Monitoring and Operations with SAP Solution Manager

Lars Teuber holds a degree in Information Management and worked at SAP SI AG in Dresden, Germany, from 2003 to 2007. While working on projects for national and international customers, he gained experience in system monitoring and performance reporting. Since 2008, he has worked at BIT Consulting GmbH in Dresden, Germany, where he has been able to expand his knowledge of SAP Solution Manager in SAP Solution Manager development projects. He works in system monitoring, performance analysis, and implementation of SAP Solution Manager in projects with regard to both design and implementation. Corina Weidmann is the managing director of Bautzen IT.Group GmbH & Co. KG in Dresden, Germany. In this role, she oversees the area of application lifecycle management with SAP Solution Manager. Liane Will has been working in the Active Global Support department at SAP AG since 1998. She gained her experience in the system operation of SAP solutions by supporting customers in solving problems and establishing best practices in system operation. She manages a team that focuses on the implementation and optimization of the application lifecycle management based on SAP Solution Manager. Based on her extensive support experience, she's already the author of a number of books (published by SAP PRESS) on best practices in system administration. Before she joined SAP, Liane developed SAP support tools for databases.

Foreword by the Board of Directors. 17

Foreword. 19

1. Introduction to Technical Operations. 21

1.1. Operations Control Center and Run SAP Like a Factory. 21

1.2. Significance of Application Lifecycle Management for Technical Operations. 23

1.3. Technical Operations Using SAP Solution Manager. 29

1.4. Project Management. 32

1.5. Toys Inc.: Initial Situation. 34

1.6. Additional Documentation. 38

2. Architecture and Configuration of SAP Solution Manager 7.1. 39

2.1. Architecture of SAP Solution Manager. 39

2.2. Infrastructure and Communication with SAP Solution Manager. 48

2.3. Landscape Management and Presentation in SAP Solution Manager. 63

2.4. Navigation in SAP Solution Manager 7.1: Work Center. 67

2.5. Initial Configuration of SAP Solution Manager. 70

2.6. Customer Example: SAP Solution Manager Implemented at Munich Re. 86

2.7. Additional Documentation. 89

3. Implementation Projects. 91

3.1. Projects versus Solutions. 91

3.2. Project Types. 92

3.3. Project Cycle. 94

3.4. Prerequisites for Project Creation. 98

3.5. Project Definition and Project Administration. 100

3.6. Project Support for Monitoring Implementation. 109

3.7. Implementation Documentation. 116

3.8. Reporting. 119

3.9. Documentation Transfer to Operations. 121

4. Root Cause Analysis. 125

4.1. Root Cause Analysis in SAP Solution Manager. 125

4.2. Method-Independent Tools. 133

4.3. End-to-End Methodology: Change Analysis. 144

4.4. End-to-End Methodology: Workload Analysis. 181

4.5. End-to-End Methodology: Trace Analysis. 199

4.6. End-to-End Methodology: Exception Analysis. 209

4.7. Additional Documentation. 225

5. Technical Monitoring. 227

5.1. Motivation. 227

5.2. Overview of Technical Monitoring. 228

5.3. Monitoring and Alerting Infrastructure. 229

5.4. Technical Monitoring Configuration. 246

5.5. Technical Monitoring Work Center. 289

5.6. Monitoring Concept at Toys Inc. 296

5.7. Customer Example: Using SAP Solution Manager 7.1 for Technical Monitoring of an SAP Landscape for an Education Service Provider. 302

5.8. Customer Example: Using SAP Solution Manager 7.1 for Technical Monitoring at Geberit. 306

6. Monitoring Special Solutions. 311

6.1. BI Monitoring with SAP Solution Manager. 311

6.2. Central Monitoring of SAP NetWeaver PI. 336

6.3. End-User Experience Monitoring. 358

6.4. Monitoring Technical Connections. 377

6.5. Interface Channel Monitoring. 387

6.6. Self-Monitoring in SAP Solution Manager. 396

7. Technical Administration. 413

7.1. Notification Management. 414

7.2. Maintaining Repeatable Activities: Overview. 416

7.3. Task Management. 418

7.4. Central System Administration (CSA). 420

7.5. Guided Procedures. 425

7.6. Work Mode Management. 439

7.7. IT Calendar. 442

7.8. Central Tool Access. 444

7.9. Using Guided Procedures at Toys Inc. 446

7.10. Additional Documentation. 448

8. Technical Analysis and Reporting. 449

8.1. Prerequisites and Motivation. 449

8.2. Service Level Management. 451

8.3. Technical Analysis in SAP Solution Manager. 454

8.4. Service Level Reporting. 462

8.5. Setting Up Service Level Reporting. 464

8.6. Interactive Reporting. 484

8.7. SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse. 494

8.8. Management Dashboards. 495

8.9. Additional Documentation. 503

9. Data Volume Management. 505

9.1. Motivation and Key Questions. 506

9.2. Prerequisites and Setup. 508

9.3. DVM Landscape. 530

9.4. Maintenance of DVM Infrastructure. 535

9.5. Configuring Analyses. 539

9.6. Reporting Using the Data Volume Management Work Center. 544

9.7. Additional Documentation. 557

10. Job Scheduling Management. 559

10.1. Overview and Motivation. 559

10.2. Requirements for Job Scheduling Management. 561

10.3. Setting Up and Using Components of the JSM Suite. 567

10.4. Toys Inc. 601

10.5. Additional Documentation. 602

11. Business Process Operations. 605

11.1. Business Process Monitoring Tools. 605

11.2. Monitoring Concept and Standard Processes. 614

12. Authorizations in the SAP Solution Manager System. 619

12.1. Maintaining the User Master Record. 619

12.2. Password Management. 622

12.3. Maintaining Roles and Authorizations Using the PFCG Transaction. 624

12.4. Information Sources for Authorization Assignments. 650

12.5. Creating an Authorization Concept. 652

12.6. Customer Example--Authorization Concept at Munich Re. 659

12.7. Additional Documentation. 660

Appendices. 661

A. Literature. 663

B. Glossary. 665

C. The Authors. 671

Index. 677