activate the new monitoring configuration, the monitoring object must be deactivated and activated again.

5.3.4

Deletion

It is possible to delete the monitoring objects. However it is necessary to deactivate the monitoring object before it can be deleted. Similar to generation/activation/deactivation, the deletion of a monitoring object can be done at the business process node or the business process step node level.

Business Process Step Node – Monitoring Object Deletion When you click on the ‘Delete’ button you are asked to confirm the deletion of the selected monitoring object(s). You can continue with the deletion by clicking on ‘OK’.

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Confirmation of Monitoring Object Deletion

The deletion protocol message can be see in the message area after the deletion process is complete.

Deletion Protocol Message

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6 Configuration of Monitoring Objects Various application and cross application monitors are contained in the functional scope of BPMon and can be configured in the BPMon setup tool (some of them can be assigned only to business process steps, but not interfaces). The functional scope can be divided into the following areas:  Background Job Monitoring: Monitors for Background Jobs and BW Process Chains & Steps  Interface Monitoring: IDoc monitoring, batch input monitoring etc.  Log Monitoring: Application log and due list log monitoring  Performance Monitoring: Dialog transaction response time monitoring  Throughput and Backlog Monitoring: Application-specific monitors for ERP, CRM, SCM, SRM, IS  Technical Monitoring: Data Volume, ABAP dumps, Update Errors etc.  Data Consistency Monitoring: Alerting defined for Cross Data Base Comparison  Non-ABAP Monitoring: Monitoring of non-SAP systems For detailed information regarding the setup for these monitoring areas in SAP Solution Manager, see the sub-chapters below. The detailed list of all monitors you can also find under http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Overview and Demos  Business Process Operations Key Figures - Overview.

6.1 Configure Background Job Monitoring The background processing covers the monitoring of background jobs and BW process chains. The monitoring of the important background jobs should be part of a Job Scheduling Management concept (see http://service.sap.com/solutionmanagerbp to find the Job Scheduling Management Best Practice document in topic area Business process operations). Because of several restrictions regarding background job scheduling, e.g. time restrictions, restriction of hardware resources (CPU, main memory, etc.) or existing dependencies between different activities (example 1: invoices can only be created after the corresponding goods issue is posted; example 2: Back Order Processing and Material Requirements Planning should not run at the same time) it is very important to ensure a stable schedule of background job execution. A canceled background job should be identified as soon as possible in order to react as fast as possible. Therefore it is also necessary to define restart procedures and escalation paths.

6.1.1 Create Monitoring Object for Background Processing 1. Enter the BPMon Setup tool and navigate to the business process step which represents the background job or BW process chain. On tab Monitoring Objects press the Create button.

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2. Flag Background Processing in the area Cross Application. You have to specify whether you want to monitor a Simple Job or a BW Process Chain. To do so choose the according Monitor. 3. Enter a meaningful name under Name, because this name will appear in the Alert Inbox of the Business Process Operations work center and help you to easily identify the background job or a BW process chain. Press ok to create the monitoring object. 4. The next step is to configure the Monitoring Object. To configure Simple Job please refer to next chapter 6.1.2, for BW Process Chain please refer to chapter 6.1.3 BW Process Chain Monitoring.

6.1.2 Simple Job Monitoring Edit the monitoring object of type Simple Job on tab Monitoring Objects. Your first get to the tab Identification, which is used to determine the job, the job schedule and the job’s criticality.

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6.1.2.1 Job Identification For setting up the monitoring for Simple Jobs you first need to define on tab Identification which single background job or group of background jobs you want to monitor. There are different possibilities to identify a special job or a group of jobs. 1.

Job name is the name of the background job as it is scheduled in SM37. The entry is optional, but if maintained it is crucial that this information is correct in order to ensure a proper identification of the job. It is possible to specify a group of jobs by using ‘*’, e.g. if there are several jobs starting with the same name and just differ in some digits or numbers. In addition to the job name it is possible to specify the name of an ABAP program or the name of an external program, e.g. if there are several jobs with similar names, but just some of these jobs executing a specific program need to be monitored. The other possibility is that a program is executed from different jobs but just the program in combination with a background job is relevant. See ABAP program or external program for more details.

2.

ABAP program can be filled to identify a job that executes the program during a step. It is important to maintain the number of the step in which the program is executed. If the wrong step number is maintained, the job cannot be found. In addition to a program name a special variant can be selected that is used by the program. A variant must not include ‘*’. Like job name the entry is optional, but it could be relevant when monitoring special combinations jobs and programs.

3.

External program is used the same way as described under ABAP program. It is important to maintain the step number. In addition external parameters can be specified. External parameters must not include ‘*’.

4.

Job Rule can be filled to identify background jobs, if the job names follow more complicated naming conventions, and cannot be mapped by the simple wildcard options mentioned above. This can be the case, if the names of the jobs are built dynamically with data from a table and it is not possible to define the name of the jobs prior their execution. To use customer-specific job name rules, create include ZXDSWP_BPM_RULES in function module DSWP_BPM_JOBNAME_BY_CUSTOM. In this function module, you can find a short description on how a rule must be implemented. Each rule must have a unique, triple-digit rule number.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager When rules are used, all other information specified for job identification during monitoring data collection will be ignored.

The following table shows the fields with a short explanation of the input parameters for Job Identification. Check Identification Data

Use function Check Identification Data that provides the number of jobs fitting to the provided identification data (see chapter 6.1.2.1.1 Check Identification Data)

Job Name

Name of the background job

Job Step. No.

Step in which a program is executed. If you want to monitor specific steps of a job or group of jobs enter the step number here and set the flag Alert Refers to Job Step for the Key Figure (Alert Type) you set up (see chapter 6.1.2.3 Alert Configuration – Simple Job Monitoring)

ABAP Program

Name of the executed ABAP program

Variant

Name of a special variant

User

A user executing the job can be specified. If no user is maintained explicitly, all users ('*') are taken into account.

Start Procedure

The start procedure determines how the job is planned to run. In field start procedure there are four different possibilities to enter: 1=by time, 2=by event, 3=by preceding job and 4=use job start condition (see chapter 6.1.2.1.2 Start procedures in detail).

Event ID

Mandatory if the job is expected to be started by an event (start procedure = 2). If applicable, also specify the event parameter. The preceding job must remain blank. The Event ID and Event Parameter are optional for start options 1 and 4.

Event Parameter

Optional if the job is expected to be started by an event (start procedure = 2), and if the Event ID is also specified.

Preceding Job

Mandatory if the job is expected to be started by a preceding job (start procedure = 3). The Event ID and Event Parameter must remain blank. The preceding job is an optional parameter for start options 1 and 4.

Parallel Jobs?

If the processing is done in parallel it must be specified in the drop-down list.

External Program

Name of an executed external program

External Parameter

Can be used, when an external program is specified

Rule for Job Name

Existing rule number when custom specific rules are used (see above)

6.1.2.1.1

Check Identification Data

The button Check Identification Data and the value help of the Job Name offer the possibility to check for the job information in the corresponding monitored system. Before using these at least one of the fields for the job name, the ABAP program name, or the name of the external program should be specified. When you press the button, the number of hits is displayed in an information message. All the jobs that exist in the corresponding system as of the day before yesterday until now and that meet the information that is already specified are counted. The value help of the Job Name provides a result list of these jobs. The following information is used as a filter:  job name,  job step number,  job execution user,  ABAP program name and variant,  external program and parameters,

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager  name of the preceding job,  event ID and parameter,  job name rule.

If you select a job from the value help it takes over all job identification data to the corresponding fields. 6.1.2.1.2

Start procedures in detail

In field Start Procedure there are four different possibilities to enter: 1. The first one and probably the most common one is the start procedure by time. In this case the planned start time of the job is known, e.g. the job runs every day at 10 pm, and needs to be entered in column planned start time of the schedule table. The fields Event ID and Event Parameter or Preceding Job are optional parameters. 2. The second start procedure is by event. In this case a system event triggers the scheduling of a background job. Therefore the Event ID and existing Event Parameter must be maintained. It is possible to enter a planned start time in the schedule table. 3. If a job is triggered by a preceding job, the name of this preceding job (the one entered in start conditions in transaction SM36) is necessary. It is possible to enter a planned start time in the schedule table. 4. The last possibility is to choose the start procedure use job start condition. The start procedure is used when the start time or any other start procedure of a job is not known. As soon as this job is scheduled in SM37 the monitoring would recognize the job and starts the monitoring. This can also be used to monitor jobs that are scheduled via an external job scheduler. A planned start time can’t be entered in the schedule table.

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Schedule

Depending on what is entered in field Schedule Type the different Monitoring Schedules Types Simple Schedule, Extended Schedule, or Fiscal Year Variant are shown.

6.1.2.1.3.1

Job Monitoring with Simple Schedule

1. Columns Monday to Sunday: Indicate the days of the week the monitored job runs. Unless otherwise specified, weekdays Monday to Friday are set automatically. 2. Column Planned Start Time [hh:mm:ss]: Enter the expected start time of the monitored job. For start procedure by time this is mandatory. For start procedure use start condition this field can’t be entered. 3. Column Period [Minutes]: If the job is expected to run periodically during the day, specify the period. For jobs that are monitored with start procedure use job start condition this field can’t be entered. For jobs with job start procedure by time you can add several schedule lines, if the job runs at different times or with different periods during the week. A job will not be identified by the monitor, if the planned start time is greater than the actual start time. 6.1.2.1.3.2

Job Monitoring with Extended Schedule

This is relevant for jobs that are scheduled on a monthly basis or for jobs that are planned according to an existing factory calendar.

1. Factory Calendar: Per default each day of the month is regarded as a workday. You can select a defined factory calendar. Press button Load Factory Calendar for F4 to retrieve the available factory calendars from the managed systems The corresponding factory calendar has to be maintained in transaction SPRO on the respective managed system, i.e. NOT the SAP Solution Manager system.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager 2. Column First Month: Enter the first month that needs to be taken into account to calculate the job monitoring schedule. The default value is the current month. 3. Column Period [Months]: Enter the time period in months for the calculation of the job monitoring schedule. 4. Column Work Day: The first and the last start of the job can be specified with the Work Day relative to the beginning or the end of the month and with Planned Start Time. Per default the data evaluation will take place on each working day in the factory calendar. 5. Column Period [Minutes]: If the job is expected to run periodically during the day, specify the period. For jobs that are monitored with start procedure use job start condition this field can’t be entered. For jobs with job start procedure by time you can add several schedule lines, if the job runs at different times or with different periods during the year. 6.1.2.1.3.3

Job Monitoring with Fiscal Year Variant

The Fiscal Year Variant is relevant for jobs that are scheduled on a fiscal year period basis or for jobs that are planned according to an existing fiscal year variant.

1. Fiscal Year Variant: Choose the fiscal year variant from the input help. To update the input help for the fiscal year variant from the managed system, press button Load Fiscal Year Variants for F4. 2. Column First Period: Enter the first period to be taken into account when calculating the monitoring schedule. 3. Column Period [Fiscal Year Periods]: Enter the Period (in fiscal periods) for the calculation of the monitoring schedule. 4. Columns First/Last Start: Specify the first and the last start of the job with the Work Day relative to the beginning or the end of the fiscal period and with Planned Start Time. Per default the data evaluation will take place on each working day in the fiscal year variant. 5. Column Period [Minutes]: If the job is expected to run periodically during the day, specify the period. For jobs that are monitored with start procedure use job start condition this field can’t be entered. For jobs with job start procedure by time you can add several schedule lines, if the job runs at different times or with different periods during the fiscal year.

6.1.2.2 Data Collection

Mark the Job as critical, if the monitoring data collection should take place more frequently (see also section Periodicity of Data Collection in chapter 5.2.2 Logical Components). Per default the data collection (i.e. the monitoring of the specified key figures) for critical jobs is done every 5 minutes and for non-critical jobs every 60 minutes.

6.1.2.3 Alert Configuration – Simple Job Monitoring On tab Alert Configuration the different Key Figures (also named Alert Types) can be configured.

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The availability of the Key Figures (and the corresponding input areas) depends on the Start Procedure defined for the job. By default the Key Figures are related to the entire background job (which can include several job steps). In case you want to monitor specific job steps you can set the flag Alert refers to Job Step in the corresponding Key Figure input area which is available for most of the Key Figures (except Job Active). The monitor will then consider the job step number you have set up in field Job Step No. on tab Identification (see also chapter 6.1.2.1 Job Identification). The following description of the monitoring Key Figures shows the full range of possibilities. The question what kind of alert makes sense or what kind of Key Figure is possible will be shortly discussed in chapter 6.1.2.4 Job Use Cases and Corresponding Key Figures. 6.1.2.3.1 Start Delay The key figure Start Delay can be used if a yellow or a red alert shall be raised in case of a delayed start of a job. If you do not maintain a start time in the setup, the delay refers to the technical delay, for example, due to a resource bottleneck. The time has to be entered in minutes.

If the job is scheduled via the start procedure use job start condition only a technical start delay will be monitored. A technical start delay is the time that the job needs to wait for a free work process and is the delay time displayed in transaction SM37. For use job start condition the time difference between the maintained start time and the actual start time is not recorded. If you use the start procedure by time and the job starts earlier than the customized planned start time, then the job won’t be considered for monitoring, i.e. the data collector won’t find the corresponding job! 6.1.2.3.2 Not Started on Time The key figure Not Started on Time can be used if you do not know at what time exactly a job should run (i.e. you can not specify the planned start time), but you know that it should have been started at least until a certain time. If a job was not started by the check time, an alert will be raised.

Specify the check times and the rating of the alert to be raised. If you define several check times for a job executed several times a day, the assumption is that the first job execution is started by the first check time, the second by the second check time, etc. You cannot configure the Not Started on Time Key Figure with the Job Active Key Figure. 6.1.2.3.3 End Delay The key figure End Delay can be used, if a planned end time is known. If the job runs beyond the planned end time and the defined thresholds have been reached or exceeded, an alert is raised. If the thresholds for yellow and red were not reached or exceeded, a green alert containing the final job delay is raised, as soon as the data collection detects that the job is no longer running.

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If the job is still running while the data collection is taking place, the following situations are possible: a) The current job delay does not reach or exceed the thresholds specified for yellow or red. If a later data collection detects that the job is no longer active (finished or canceled), it raises a green alert that contains the final delay. b) The current job delay reaches or exceeds the thresholds specified for yellow. In this case the alert is raised with the current delay immediately. If a later data collection detects a delay that reaches or exceeds the threshold for red, it raises an additional red alert that contains the current or final delay. c) The current job delay exceeds the thresholds specified for red. A red alert, containing the current job delay, is raised immediately. No further alert containing the final job duration is raised. If you want to receive yellow or red alerts only, maintain only the corresponding threshold and leave the other threshold blank. If you always want to receive the final delay time (for example, for reporting purposes), set the thresholds for yellow and red to values that will never be reached. It is not possible to monitor an end delay for periodic jobs that have a period shorter than a day or for jobs with start procedure use job start condition. 6.1.2.3.4 Out of Time Window The key figure Out of Time Window raises an alert if a job does not run in a specified time window. If the data evaluation determines that a job is, or has been, processed outside the defined time window, an alert is raised, if the thresholds were reached or exceeded. It does not matter whether the job runs before or after the defined time window.

Specify the start and end of the time window, and the threshold values for yellow and red. If you do not want to receive yellow or red alerts, leave the field in the corresponding column blank. Alerts won’t be raised if the corresponding job did not run at all or the job started before the start time maintained in the monitoring setup, i.e. the start time maintained as start condition for the job (and not the start time of the time window). It is not possible to monitor out of time window for periodic jobs that have a period shorter than a day or for jobs with start procedure use job start condition. 6.1.2.3.5 Duration The key figure Duration raises an alert if the run time of the job was longer (or shorter) than the upper (lower) threshold value. The rating of the alert depends on the threshold values for yellow and red. If the thresholds were not reached, a green alert containing the final job duration is raised, as soon as the data collection detects that the job is no longer running.

If the job is still running while the data collection is taking place, the following cases are possible:

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager a) If the measured job duration does not reach the thresholds specified for yellow or red, no alert is raised. (If a later data collection detects that the job is no longer active, (finished or canceled), it raises a green alert that contains the final duration of the job.) b) If the current job duration reaches or exceeds the threshold specified for yellow, a yellow alert is raised, containing the current job duration. (If a later data collection detects a duration that reached or exceeded the threshold for red, it raises an additional red alert that contains the current or final duration of the job.) c) If the current job duration reaches or exceeds the thresholds specified for red, a red alert is raised, containing the current job duration. (No further alert containing the final job duration will be raised.) If you want to receive yellow or red alerts only, maintain only the corresponding threshold and leave the other threshold blank. If you always want to get the final job duration (e.g. for reporting purposes), set the thresholds for yellow and red to values that will never be reached. 6.1.2.3.6 Parallel Processing The key figure Parallel Processing can be used, if you want to get alerted in case a background job did not start in parallel. Jobs are considered to be parallel, if they start within 2 minutes tolerance. The name of the job must be the same or wild cards ‘*’ can be used. In case ‘Yes, number known’ was chosen in field ‘Parallel Jobs?’ in tab Identification two entries have to be made. One is the decision if the alert should be Red or Yellow. The other is to specify the exact number of parallel running jobs to be expected. This number has to be greater or equal to 2.

It is not possible to monitor in general, if different background jobs are running at the same time. 6.1.2.3.7 Cancellation The key figure Cancellation raises a yellow or red alert if the monitored job cancels.

6.1.2.3.8 Job Log Messages The key figure Job Log Messages allows you to monitor the messages written to the job log when the job is running. If the number of messages in the job log reaches the upper or lower threshold values, an alert is raised. The rating of the alert depends on threshold values maintained for yellow and red. Specify the Message Type, Message Class, and Message Number, and the threshold values for yellow and red. Wildcards ‘*’ can be used, but not for all of the three parameters. Specify at least the Message Type or Message Class. If you want to receive yellow or red alerts only, maintain only the corresponding threshold and leave the other threshold blank.

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Job Log Messages 6.1.2.3.9 Job Log Content The key figure Job Log Content can be used to monitor jobs that create log messages that provide information about a processed document volume, or a number of errors that occurred when the background job was executed. This volume information (Counters), provided in the messages, can be monitored to trigger alerts. The volumes are accumulated if a job log message occurs several times. You can define up to three counters for each job. For each counter, enter the Message Class, and the number of the message that provides the counter information. Wildcards ‘*’ are not allowed. You can specify a short text (20 characters) for each counter. This text will be used in the alert message. If you leave this field blank, the technical name COUNTER is used. At least one threshold must be specified for each counter. If you enter a threshold value for a yellow alert only, you receive only a yellow alert. The same applies for red alerts.

Job Log Content 6.1.2.3.10 Job Active The key figure Job Active allows you to monitor a specific job regarding the time that has passed since its last execution. The monitor checks if a job is active during data collection, if yes the measured time interval is set to zero. Otherwise the measured time is the interval between the point in time of current data evaluation and the end time of the last job. An alert is raised if the measured time interval exceeded the threshold.

If you want to receive yellow or red alerts only, maintain only the corresponding threshold and leave the other threshold blank. This key figure only applies to jobs for which you have specified start procedure use job start condition and for which the job name is fully specified (that is, it does not contain ‘*’). It is not possible to configure the Job Active key figure together with the Not Started on Time key figure. The flag Alert refers to Job Step is not available for this Key figure.

6.1.2.4 Job Use Cases and Corresponding Key Figures In the following sub chapters summarize the most common cases for background jobs. For every sort of job it is described what kind of alerts are possible. Moreover a typical example from a business point of view clarifies the usage of those jobs. 6.1.2.4.1 Singular job The job starts at a certain point in time and it is running for a known period. 1 pm

2 pm

4 pm

t

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager The job is not periodic. The start procedure can be any of the four different possibilities by time, by event, by preceding job or use job start condition. Possible and meaningful key figures: Start Delay, End Delay, Duration, Cancellation, Parallel Processing. Example: MRP-run, BOP-run. 6.1.2.4.2 Periodic job The job starts at a certain point in time and it is running for a known period. 1 pm

2 pm

6 pm

4 pm

t The job is periodic with a period < 24 hours (e.g. every 2 hours). The start procedure can be any of the four different possibilities by time, by event, by preceding job or use job start condition. It is mandatory to define a start time in the monitoring setup. Possible and meaningful key figures: Start Delay, Duration, Cancellation, Parallel Processing. Example: Periodical IDoc processing in batch mode, periodical creation of sales orders. It is not possible to define an End Delay key figure for periodic jobs. It is important to know, that in case of key figure Start Delay, the alerts ‘belong’ to the oldest customized and not yet ‘satisfied’ job. For example, if the monitor finds two customized jobs still waiting for a fitting actual job, the one that is more overdue is taken as reference for the alert threshold. 6.1.2.4.3

Job with time window

The job should run in a given time window. We do not know the exact starting time. The job is running nonrecurring or periodically. The start procedure can be by time, by event or by preceding job. 1 pm

2 pm

4 pm

6 pm

t

given time window

Possible and meaningful key figures: Duration, Out of Time Window, Cancellation, Parallel Processing. Example: Business Warehouse data extraction for reporting at a specific time, data reorganization during specific maintenance time windows. 6.1.2.4.4 Start time of the job is not known In all cases where the start time is not defined (either because of an external job scheduler or the start time is just not known), the job can be defined with the start procedure use job start condition. This could be a singular job or a periodic job. As soon as a job is scheduled within the SAP system (SM36, SM37) it is considered for monitoring. Because the actual start of the job is not known it makes no sense to define a start time (otherwise another start condition could be used). However it is possible to monitor the technical start delay, i.e. the delay time 76

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager shown in SM37. The technical start delay is the time spent between a background job is released and the actually start time (e.g. waiting for a free work process).

External job scheduler / start time unknown 1 pm

2 pm

4 pm

6 pm

t

Possible and meaningful key figures: (technical) Start Delay, End Delay, Not Started on Time, Duration, Cancellation

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6.1.3 BW Process Chain Monitoring With the Background Processing Monitor it is also possible to monitor BW process chains. A process chain is a sequence of jobs that wait in the background for an event. Some of these jobs trigger a separate event that can start other job in turn.

BW Process Chain example Edit the monitoring object of type BW Process Chain on tab Monitoring Objects. Your first get to the tab Identification, which is used to determine the process chain, the process chain schedule and the process chain’s criticality.

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Configuration of BW Process Chain

6.1.3.1 Process Chain Identification On tab Identification you maintain the following settings for the BW Process Chain you want to monitor: 1. BW process chain ID: To check if the chain with this ID exists on the managed system, choose button Check Identification Data or check the value help of field BW process chain ID, which contains all process chains that fit to the information specified in the monitoring setup. If the identification check does not return any data, this is probably due to insufficient authorization for the user specified in the RFC connection for remote access (see SAP Note 1411885). 2. Start Procedure: If you choose the start procedure by time you have to specify the start time in the Schedule area on tab Identification. Use chain start condition refers to the technical start condition. The planned start in the Schedule area must be blank. Event ID and Event Parameter are optional. 3. Event ID and Event Parameter: In the case of start procedure by event, specify the Event ID, and, if applicable, the Event Parameter. You can also specify the start time. 4. Time to look back [days]: This value refers to the time window in which the monitor checks for expected and running jobs until they reach a final status (finished or aborted). The default value is one day, that is, yesterday and the current day until the current time.

6.1.3.2 Start Procedures in Detail In field Start Procedure there are three different possibilities to enter: 1. The first one is the start procedure by time. In this case the planned start time of the process chain is known, e.g. the process chain runs every day at 10 pm, and needs to be entered in column Planned Start Time. The columns Event ID and Event Parameter are optional parameters. A process chain will not be identified by the monitor, if the planned start time is greater than the actual start time.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager 2. The second start procedure is by event. In this case a system event triggers the scheduling of a process chain. Therefore the Event ID and an existing Event Parameter must be maintained. It is possible to enter a Planned Start Time in the schedule table. 3. The last possibility is to choose the start procedure use chain start condition. This start procedure can be used when the start time or a triggering event of a process chain is not known. As soon as the process chain starts, the data collector recognizes the process chain and performs the monitoring. This can also be used to monitor process chains that are scheduled via an external job scheduler.

6.1.3.3 Schedule Depending on what is entered in field Schedule Type different monitoring schedule types like Simple Schedule, Extended Schedule, or Fiscal Year Variant are shown and can be maintained. For further details see chapter 6.1.2.1.3 Schedule.

6.1.3.4 Data Collection

Mark the process chain as critical, if the monitoring data collection should take place more frequently (see also section Periodicity of Data Collection in chapter 5.2.2 Logical Components). Per default the data collection for critical process chains is done every 5 minutes and for non-critical process chains the data collection is every 60 minutes.

6.1.3.5 Alert Configuration – BW Process Chain After the successful specification of the process chain you can maintain the different key figures on the tab Alert Configuration. The availability of the alerts depends on the start procedure defined for the process chain.

The following description of the monitoring Key Figures shows the full range of possibilities. 6.1.3.5.1 Start Delay The Start Delay can be monitored, if for a BW process chain the planned start time is known. The planned start time and the thresholds to generate a yellow or a red alert have to be entered. The threshold time has to be entered in minutes.

If the process chain is scheduled via the start procedure use job start condition only a technical start

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager delay will be monitored. A technical start delay is the time that the job needs to wait for a free work process and is the shown delay time in transaction SM37. The time difference between the customized start time and the actual start time would not be recorded. If you use the start procedure by time and the process chain starts earlier than the customized planned start time, then the process chain won’t be considered for monitoring, i.e. the data collector won’t find the corresponding process chain! 6.1.3.5.2 End Delay The End Delay can be monitored if a planned end time is known. The planned end time and the thresholds to generate a yellow or a red alert have to be entered. If you do not want to receive yellow or red alerts, leave the corresponding field blank.

If you want to receive yellow or red alerts only, maintain only the corresponding threshold and leave the other threshold blank. It is not possible to monitor an end delay for periodic process chains that have a period shorter than a day or for jobs with start procedure use job start condition. 6.1.3.5.3 Not Started on Time Sometimes you do not know at what time exactly a process chain should run but you know that it should have been started at least until a certain time. This Key Figure applies if you have not specified a planned start time. If a process chain was not yet started by the check time, an alert will be raised. Specify the check times and the rating of the alert to be raised. If you define several check times for a process chain executed several times a day, the assumption is that the first process chain execution is started by the first check time, the second by the second check time, etc.

6.1.3.5.4 Out of Time Window The key figure Out of Time Window alerts if a process chain does not run in a specified time window. If the data evaluation determines that a process chain is, or has been, processed outside the defined time window, an alert is raised if the thresholds were reached or exceeded. The alert rating is set according to the threshold values for yellow and red. It does not matter whether the process chain runs before or after the defined time window. Specify the start and end of the time window, and the threshold values for yellow and red.

If you want to receive yellow or red alerts only, maintain only the corresponding threshold and leave the other threshold blank. Alerts won’t be raised if the corresponding process chain did not run at all or the process chain started before a customized start time, i.e. the start time defined as start condition for the process chain is NOT the start time of the time window. It is not possible to monitor Out of Time Window for periodic process chains that have a period shorter than a day or for jobs with start procedure use job start condition.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager 6.1.3.5.5 Duration The key figure Duration raises an alert if the run time of the job was longer (or shorter) than the upper (lower) threshold value. The rating of the alert depends on the threshold values for yellow and red. If the thresholds were not reached, a green alert containing the final process chain duration is raised, as soon as the data collection detects that the process chain is no longer running.

If the process chain is still running while the data collection is taking place, the following cases are possible: a) If the measured process chain duration does not reach the thresholds specified for yellow or red, no alert is raised. (If a later data collection detects that the process chain is no longer active, (finished or canceled), it raises a green alert that contains the final duration of the process chain.) b) If the current process chain duration reaches or exceeds the threshold specified for yellow, a yellow alert is raised, containing the current process chain duration. (If a later data collection detects a duration that reached or exceeded the threshold for red, it raises an additional red alert that contains the current or final duration of the process chain.) c) If the current process chain duration reaches or exceeds the thresholds specified for red, a red alert containing the process chain duration currently measured is raised immediately. (No further alert containing the final process chain duration will be raised.) If you want to receive yellow or red alerts only, maintain only the corresponding threshold and leave the other threshold blank. If you always want to get the final process chain duration (e.g. for reporting purposes), set the thresholds for yellow and red to values that will never be reached. 6.1.3.5.6 Cancellation The key figure Cancellation raises a yellow or red alert, if the process chain cancels.

6-1 Cancellation 6.1.3.5.7 Status The key figure Status allows you raise a yellow and / or red alert on critical statuses. Use the value help to choose one of the following status or status combinations:     

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R, J, X Ended with errors, Framework Error Upon Completion R Ended with errors X Canceled J Framework Error Upon Completion R, X Ended with errors, Canceled

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager 6.1.3.5.8 Records Processed The key figure Records Processed allows you to raise alerts on the number of the processed records of the monitored BW process chain. Specify the threshold (two lower thresholds and two upper thresholds are possible) according your requirements. If you want to receive yellow or red alerts only, maintain only the corresponding threshold and leave the other threshold blank. 6.1.3.5.9 Data Packages Processed The key figure Data Packages Processed allows you to raise alerts on the number of the data packages processed. Specify the thresholds (two lower thresholds and two upper thresholds possible) according your requirements. If you want to receive yellow or red alerts only, maintain only the corresponding threshold and leave the other threshold blank.

6.1.4

BW Chain Element Monitoring

After defining a monitoring object for the BW process chain (in this example Extract Sales Orders) you can create a monitoring object for the BW chain element you want to monitor by marking the BW process chain in the list of monitoring objects and pressing button Create.

After a confirmation dialog a new monitoring object with name ‘Element of ‘ (in this example Element of Extract Sales Orders) is created and visible in the monitoring object list. The name of this monitoring object can be changed in the configuration of the monitoring object.

Enter the monitoring configuration of the BW process chain element. The BW Process Chain ID, Start Procedure, Event ID, Event Parameter and Time to look back parameter are prefilled with the data from the related BW Process Chain.

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Maintain the Process Type and the Variant of the chain element you want to monitor. To check if the chain element with these parameters exists on the managed system, choose button Check Identification Data. Then the value help of the fields Process Type and Variant is filled with the chain elements belonging to the BW process chain ID. If the identification check does not return any data, this is probably due to insufficient authorization for the user specified in the RFC connection for remote access (see SAP Note 1411885).

6.1.4.1 Schedule of BW Process Chain Element Depending on what is entered in field Schedule Type the different monitoring schedule types Simple Schedule, Extended Schedule, or Fiscal Year Variant are shown. For further details see chapter 6.1.2.1.3 Schedule.

6.1.4.2 BW Process Chain Element - Alert Configuration You can maintain different kinds of key figures on tab Alert Configuration. The availability of the key figures depends on the start procedure defined for the chain element. For BW process chain elements the same key figures are available as for BW process chains. They are set up the same way and alert analogous as the key figures for chains, such as:  Start Delay: see chapter 6.1.3.5.1 Start Delay.  End Delay: see chapter 6.1.3.5.2 End Delay.  Not Started on Time: see chapter 6.1.3.5.3 Not Started on Time.  Out of time Window: see chapter 6.1.3.5.4 Out of Time Window.  Duration: see chapter 6.1.3.5.5 Duration.  Cancellation: see chapter 6.1.3.5.6 Cancellation.  Status: see chapter 6.1.3.5.7 Status.  Records Processed: see chapter 6.1.3.5.8 Records Processed.  Data Packages Processed: see chapter 6.1.3.5.9 Data Packages Processed.

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6.2 Configure Interface Monitoring Interface monitoring objects can be created for a business process step or a business process interface as displayed below by selecting the interface node in the context navigation. Use the Create button to create a monitoring object for a specific system.

Interface monitors are offered if you flag Interfaces and/or Cross Application as shown below.

Interface Monitoring can be done for the following interface technologies:  ALE / IDoc  BDoc  tRFC  qRFC  bgRFC  SAP Batch Input  SAP Business Workflow  Files

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager  SAP XI / PI message monitoring For detailed information regarding the setup and features of Interface Monitoring please refer to http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Technical Information  Setup Guide - Interface Monitoring. Some of the Application Monitors cannot be assigned to interfaces, but only to business process steps.

6.3 Configure Log Monitoring The logs that are created by various processes within an application can be monitored via the log monitoring capability available in the BPMon. The logs that can be monitored are: o

Application log

o

Due list log

The below chapters explain the possible monitoring configuration for both logs.

6.3.1

Configure Application Log Monitoring

The Application Log (transaction SLG1) provides an infrastructure for collecting messages, saving them in the database and displaying them as a log. An application program should write to the application log at runtime, if a situation happened that needs attention of the user. Usually errors are written to the log, but it can also be useful to report a successful completion. The information that is written is called a message. The set of messages is called a log. A log is not written consecutively, but as a whole at one point in time. A log usually has header information (log type, creator, creation time, etc.). A transaction can generate several logs. The Application Log monitor is listed under Cross Application.

Application Log Monitoring The Application Log monitor reads new logs with fitting Object + Subobject combinations since the last execution of the monitor, i.e. the time stamp of the application log header is compared with the time stamp of the last collector run.

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6.3.1.1 Monitoring Configuration: Detail Information In tab Detail Information of tab Monitoring Configuration by pressing button Add you can specify the combinations of Object, Subobject, User, Transaction, Program, and Aggregation for monitoring.  The Object must be specified explicitly. You can use the wildcard ‘*’ for all other fields except the Aggregation. Unless otherwise specified, the wildcard ‘*’ is set automatically.  For the level of Aggregation at which data evaluation is to be carried out, choose between  per log (L): the data collector evaluates customized thresholds for every single log file.  per hour (H): the data collector evaluates customized thresholds for the aggregate of all log files within one clock hour.  per day (D): the data collector evaluates customized thresholds for the aggregate of all log files within one calendar day.

Application Log Monitor: Detail Information

6.3.1.2 Parameter for External ID You can use the External ID as an additional criterion to filter on the application logs. Specifying an external number allows logs for an Object and a Subobject to be distinguished. Several logs for one Object and Subobject can be combined into one logical log by the same External ID. The field External ID can be seen in transaction SLG1 and is stored in field BALHDR-EXTNUMBER. To use the External ID for filtering, the following configuration steps are necessary:  The patterns are defined for a combination of Object and Subobject (both have to be fully specified).  Choose the Parameter Set ID and use the Maintain Pattern for External ID button to maintain the pattern. You need to define the pattern according to the syntax shown in the example. For example the External ID can be the number of the document for which the log was created.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager Syntax for an External ID Pattern: Example: Pn stands for the parameter. The maximum number of parameters is 5. The maximum length of a pattern is 70 characters. Each parameter has to start with ‘‘. Pos1: ‘‘ Syntax checks are made for the order of parameters (P1 P2 P3 P4 P5), and for the number of parameters (max. 5). Omissions und intersections of offset are not checked. Example: The external ID has a structure like XXXX ********************YYYYY*********, where * represents arbitrary characters or numbers; the sections XXXX and YYYY of the string are the relevant parts for monitoring, and represent the parameters P1 and P2. The correct pattern is .  In the Parameter Definition area, enter the parameters that appear in the application log and specify their Offset and Length.  After specifying the parameter definition clicking on the button Generate Pattern results in the pattern generation visible in the field External ID Pattern.  You can assign specific values that you want to monitor to the parameters under Parameter Values

Application Log Monitoring – Maintain Pattern for External ID

6.3.1.3 Key Figures for Application Log Number of Messages:  If you want to monitor the total number of log messages for the Parameter Set ID created, you can specify the Message Type (Error (E), Warning (W), etc.) and the thresholds in the Number of Messages tab.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager  The log will be scanned for all messages that fit the specified message types and the number of counted message is checked against the threshold and an alert may be raised.

Application Log Monitoring – Key Figure Number of Messages

Critical Messages:  If you want to evaluate specific application log messages that are regarded as critical, then you can specify the thresholds and the message information in the Critical Message tab.  If you specify Message Type as “Error (E)”, Message Class as “OO” and Message Number as “001” and the aggregation level as “per log”, the selected log will be scanned for all messages that fit to the specified Message Type, Message Class and Message Number. The sum of the individual messages is checked against the threshold and per message number an alert may be raised if the thresholds are exceeded. If none of the message numbers exceeds the threshold, then one collective green alert for all monitored message numbers is raised. NOTE: The content of individual placeholders in a message, characterized by Message Class and Message Number, is not evaluated.

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Application Log Monitoring – Key Figure Critical Messages Application Log Content:  If you want to evaluate specific application log messages that include variables/counters then you can specify the content and thresholds under Application Log Content. The log messages may provide information, for example, about a processed document volume or a number of errors. This information will be accumulated if the log message occurs several times, and can trigger alerts.

Application Log Monitoring – Key Figure Application Log Content

6.3.1.4 Alert Creation – Remarks The data collector evaluates all newly created Application Logs ( ) since the last collector run.In case the Aggregation is not per log, the collector memorizes the collected numbers and adds the numbers of messages that have been written since the last collector run. For every Key Figure per Parameter Set ID a YELLOW or RED alert can be the result of a collector run, for example if all 3 key figures are set up with 2 Parameter Set IDs each, then this can result in 6 YELLOW or RED alerts at one collector execution.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager If for a key figure no thresholds are exceeded, only one (collective) GREEN alert is created. Note that it depends on the aggregation level, if alerts are raised after a collector execution or not. Application Log Alert Creation – Example We assume that every 90 minutes 50 messages of an combination are written to the Application Log. The collector is setup to run with a frequency of 60 minutes with the first execution at 00:30h. The threshold for YELLOW is set to 100 and for RED it is set to 200.

Aggregation per day: To indicate that the collector is running and as the threshold is not exceeded a GREEN alert is raised at the th first execution. At 3:00h 100 messages are written and therefore at the 4 collector-run a YELLOW alert is th raised. At 6:30h the aggregated number of messages reaches 200 and at the 7 collector-run a RED alert is raised. No further alerts are raised for that day.

Application Log Monitoring – Alert sequence in case of aggregation per day

Aggregation per log: To indicate that the collector is running and as the threshold is not exceeded a GREEN alert is raised at the first execution. In the consecutive runs if there are logs to evaluate a green alert is raised, as the threshold is not exceeded.

Application Log Monitoring – Alert sequence in case of aggregation per log

6.3.2

Configure Due List Log Monitoring

A due list is a list that contains several entries (documents) depending on selection criteria. There are different types of due lists in an SAP system of which the following three are most important: Delivery (L), Billing (F) and Picking (K). The delivery due list can be directly accessed via transaction V_SA, the billing due list via transaction V.21. In case of a billing due list, the list contains e.g. a number of sales documents that need to be billed. If the billing due list was processed previously and it is important to know which billing documents were created from this billing due list, it can be displayed in the Due List Log for this billing run. The Due List Log monitor is listed under Cross Application.

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Due List Log Monitoring After the creation of the monitoring object by pressing button OK you can access the monitoring object and do its configuration. Under Parameters on Object Level in the Monitoring Configuration tab specify the Due List Type and the Aggreg. Level. For the monitoring of due list log messages, four different key figures can be used: No Documents Created: Refers to the status of the document creation itself. The alert rating (YELLOW or RED) will be raised if no documents were created during a Due List run. Minimum N° of Documents: Refers to the minimum number of documents that should be created during a Due List run. The threshold values for the number of documents that result in a change from GREEN to YELLOW and from YELLOW to RED must be maintained. Total N° of Messages: Refers to the total number of message created during a Due List run. The threshold values for the number of messages that result in a change from GREEN to YELLOW and from YELLOW to RED must be maintained. N° of Specific Messages: Refers to the specific due list log messages. The Message Type, the Message ID and the Message Number can be specified. It is also possible to use wild cards. The threshold values for the number of messages that result in a change from GREEN to YELLOW and from YELLOW to RED must be maintained.

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Due List Log Monitoring – Monitoring Configuration

6.4 Configure Dialog Performance Monitoring The performance of the main business transactions is most crucial for the daily operations. Bad performance of main business transactions can cause that  dialog user have to wait for system response,  business is delayed or even can't be performed,  system load is increased and leads to hardware bottlenecks, so that the overall system slows down. Therefore SAP recommends defining KPIs and thresholds for dialog transaction performance. Required monitoring activities should be defined including procedures to measure the KPIs on a regular basis. The expectations have to be part of a service level agreement between the business units and the operation center. Performance Monitoring within BPMon assists you to check these defined KPIs and to react on exceeded thresholds in time: Performance data of transactions to be monitored are extracted from the managed system. Monitoring of transactions with specified key figures is defined, so that alerting on performance critical situations is enabled, when the runtime related thresholds are reached. BPMon provides different options to monitor the dialog performance of transactions, function modules, or reports in SAP systems:  Performance Monitoring for Alerting CCMS based, Monitor Name: Dialog Performance  Performance Monitoring for Alerting (BOPERFMO), Monitor Name: Dialog Performance Monitor

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager  Performance Monitoring for Reporting and Dashboards, Monitor Name: PerfMon: Techn. Performance for Reporting The following table contains an overview of advantages and disadvantages of each of these monitors: Monitor Name

Monitoring Type / Techn. Name

Advantages

Disadvantages

Dialog Performance

Dialog Performance

- Very low impact on workload since CCMS infrastructure is used

- Selection with function code and user not available - Only dialog transactions can be monitored

Dialog Performance Monitor

Application Monitor / BOPERFMO

- Selection possible with function code and user

PerfMon: Techn. Performance for Reporting

Application Monitor / PETPERF1

- Selection possible with function code and user

- Delay of at least 2 hours until the data get visible in BPMon

- Dialog and HTTP monitoring possible

- RFC monitoring not yet possible

- Dialog, RFC and HTTP monitoring possible

- High workload on the managed system, if many statistics are collected, especially if there are many applications servers and if many dialog steps are executed

- Impact on workload is low, since the data collection takes place via basis workload collector RSCOLL00 - Provides data in BP Analytics The CCMS based Dialog Performance monitor uses the CCMS infrastructure of the monitored system for data collection. With this monitoring type an MTE node in CCMS is created for every transaction you have set up monitoring for. As it is not possible to select performance data of specific dialog steps (FCODE) and users, this monitor is not sufficient for monitoring specific operations (e.g. Saving of order) or for specific user groups. The application monitor Dialog Performance Monitor retrieves transaction data on dialog step and user level with in time alerting. However it can cause high workload on the managed system, if many statistics are collected, especially if there are many application servers and if many dialog steps are executed. The PerfMon: Techn. Performance for Reporting Monitor can retrieve transaction data on dialog step and user level with low impact on managed systems workload, since the data collection takes place via basis workload collector RSCOLL00. The data are stored in Solution Manager’s BW using BP Analytics. However it provides no in-time-alerting, as there is a latency of at least 2 hours until the performance metrics are stored in SolMan BW, i.e. get visible for BPMon alerting.

6.4.1

Performance Monitoring for Alerting CCMS Based

With the monitor Dialog Performance the dialog performance of transactions can be monitored and differentiated by instances. The data collection is based on statistical records available (transaction STAD) in the SAP system. The CCMS infrastructure of the monitored system is used for data collection. That is, an MTE node in CCMS is created for every transaction you have set up monitoring for. These MTE nodes include monitors which compare the threshold values with a sliding window of the values reported to the alert monitor over the last fifteen minutes. An alert will only be raised in case of a rating change of the alert (e.g. from GREEN to YELLOW, YELLOW to RED, RED to YELLOW, YELLOW to GREEN). As a consequence of this CCMS monitor behavior:  The data collection is fast and can be taken for instant alerting in case of any system bottlenecks.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager  The point in time and frequency of the data collection cannot be influenced by BPMon, so the measured values are unsuitable for constant reporting purposes (for example to perform trend analysis for dialog performance of transactions).  You can create the Dialog Performance monitoring object by choosing the monitoring type Dialog Performance as shown in the below snapshot.

Monitoring Type Dialog Performance After the creation of the monitoring object enter the monitoring object configuration page and:  Use the Add button to create and configure a key figure.  In the Transaction column you need to specify the transaction that is relevant for monitoring.  The monitoring can be performed per SAP instance. Therefore an instance has to be selected in the Instance column. All instances maintained for a system are listed in the F4 help. You need to choose the server instance in the Instance column.  Under Alert Types all different performance indicators such as the response time, queue time, load and generation time, database request time and the front-end response time that can be monitored are listed. Those times that are relevant for monitoring should be selected.  For each combination of transaction code and instance that should be included in the monitoring, the threshold values resulting in alert messages for changes from GREEN to YELLOW, from YELLOW to RED, back from RED to YELLOW, and back from YELLOW to GREEN have to be specified. Since the monitoring object for performance monitoring is created on the managed system, it might be possible that the object already exists there. Therefore you can reload the current threshold values from the respective systems via the button Copy Thresholds. If successfully retrieved for an SAP instance, the values are overwritten in the columns. If no active settings for the threshold values were found for a certain transaction code, default values are set (as indicated in column Default)

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Dialog Performance – Key Figure Selection

6.4.2

Performance Monitoring for Alerting (BOPERFMO)

By means of the Dialog Performance Monitor (BOPERFMO) it is possible to monitor the average dialog performance not just for the whole transaction, but also broken down to function code level of a transaction, i.e. specific dialog steps. A dialog transaction consists of various dialog steps. A dialog step is usually a screen change within one transaction. But not all of these screen changes might be equally performance critical. For example, transaction VA01 can be used to create sales orders. Let’s imagine a customer is experiencing performance problems for this transaction while saving. During all other dialog steps (screen changes) the performance is very good. To monitor the performance of the whole transaction might not be very useful, since the very quick screen changes within the transaction compensate the long duration of the saving and therefore influence the average response time per dialog step. In order to monitor just the saving of VA01, you would need to monitor just those dialog steps with function code SICH for transaction code VA01. This data collector determines average response times by directly reading the statistical records (available also in transaction STAD) and considers the time-frame since the last data collection. Hence, it can be used either for Real-Time-Alerting, but also for reporting purposes because frequency and time of the data collection can be directly influenced by BPMon (via the Monitoring Schedule). In case of high amount of data in the statistical records, this data collector can be very performanceintensive, so it might be better to use other monitors for Dialog Performance instead (as described in following chapters).  Under Cross Application, choose Cross Application  Dialog Performance Monitor.

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 In the monitoring object configuration page choose the desired key figure and set the thresholds and parameters for monitoring.  You can select the following Key Figures for monitoring: o DB response time (Avg. DB response time in milliseconds) o GUI response time (Avg. GUI response time in milliseconds) o Roll wait time (Avg. roll wait time in milliseconds) o CPU time (Avg. CPU response time in milliseconds) o Total response time (Avg. total response time in milliseconds) o Number of dialog steps in percentage (Number of dialog steps for monitored transaction in % to all number of dialog steps for user and instance) o Total number of dialog steps (Number of dialog steps for monitored transaction) o DB proc. call time (APO) (Avg. DB processing call time in milliseconds, only for APO) o Total response time (data volume-depend.) (percentage of statistical records where the total response time exceeds the allowed value)

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 You can specify the following parameters under for a Parameter Set.  In the Call Type field, you specify the request type, such as ‘D (Dialog)’, ‘H (HTTP)’, or ‘R (RFC)’: o

For call type ‘D (Dialog)’, specify the transaction code in the Value 1 field and the function code in the Value 2 field. Note that function codes in HTTP requests can also be considered. Remark: The transaction code is mandatory, whereas you can leave the Value 2 field blank for the function code. In this case, only statistics with the chosen transaction code but without any function code will be evaluated. If you maintain the transaction code but enter a wildcard (*) for the function code, all statistics with this transaction code (with and without any function codes) will be evaluated.

o

For call type ‘H (HTTP)’, statistics (STAD) that contain the specified HTTP string are evaluated. Maintain the HTTP string in the Value 1 field. If the chosen HTTP string is longer than 120 characters, the remaining characters can be entered in the Value 2 field, which will be concatenated to during data collection.

o

For call type ‘R (RFC)’, RFC statistics are evaluated. Enter the called program name in the Value 1 field and enter the function module in the Value 2 field. You can maintain the program name and the function module together or individually. Remark: For Remote Function Calls only, the total response time can be monitored and only server RFCs are considered.

 The User pattern field allows you to restrict the selection of statistical records and consider only those that belong to specific user/users.  The Instances field allows you to maintain instances of the monitored system that should be used for the selection of statistical records. It is suitable for large systems with multiple instances where the load is distributed in such a way that monitored business process steps are executed on certain application servers/instances only.  The Proc. Intervals field allows you to split the collection process of the statistical records into smaller intervals. It should be maintained only in case of large systems with numerous statistical records in the monitored interval. Use it, if the collector dumps in the satellite system due to lack of memory. Typical values for this parameter are 5 - 10.

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Only for key figure ‘Total response time (data vol.-depend.)’ the following additional parameters are available:  The Data volume indicator specifies which field from the statistical record can be taken to estimate the amount of data processed by the transaction. There are 5 options available, all related to the database interactions: INS (number of inserted records), UPD (number of updated records), DEL (number of deleted records), RSEQ (number of records read sequentially), RDIR (number of records read directly).  Constant A and Constant B allow specifying constants of the linear dependency between the number of rows (see above mentioned parameter) and the response time. This linear dependency is described with the formula t = A*x + B, where t is the response time of the dialog step, A and B are constants that should be calculated based on several examples, x is the number of rows in the selected database interaction (selects/inserts/updates/deletions). To calculate A and B one may want to use the LINEST() function of Microsoft Excel. When Constant B is calculated, the upper threshold for the response time has to be defined. Mentioned formula describes an ideal response time, so one should define an allowed response time, which is higher than ideal, but still considered to be acceptable. This should be a certain value in milliseconds (for example 2000). This value should be added to the value of B calculated in the previous step and this will be the value of Constant B that you maintain in the given field of the customizing.  Minimum Records allows specifying the lower limit of affected database rows to be considered by the collector. Example: creation and update of the CRM sales document have the same transaction and function codes. But the number of DB inserts during the creation (70+) is much higher than during the update (normally less than 20). In order to exclude updates during the calculations one can specify the minimum limit of DB inserts as 50. All statistical records with less than 50 inserted records will be filtered out. For key figure ‘Total response time (data vol.-depend.)’ the thresholds for yellow and red alerts are the percentage of statistical records with ‘bad’ response times (where the response time was longer than allowed) compared with the total number of statistical records considered by the selection (with the

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager certain transaction code, function code and with more affected DB records as the minimum, specified in customizing - see field Minimum Records).

6.4.2.1 Example for Data-Volume Dependent Performance Monitoring Let's try to implement data-volume dependent performance monitoring for a real example: monitoring of the save time for the sales order with dependency on the number of line items in the order. Step 1: Analyzing statistical records In order to proceed with the setup we need a few examples of the statistical records for the orders with different number of items. To do that, one should save several sales orders with different number of items and get the statistical records for these steps. When doing initial analysis of the dialog steps, make sure that you execute the transaction several times to avoid fluctuations in the response time due to the DB disk reads, empty caches or similar factors. Here are some examples: Saving of a sales order with 1 item Response time: 2.238 ms Type of ABAP/4 request Total Direct read Sequential read Update Delete Insert Commit

Database rows 348 6 107 2 229 4

Requests 222 95 66 2 55 4

Requests to buffer 77 75 2

Database calls 126

Requests to buffer 89 87 2

Database calls 156

Requests to buffer 101 99 2

Database calls 188

65 2 55 4

Request time (ms) 2.198 10 35 84 2.066 2 1

Avg.time / row (ms) 6,3 1,7 0,3 42 9 0,5

Request time (ms) 2.510 4 30 1 2.471 3 1

Avg.time / row (ms) 6,0 0,8 0,2 0,5 9,0 0,4

Request time (ms) 4.475 6 64 1 4.316 66 22

Avg.time / row (ms) 9,0 1,2 0,4 0,5 13,3 5,5

Saving of a sales order with 2 items Response time: 2.537 ms Type of ABAP/4 request Total Direct read Sequential read Update Delete Insert Commit

Database rows 420 5 130 2 275 8

Requests 267 113 77 2 67 8

79 2 67 8

Saving of a sales order with 3 items Response time: 4.520 ms Type of ABAP/4 request Total Direct read Sequential read Update Delete Insert Commit

Database rows 498 5 154 2 325 12

Requests 315 133 89 2 79 12

95 2 79 12

From the above examples we can see that the best parameter that we can bind to the response time is the number of database inserts. It also very well corresponds to the number of items in the document. Step 2: Determining constants A and B Normally the response time has linear dependency on the data volume. This linear dependency is described with the formula t = A*x + B, where t is the response time of the dialog step, A and B are constants. The easiest way to determine the A and B constants is to use Microsoft Excel for that. On the following picture you can see how it can be done: 100

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Step 3: Define threshold for the acceptable response time Now we have our constants A and B, but as far as we model ideal response time, we need to define the threshold for the acceptable response time. If we say, that saving of the sales order with certain number of items should take maximum 1 second longer than we expect, then the constant B should be adjusted (we add 1.000 ms to it). In other words: ideally saving of a sales order with 3 items takes t = 285 * 12 (number of DB inserts for 3 items) + 816 = 4.236 ms. However it is still accepted when this step takes up to 5.236 ms. This 1000 ms threshold is added to the constant B calculated before and we have our Constant B parameter for the monitoring setup. Step 4: Complete customizing So finally the customizing will look as follows:  Value 1: Transaction code VA01  Value 2: Function code SICH  Call type: D for dialog records  Data.Volume Indicator: INS for the Database Inserts as a calculation basis  Constant A: 285  Constant B: 1816  Min.Records: 0 if we want to consider all statistical records without any exclusion

6.4.3

Performance Monitoring for Reporting and Dashboards

The Performance Monitor for Reporting and Dashboards retrieves statistical performance data of the business transactions (like you can see it with transaction STAD). It offers different key figures like average response time, average DB time, etc. and different select options like transaction, function code, user, etc. The data are saved in Solution Manger’s BW. Functions for evaluation are provided with Business Process Analytics (BP Analytics) and Business Process Operations Dashboards (BPO Dashboards). The setup of monitoring object 'PerfMon: Techn. Performance for Reporting' is described in a separate setup guide available at http://www.service.sap.com/bpm in the Media Library under Technical Information.

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6.5 Configure Throughput Backlog Monitoring The throughput and backlog monitors - generally referred to as Application Monitors - have a wide range of functionalities. ST-A/PI 01P* contains more than 140 Monitors including more than 680 different Key Figures for various application areas and the development of additional monitors is ongoing and will be provided with future ST-A/PI releases or ST-A/PI support packages. The application monitoring framework provides the following main features: 1. a flexible configuration of monitoring objects, i.e. the possibility to specify selection criteria 2. a highly flexible data collector scheduling 3. a Detail Report showing the result of the last data collection, i.e. the list of the identified critical documents, for each Parameter Set, consisting of selection criteria and alert threshold for the key figure. The Detail Report can be accessed directly from the Alert List for the key figure in the Alert Inbox by pressing the button Detail Info. 4. a framework that is open for easy implementation of customer defined monitors. For detailed information on the different Application Monitors refer to the document http://service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Overview and Demos  Business Process Operations Key Figures - Overview.

6.5.1

Throughput and Backlog Indicators (TBIs)

Application Monitors has been introduced in order to consider (un-)processed documents in the SAP system, the so called Throughput and Backlog Indicators (TBIs). These TBIs should especially provide:  A benchmarking by measuring the ‘Throughput’ of business documents or items per day. That means the collection of business documents or items created on the current or the previous day.  Automated and early detection of application error situations and backlogs in the core business processes.  Automated error and backlog analysis tools. The TBIs comprise meanwhile over 500 data collectors for the following SAP applications and scenarios:  SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (SAP ERP) – Logistic o SD, MM, PP, LE, WM, PM, QM, Miscellaneous (for details refer to SDN Community Blogs SAP Network Blog: Best Practice: Business Process Monitoring for Order to Cash SAP Network Blog: Best Practice: Business Process Monitoring for Procure to Pay SAP Network Blog: Best Practice: Business Process Monitoring for Manufacturing  SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (SAP ERP) – Financials o

Open items, Payment Runs, Bank Statements

 SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM) o Sales, Services, CIC  SAP Supplier Relationship Management (SAP SRM) o Self-Service Procurement, Strategic Sourcing  SAP Advanced Planning and Optimization (SAP APO) o DP, SNP, PP/DS, gATP  SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM) o Waves, Warehouse Orders & Tasks, Deliveries et.al.  Industry Specific Monitoring o Apparel & Footwear, Automotive, Retail, Utilities  Mass Activity Monitoring o Banking, Insurance, Telecommunications, Utilities

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Throughput and Backlog Monitors

The creation of a monitoring object within the configuration tool has been explained in chapter 5 Setup of Business Process Monitoring Overview. For more details on the backlog and throughput monitors refer to the document ‘Setup Guide - Application Monitoring’ under http://service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Overview and Demos  Business Process Operations Key Figures - Overview.

6.6 Configure Data Consistency Monitoring Data Consistency Monitors are just one of many different monitoring types within the BPMon framework. You may use a business process called ‘Data Consistency Cockpit’ which is delivered with the Solution Manager as template for your own monitoring process. Technically the Data Consistency Monitors belong to the area ‘Cross Application: Data Consistency’.  ERP Sales & Services  ERP Financials  SAP CRM  SAP APO  (Extended) Warehouse Management  SAP for Retail (F&R)  SAP Oil & Gas

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Data Consistency Monitors The creation of a monitoring object within the configuration tool has been explained in chapter 5 Setup of Business Process Monitoring Overview. For details about the features and possible scenarios please refer to http://service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Technical Information  Setup Guide - Data Consistency Monitoring

6.7 Configure Technical Monitoring Technical monitors are the monitors that are application independent. Hence they are grouped as Cross Application monitoring types. They focus mainly on performance and error situations by reading certain log files. These include the monitors listed under:  Document Volume  Update Errors  CCMS Monitor  Cross Application

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Technical Monitors

6.7.1

Configure Document Volume Monitoring

This monitoring type Document Volume allows the monitoring of document volumes in terms of update, insertion, and/or deletion operations on single tables. The information is based on the table call statistics (transaction /nST10, report RSSTAT90). There are two types of alert monitoring: In the first one, ‘MaxRecordsAffected’, a number of operations is defined which should not be exceeded, e.g. there shouldn’t be more than 10 deletions on table VBAK per day. The second one, minimum records, defines a number of table operations that should be at least performed. Example: In some company there are around 3000 sales orders processed on a normal working day before 3 pm. If there are just 500 sales orders processed by this time on some specific day something might have gone wrong. Therefore it is possible to set a threshold, that at least 2000 updates on VBAK should be processed until 1pm.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager Document Volume Monitoring  Use the ‘Add’ button to create a table entry for configuration.  Any table can be included into the monitoring and there can be also different tables assigned to one business process step.  For every table an Operation (insert, delete or update) needs to be selected.  Depending on the scenario, the thresholds should be specified for either ‘Minimum N° of Records’ or ‘Maximum N° of Records’ to raise a Yellow or a Red alert.  A clock hour needs to be specified in the ‘Check Time’ to assign a time window and the respective days must be flagged to specify the days when the data collector must run.

Document Volume Monitoring

6.7.2

Configure Update Errors Monitoring

Changes to the data in an SAP system caused by a business process should be written to the database completely or not at all. If the operation is canceled while the transaction is being executed, or if an error occurs, the transaction should not make any changes to the database. These activities are handled by the SAP update system. The SAP System makes a distinction between primary, time-critical (V1) and secondary, non-time-critical (V2) update errors. This distinction allows the system to process critical database changes before less critical changes. V1 modules describe critical or primary changes; these affect objects that have a controlling function in the SAP System, for example order creation or changes to material stock. V2 modules describe less critical secondary changes. These are pure statistical updates, for example, such as result calculations.

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Update Errors Monitoring  Use the ‘Add’ button to create a table entry for configuration.  Monitoring of Update Errors can be configured for online transactions and/or ABAP programs relevant in a business process. This is specified under the Object Type. The Object Name represents the transaction or the name of the ABAP program itself.  A user executing the transaction or the ABAP program can be specified. If no user is specified explicitly, all users (represented by '*') will be considered in monitoring data evaluation.  Since update errors are usually very critical the default configuration is to raise a yellow alert as soon as one update error occurs. This is valid for V1 and for V2 update errors. To raise a red alert for a V1 or a V2 update error a threshold must be specified for Number of Errors for Red(Upd1) or Number of Errors for Red(Upd2) respectively. Note: The threshold for yellow is 1 for both update type and cannot be changed.

Update Errors Monitoring Entering an asterisk (*) is not possible for transactions or reports for the monitoring type ‘Update Errors’, because a CCMS node will be created on the monitored system for every single transaction

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager or report. A workaround to monitor all update errors in general would be to include the CCMS node with the path (see example in chapter Configure CCMS Monitoring): ‘‘ where the update process runs, see tr. SM51) -> ‘R3Services’ -> ‘Update’ -> ‘AbapErrorInUpdate’

6.7.3

Configure CCMS Monitoring

With the monitoring type CCMS Monitors it is possible to assign any CCMS monitoring tree element (MTE) to the monitoring objects of Business Process Steps or Interfaces. BPMon can only retrieve and display the alerts of the CCMS monitors, but cannot influence the behavior of the CCMS monitors in terms of filter criteria, frequency and the time of data collection. As a consequence, some CCMS monitors might not be suitable for providing data for trend analysis or reporting purposes because they simply to do not provide alerts on a regular basis. To fulfill such requirements you could either use the Application Monitor ‘Table Entry Counter’ (for this example with update errors you could monitor entries in table VBHDR, see also chapter 6.7.4.1 ‘Use the generic ‘Table Entry Counter’‘) or you develop a customer-specific Application Monitor by using the ‘Customer Exit’ (see also chapter 10.1.1 ‘Customer Specific data collector via Customer Exit‘).

The following example will show how to include the CCMS monitor for monitoring any kind of ABAP update errors (transaction SM13) in general. 1. Call transaction RZ20 in the monitored system and navigate to a monitor that contains the required alert(s). In our example this would be the path: ‘us4118_TEC_20’ (server name where update service runs, see tr. SM51) -> ‘R3Services’ -> ‘Update’ -> ‘AbapErrorInUpdate’ 2. Select the corresponding monitor (in our example the MTE node ‘ABAPErrorInUpdate’) and press F1. You will get a popup displaying the MTE name (in this example ‘TEC\us4118_TEC_20\...\Update\AbapErrorInUpdate’) which represents the technical address of the MTE node. Copy this MTE name into your clipboard, you will need it later (see step 6).

CCMS MTE Name

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3. In the configuration page you can specify the CCMS Context and this will enable the F4 help in the MTE Name column. 4. Specify a meaningful name in the Short Text. 5. Choose the MTE node you want to monitor from the F4 help in the MTE Name. The system will now retrieve the MTE type and the threshold values (only for MTE node types Attribute’) of the MTE monitor from the monitored system

= ‘Performance

CCMS Monitoring 6. For the MTE node types ‘Performance Attribute’, the thresholds can be changed in the set up. However you can use the ‘Copy Thresholds’ button to reassign the thresholds from the monitored system.

CCMS Monitoring

If field MTE type (text) was not populated correctly,  There is a problem with the CCMS RFC destination to the monitored system August 2012

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager  The MTE Name was not entered correctly (even a superfluous ‘blank’ character somewhere in text would lead to an incorrect interpretation of the MTE Name).  The MTE node type chosen for monitoring is not supported. For example MTE nodes of types ‘Virtual Node’, ‘Object’, or ‘Object Description’. Note: If you change the threshold values on BPMon side, the original thresholds of the CCMS monitor will be also overwritten in the MTE node in CCMS of the monitored system! Unlike all other Monitoring Types the CCMS Monitoring provides the opportunity to assign MTEs from other Systems than the one system the actual business process step is assigned to. As an example you could be interested in monitoring the availability from a Portal system that possesses no CCMS but is included as one business process step in your business process. Now you could use one MTE in the CCMS of the SAP Solution Manager to monitor the heartbeat of the Portal. You could then assign the corresponding alert via CCMS Monitoring to business process step running on the Portal system. Important CCMS Nodes: Sometimes it makes sense to include monitors into BPMon which are actually typical System Monitoring data collectors. System bottleneck situations indicating performance problems affecting the business processes (e.g. CPU utilization, memory usage, database memory space), heartbeat monitors for non-ABAP applications or systems, or any other MTE node which provides any valuable information for the business processes. 

SAP Note 1023959 ‘FAQ:System Monitoring Customizing in SAP Solution’ provides Excel lists containing MTE nodes which could be reasonable for monitoring different system compoenents, such as for databases MS SQL and Oracle, CRM, BW, ERP, SCM, EP, PI, SAP Basis.



SAP Note 1068204 ‘New monitor template for database monitoring’ providing monitors for o Database availability o Database size o Memory space used by the database o Daily growth of memory space used by the database

6.7.4

Configure Cross Application Monitoring

The following are some of the application independent monitors that are listed under ‘Cross Application’. o ABAP Dump Monitoring: monitor ABAP dumps related to specific transactions or programs. o Table Entry Counter: run dynamic database queries to count the number of entries (or the number of distinct values) in any database table in a monitored system. (for details see next chapter) o Output Messages: monitor any kind of output message in table NAST. o Post Processing Framework: monitor PPF activities. mainly used for SAP CRM, SAP SRM, SAP SCM and SAP EWM. o Evaluate RFC Connections: monitor the availability of RFC connections. o Number Ranges: measures the current filling level of the different number range objects. The aim is to inform the user if only a few numbers are available. o BI Query Alert Collector: monitoring features for all statistical data available in BI that can be accessed via a BI query. You are free to define the logic behind this alert KPI. You can define a BW query and use all the features (calculations, restrictions, and so on) available in BW.

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Cross Application Monitors The configuration of these monitors can be done in a similar way as explained in the chapters under 5.3.3 Business process Step Node. The detailed information regarding the monitor itself can be access via ‘Display Help for Monitor’ as shown in the screen shot.

Cross Application Monitors

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6.7.4.1 Use the generic ‘Table Entry Counter’ The generic Table Entry Counter enables you to run dynamic database queries to count the number of entries (or the number of distinct values) in any database table in a monitored system. It supports flexible filtering based on selection options for five table fields. This monitor is therefore a substitute or workaround for areas in which no application specific monitor is available. Furthermore, it can help to avoid implementing the application monitoring customer-exit, provided that the collector result can be calculated by a simple SELECT statement. No setup is required in the monitored system. However, you should simulate your planned database query using transaction SE16 to ensure that the table and field names are correct, as well as the required selection options for filtering. Setup in Solution Manager Choose the application monitor ‘Table Entry Counter’ (technical name BOTABCNT). The main customizing settings are configured at header level of the monitoring object: As the first parameter, enter the Table Name. The search help is executed as a local dialog in the selected monitored system, and so you can use features such as ‘Last Object Selected’, ‘Information System’, and ‘SAP Applications Hierarchy’ for easy navigation. The table name is the only mandatory parameter, whereas the following filters are optional. As the second parameter, enter the Field Name for the first filter, which must be a valid field in the selected database table. A local search help dialog is also shown here, which enables you to filter only fields in the selected table. In the third row, enter the Selection Options for the first filter, which represent the actual filter field values. If you have already entered the table name and the field name for filtering, the system attempts to determine an input help from the Data Dictionary. Remember to enter all values in the database format, for example, the date 2008/09/24 must be entered as 20080924, or U.S. time 8:30 pm would be 203000. For more information about how to implement dynamic date filtering using relative dates instead of absolute values, see below. Repeat these steps for further filters if required. Available Key Figures You can choose between two key figures: - ‘Number of Counted Entries’ (with given filter criteria) - ‘Number of Distinct Values’ (for a single field name and with given filter criteria) Performance Warning Since the data collector can query any table, you are responsible for avoiding selections in large tables. Keep in mind that the necessary SQL selection aggregates for COUNT and DISTINCT create expensive database selects, including full table scans and bypassing SAP buffering. Using the Table Entry Counter carelessly can cause severe performance degradation in the monitored system. Consider your setup carefully and follow these rules: - Avoid using Table Entry Counter monitor for large database tables - Avoid running the data collection with a high monitoring frequency - Avoid complex filtering, especially with patterns, ranges, and exclusions - Avoid filters on fields that are not supported by an index. If in doubt, try to simulate the query using transaction SE16 to obtain an idea about the potential runtime. Also monitor the data collection runtime, which is recorded in a special column of the alert list. Dynamic Date Filtering

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager There are many use cases in which the result of a table count is time-dependent, such as entries created on the current day or during the last week. However, inside the BPMon Setup Session, there are only static filter values such as a fixed day entry for a date field. To achieve dynamic date filtering (which means calculating relative dates instead of absolute dates) the Table Counter provides a special syntax to define fixed points and offsets for relative dates. Syntax for Relative Dates: Instead of a fixed (absolute) date, you can enter a special keyword for the start date (prefixed by a $ sign) and, if required, an additional offset as a difference in days. Syntax = {StartDate}[{Difference}] For {StartDate}, the following keywords are available: Keyword = Description $TODAY = Current date $FDOCM = First day of current month $LDOCM = Last day of current month $FDOCY = First day of current year $LDOCY = Last day of current year $FDOPM = First day of previous month $LDOPM = Last day of previous month $FDOPY = First day of previous year $LDOPY = Last day of previous year $FDONM = First day of next month $LDONM = Last day of next month $FDONY = First day of next year $LDONY = Last day of next year (These keywords are also available as value help if you enter $ in the filter field first.) The optional {Difference} is entered as a positive or negative offset in days: * Using ‘+’ increments days (= move start date into the future) * Using ‘-’ decrements days (= move start date into the past) Examples: * $TODAY-2 = Day before yesterday * $TODAY+2 = Day after tomorrow The dynamic date selection can be combined in ranges (using the ‘from’ and ‘to’ fields of the selection criteria), for example, to define a date range. Example: You want to count the number of documents that were created during the past month. The selection criteria would be {FieldName} = $FDOPM to $LDOPM. Supported Data Types Filter fields for the following data types can respond to the special syntax: Data Type = Date Format DATS (ABAP type D) = YYYYMMDD CHAR10 (ABAP type C) = YYYYMMDD CHAR14 (ABAP type C) = YYYYMMDDhhmmss DEC15 (ABAP type P8) = YYYYMMDDhhmmss DEC21 (ABAP type P11) = YYYYMMDDhhmmss,mmmuuun Data types that include time stamps (‘hhmmss’) are defaulted with zeros (‘000000’), with the exception of start date keywords using a ‘Last day’ option, which sets a maximum time stamp (‘235959’).

6.8 Configure Non-ABAP Monitoring In order to monitor non-ABAP or non-SAP systems you can use  Application Monitoring on Remote Databases o with generic monitoring object  Generic Table Counter (monitor NATABCNX)

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager o with specific monitoring object  Sample key figures for TriplePoint Commodity SL (monitor NASTPCT1) rd  Custom-specific key figures for other 3 -party or legacy systems o with custom-defined monitoring object  Own complex data collector logic, reusing the remote DB access framework  Application Monitoring using Web services o Push-mechanism  Non-ABAP system pushes alert information into Solution Manager (monitor NAWSPUSH) o Pull-mechanism  Solution Manager pulls alert information from Non-ABAP system (monitor NAWSPULL)  based on data extracted to SAP BW o Generic Infocube/DSO Reader for remote BW (monitor NABWICNX) For details about the features and possible scenarios please refer to http://service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Overview and Demos  Business Process Monitoring for non-ABAP/non-SAP - Overview Details regarding the setup of non-ABAP/non-SAP data collectors you can find under http://service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Technical Information  Setup Guide for non-ABAP/nonSAP.

6.9 Configure Procedures for Alert Handling There alert handling procedures are accessible from the alert inbox. The following are the essential information that needs to be maintained for effective alert handling. The problem indicator, error handling procedure and the escalation path can be documented within the Monitoring Activities and the Monitoring Activities Template. These can be assigned to monitoring objects. For more details refer to chapter Monitoring Activities Templates. To support the alert analysis you can assign analysis tools directly to a monitoring object or assign an Analysis Tool Set. For more details refer to chapter Analysis Tool Sets. A monitoring team responsible for alert handling can be assigned to a monitoring object. For further details refer to chapter Monitoring Teams.

6.10 Configure Automatic Alert Notification BPMon offers an efficient way to automatically send out alert notification messages (e.g. e-mails to single recipients or shared distribution lists, SMS) or create SAP Service Desk messages to the persons responsible for the alert, as soon as a critical situation is detected on the managed systems. The sending of these notifications can be configured directly in the BPMon Setup tool. Each Monitoring Object instance can be assigned a specific recipient for the notification message which enables the distribution of different kinds of alerts (e.g. technology-related or application-related) to the different teams. For further details regarding the configuration of automatic alert notifications and assigning them to monitoring objects refer to chapter Notification Templates.

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7 Alerting This chapter will explain how to access the alerts created by BPMon once it is active. The navigation within the Alert Inbox is explained in the following chapters.

7.1 Alert Rating In order to evaluate a situation for any defined alert, there are four different possible alert ratings. The importance of an alert is indicated by the corresponding color of the alert rating. For instance, there is a green alert for monitoring without any problems and red alerts for very critical situations. The following table lists the different alert ratings: ALERTS / WARNING

MESSAGE Alert! Very critical situation No Alert, Worst situation Warning. Checking necessary. O.K.

7-1 Possible alert ratings The alert rating enables focusing on critical systems, significant Business Processes, major Business Process Steps and Interfaces. The rating for each alert that appears depends on the alert customizing that was made within the BPMon Setup Session. It shows the alerts from high priority to low priority. This definition is valid for all monitoring areas. Alerts will be found in the software overview, in the overview of the hardware and, what this document focuses on, the business process overview. You can change the hierarchy of the rating as described in chapter Solution Settings.

7.2 Accessing and Handling of Alerts in Work Center Work Centers can be accessed via transaction SOLMAN_WORKCENTER. Relevant for BPMon is the work center Business Process Operations. The navigation within Business Process Operations will be described in the following sub-chapters. For the roles, which need to be assigned to users to work with work center ‘Business Process Operation’, please see chapter Roles on the SAP Solution Manager System.

7.2.1

Overview

When entering the work center ‘Business Process Operation’, the level button Overview gives you a first glance of the actual state of all Solutions and Business Processes. You can choose between the two different views:  Open Alerts shows the highest status of all unconfirmed alerts, so you can get a quick overview of all open activities.  Current Status shows the highest status of all alerts (confirmed or unconfirmed), but only considering the alerts of the last run per data collector set up. In this view, you can see at a glance whether you currently do have problems in your Business Processes, or not.

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7-2 Work Center ‘Business Process Operations’ - Overview Option 1: In order to navigate context-related to the next level Solutions you can click on the links (e.g. ‘Solutions with red alerts ()’, or any other link). Option 2: If you use the level buttons Solutions, Business Processes or Alert Inbox on the left hand side, you will enter the corresponding level.

7.2.2

Solutions

When entering the level Solutions, all Solutions including their alert information will be displayed that matches the filter criteria set (see option 1 in figure below). In some cases (depending on the previous navigation steps) neither the list of Solutions nor the filter criteria are displayed on the screen, but only the Solutions selected previously. If you want to change the displayed Solution(s), you can use the button Expand Tray (see option 0 in figure below) at the right-hand top of the screen. You can use this button Collapse Tray also to hide the upper screen part containing the list of Solutions and the filter criteria. Once you changed to the level button Solutions, all Solutions which match the selection criteria and which include generated BPMon customizing are shown. As filter criteria you can select the Alert Mode (Open or Current) and the Rating (e.g. ‘all’, ‘with Yellow Alerts’, ‘with Red Alerts’…) or you select one single Solution.

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7-3 Work Center ‘Business Process Operations’ – Solutions On the right-hand side below the table listing the Solutions, there is a little link Refresh (see option 2 in figure above) which you can use to update the Alerts Information (that means the number of alerts received by BPMon in the meantime). Next to the Refresh link is a small button, which opens a popup where you can decide to only refresh the Alerts Information or the complete Solution Landscape as well (in case new Solutions have been generated in the meantime).

When selecting a Solution in the list (see option 3 in figure below), the Detail information for this Solution will be displayed at the bottom of the screen. The Detail information is available within two different views on tabs (see option 4 in figure below):  Graphical Overview: Shows the Alert Information of all Business Processes in a Graphic.  Business Processes: Shows the Alert Information of Business Processes in table form.

7-4 Work Center ‘Business Process Operations’: – Solutions: Detail Information

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager Valid for both views (tab Business Processes and tab Graphical Overview): When clicking on the URL of the , you will navigate to level Business Processes for the corresponding Business Process. If you click directly on the icons representing the overall alert status of the Business Process, you will be directly linked to level Alert Inbox.

7.2.3

Business Processes

When entering the level Business Processes, all Business Processes including their alert information will be displayed that match the filter criteria set (see option 1 in figure below). In some cases (depending on the previous navigation steps), neither the list of Business Processes nor the filter criteria are displayed on the screen, but only the Business Process selected previously either in the filter criteria on this level or by clicking on the URL of the in level Solutions. If you want to change the displayed Business Process(es) you can use the button Expand Tray (see option 0 in figure below) at the right-hand side on top of the screen. You can use this button Collapse Tray also to hide the upper screen part containing the list of Solutions and the filter criteria. Once you changed to the level button Business Processes, all Business Processes which match the selection criteria and which include generated BPMon customizing are shown. As filter criteria you can select the  Alert Mode (‘Open’ or ‘Current’)  Rating (e.g. ‘All’, ‘with Yellow Alerts’, ‘with Red Alerts’,…)  Solution  Scenario (the Business Processes are assigned to). Analogous to level Solution, you can also use the link Refresh (see option 2 in figure below) which you can use to update the Alerts Information (that means the number of alerts received by BPMon in the meantime).

7-5 Work Center ‘Business Process Operations’: – Business Processes When selecting a Business Process in the list (see option 3 in figure above), the Detail information for this Business Process will be displayed at the bottom of the screen. The Detail information is available within four different views on tabs:  Business Process Steps: Shows the Alert Information of Business Processes Steps in table form. Here you can filter on the Rating of alerts (e.g. ‘With Red Alerts’, ‘With Yellow Alerts’) and define your own Views under button Settings. When clicking on the URL of the , or the icon representing the overall alert status of the Business Process Step, you will navigate directly to the corresponding information on level Alert Inbox.  Interfaces: Shows the Alert Information of Interfaces assigned to the Business Process in a table. Here you can filter on the Rating of alerts (e.g. ‘With Red Alerts’, ‘With Yellow Alerts’) and define

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager your own Views under button Settings. When clicking on the icon representing the overall alert status of the Business Process Step, you will navigate directly to the corresponding information on level Alert Inbox.  Graphical Overview: Shows the Alert Information of Business Processes Steps and Interfaces in a swim lane flowchart. Clicking on the alert icons representing the rating for Business Process Steps and Interfaces will navigate you directly to the level Alert Inbox of the Work Center. When clicking on the icon representing the overall alert status of the Business Process Step or Interface, you will navigate directly to the corresponding information on level Alert Inbox.  Service Desk Messages for Existing Alerts: Shows all Service Desk Messages for alerts still persisting in the BPMon (depending on the Reorganization time 1, see also chapter Alert Parameter Sets) that you have maintained for the monitoring object. Here you can also define your filters and define your own Views under button Settings. When clicking on the Service Desk Message number, you can directly access the Service Desk Message for further processing.

7.2.4

Alert Inbox

When entering the level Alert Inbox, the alert situation will be displayed for the Monitoring Objects and Alert Types matching the filter criteria (depending on the previous navigation steps). The level Alert Inbox consists of the three sub-screens:    

Filter Area Alert Types List Business Context Alert Details List

7-6 BPO Work Center - Alert Inbox (Overview)

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7.2.4.1 Filter Area

7-7 BPO Work Center - Alert Inbox (Filter Area) When entering the Alert Inbox, the alert situation will be displayed for the Monitoring Objects and Alert Types matching the filter criteria. These filter criteria will be pre-populated depending on the previous navigation path to the Alert Inbox, such as: a) The filter criteria will be set according to the clicks you have done on level Business Processes (see also chapter 7.2.3 above). b) The filter criterion Business Process will be set as it was selected during the last entry of the Alert Inbox, in case you directly launch the level Alert Inbox (without navigation through level Business Processes but clicking on panel Alert Inbox). Of course, it is also possible to change them here by clicking on the button Change Query or using the dropdown-lists beside the filter criteria. As filter criteria you can select the       

Alert Mode (‘Open Alerts’ or ‘Current Status’) Solution Scenario (the Business Processes are assigned to). Business Process Business Process Step Interface Rating (e.g. ‘All’, ‘with Yellow Alerts’, ‘with Red Alerts’,…) After you have changed the filter criteria, you need to push button Apply in order to get the corresponding Monitoring Objects and Alert Types displayed in the Alert Type List.

7.2.4.2 Alert Types List According to the filter criteria set in the Filter Area you will get the alert information displayed in the Alert Types List.

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7-8 BPO Work Center - Alert Inbox (Alert Type List) For further processing you can select a line for a specific Alert Type in the list (see option 1 in figure above). You can then display all the alerts in the sub-screen Alert Details List (recommended best practice) Analogous to the levels Solution and Business Processes you can also use the link Refresh (see option 2 in figure above) which you can use to update the Alerts Information (that means the number of alerts received by BPMon in the meantime). You can also define your own Views (including e.g. filter criteria and other settings) under button Settings. (see option 3 in figure above), the views can afterwards be selected in the dropdown list View (see option 4 in figure above). For all colums you can also filter on specific entries by using the button Filter (see option 5 in figure above) which will open a new line on top of the list where you can enter your filter text. Example: You want to see all entries for Business Process ‘Order to Cash’ you could enter ‘Order to Cash’ or you can also mask your entry by just entering ‘O*’.

7.2.4.3 Business Context The Business Context area offers a navigation help by showing at a glance the Solution, Scenario, Business Process, Step or Interface, and SID of the selected Alert Type.

7.2.4.4 Alert Detail List Depending on the Alert Type selected in the Alert Types List, you will get more information about the alert situation. Analogous to the Alert Type List you can also use the feature Settings. a) Alert List: a list of all corresponding alerts.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager You can confirm alerts by selecting specific or all alerts via ‘Confirm’ button (See option 1 in the figure above). You can create an incident for an alert using the ‘Create Incident’ button (See option 2 in the figure above) The deatil list of the documents selected which resulted in the generation of the alert can be seen via ‘Detail Info’(See option 3 in the figure above) The transactions and the URLs defined in the Analysis Tools assigned to a monitoring object are available for alert analysis (See option 4 in the figure above) b) Monitoring Activities: The monitoring team, team member responsible, error handling and the escalation path etc. defined in the Monitoring Activities/ Monitoring Activities Template assigned to the monitoring object are displayed in this tab.

c) Thresholds: Thresholds assigned to the monitoring objects are displayed in this tab.

d) Configuration: In this tab you can see the counters (parameter sets) specified for the monitoring object.

e) Monitoring Schedule: The monitoring object schedule information is available in this tab.

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f) Email, SMS…: The notification configuration assigned to the monitoring object for sending emial/SMS… notifications are displayed in this tab.

g) Incident: The incident specific notification settings assigned to the monitoring object are displayed under this tab.

7.2.5

Access to Alerts via Notification (Mail / Message)

The alert information can be accessed via the mail sent out as a notification from BPMon. The link to the alert in the alert inbox is available in the email/message notification as shown in the figure below. Clicking on the ‘Link to Alert Inbox’ results in the opening of the alert in the alert inbox that triggered the notification.

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Email Notification

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8 Reporting Functionalities for BPMon BPMon offers a variety of functionalities based on data stored in the Business Warehouse. The entire BW content is delivered with BPMon. The Business Warehouse used for BPMon can reside either on SAP Solution Manager or on any other SAP BW system in your system landscape.

8.1 BW Trend Analysis Reporting The BW Trend Analysis Reporting is an additional feature which can be used within BPMon by using the Business Warehouse (BW) functionality included in Solution Manager as an SAP NetWeaver 7.0 system   

to store monitored data as of measured values and assigned alerts for a long-term availability to display monitored data in a graphical chart for a period of time to visualize a trend to enable further analysis of stored monitored data with the usage of Business Intelligence tools

The Trend Analysis Reporting dashboard (which is a web template) allows its user to track the history of alert data and measured values over time for each monitoring object activated in a specified solution maintained in the BPMon Setup of Solution Manager. The dashboard is designed technically as a query working on the collected and stored data in the BW and is included in a web template which can be accessed directly following an URL in a web browser. For each day, the maximum values of measured data will be shown in the dashboard (see figure below). The user can choose easily the detail level of the displayed Trend Analysis. Filter Selections can be made regarding    

Solution as maintained for BPMon Period of time for Trend Analysis (in range of calendar weeks) Business Process and/ or Business Step as defined in the selected Solution Monitoring Object and Alert Type as defined in BPMon

Hence the Trend Analysis Reporting tool for BPMon is based on the BW functionality of Solution Manager which is included in the BW content and not delivered as standard. A separate activation process has to be done to use this feature.

8-1 Business Process Monitoring Trend Analysis Detailed information and the setup procedure can be found under http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Technical Information  Setup Guide - BPMon Trend and Alert Analysis 7.1 SP05+.

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8.2 Service Level Reporting Service Level (SL) Reporting as part of the Service Level Management of the SAP Solution Manager offers the possibility to report on essential system data and related alerts at regular intervals based on the EarlyWatch Alert information and it is possible to include data that comes from BPMon which is an additional feature of BPMon, based on data stored in and retrieved by the BPMon-specific BW infocube. As a prerequisite to include data from BPMon into Service Level reporting, BW Trend Analysis Reporting needs to be set up. For details regarding features and setup of BW Trend Analysis Reporting see chapter above. Service Level Reporting will be set-up and activated by use of the Service Level Reporting Session. It is possible to set up ‘Service Level Reporting’, based on the historic alerts from BPMon. This reporting enables for example, to compare agreed Key Performance Indicators weekly, between your IT- and operating department. Service level management (SLM) is the discipline of using proactive methodology and procedures to ensure that adequate levels of service are delivered to all IT users in accordance with business priorities and at an acceptable cost. The goal of using SLM is to: •Improve your IT staff’s understanding of business process requirements •Improve IT service quality in terms of:  Availability  Performance  Accuracy  Reporting •Increase business department satisfaction •Improve the motivation of your IT staff •Facilitate internal resource allocation planning. Detailed information and the setup procedure can be found under http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Technical Information  Setup Guide - Service Level Reporting (BPMon).

8.3 Business Process Analytics SAP Business Process Analytics is a tool within SAP Solution Manager that helps a business department (i.e. the Business Process Champion) as well as an IT department (i.e. the Business Process Expert or the Business Process Operations Team) to detect areas for process improvement and stabilization. Business Process Analytics provides the following main features: o Benchmarking o Age structure of document backlog o Trend Analysis Detailed Information about the functions can be found in the system demo under http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Overview and Demos  System Demo: Business Process Analytics. Detailed information about the setup procedure can be found in SAP Note 1430754 or under http://service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Technical Information  Setup Guide - Business Process Analytics. Data from SAP Business Process Analytics can also be used for alerting and thus for an effective problem resolution (by showing the business process context and by providing guided procedures). Hence SAP Business Process Analytics helps IT departments reducing manual labor for business process operations leaving more free resources for investing in innovation.

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9 Troubleshooting Business Process Monitoring You might encounter problems in one of the following areas:  During the Configuration of BPMon: o General errors in the BPMon Setup session o Errors in the monitoring configuration concerning specific monitoring objects o Errors in the generation of monitoring customizing o Errors in the activation of monitoring customizing  During active usage of BPMon o General errors in the BPMon Data Collection o Errors in the data collection for specific monitoring objects o Errors in the alert post processing (sending of Notifications) o Errors in the handling of alerts (in the Work Center for Business Process Operations and the BPMon session)

To execute an initial analysis of your observed BPMon problem, SAP provides a troubleshooting guide for BPMon in SAP Solution Manager. This guide is accessible under http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Technical Information  Troubleshooting Guide for BPMon.

SAP note 1510408 also guides customers towards the existence of the document and its availability in the SAP Service Marketplace.

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10 Enhancing Business Process Monitoring This chapter explains how to enhance SAP BPMon standard functionality by  creating your own data collectors  including CCMS data collector  adapting the automatic notification to customer-specific requirements  connecting an external ticketing system to BPMon in SAP Solution Manager The following sub-chapters do not correspond to modifications in the SAP standard, but offer only enhancements to the SAP standard. Before implementing a customer specific monitor you should have evaluated the options offered by the generic Table Entry Counter monitor, which enables you to run dynamic database queries to count the number of entries (or the number of distinct values) in any database table in a monitored system. It supports flexible filtering based on selection options for five table fields.

10.1 Customer-defined Monitoring 10.1.1

Customer Specific data collector via Customer Exit

You can use the application monitoring framework to create your own monitors while using all advantages of the technical framework: a) You can setup customer specific monitors in the same way as other application data collectors (including all features, e.g. notifications, analysis tools, …) b) You can provide access to the Detail Report showing the results of the last data collection run, so that the alert handling person can directly navigate from the Alert List to the list of documents for which the alert was created. Details on how to develop your own monitoring functionality you can find in http://www.service.sap.com/bpm  Media Library  Technical Information  Setup Guide - Customer Monitor and Setup Guide - Customer Monitor with ABAP OO (possible with ST-A/PI 01N on managed system).

10.1.2

Customer Specific data collector via CCMS

With the monitoring type CCMS Monitors it is possible to assign any CCMS monitoring tree element (MTE) to Business Process Steps or Interfaces (see also section Configure CCMS Monitoring above). So, in case you already have your own data collector developed for CCMS, you can of course also use the ‘detour’ by including this data collector by setting up a BPMon data collector of Monitoring Type CCMS Monitor, so you can directly receive all alerts in CCMS also in BPMon. It has to be mentioned that this option via CCMS would have many functional restrictions in comparison to the option of including your customer-specific data collectors into the Customer Exit (described in section 10.1.1 ‘Customer Specific data collector via Customer Exit‘), such as for example:  No filtering possible on BPMon side  No Monitoring Schedule can be set on BPMon side (bound to the settings defined in your data collector in CCMS),  No Detail Report functionality. Hence, SAP strongly recommends including customer-defined data collectors by using the Customer Exit of Monitoring Type Application Monitors.

10.2 Enhance Alert Notifications in BPMon BPMon is intended to help you respond to potentially critical situations as early as possible in order to solve problems as fast as possible. Hence, BPMon offers various options of automatically notifing the persons responsible for certain alerts by:  sending a notification message through SAPconnect (e.g. e-mail to single recipient or shared distribution list, SMS)

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager  creating a SAP Service Desk message Further details about automatic alert notifications in BPMon see also section 6.10 Configure Automatic Alert Notification above. With SPS 05 for SAP Solution Manager 7.1, the possibilities to set up notification messages have been enhanced. Notification routing based on notification grouping has been introduced to send the notification to a dedicated email recipient or a group based on the alert contents. Further details to either adjust the content of a standard notification or to use one of the extensions implemented via BAdIs you can find in the Setup Guide – Automatic Alert Notifications in the SAP Service Marketplace http://service.sap.com/BPM  Technical Information  Setup Guide - Automatic Alert Notifications 7.1 SP5+. This guide describes these enhancements in detail and closes with an appendix containing additional information. Refer to the following chapters to find information on:  The prerequisites that have to be met in order to set up auto-notifications, and especially to use the BPMon BAdIs (chapter 2).  How to set up the standard auto-notifications and how to include BAdI implementations in your BPMon setup in case the standard notification functionalities do not fulfill your requirements (chapter 3).  How to implement the BAdIs includes a simple implementation example (chapter 4).

10.3 Integrate Third-Party Service Desk Software with SAP Solution Manager Service Desk messages can be sent automatically to external ticketing systems using the certified SAP interface (Service Desk WebService API). Information concerning the feasibility and possible use of third-party Service Desk software with SAP Solution Manager is described in the document entitled, ‘Service Desk 3rd party interface Web Service API white paper.’ It is currently located on the SAP Service Marketplace via the following link: http://www.service.sap.com/solutionmanager  Media Library  Technical Papers  ‘Service Desk 3rd party interface Web Service API Whitepaper’ It is possible to gain additional insight by reviewing the available SAP Notes that are associated with the SAP component SV-SMG-SUP-IFA.

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager

11 Information Sources on Business Process Monitoring The information sources in the area of BPMon are spread across different information channels, the most important ones are definitely the quick link 'bpm' on SAP Service Market Place and the BPMon blogs in the SAP Community Network which every customer can access to get information even without having BPMon in the SAP Solution Manager installed. Every key figure and feature of BPMon is also explained in detail in the BPMon Setup (see also chapter Configure Monitoring Object)

11.1 Quick link 'BPM' on SAP Service Market Place The best entry point to find information about BPMon is the quick link 'BPM' on SAP Service Market Place: http://www.service.sap.com/bpm .

From this page, you can navigate to the Media Library containing all kinds of documents for and related to BPMon, such as  Technical Information: Contains all available Setup Guides for BPMon, the BPMon Troubleshooting Guide, and other technical documents, such as o Business Process Monitoring Setup Roadmap 7.1 o Troubleshooting Guide for BPMon o Setup Guide - Interface Monitoring o Setup Guide - BW Trend and Alert Analysis 7.1 SP5 o Setup Guide - Business Process Analytics 7.1 SP5 o Setup Guide - Service Level Reporting (BPMon) 7.1 o Setup Guide - Automatic Alert Notifications 7.1 SP5+ o Setup Guide - Customer Monitor o Setup Guide - Customer Monitor with ABAP OO (possible with ST-A/PI 01N on managed system) o Setup Guide for non-ABAP/non-SAP

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager o Setup Guide - Data Consistency Monitoring o And others  Customer Examples: Contains overview documents and system demos about features of BPMon. Two of the most important documents here are: Business Process & Interface Monitoring Provides an entire overview of BPMon, its purpose and features BPOps Key Figure Overview Provides the complete and latest functional scope about all data collectors delivered in BPMon.  Best Practices Documents: Please see also chapter 11.4 ‘Business Process Monitoring Related Best Practice Documents‘.

11.2 Blogs in SAP Community Network Within the SAP Community Network you find blogs  giving an overview of the functional scope  explaining BPMon functionalities and features in detail  describing ‘Typical Use Cases for BPMon’,  providing Best Practices for monitoring ERP processes (Manufacturing, Order to Cash, Procure to Pay) or BW Process Chains  explaining how to develop your own key figures and how to adapt the automatic notifications to your needs. To enter these blogs just follow the link Functional Scope of Business Process Monitoring in SAP Solution Manager which contain links to all other available BPMon blogs.

11.3 Frequently Asked Questions about BPMon Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about SAP BPMon are answered under http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/SM/FAQ+Business+Process+Monitoring.

11.4 Business Process Monitoring Related Best Practice Documents Best practices in managing SAP solution are for knowledge transfer, i.e. to gain the knowledge to continuously improve the operation of a SAP solution. Currently the following Best Practice Documents are available under http://www.service.sap.com/solutionmanagerbp in the area of Business Process Operations: 

General Business Process Management Is a Best Practice Document that describes how to develop and implement an all-inclusive concept for Business Process Management and Monitoring for a solution landscape comprising mySAP components.

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Job Scheduling Management This Best Practice Document provides you a rough roadmap on how to create and install a holistic Job Scheduling Management concept and lays the groundwork for an optimal Background Job Scheduling.

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Background Job Monitoring with SAP Solution Manager This Best Practice Document is an enhancement to the information regarding the Job Monitoring functionality of BPMon that is provided within this Setup Guide. The Best Practice document

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Business Process Monitoring in the SAP Solution Manager demonstrates and recommends specific monitoring setups in the view of several practical business scenarios. 

CRM 4.0 Monitoring

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Data Management and Archiving

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ALE Monitoring

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SAP Retail Monitoring

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Background Job Monitoring

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And others might follow

Further documents are available which are SAP solution specific (e.g. CRM, SCM, SRM, APO), industry specific topics (e.g. Banking, Retail) and cross application topics (e.g. RFC Monitoring, Monitoring for BI Reporting). The documents are available on the SAP Service Marketplace via the URLs: http://www.service.sap.com/bpm -> Media Library -> Best Practice Documents http://www.service.sap.com/solutionmanagerbp -> Topic Area: Business process Operations.

11.5 Important SAP Notes for BPMon SAP Note 521820 ‘Availability of Business Process Monitoring’ SAP Note 784752 ‘BPMon in SAP Solution Manager – Prerequisites’ SAP Note 857898 ‘FAQ - Business Process Monitoring (BPMon)’ SAP Note 1510408 ‘Troubleshooting for Business Process Monitoring’ SAP Note 705569 ‘BPMon: Important Msg's in Activation and Generation Protocol’

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