System Analysis

System Analysis in SAP Focused Run is intended as tool for detailed monitoring and analysis of a small group of systems. For this purpose, System Analysis comes with a set of predefined dashboards for common system types and offers the option to compose custom dashboards based on a large catalog of metrics available from different data sources.

  • Flexible filtering and display options offer a variety of choices for graphical or tabular display. 
  • For detailed monitoring, System Analysis offers to optionally collect fine-grained performance data like samples from ABAP work processes and HANA thread samples.

Starting with SAP Focused Run 2.0 FP01 there is also an Open KPI Store, which makes it possible to include any time series of numeric values with some identifiers in one generic table and display the result in a chart of System Analysis. 

Available Data Sources

The following data sources can be consumed for displaying data:

Data Scource Description
System Monitoring (Monitoring & Alerting Infrastructure) All metrics available in System Monitoring (collected via the “Monitoring and Alerting Infrastructure”) can be consumed in System Analysis dashboards. Beyond this even metrics not visible in System Monitoring, but marked with the "RCA" flag in the monitoring templates, can be used. Custom monitoring templates can be used in the same way.
Aggregated System Monitoring Data System Analysis provides a dedicated data store to retain a long-term history of selected metrics. The System Analysis dashboards seamlessly combine data from the System Monitoring store (which typically has a limited retention time to save space) and the aggregated store.
RCA / Hypercare There is a group of data stores for root cause analysis. Details are listed in a separate table below.
ABAP aggregated statistical records (“ST03 data”)

Collection of ST03 data (hourly and daily aggregates) is automatically scheduled as part of simple System Integration.

Note: This functionality is shared with “Real User Monitoring”
ABAP Exception Details

Details on various types of ABAP exceptions (short dumps, Gateway errors, Syslog errors) can be collected regularly and displayed in System Analysis.

Note: This functionality is shared with “Advanced Integration Management”
HANA Ad-Hoc SQL For HANA databases details can be retrieved ad-hoc via a pre-defined list of analysis statements.

Available RCA Stores

The following table shows which capabilities are available for intensive monitoring detailed Root Cause Analysis (hyper care). Most of them are not enabled by default (when executing Simple System Integration SSI) and need to be activated manually.

Capability NameDescriptionSupported
System Type		CollectionSchedule
Period
ABAP_WP_OVERVIEWABAP work process overview /SDF/SMONABAPAgent (Push)1min
HANA_THREAD_SAMPLESHANA thread samplesHANADBAgent (Push)1min
HANA_MEMORYHANA component memory consumptionHANADBAgent (Push)5min
HANA_LOAD_HOSTHANA Loadgraph per hostHANADBAgent (Push)1min
HANA_LOAD_SERVICEHANA Loadgraph per serviceHANADBAgent (Push)1min

HANA_EXPENSIVE_STATEMENTS

HANA expensive statementsHANADBAgent (Push)5min
HANA_TABLE_SIZEHANA Table sizesHANADBAgent (Push)12h
HANA_LONG_RUNNING_TRANSACTIONSHANA Transactions active > 300sHANADBAgent (Push)5min

Predefined Dashboards

For common system types pre-defined dashboards are delivered as part of the application. The subset of default dashboards actually shown in the list on the left side is filtered by the set of systems selected in the global scope selection. In addition, some dashboards are only shown and populated if corresponding data collectors are active for at least one system in scope. For example, HANA thread samples must be activated explicitly, and the page is only shown by default if the collection of HANA thread samples is active for one system in scope at the point in time when the global scope selection is done. 

The catalog of all available dashboards is also available in the “Page Catalog” node of the left side navigation. 

The following pre-defined default dashboards are available:

NameContentFirst ReleaseNotes
ABAP on SAP HANACombination of “ABAP Basis” and “SAP HANA1.0 FP03MAI-based
ABAP BasisSAP NetWeaver AS ABAP overview1.0MAI-based
ABAP ExceptionsABAP Exception details1.0 FP02EXM-based
ABAP PerformanceST03-based data1.0 FP02ST03 data
ABAP Work ProcessesABAP work process samples, drill down via guided RCA1.0 FP03Requires capability “ABAP_WP_OVERVIEW”
SAP HANASAP HANA overview1.0MAI-based
SAP HANA Component MemoryHANA memory details short-term and long-term2.0 SP00Requires capability “HANA_LOAD_SERVICE”
SAP HANA TablesHANA table statistics

2.0 SP00

Requires capability “HANA_TABLE_SIZE”
SAP HANA Thread Samplesthread samples, drill down via guided RCA1.0 FP03Requires capabilities “HANA_THREAD_SAMPLES”, “HANA_EXPENSIVE_STATEMENTS”
SAP HANA Expensive Statementstop expensive HANA statements1.0Requires capability  “HANA_EXPENSIVE_STATEMENTS”
SAP HANA Long Running Transactionstransactions that are active > 300 seconds4.0Requires capability  “HANA_LONG_RUNNING_TRANSACTIONS"
AS JavaSAP NetWeaver AS Java overview1.0MAI-based
Business ObjectsBusiness Objects Enterprise1.0MAI-based
Data ServicesBusiness Objects Data Services1.0MAI-based
Apache Tomcat 1.0MAI-based

ASE

SAP ASE data base overview1.0MAI-based
HostBasic OS-level metrics1.0 MAI-based
Java ExceptionsExceptions for Netweaver Java Systems4.0 FP01EXM-based
OS Processoperating system process snapshots4.0 FP02Requires capability "OS Process"

Release Notes

SAP Focused Run 4.0 FP03

  • SAP HANA NSE Storage for RCA Capabilities 
    • System Analysis now automatically moves older data for RCA capabilities to SAP HANA NSE storage during normal housekeeping in order to reduce SAP HANA memory consumption. You can adjust the in-memory retention times in the In Memory column of the SM30 view RCA_HKCONFIG. 

SAP Focused Run 4.0 FP02

  • New capability OS Process 
    • Collects metrics on processes running on hosts assigned to your ABAP, Java, or SAP HANA systems. The capability collects the data every minute.
    • New default page OS Processes – visible under Hosts when capability is active for any system in scope
    • Note that this capability may cumulate a substantial amount of data in the RCA data store. Furthermore depending on the drill down settings for charts based on this store a large set of data series may lead to high rendering times. 
  • Changed page ABAP Work Processes (Database Analysis)
    • New name: ABAP WP (Occupation)
    • Now shows the average work process time per second
  • Adjustable collector parameters
    • A new maintenance view RCA_CAPA_CONF for SM30 allows to adjust the collection interval and the look back time (time range that the collector tries to catch up with in case of gaps) per capability.
  • Improved orphan detection for collectors that are no longer valid due to landscape changes
  • Reduced memory footprint for all capabilities while reading

SAP Focused Run 4.0 FP01

  • Capabilities Configuration
    • In the System / Capabilities Overview table, you can now activate or deactivate a capability for all systems in the table. To do so, choose Activate for All Systems or Deactivate for All Systems from the context menu in the table header.
    • You can also filter the table based on the value in the column by choosing Active, Inactive, Data Collection Problem, or Not Applicable for System Type
    • The capability for SAP Cloud Platform Neo has been removed from System Analysis. This functionality is handled by Health Monitoring.
  • Aggregation capability
    • In the System / Capabilities Overview table, you can now activate MAI metric aggregation and thus longer retention times of metrics for systems. When you do so, your system creates a variant for the system type in the aggregation framework of System Monitoring. The variant includes all metrics that are used by the System Analysis dashboards, as well as the system itself. To adjust retention times to your needs edit the variants directly in the aggregation framework UI which is linked in the table header.
  • New default pages
    • ABAP Work Processes (Memory Analysis): This page shows the memory that is consumed by your ABAP work processes.
    • Java Exceptions: This page shows information about any exceptions that may have occurred in your Java systems, including how many exceptions occurred in each category.
  • Filter enhancements
    • When you are conducting a root cause analysis, you can now choose to show or hide data in the category “others” on your charts. You do so by selecting the Show Others checkbox in the filter settings for the view.
    • When analyzing data on host charts, you can now exclude database hosts by selecting the checkbox Exclude DB Hosts in the filter section.
    • You can now filter the content of stacked bar and column charts so that you can more easily analyze your data. When you click a data series on the chart, you can choose between the following options in the dialog box that appears:
      • Add Filter: Click the filter button to show only the selected data series.
      • Hide: Click the hide button to remove the selected data series from the chart.
      • To return the chart to its original settings, open the filter settings for the view and choose Reset.
  • Table views now allow to hide columns and sort. The settings that you apply to table views are then persisted  on custom pages using the personalization. Specifically, this applies to the order in which you sort the row and the columns that you choose to show or hide.
  • When you open Agent Administration via the Links option, Agent Administration now opens with the data filtered according to the current scope selection in System Analysis.

SAP Focused Run 4.0 SP00

  • Compare function
    • You can now compare charts across different time ranges. To do so, click the scale icon (Open Chart Compare Settings Dialog) button in your view. You can then specify a time offset to display two or more charts in one view.
    • The Calculate Forecast function is now available under the Tools menu (wrench icon).
  • Long running transactions
    • A new RCA capability for HANA long running transactions has been introduced. The corresponding default page displays information about SAP HANA transactions that have been running for more than 300 seconds.
  • Capabilities configuration
    • In the System Settings, we now show additional information about the SAP HANA systems, including whether the database is a physical or virtual database, whether replication is configured, and whether there is an associated, managed system.
    • In the System / Capabilities Overview table, you can now activate individual capabilities for all systems in the table by clicking Activate Capability for all Systems from the column header.
  • Use-case of self-monitoring
    • In the alert inbox, the use case for self-monitoring has changed from “Advanced RCA” to “System Analysis”.
  • HANA Tables with new columns
    • We have reduced the CPU/memory footprint required to collect data about SAP HANA table sizes. We also now collect data from the column PERSISTENT_MEMORY_SIZE.

SAP Focused Run 3.0 FP03

  • SAP HANA data collection
    • To save on data volume, SAP HANA data collections now focus only on the index server (starting with SAP Host Agent PL55).
  • System / Capabilities Overview
    • In the System / Capabilities Overview dialog, you can now activate or deactivate all of a system's capabilities at once by clicking (Activate All Capabilities of System). You access the dialog by clicking (Configuration) in the header bar and following the System Overview link.
    • When you click the hyperlink that shows the system name and host, you can now see which system components are installed.

SAP Focused Run 3.0 FP02

  • ABAP Work Process Analysis
    • Additional details exposed:
      • database table name and
      • current program
      • Separate pages for CPU and database time analysis
  • Default ABAP Pages
    • Renamed “task types” to “Request types”
    • Removed “update” request type
    • Extended memory is now reported in %
  • Self-monitoring for RCA Collection
    • Reduced alerts by checking larger time frame
    • Auto-close on green
  • Aggregate Store
    • Added link to new configuration UI

SAP Focused Run 3.0 FP01

  • Simple System Integration: You can now configure which RCA capabilities are activated for Java systems.
  • Availability Charts: You can now configure availability charts to show more than 28 days of availability in the past.
  • Ad-Hoc SQL views now follow the scope selection at both global and page level

SAP Focused Run 3.0 SP00

  • ABAP Performance Page
    • New View Type ABAP Top Workload allows to drill down further, e.g., to batch job names
    • Default page restructured to use new ABAP Top Workload view type - separately for frontend and backend load (hint: especially on smaller screens it you may want to maximize views for detailed analysis)
  • ABAP Exceptions: collection can now also be scheduled automatically via Simple System Integration
  • OpenKPI Store:
    • Alerting
    • Wizard and Validator

SAP Focused Run 2.0 FP03

  • New way of executing queries against HANA systems for Ad Hoc SQL and RCA HANA capabilities using the new SAP Host Agent feature "ExecuteDatabaseOperation". Using a sufficiently new SAP Host Agent this turns manual changes that were required previously unnecessary.
  • Kiosk mode for sharing pages: Shared pages can either freeze the currently selected time range or adjust to the current time.
  • The tabular overview of active RCA capabilities is now editable.
  • SSI Integration: configurable RCA capabilities to be activated automatically.
  • OpenKPI:
    • An icon indicates if data is available for a sender/metric in the selected time range
    • scope selection can be connected to LMDB objects
    • sender types can be deleted
  • Table export generates .xlsx instead of CSV
  • Host default dashboard: memory used in % instead of absolute numbers

SAP Focused Run 2.0 FP02

  • New default page for Web Dispatcher
  • Network metrics on default page for hosts
  • Availability metrics added to some default dashboards, e.g. ABAP and JAVA
  • Open KPI Store enhancements:
    • Sender types must be registered via configuration in System Analysis
    • Housekeeping for sender data is possible via ABAP report RCA_GS_SENDER_DELETION
    • Dynatrace collector: conflicting metrics are resolved automatically; can be maintained via RCA_GS_DT_MAP
    • Dynatrace collector: categories service and servicemethod are now reported as separate sender types
  • Tabular overview of configured RCA capabilities
  • Self-monitoring and alerting for
    • RCA Capabilities
    • OpenKPI
  • enhanced time navigation for scrolling left/right

SAP Focused Run 2.0 FP01

  • Open KPI Store
  • Availability Charts: You can now display availability metrics from the MAI data source (System Monitoring) as heat maps on custom pages. This also applies to the availability metrics on the default page for SAP Cloud Platform Cloud Connector.
  • Page Sharing: Added a Share button to the page toolbar. This allows you to share a page and its configurations (applied filters, hidden metrics, and so on) by generating a URL that you can send to someone else.
  • Structured Page Lists: We've structured the page list into folders to make it easier for you to find the page you're looking for.
  • Area Charts: In View Personalization, we've added area charts to the list of chart types that you can select.
  • RCA Filter: When you apply a filter to an RCA chart type.
  • HANA DBCLUSTER: Improved support for HANA DBCLUSTER: If you activate HANA capabilities for a virtual DB, they are now automatically applied to the associated physical DBs.
  • Root Cause Analysis: RCA stores HANA Commit Time and Expensive Statements have been added.
  • Time Ranges: Time ranges in the toolbar are now aligned to full hours or full days. For example, if you select a time range of two hours at 10:36, the system now displays data from 08:00 instead of 08:36.

SAP Focused Run 2.0 SP00

Generic UI Enhancements

  • Tabular data display: Toggle data display between chart and table

  • "Technical Details" in Tools menu displays details on configured metrics and scope

  • Page Catalog listing all predefined pages

  • Cope with duplicate metrics, e.g. same technical metric name from different templates for same system 

  • Improved number formatting: reduce decimal digits for large numbers

  • Stable color assignment to systems / metrics cross views

  • UI5 cache buster activated to enforce automated browser cache refresh in case of updates

  • Improved time zone support: Aggregation to daily values now considers the browser time zone

  • Suppress click-tooltip for "Guided RCA" pages (ABAP WP Mon, HANA Thread Samples)

Personalization

  • Creatable view types are grouped by category (data source type): MAI, RCA, Statragg, etc.

  • View Personalization:
    • Separated into data source and display settings
    • Full scope selection for every view (select not only from global selection)
    • Top n filter for MAI

  • Personalizable links for views and pages (web, page, FRUN application)

  • Personalizable selection propagation (Guided RCA)

  • automated chart type adjustment for "no time axis" resolution

  • New chart option "show markers" to display data points. This helps to reveal "isolated" data points in charts with gaps

  • Metric catalog: new search function

  • Scaling of metrics

New RCA Stores

  • HANA Component Memory

  • HANA Table Sizes

  • HANA Statements

  • HANA Expensive Statements

  • HANA Load Host

  • HANA Load Services 

Prerequisites

General

  • System Monitoring Setup of the Technical Systems involved is required for the default dashboards to be populated

     

Technical Requirements - Relevant SAP Notes

SAP Focused Run for all SPs
  • 2555664 - HANA AdHoc SQL content for Focused Run applications
    (required for older versions of SAP Host Agent only)
SAP Focused Run 4.0 FP03
  • 3502438 - System Analysis: Corrections for FRUN 4.0 FP03
SAP Focused Run 4.0 FP02
  • 3389829 - System Analysis: Corrections for FRUN 4.0 FP02
SAP Focused Run 4.0 FP01
  • 3383950 - System Analysis: Corrections for FRUN 4.0 FP01
SAP Focused Run 4.0 SP00
  • 3269860 - Composite Note for Root Cause Analysis in Focused Run 4.0 SP00
  • 3269911 - Composite Note for UI5 applications in Focused Run Release 4.0 SP00 

 

Setup

For basic usage of System Analysis no dedicated setup steps are necessary. All systems for which System Monitoring is configured should automatically also work in System Analysis.

System Analysis Aggregated Store

The System Analysis aggregated store allows to retain selected metric data from the MAI store beyond the standard retention time of the MAI store. The content of the aggregate store is defined based on variants. Using these variants a daily task collects and aggregates data from the MAI store and persists it in a dedicated store.

For each variant you can define

  • The retention period (in days): After this period data will be eliminated from the aggregate store

  • The look-back time (in days): This is the overlap of the MAI store with the aggregate store. For a MAI store retention time of 28 days and a look-back time of 2 days the aggregation task will gather data that is 26 days old.

  • The aggregation granularity: You can choose between 5 minutes, 15 minutes, hourly, and daily granularity. Choose you appropriate compromise between granularity and space consumption.

  • Customer networks: You can restrict variants to selected customer networks

  • Data store: “Standard Aggregate Table Store” is the only option supported for consumption in the System Analysis application.

  • Systems: You can specify various filter criteria to select for which systems data aggregation should take place at all

  • Metrics: You can select metric categories and individual metric names for aggregation

Note that there is no mechanism to automatically detect and warn about overlap between variants. Technically it is possible to capture the same metrics for the same systems in different variants. Make sure to carefully tailor the variants for your needs. The “Calculate Duplicates” button allows to estimate overlap of a variant with all others. You can also decide to intentionally collect identical metrics in different variants, e.g. with a daily granularity for a long retention period and in addition with a finer granularity with a stricter retention policy.

ABAP Performance Data

Starting with SAP Focused Run 2.0 FP03 RCA capabilities can be activated automatically by SSI depending on LMDB attributes. See details on page Activation of RCA Capabilities. As pre-requisite the aggregate performance data must be available e.g. in transaction ST03N in the managed system. A typical source for missing data is that the corresponding aggregation job is not active in the managed system. See SAP Note 2369736 for troubleshooting missing data in ST03N. The “related links” in the System Analysis application points to the “ABAP Performance KPI Setup” application. Here you can explicitly select the instance to use for data collection and check the collection status.

Starting with SAP Focused Run 3.0 FP03 a new view for Database connections is available. If this should be displayed in System Analysis an additional configuration needs to be added to collect this data.
In SE16 create or update for table STATRAGG_CFG the value for this entry:

TYPE    COLLECTOR
PARAM    EXTRA_TABLES
VALUE    DBCON

If SSI is executed the next time a new configuration is send to the agent and with next STATRAGG collection (one day later) data is sent to FRUN.

Root Cause Analysis Data Collection

All data collectors for root cause analysis capabilities beyond standard system monitoring metrics can be controlled directly in the System Analysis application. Use the gear button () to open the configuration for all systems in the current scope selection. For each system there is a drop-down list of available capabilities. Activate the desired capabilities and click save to trigger immediate activation.

To get a tabular overview on active capabilities, especially for a larger set of systems, there is a "table" button in the header section of the System Settings panel. You get a tabular presentation for all selected systems and all capabilities. The system selection can be overridden in this table (to select more than ten systems), capability activation can be directly changed in the table, and download from this table is also possible.

Starting with SAP Focused Run 2.0 FP03 RCA capabilities can be activated automatically by SSI depending on LMDB attributes. Since SAP Focused Run 3.0 SP00 you can as well activate the collection of ABAP exceptions by setting the capability ABAP_EXCEPTIONS_ALL. This collection collected is performed by Exception Monitoring. See details on page Activation of RCA Capabilities.

ABAP_WP_OVERVIEW

You can activate /SDF/SMON in the managed system from within System Analysis via the configuration . If an analysis is already scheduled in the managed system by another user the existing scheduling is not changed. Requirement for this capability is ST-PI 7.40 SP08 in managed system.

Following details can be scheduled for analysis in managed system additionally:

  • SM04 = Memory per (user) modes

  • ST06 = CPU and paging activity

  • TOPCPU = Top CPU processes

These non-default flags have a higher impact on the managed system and the data is not collected and transferred to SAP Focused Run but only helpful for local analysis in managed system. 

In the managed system the batch jobs /SDF/SMON_SCHEDULER and /SDF/SMON_WATCHDOG are scheduled which are responsible for the local measurement.

HANA SQL scripts

To use the RCA capabilities for system type HANADB you may have to copy the scripts from SAP Note 2555664 (Enable HANA Dashboards and Ad-Hoc SQLs in System Analytics for Focused Run) to all host agents of your HANA databases. The note lists in detail for which combinations of diagnostics agent version and SAP Host Agent version manual activities are necessary.

HANA Expensive Statements

To collect the expensive statements from the HANA DB they need to be enabled in the HANA database first. See also https://help.sap.com/viewer/bed8c14f9f024763b0777aa72b5436f6/2.0.03/en-US/5faf04f17830464eacdb7938b383d2ab.html or the FAQs in SAP Note 2180165 FAQ: SAP HANA Expensive Statements Trace.

SAP Cloud Platform Metrics

To enable the collector for SAP Cloud Platform (Neo) metrics an external service with the required http endpoint and root URL needs to be created. 

Open the Cloud Service Management Configuration and add an external service of type SAP Cloud Platform (Neo) for your account with the root URL https://api.hana.ondemand.com. Create an endpoint with your user and a proxy if required.

Using the Application

When launching System Analysis either from the SAP Focused Run launchpad or via an explicit link you will first receive a popup to choose a set of systems to look at. By default, the number of systems to be displayed in System Analysis is limited to a maximum of ten (see FAQ section to raise the limit and to avoid the initial scope selection). If you choose more than ten systems in the bottom table of the scope selection, then the first ten will be chosen.

After finishing the scope selection, the System Analysis application comes up with the typical layout common to most Focused Run applications:

The header bar contains a set of global tools:

  • “Hamburger” menu to expand the page names on the left side
  • Back button for page navigation
  • Refresh timer for automated update of the current display
  • Help icon for context-sensitive help (if configured)
  • Calendar icon for global time selection
  • Target icon for global scope selection
  • Configuration icon to expand the configuration section. In System Analysis you can configure data collection per system in scope and RCA capability and custom web links.
  • Message icon for notifications
  • Personalization icon

The list of pages (dashboards) on the left side will be populated with default pages (based on selected system types), the page catalog, and custom pages.

The page toolbar serves as overview and selection tool for the content of the page. It consists of the following main sections:

  • Time Navigation: You can explicitly set the time range for the current page, scroll via the arrow buttons, or choose one of the pre-defined relative time ranges.
  • Scope refinement: For default pages the subset of systems for which the page is applicable is automatically assigned to the page and displayed in the toolbar. To focus on a single system, refine the scope here without touching the global selection.
  • Links: A set of links to other pages and other Focused Run applications may be available in the “links” button. For custom pages you can choose the links. Where possible the current scope selection of the page is propagated to the link.
  • System Anomaly: If System Anomaly Analysis is configured and available for the systems in scope then the number of systems for which an anomaly is expected is shown here. Click on the button to show details or navigate to System Monitoring for even more details.

Single View Operation

Every single view provides the following functionality. Depending on the capabilities and data sources consumed not all aspects will be available for all views.

General Chart Functionality
  • Hover over a single data point to get a short tool tip that will be closed automatically.
  • Select / click on a single data point to get a more detailed pop-up view on the single data point and the series. The pop-up may contain links to related tools for deeper targeted analysis. Where appropriate the context of the selected data point (e.g. one out of several hosts) is propagated.
  • Drag a rectangle over more than one data point to zoom into a time range. Resolution is adjusted automatically (if set to “auto”). This procedure can be repeated multiple times, down to the granularity provided by the backing data store. The zoomed time range can be reset to the page-level selection or propagated to all charts on the page via tools menu items.

View Title Bar

The following options are available via the View title bar:

  • Forecast (for MAI-based data only): Based on the historical data the future development of a metric is predicted and indicated as a dashed line. If the shown metric is based on aggregation (e.g. aggregating from all instances of a system to a single metric) then you will first be prompted to disable aggregation. The forecast can be removed by toggling the button again.
  • Table/chart toggle: Data display can be switched between tabular and graphical display.
  • Filter: The filter menu allows to transiently override the selection of displayed data. All changes here are not persisted and gone upon restart of the application:
    • Time range: De-couple from page selection
    • Resolution: override the granularity
    • Aggregation: Review which dimensions should be aggregated. Aggregated dimensions disappear effectively from the chart.
    • Metrics selection:
  • Export: Data can be downloaded in CSV format for offline analysis
  • Links: view-specific links
  • Technical details: provides details like MAI GUIDs for detailed analysis related to MAI templates etc.

Guided Root Cause Analysis

There are currently two pre-defined dashboards that provide built-in drilldown into performance data: ABAP Work Processes and HANA Thread Samples. The idea is that selecting a data point in a chart (by clicking on it) serves as filter criteria for the subsequent chart. As a concrete example for ABAP Work Processes the following might be a useful workflow:

  1. In the first chart, zoom into a time range by dragging a rectangle -> the chart will update to the new time range
  2. In the first chart click on a single data point: The second chart will be published now using the selected work process type and time stamp of the data point from the first chart as filters. The time stamp is indicated via a black dotted vertical line. Around this time stamp 10 data points are rendered (if available). As additional dimension now, the entry points for the select task types (e.g. program name) are shown.
  3. In the second chart click again on a single data point. This triggers population of the third chart with the filters time stamp, task type, and entry point. The third chart shows the actions for the selected entry point.
  4. You can adjust the aggregation of dimensions of the third chart via the filter button. For example, switching off the aggregation for “User Name” and instead activating aggregation for “Action” may reveal the actual user names (assuming the proper authorizations are assigned)

The Guided RCA approach can also be applied to custom dashboards, e.g. by copying a predefined dashboard and adjusting the “Selection Propagation” settings in the view personalization.

Custom Dashboards

You can create custom dashboards by copying existing dashboards or by starting via the “Add Page” functions in the left-side navigation or in the personalization. The mechanisms are basically like all other Focused Run applications, thus only application specific details are explained here.

Procedure to Create a System Analysis Dashboard:

  • Create a page, assign name, icon; decide if you want to make it “public”
  • Decide on the layout of the page, e.g. grid layout
  • Drag views from the available view types onto your dashboard. Via the view type you basically decide what data source should be used, .e.g, MAI data, RCA data, ST03 data, etc.
  • Personalize each view by clicking on the “personalization” icon on the view title bar. Depending on the view type the flexibility on personalization options may vary.
  • Save the personalization settings to persist the data. The new dashboard will reappear every time you launch the application.

Personalize View – Data Source Settings:

  • Choose the set of systems if you want to override / hardwire the scope selection. Otherwise the global scope is applied.
  • Choose the capability to consume (for RCA) and the metrics from the metric catalog.
  • In the metrics dialog, tab “Selected”: assign metrics to a second axis if needed. Apply scaling if needed.
  • In the metrics dialog, tab “Aggregation”: Decide which dimensions should be aggregated by default, set filters if needed.
  • If desired override the time range.
  • Resolution: You can decide to switch off the time axis completely (“No Time Axis”) or to explicitly set a resolution. Note that actually used resolution may also depend on the granularity of data collection. When switching off the time axis, time-series charts cannot be used (see chart settings).
  • Top N / Top Rank: The RCA data source provides filtering. 0 means no filter.

Personalize View – Rendering Settings:

  • Choose the initial rendering type: chart or table
  • Set the view title
  • Decide if you want a legend displayed
  • Data labels are rendered as texts displaying the values of data points in the chart
  • Markers are rendered as “dots” for every data point. If a chart contains too many data points the markers may still not be visible. Use markers e.g. to expose isolated data points that are surrounded by “gaps”.
  • Chart type: time series charts are only available if the resolution is not set to “No Time Axis”. On the other hand side, pie and donut chart types only make sense if you set the resolution to “No Time Axis”

Personalize View – Link Settings:

  • Choose the set of links that you want to have displayed in the view tools menu and in tooltips. For Web links you might want to maintain a global list of links from which you can choose in Configuration -> Web Links.
  • In Configuration -> Web Links you can maintain any web links that make sense in your organization. Any link maintained here is visible to all users.
  • For web links you can use the following place holders that will be filled by the current context (system/host) if possible:

Placeholder Description
{SYSTEM.ExtendedSID} Extended sid, e.g. FRNADM
{SYSTEM.SID} Short 3-letter System ID, e.g. FRN
{SYSTEM.SystemType} System type like “ABAP”, “JAVA”
{SYSTEM.NamespaceName} CIM namespace name
{SYSTEM.LMDBID} LMDB guid (32 char notation)
{HOST.LMDBID} LMDB guid (32 char notation)
{HOST.NAME} Unqualified host name

Housekeeping

Every capability's data base table will be cleaned up and partitioned by the housekeeping job SAP_FRN_RCA_HOUSEKEEPER which is part of the SAP Focused Run installation guide. The lifespan of the RCA capabilities tables can be customized on the SM30 view RCA_HKCONFIG. See also the System Analysis Housekeeping page for default values.

The housekeeper also manages several jobs related to System Analysis and the RCA data stores. The periodicity of these jobs can be customized on the SM30 view RCA_HKJOBLIST:

the HANA statement synchronization job SAP_FRN_RCA_HANA_STATEMENT_SYNC which will synchronize HANA statements used by the RCA application, as well as the jobs SAP_FRN_RCA_SELFMON_CALC and SAP_FRN_RCA_GS_ALERT_CALC. Both calculate alerts for the RCA self-monitoring and Open KPI Store. The default frequency is once per hour.

The job SAP_FRN_RCA_ORPHAN_DETECTION detects and eliminates orphaned collector jobs (e.g. due to landscape changes) and runs once per day by default.

Troubleshooting

Hints for troubleshooting are described on page System Analysis Troubleshooting.