Access to Archived Data

The following tools are provided for accessing archived data:

·        Archive Information System

The Archive Information System (transaction SARI) allows you to configure your own archive information structures (archive indexes), fill them with data from the archive and use them to search for archived data. It is only possible to access archived data if such an infostructure exists and has been filled. This can be done automatically during the delete phase or at a later point in time, manually.

·        Document Relationship Browser

The Document Relationship Browser (DRB) is used to show business objects and the links and relationships between business objects. Generally these are documents that were created as part of one business process or that belong to a common business process. DRB can display archived data as well as data in the database.

In the SAP Web Application Server IDOCs and Work Items are connected to the DRB.

·        Archive File Browser

The Archive File Browser (transaction AS_AFB) offers functions to display the contents of archive files. It offers a technical view of archived tables, much like the Data Browser (transaction SE16) does for database data. The Archive File Browser is particularly useful for administrators (of data archiving) and someone who might be looking for problems that occurred during archiving, or that wants to search archived data. It is not an end-user tool.

 

Archiving Data and Monitoring Archiving Activities

The following archiving objects are available for archiving in SAP Web Application Server:

 

Objects in SAP Web AS	Archiving Objects
User Master Change Documents: User Authorizations	US_USER
User Master Change Documents: Authorizations	US_AUTH
User Master Change Documents: Authorization Profiles	US_PROF
Workitems	WORKITEMS
IDocs	IDOC
Customizing Table Changes	BC_DBLOGS
ArchiveLink Entries	ARCHIVELNK
Archive Management Data	BC_ARCHIVE
SAP Product	PRODUCT_MD

 

SAP Business Information Warehouse (SAP BW) also provides an archiving solution, which differs from archiving in SAP Web AS.

 

System Settings for Data Archiving

As part of data archiving you must make different system settings for controlling the archiving process. The settings are made in archiving Customizing, which you can reach from Archive Administration by choosing Customizing. Customizing is divided into the following areas:

·        Basis Customizing

Here you can determine the file names and paths under which the archive files are to be created within the context of ADK-based archiving. File names and paths can be created for specific clients (transaction FILE) or cross-client (transaction SF01). For XML-based archiving you must also configure the appropriate home paths and the XML Data Archiving Service.

·        Cross-Archiving-Object Customizing

The settings you make here apply to all archiving objects. This includes for example settings for interrupting the write phase or entering server groups for background processing.

·        Archiving-Object-Specific Customizing

These settings apply to individual archiving objects and include, for example, determining the size of an archive file, indicating whether the delete program should run in the test or production mode, and specifying that the storage phase should occur before or after the delete phase (ADK-based archiving only).

 

Scheduling, Controlling and Monitoring Archiving Jobs

The following tools are available for scheduling, controlling and monitoring archiving jobs:

·        Archive Administration

Archiving jobs (write, delete, etc.) are scheduled using Archive Administration (transaction SARA). This transaction is also the central entry point for most other user activities in Data Archiving, such as data storage and retrieval, or Customizing.

·        Data Archiving Monitor

The Data Archiving Monitor (transaction SAR_SHOW_MONITOR) is used to analyze information relevant for data archiving. It offers an overview of all archiving objects that were used for archiving data, detailed information about the archiving sessions, and a progress indicator on the processing of archive files. In order for you to be able to view updated information you must switch on the Data Archiving Monitor in cross-archiving-object Customizing (see above).

The Data Archiving Monitor is part of the CCMS Monitor Group (transaction RZ20) and is available under SAP CCMS Monitor Templates ® Database ® Data Archiving.

Data Archiving - Analysis

During the analysis phase you must first identify the size of the database and analyze the growth of the database tables. This will help you recognize which data you need to archive from which tables. Based on this information, you select the archiving objects with which the contents of the most critical tables can be archived.

There are several tools you can use to help you during the analysis phase. It is however necessary for you to be familiar with these tools and how to interpret the data they produce.

·        Database Monitor

You can use the database monitor (transaction DB02) to determine the size of different tables and display their growth in the past. Using the transaction you can view important statistics about the database. The display of the database monitor depends on the database system you are using. For an Oracle database, for example, the amount of free table space or the size and growth of individual tables and indexes.

In addition to the database monitor you can also use SAPDBA and the Performance Monitor (ST03), for other indicators in the context of data archiving. The function Tables and Archiving Objects (see below), which can be reached via the Disc Space (Statistics) push button, also provides information on disk space.

·        Table Analysis

You can use this function (transaction TAANA) to analyze database tables based on specific fields or a field value combination. This is done using analysis variants that contain corresponding field lists. The analyses help you determine which archiving objects you should use and can indicate which selection criteria would produce the best results during archiving.  It helps you avoid, for example, examining archiving objects or organizational units that would contribute little to the data volume in your system.

·        Tables and Archiving Objects

After you have identified the critical tables, you need to identify which archiving objects are responsible for these tables. You can do this with the help of the Tables and Archiving Objects function (transaction DB15).

This function shows which tables are assigned to which archiving objects and vice versa. This allows you to identify a specific archiving object for archiving the data from the tables that were identified in the first analysis phase.

 

 

Data Archiving

A production system with business applications often generates large amounts of data on the database, which can lead to a deterioration of system performance and an increased use of resources. Growing data volumes can also have a negative effect on costs, due to the increased effort required to administer the database.

Removing data that is no longer needed in every day business from the database then is a strategy that can benefit the costs, performance and availability of your system. Simply deleting this data is often not an option, due to legal data retention requirements. Therefore, the data needs to be removed from the database and stored in such a way that it can still be read accessed if necessary. This can be achieved with SAP Data Archiving. It is a consistent and secure way for you to remove data from the database. The archived data is stored in a file system and from there can be moved to other, more cost efficient third party storage systems.

Data archiving is an administration task that should be performed regularly, at certain time intervals, depending on the growth rate of your database tables. 

Technical System Landscape

The technological basis of data archiving is part of the SAP Web Application Server and is available in two variations: ADK-based archiving and XML-based archiving. So far most of the archiving objects are available under the Archive Development Kit (ADK). Other archiving objects and archiving sets are available under XML-based Archiving. Both the ADK and XML Archive API provide basic functions and services for development and execution of archiving programs. In both cases Archive Administration is the main function for Customizing and running data archiving.

Tasks

The archiving process itself takes place in three steps. Step three "Accessing Archived Data" is not part of the archiving process itself, but it plays an important role with respect to how archived data can be used, and is therefore included in this document.

To facilitate the tasks of data archiving, the role "Data Archiving Administrator" is available in the SAP system. Its technical name is SAP_BC_CCM_DATA_ARCHIVING and can be called via role maintenance (transaction PFCG). The role offers the system or data archiving administrator direct access to all the information, tools, and systems necessary for data archiving.

 

       1.        Analysis

You must first determine which of your database tables are growing the fastest, and using this information you can select the archiving objects that would be the most beneficial for reducing the size of your system.

       2.      Archiving Data and Monitoring Archiving Activities

                            a.      Making the system settings necessary for data archiving

                            b.      Scheduling, controlling and monitoring archiving jobs

       3.      Accessing Archived Data

In this step you configure and perform the access to archived data.

 

Internet Graphics Service (IGS) Administration

The Internet Graphics Service (IGS) constitutes the infrastructure to enable the application developers to display graphics in an Internet browser with a minimum of effort. The IGS has been integrated in the different SAP UI technologies from HTML GUI to Web Dynpro ABAP/Java and provides a server architecture where data from an SAP system or another source can be used to generate graphical or non-graphical output.

Versions

Until SAP Web Application Server 6.20, the IGS has been available only as standalone engine. The standalone IGS is a Windows application that runs standalone on a Windows IA32 machine and which is connected against several systems.

As of SAP Web AS 6.40, IGS is additionally available as integral part of the SAP Web AS and will be installed with every SAP Web AS installation. Thus, with SAP Web AS 6.40, you have the choice to use either the standalone or the integrated IGS.

The integrated IGS exists on every SAP Web AS machine and is started and stopped with SAP Web AS. However, IGS is not part of the kernel which means it has to be patched separately.

 

Architecture

The Internet Graphics Service (IGS) provides a server architecture where data from an SAP system or another source can be used to generate graphical or non-graphical output.

 

Prerequisites

To use the IGS from an SAP system, some configuration needs to be done on SAP system as well as on IGS side.

On SAP system side, you must:

●      in case of ABAP, maintain an RFC destination in the SAP system so that the SAP system can access the IGS.

●      in case of Web Dynpro Java, maintain the URL of the IGS.

On IGS side, you need to:

●      configure the RFC or HTTP listener so that the IGS is prepared for incoming requests.

 

 

Tools

To administrate the IGS, you can use:

●      For ABAP: the report GRAPHICS_IGS_ADMIN or transaction SIGS, where the report has been encapsulated.

●      For Java: the web interface access via the URL (http://(hostname):(port), where the

hostname is the name of the machine where the IGS is installed, for example P12345, and where port is the port of the HTTP listener.

●      You can also monitor the IGS with the CCMS monitor (transaction RZ20).

 

Tasks

The following administrative tasks are performed on demand in the IGS:

 

Task	Description
IGS administration via the ABAP interface	●      You can check the status of the IGS elements such as portwatcher, listeners, interpreters etc. ●      In addition, you can check statistical data of the IGS usage consisting of: number of incoming and outgoing calls, minimum, maximum and average incoming and outgoing data and minimum, maximum and average processing time. ●      You can create and view dump files in case of an error or by activating dump file generation. ●      You can display, increase and decrease the trace level of the multiplexer. ●      You can test your charts.
IGS administration via Web interface	The available features of the administration via Web Interface are the same as with the ABAP interface. However, to get to pages different from the administration start page, you need to add an administration command to the URL.
IGS monitoring with CCMS	You can use an SAP system (Basis Release 6.10 and later) to monitor the IGS. The CCMS transaction RZ20 is used as the monitoring tool. CCMS gives the administrator an overview of the current IGS configuration. The portwatchers available and their associated interpreters are displayed in a hierarchy. CCMS also displays various performance values for the relevant IGS components. The performance values of the available components are updated automatically with the result that bottlenecks can be located and removed quickly.
Ensuring security	Graphics do not generally represent a security risk. However, data used to create graphics may be relevant to security. The graphics generated may also represent sensitive information (for example, salaries, sums of money agreed in contracts).

 

Configuring Logon Groups

In SAP Logon, you can create and delete group entries, remove instances from groups, and delete entire logon groups.

When you call transaction SMLG, the CCMS: Maintain Logon Groups screen shows a table with entries for logon groups and the associated instances. An entry in this table, which is characterized by an instance and a logon group, is known as as assignment. A logon group to which multiple instances belong therefore consists of multiple assignments in this table, where an assignment contains one instance in each case.

 

Procedure

Creating a Logon Group or Adding an Instance to a Logon Group

...

       1.      Choose CCMS® Configuration ® Logon Groups, or call transaction SMLG.

       2.      Choose  (Create Assignment), and specify the desired name of the logon group in the Logon Group input field. Enter the name of the desired Instance that is to belong to the logon group.

The logon group SPACE is reserved for SAP; therefore, do not use this name.

       3.      Repeat the last step until you have entered all instances that are to belong to the logon group.

       4.      Save your changes.

 

 

Deleting a Logon Group or Removing an Instance from a Logon Group

...

       1.      Choose CCMS® Configuration ® Logon Groups, or call transaction SMLG.

       2.      Select any assignment for the logon group that you want to delete or from which you want to remove an instance.

       3.      To remove an instance from the selected logon group, choose  Remove Instance, enter the desired instance on the next screen, and confirm your choice by choosing  (Delete).

       4.      To delete the desired logon group, choose  Delete Group and confirm your choice by choosing  (Delete) on the next screen.

       5.      Save your changes.

 

 

Changing Properties of an Assignment, a Logon Group, or an Instance

...

       1.      Choose CCMS® Configuration ® Logon Groups, or call transaction SMLG.

       2.      To change the properties of an assignment, double-click the assignment, and switch to the Properties tab page.

       3.      You can change the following properties:

○     IP address of the application server

Only enter a value in this field if the application server associated with the instance needs to be addressed by the front end with a different IP address to the one used for application server-internal communication. This value applies only for the selected assignment.

○     Settings for external RFC call

You can use this indicator to determine whether logon using an external RFC connection is to be permitted. This value applies to the selected logon group.

○     Threshold values for dialog response time and number of users logged on

If you log on using a logon group, the logon is automatically performed using the instance of the group that currently has the best dialog quality. This quality is a key figure that is calculated from the number of users logged on and the average dialog response time. To allow the different prerequisites of different instance to be taken into account in this calculation, you can set threshold values for the dialog response time and the number of users yourself. The larger the actual values for response time and the number of users are in comparison to the threshold values set, the lower the quality. These figures apply for the selected instance.

The values for Response Time and Users are not absolute limits, but rather thresholds. Even if the current value for response time or number of users is higher than this threshold value, it is possible to log on to another instance. The threshold values only influence the calculation of the current logon server of the logon groups.

You can use a preview to see how the settings of the threshold values can affect the quality calculation, based on the current performance data. Choose  Test to do this. In a logon group, the instance with the highest quality key figure is always selected for the logon.

       4.      Choose  Copy, and save your changes.

SAP Standard Background Jobs and Job Monitoring

There are a range of background jobs that must run regularly in a production system, to, for example, delete obsolete jobs or spool objects. You should schedule the following jobs in the job definition transaction SM36, so that they are automatically started at the specified frequency:

 

Program Name / Job Name	Repetition Frequency	Description
RSBTCDEL / SAP_REORG_JOBS	daily	Deletes old background jobs
RSBDCREO / SAP_REORG_BATCHINPUT	daily	Deletes old batch input folders
RSSNAPDL / SAP_REORG_ABAPDUMPS	daily	Deletes old ABAP dumps
RSBPSTDE / SAP_REORG_JOBSTATISTIC	monthly	Deletes old job statistics
RSBPCOLL / SAP_COLLECTOR_FOR_JOBSTATISTIC	daily	Creates job statistics
RSCOLL00 / SAP_COLLECTOR_FOR_PERFMONITOR	hourly	Starts data collectors for ABAP statistics records
RSN3_STAT_COLLECTOR/ SAP_COLLECTOR_FOR_NONE_R3_STAT	hourly	Starts data collectors for non-ABAP statistics records (Distributed Statistics Records, DSRs)
RSXMILOGREORG / SAP_REORG_XMILOG	weekly	Deletes obsolete entries in the XMI log
RSAL_BATCH_TOOL_DISPATCHING/ SAP_CCMS_MONI_BATCH_DP	hourly	Starts long-running data collectors that report application-specific values to the monitoring architecture
RSPO0041/1041 SAP_REORG_SPOOL	daily	Deletes obsolete spool requests to reduce system load
RSPO1043	daily	Checks the consistency of the spooler and of the TemSe and evaluates the results if necessary
RSBTCPRIDEL/ SAP_REORG_PRIPARAMS	monthly	Reorganizes the print parameters across clients

 

 

You can monitor jobs in the following ways:

·        You can call the Job Selection transaction (transaction SM37) and check whether the jobs actually ran without errors.

·        You can use the job monitoring of the Alert Monitor (transaction RZ20) to monitor the jobs. You can set up job monitoring so that you are automatically notified if an error occurred.

With job monitoring, alerts are displayed if errors occurred. If you assign an "auto-reaction method" to these alerts, you are notified, for example, by SMS or by e-mail if problems occurred during the execution of the jobs.

 

SAP Netweaver Monitoring Availability

It is not possible to uniquely define availability with regard to IT components. Availability can mean the existence of a process at operating system level. Other definitions of availability can include, for example, the provision of a service within a certain time, or the average time for performing a user action.

SAP provides different mechanisms for checking availability: The following is common to the mechanisms:

• The availability information is usually of a technical nature.

• Once set up, the availability check is performed periodically and without user interaction.

• The result of the check is reported in the central monitoring system.

You have the following options for monitoring availability:

• You can use Availability Monitoring with CCMSPING to monitor ABAP and Java systems and their instances. With this option, the CCMSPING agent queries the message server in each case about which instances are reported as active. With ABAP systems, you can also have the availability of instances and logon groups monitored using a direct RFC call to the instance itself.

• You can check availability at application level with the Generic Request and Message Generator GRMG. With this option, the central system periodically calls a GRMG application using a URL. The GRMG application performs component-specific checks and returns the result of the checks to the central system.

• You can monitor the existence of the relevant process at operating system level. A check of this type determines a prerequisite for the availability of the component. The check is performed by the SAP programs SAPOSCOL and the agent SAPCCMSR

Execution

Check the Availability monitor for alerts. To open the monitor, proceed as described in Tasks. Depending on the affected nodes, you can react to the alert as follows:

 

Affected MTE	Meaning
Check by CCMSPING	With this monitor, you can perform availability monitoring for selected ABAP and Java systems and their instances.
<SysID> Availability: <SysID> on <Host>Instances: <SysID>	Check that the system or instance is definitely not available by attempting to log on. If this is the case, check the developer trace (dev_trace), if appropriate, and restart the system or instance (depending on the platform you are using, either with the MMC or using a start script).
J2EE Engines: Heartbeat by GRMG	The subtree for each GRMG scenario consists of two subtree types: · Availability of the scenario (Was it possible to perform the check of the components?) with the prefix Selfmonitoring · Availability of the monitored components
GRMG: J2EE <SysID> on <Host> Selfmonitoring: Scenario ...	If an alert occurred in this subtree, it was not possible to perform the monitoring of the J2EE Engine, availability values are therefore not delivered for the subtree below .
GRMG: J2EE <SysID> on <Host> Test: <Component>	If an alert occurred in this subtree, the monitored component is not available.
J2EE Engines: OS Processes	You can use this subtree to determine (sorted by the monitored Java systems) whether the most important processes (dispatchers, servers, and SDM) are running at operating system level. If required processes are not running, first check the log files using the Standalone Log Viewer, and then restart the Engine.