System Monitoring is an application in SAP Focused Run in the area Advanced System Management. It provides permanent collection of the most important KPIs to monitor technical systems, databases and hosts.

Scope

• Monitoring of technical systems including their instances, databases and hosts.
• Template based configuration with automatic assignment during Simple System Integration. Templates are pre-defined by SAP and can be adapted to the customer needs.
• Display the status of managed objects and drill down to each single metric or event. Show the history of each metric in the Metric Monitor.
• Automatic alert generation when thresholds are violated.

Target Group

• System Administrators who want to monitor technical systems in the customer landscape.

SAP Focused Run 3.0 FP01

• Monitoring of standalone Hosts.
  • possibility to set up monitoring for the hosts via report and Manual Template Assignment.
  • Own tab on the scope selection screen for hosts in the Monitoring UI.
• Monitoring of SAP HANA System Replication Disaster Recovery scenario.
  • allows configuration of DR scenario - DR host is located in another data center.
• Monitoring UI - it's possible to download the event & metric list.
• Individual Maintenance - a default collection interval can be changed

SAP Focused Run 3.0 SP00

• Introduction of Raise Alert per Variant feature, which allows to raise an alert per metric variant.
• Possibility to configure rule-based assignment based on LMDB Attributes.
• Individual Maintenance - metric variants can be adjusted/added.
• Monitoring UI -  active planned downtime work mode will be shown under System Details.
• Monitoring UI - displaying the data in the Metric Monitor for already rated metric groups, for all variants.

SAP Focused Run 2.0 FP03

• Metric monitor option is available at the group level of the hierarchy view of an entity and not just at the variant level. For example, you can monitor the metric of the group, File System Free (%), of exception category of the host by choosing the Metric Monitor icon next to the group.
• Use System Monitoring - Content Management to compare usage and content of monitoring templates (both active and downloaded), and update the content. In detail:
  • Template Comparison helps you to compare the usage and the content of templates that have been provided by SAP as well as templates that you have created yourself. It complements Template Maintenance, but it is better suited for comparing the content of two templates and for getting an overview about the usage of your templates.
  • If a new SAP monitoring update is available, use Impact Analysis to check the differences between active and downloaded content. This includes metrics, events, alerts, and templates, which have been changed, added, or deprecated. After performing this check, update the content.
• The new tile System Monitoring – Individual Maintenance and Assignment offers the following functions:
  • Define the default template valid for the different products (previously part of Template Maintenance); as a new feature, you can now define the default template assignment on product group level, too.
  • The rule-based template assignment allows you to assign templates dynamically depending on LMDB properties. Rules are defined as a combination of LMDB-based filters, either inherited from the technical system or related to the managed object. A rule assignment is a combination of a rule, a product and a template which should be assigned in case the rule applies.
  • Manual Template Assignment - allows to assign any template to individual managed objects manually and perform a reconfiguration afterwards.
  • Individual Maintenance - providing a possibility to define managed objects specific settings for alerts and metrics.

SAP Focused Run 2.0 FP02

• You can select the time frame from a default list in the metric monitor. This list of the default time frame is in sync with the list of default time frame of System Analysis application.
• You can view the alert details by choosing the number in the Alerts column.
• If any work mode is maintained for the managed object, the name is displayed under the Work Mode column. You can also view the work mode name by opening the information icon of the managed object.

SAP Focused Run 2.0 FP01

• You can select the time frame from a default list in the metric monitor. This list of the default time frame is in sync with the list of default time frame of System Analysis application.
• You can view the alert details by choosing the number in the Alerts column.
• If any work mode is maintained for the managed object, the name is displayed under the Work Mode column. You can also view the work mode name by opening the information icon of the managed object.

SAP Focused Run 2.0 SP00

• The new “Hosts” page displays the status of all hosts in the selected scope. This allows an easier identification of host issues in your landscape.
• On the “Metrics” page it is now possible to display the metric history for multiple managed objects. One use case could be to identify the hosts with the highest CPU utilization in a given timeframe.
• Improved time range selection in the Metric Monitor

General

• System Monitoring is available as of SAP Focused Run 1.0 SP00
• Perform the relevant tasks described in the Master Guide
• Assign the required roles mentioned in the Security Guide

Monitored Managed Systems

• Execute the necessary steps described under the Infrastructure Preparation Guides, e.g. Preparing Databases, Preparing Managed Systems and Preparing CA Introscope

Monitoring Content

• Standard monitoring content is initially shipped with a particular Support Package/Feature Pack of SAP Focused Run release.
• It contains monitoring templates (pre-defined set of metrics & alerts for the supported products and corresponding data collectors.
• Initial content can be updated via Rapid Content Delivery. An update can include:
  • New metrics/alerts
  • Changes to the definition of existing metrics/alerts (typically correction)
  • Introduction of a new supported product or product version

System Monitoring for a technical system is automatically configured during Simple System Integration (SSI). During the SSI step “System Monitoring”, all installed products of the technical system, as well as its database and hosts, will be identified and the corresponding default templates will be applied and activated.

Standard vs. Custom Templates

When configuring System Monitoring, it is important to consider whether the default assigned monitoring template is sufficient to reflect your monitoring requirement. SAP has provided various monitoring templates over the past years to cover a wide range of products adopted by the most customers. These SAP provided monitoring templates is delivered within the component FRUN-CONT and contain the definitions of the metrics, events, and alerts as well as the details of settings such as the assigned threshold value, collection period etc. For more information, check the Rapid Content Delivery page.

All available templates are listed on the System Monitoring- Template Maintenance screen (located under Advanced System Management) on Focused Run launchpad. They are divided into categories like Database, Database Instance, Host, Technical Instance, Technical System.

Nevertheless, it is easy to identify that the already activated metrics or alerts cannot be deactivated or the assigned threshold value cannot be modified anymore (all settings are greyed out), which is made by design. These predefined SAP delivered monitoring templates are called as the standard templates. Of course, standard templates alone could not fulfill the customer's monitoring requirement, considering the fact that each customer has own preferred set of metrics and also it can vary depending on the system role (e.g. production or development system). Therefore, we SAP come up with the concept custom (monitoring) template and each customer can flexibly define own preferred set of metrics in it.

The custom template can be created conveniently by copying the standard template. The user needs to first mark the corresponding standard template and press the button Create Custom Template. 

Default Template Assignment

To ensure that during SSI step “System Monitoring” a custom template is assigned automatically, a default assignment must be changed. Therefore, please open System Monitoring – Individual Maintenance or you can jump in from System Monitoring - Template Maintenance by selecting the Managed Object Type (e.g. Technical System) in the Templates area and clicking on Default and Rulebased Assignment.

On the first screen you will see the template statistics in terms of assignment modes, grouped by managed object types. Following assignment modes are available:

• SAP Default
• Customer Default
• Manual
• Rule-based

You can switch between two views – Technical System Monitoring and Solution Manager Self-Monitoring by clicking on the corresponding radio button.

To change the default assignment, click on the relevant managed object type on the left part of the screen, then search for a relevant product/product group. In the column Default Assignment, either a name of current assigned template like SAP HANA DB is displayed or the number of assigned templates like 2 different templates (in case more than one product version exists and those having different default templates assigned). By clicking on that field, in a pop-up window the default assignment can be reviewed and changed. Either on the Product Group Level, for all product versions or one dedicated custom template per single product. Select a custom template from the list. If required, you can jump in from this view to the particular template or restore to SAP default. Close the window and save the changes.

Remark: Prior SAP Focused Run 2.0 FP03 you can maintain the default template for each product in the Template Maintenance application as follows:

• Open the application System Monitoring - Template Maintenance from the FRUN Launchpad (you can find it in the section Advanced System Management).
• Select the Managed Object Type (e.g. Technical System) in the Templates area
• The section Default Assignment on the right side shows the default templates for each product. If the column Default Template: Custom-defined shows None, the SAP default template (as shown in column Default Template: SAP-defined) will be used.
  
• Click Edit if you want to change the default template for a product
• You can now select the default template for each product in a drop-down box. If you don't want to use any template for a product (e.g. if you want to disable monitoring for a product) you can also choose Do not assign any template.
• Click Save to persist your changes. You will be asked for a transport during save. This allows you to transport your default template settings to another system.
• After your settings are saved, all subsequent new configurations or re-configurations in SSI will use the new default template. If you want to reapply your changes to existing managed objects, you can go to the tab Template Assignment, select the objects you want to reconfigure and click on Apply and Activate.

Rule-Based Template Assignment

It is also possible to implement additional logic for a rule-based template assignment. As of SAP Focused Run 2.0 FP03 this functionality is available in the standard. For previous releases it can be configured by a BAdI which is executed during template assignment. Each customer can develop an own implementation of the BAdI to influence which templates should be assigned under which condition. This process is described here.

Remote Availability Checks

The Remote Availability Checks are performed from a defined (central) Simple Diagnostic Agent (SDA) located in the related Customer Network of the Managed System.

The selection of the central SDA based on three attempts:

1. If a host is maintained for a Customer Network in report RLMDB_CUSTOMER_NETWORK_TOOLS column “Hostname for Central Diagnostic Agent”, this SDA is used.
2. If an Enterprise Manager is available in the Customer Network the SDA on this host is used.
3. If both above are not available, a random online SDA is used.

For all three options it is checked, if the related SDA is online.

The active central SDA can be displayed in the Metric Details of the Remote Availability Check Metric:

• Info button on metric level
• Following the Link "Check Data Collection"
• Column Agent ### is responsible for the data collection.
  
  

Standalone Host Monitoring

As of SAP Focused Run 3.0 FP01 it is possible to monitor standalone hosts. Initial setup has to be performed via report located under MAI_TOOLS -> Configuration -> Configure Monitoring. On the Entry Point Selection screen, provide following information:

• Entry Points – host name(s)
• Entry Point Type – HOST
• Monitoring Use Case – Technical System Monitoring
• Namespace Name – namespace of the customer network

Please repeat the same steps for the Monitoring Use Case Solution Manager Self-Monitoring!

Hint: in case you would like to configure the monitoring for several standalone servers from different custom networks/data centers, you can use multiple selection screen for Entry Points. A namespace of a custom network can be passed along with host name with the following syntax: <hostname>~<namespace>. The Namespace Name field remains empty in that case.

Once the initial configuration is executed, the result can be checked in the System Monitoring UI. On the Scope Selection screen, select the Hosts tab and provide the details, e.g. host name.

All further reconfigurations can be performed via Manual Template Assignment (part of System Monitoring – Individual Maintenance and Assignment UI). To do so, select the Managed Object Type ‘Host (Server)' from the drop-down menu and search for a host in the Managed Object field.