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SAP EarlyWatch Alert

Introduction to Predictive Analytics with SAP EarlyWatch Alert

SAP EarlyWatch Alert is an automatic service analyzing the essential administrative areas of an SAP system. Alerts indicate critical situations and give solutions to improve performance and stability.

SAP EarlyWatch Alert is most effective when activated for all SAP components in your solution. It is covered by your maintenance agreement with SAP with no extra charge, and it is a technical prerequisite to perform other remote delivery services, like SAP EarlyWatch Check or SAP GoingLive Check. It gives an overview on performance/availability KPIs and alerts on a weekly basis.

Value Proposition

Keeping total cost of ownership low and the performance of your SAP solution high is a tremendous value to your business – a value delivered by the SAP EarlyWatch Alert. Knowing the status of each SAP component in your solution allows you to:

  • Greatly minimize the risk of downtime
  • React to issues such as bottlenecks before they become critical
  • Know what is affecting the performance and stability of your solution

SAP EarlyWatch Alert aims to ensure smooth operation of individual SAP components by acting proactively, before severe technical problems occur. This analytics tool is based on experience with thousands of installations giving you a tool to save time, reduce costs and keep your SAP solution running smoothly. SAP EarlyWatch Alert is included in your maintenance agreement with SAP.

Prerequisites and Preparation of SAP EarlyWatch Alert Service in SAP Focused Run

The following documentation link reflects on the prerequisites and preparation in the section "Preparing SAP Focused Run Applications":

It describes prerequisites and preparation steps for the following SAP EarlyWatch Alert scenarios:

  • SAP EarlyWatch Alert (EWA) for ABAP
  • SAP EarlyWatch Alert (EWA) for Java
  • SAP EarlyWatch Alert (EWA) for BOBJ and Data Services
  • SAP EarlyWatch Alert (EWA) for HANA (only)

How to access SAP EarlyWatch Alert Service Report

The SAP EarlyWatch Alert Service is processed in SAP Focused Run, but it does not show any results of SAP EarlyWatch Alert Service. A Service result is published either in SAP for Me as SAP EarlyWatch Alert Report or can be consumed online in SAP EarlyWatch Alert Workspace.

SAP for Me provides the Service Messages app for customers to access and consume reports from SAP-delivered services. Details how to configure and use the app can be found in SAP Note 2319793 (How to check services messages using the Services Messages application).

Processing Status

The status overview reflects the processing status of SAP EarlyWatch Alert Service. In SAP Focused Run three new tiles are shown:

  • SAP EarlyWatch Alert Status
    Opens a new application to display the SAP EarlyWatch Alert processing status
  • SAP EarlyWatch Alert Reports
    Link to the viewer application in SAP for Me (S-user is required for log in)
  • SAP EarlyWatch Alert Workspace
    Link to workspace in SAP for Me (S-user is required for log in)

The SAP EarlyWatch Alert Status application provides two capabilities:

  • The app displays the status of the SAP EarlyWatch Alert data processing on weekly basis. Transfer and communication statuses of the analysis data between the managed systems, SAP Focused Run, and SAP (where the reports are stored) are displayed.
  • You can activate or deactivate the SAP EarlyWatch Alert service on system level for non-productive systems - to decide for which systems reports shall be created.

The entire list of systems can be exported to directly Microsoft Excel (xlsx-format) using the download feature. The list can be filtered using the new filter option shown below:


Activation of SAP EarlyWatch Alert Data Processing

The list of systems in the application is pre-selected via the Scope Selection. By default, the SAP EarlyWatch Alert service processing is enabled for production systems to collect the corresponding data on weekly basis. With a switch to activate the service for a system the data processing can be turned on for systems were the service is currently inactive. This switch is meant to be used to activate the service for non-productive systems. The following scenarios are supported:

  • SAP EarlyWatch Alert for Application Server ABAP
  • SAP EarlyWatch Alert for Application Server Java
  • SAP EarlyWatch Alert for SAP Business Objects BI Platform (BOBJ) and SAP Data Services (DS)
  • SAP EarlyWatch Alert for SAP HANA (stand-a-lone)

With the switch to deactivate the SAP EarlyWatch Alert service for a system the data processing can be stopped for systems were the service is currently active. To quickly select active/inactive systems use the toggle switches above the system list:


EarlyWatch Alert Processing Status

The SAP Early Watch Alert Status shows the data processing status for the current week and one week before. For all relevant activity its processing state (three status changes per week) is shown in the new UI. The processing status is equally shown for ABAP and Non-ABAP systems.

All three status indicators per week need to become green throughout a week for a successful processing. The overall rating is displayed in the correspondent row. Only with a green rating a user can expect that the EWA report is available for consumption in the cloud-based applications.

The communication between the managed system, SAP Focused Run, and SAP backend takes place in three steps:

  • The SAP Focused Run system requests service data for the SAP EarlyWatch Alert service, this request is picked up by the managed system.
  • The managed system answers the request and the service data is received by SAP Focused Run system.
  • SAP Focused Run transfers the data to SAP, where it can be consumed by cloud-based apps, e.g. the SAP EarlyWatch Alert Workspace.


To quickly distinguish a one-time from a permanent problem the transfer status is displayed for the last two weeks. If the current week show a red status the user can compare with the week before to see if an issue persists. With a click on the indicator icon a user can to see a little hint about the root cause (in case of red indicator) or when a step took place (in case of a green indicator). In case of issues during the processing please follow the steps outlined in this troubleshooting guide to resolve issues.

The link to the troubleshooting guide is now included in the dialog (see picture above) and you can follow the Guided Answer to find a solution proposal in case of issues:

SAP Focused Run: Guided Answer for EarlyWatch Alert Status


SAP EarlyWatch Alert Processing Status reflected in Self-Monitoring Dashboard

The overall status of the EWA processing per system is also reflected in “Self-Monitoring Dashboard” in column “EWA Status”

SAP EarlyWatch Alert Workspace

For a convenient access to the SAP EarlyWatch Alert information, use the  SAP EarlyWatch Alert Workspace. This cloud service is available as a card in the SAP for Me. It is the central landing page which gives a comprehensive overview on your system landscape regarding stability, configuration, hardware utilization and performance. Drill-downs into KPI time series for a long-time range are provided, e.g. database growth, SAP HANA CPU and memory utilization and response times. A global search over all service alerts and recommendations offers a more efficient way to get a task list to improve the landscapes' health.

To use the workspace, you need an S-user in SAP for Me with  authorization Service Reports & Feedback on customer number level. The authorizations for in SAP for Me are provided by the Super Administrator on the customer side (see SAP Note 1996168 and About the user, authorization and administrator concept). For Value Added Resellers, see also SAP Note 2627899.

 

  • The SAP EarlyWatch Alert Workspace consists of several cards offering, among others, the following views:
  • Alerts - SAP EarlyWatch Solution Finder gives an overview over all alerts in the system landscape sorted by severity. You can perform a full text search over all alerts for any search term or affected system. As a result, alerts (sorted by severity), recommendations by SAP and additional information are displayed. For each alert all affected systems are displayed; choose the system to see the complete corresponding paragraph of the SAP EarlyWatch Alert Report.
  • Overall Rating - the rating from the EarlyWatch Alert Report for all system are displayed for which an SAP EarlyWatch Alert service had been recently performed. You can view detailed information including recommendations how to solve possible issues. And you can download the report as the well-known Microsoft Word document.
  • Top Systems - Based on the content of SAP the EarlyWatch Alert reports, we sort top ten systems according to number of users and database size. In this chart an ERP system is usually positioned in the upper half (high number of users and moderate DB size), whereas BW systems are typically found in the lower right quadrant (low number of users and large DB size). Dots representing the systems can be clicked to jump to the SAP EarlyWatch Alert Dashboard to display the most important system KPIs (e.g. on database or application server level per system). Drill-down into KPI time series for a long-time range are provided, e.g. database growth, SAP HANA CPU and memory utilization and response times.
  • Top Deviation in Response Time - displays 10 systems with the largest response time deviation of the current week compared to the long-run average of the system; the displayed values are based on the most relevant task type of the respective systems. So it is easy to identify systems with indications for performance issues.
  • SAP Fiori Statistics - We sort top ten systems serving Fiori/UI5 apps according to number of OData calls and average OData call time. In this chart the color code of the dots indicates the trend in average response time of OData calls. Dots can be clicked to jump to the SAP EarlyWatch Alert Dashboard to display more details for single OData Service Requests.
  • Main Memory SAP HANA (forecast)analyzes and forecasts the HANA memory consumption for the SAP HANA Index server. The index server is the most critical component about memory consumption and must be monitored regularly. The app tries to forecast the memory consumption and indicate a time interval in the future where we expect a memory shortage. In the app you get an overview which index servers are approaching the effective allocation limit including a prediction when the limit is reached.
  • The 2 Billion Record Limit (forecast) of the SAP EarlyWatch Alert Service analyzes and forecasts the number of entries in SAP HANA tables (and table partitions). These tables are restricted to two billion rows per partition (more precisely 2.147.483.648 - 2 to the power of 31), so in case a table is approaching this limit, you must take actions depending on the corresponding table. Use this app to get an overview which tables are approaching the limit including a prediction when the limit is reached, itemized into a mean, best-case and worst-case scenario. By default, the forecast is based on all previous measurements.
  • (ABAP) Critical Number Range (forecast) Number ranges are a mostly continuous group of numbers to which the unique ID created for an SAP objects provided by the ABAP application server to use in a wide range of SAP business applications. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor number range objects to take actions before the number range intervals are exhausted. The app sorts critical number range objects and forecasts when the limit is reached, what means a number range object runs out of numbers.

All these functions are connected to each other, so you can easily switch between the different views e.g. during a drill-down. To keep the context during these switches, a global filter for customer, system and database type is available for all cross-system views. If you are responsible for one or several customer numbers and all the systems of these customer numbers, then it is best to use the customer number filter. If you are responsible only for specific systems from one or many customer numbers, use the filter dialog for System ID.

Notification and Email Distribution

SAP for Me provides a Notification Management where you can opt in to receive emails or SMS notifications. You make these settings in Manage Notifications in the EarlyWatch Alert Workspace, which you can reach directly from a button in the upper right corner.

How to enable Notifications in EWA Workspace

You can receive notifications for new decisive red alerts, 2 Billion Record Limit forecast and the HANA Main Memory forecast. After you have activated notifications for SAP EarlyWatch Alert, you will be informed whenever a new issue relevant for your systems is detected

SAP has introduced several other options to stay on top of the EarlyWatch Alerts (EWA) and distribute EWA reports and EWA alerts to interested parties via mail. For further information check the following page for SAP EarlyWatch Alert - Notification and Email Distribution.

Additional Information

Video: How to Solve Alerts with the SAP EarlyWatch Alert Workspace

Video: Global Filer and Analytics in the EWA Apps

The New 2 Billion Record Limit

Cookbook for SAP EarlyWatch Alert Workspace