Concur is an SAP SaaS solution that provides travel and expense management services to our customers. Concur integrates seamlessly with SAP on premise solutions via an ABAP add-on installed in the on premise SAP ERP system. Exceptions in this add-on can be monitored using SAP Solution Manager.

The following technical prerequisites have to be met in order to monitor this scenario:

• To collect single exceptions in the Concur Integration add-in you need at least SAP Solution Manager 7.2 SP03
• To monitor single exceptions related to the Concur Integration in Interface and Connection Monitoring you need at least SAP Solution Manager 7.2 SP08
• To create alerts via HTTP Monitoring for HTTP RFC destinations you need at least SAP Solution Manager 7.1 SP12 

Preparations in SAP Concur

For SAP Concur you don't have to connect the actual cloud service to SAP Solution Manager, as all exceptions are collected from the Concur integration add-on. The log store for the exception collection is set up on the ABAP backend system.  

Step 1: Configure Exception Management

The Concur Integration add-on writes single exceptions into error messages in the ABAP Application Log. These application log entries can be collected with the log store for the Concur Network Integration. The exceptions collected via Exception Management and stored in the central exception store are the basis for the Integration Monitoring data collection.

Configuration for Exceptions from SAP Concur 

The log store is set up on the SAP ABAP on premise system on which the add-on is installed.

To access the Exception Management setup please go to transaction SOLMAN_SETUP → Application Operations → Exception Management 

1. In the step 'Define Scope' select the tab 'Technical Systems' and your SAP ABAP system. If you didn't configure the system before make sure to select 'All Systems' in the view drop-down. Click on 'Configure' or click 'Next' two times. You will enter the step 'Exception Configuration'.
2. Click 'Add / Configure Log Store' → Standard. Select 'Concur Travel & Expense'.
3. Select the fields for filtering for your log store. The field SUBOBJECT is always selected by default. While there are many filter fields available, as this log store is based on the Application Log log store, it doesn't necessarily make sense to use them all. Usually you would be good to go with just the SUBOBJECT. If you want to filter on the rest, please check the actual log record you are looking to catch in SLG1 and maintain the filter fields accordingly. The following filter fields are available:
   • SUBOBJECT: Choose one of the values from the drop-down box (e.g. EMPLOYEE)
   • EXTNUMBER: External ID of the Application Log entry
   • MSGID: Message Class (e.g. E (Error))
   • MSGNO: Message Number
   • MSGTXT: Message Text
   • PROGRAM: Program triggering the log entry
   • TCODE: Transaction code triggering the log entry
   • USER: The user who triggered the log entry
4. Maintain the filter values for the fields in the Filter Definition panel under the log stores table. You can also add, remove or change filter fields and values later on in the area. You can use different operators for your filter value. You can add more than one filter field combination per log store. To add an additional filter field combination click on the button 'Add Filter' in the 'Configured Log Stores' panel.
5. Once you are done with the Log Store setup click 'Next' to go to the alert configuration. The alert configuration is done in the 'Interface and Connection Monitoring' described in the next section.
6. You should not set up the monitoring for the exceptions in the Exception Management. If you activate the monitoring here, you will receive an alert (and if set up this way an email) for every single exception in the application log. Instead we will use Interface and Connection Monitoring to monitor the central exceptions store for exceptions.

Step 2: Configure Interface and Connection Monitoring

The last step is the configuration of Interface and Connection Monitoring.

To access the Integration Monitoring setup please go to SAP Solution Manager Configuration (SOLMAN_SETUP) → Application Operations → Integration Monitoring → Interface and Connections.

Monitoring Template: Cloud (Concur) 

Navigate to the step 'Define Scope'. You can create a new scenario for the SAP Concur monitoring or use an existing one. Make sure the on premise system for the SAP Concur scenario is part of the Interface and Connection Monitoring scenario. 

Create the Interface Channel:

Maintain the Interface:

Select Metrics:

1. On the tab 'Metrics' select the metrics you want to monitor
2. Provide the following information:
   • Parameter Set Name: You can enter a name for the parameter set to distinguish it if you have more than one
   • Sub-object name: Enter the sub-object of the log
   • User name: The user that triggered the exception
   • Client (expert field): The source client for the exception
   • External ID (expert field): The external ID of the exception
   • Message ID (expert field): Message Class (e.g. E (Error))
   • Message no. (expert field): Message Number
   • Message text (expert field): Message Text
   • Transaction Code (expert field): Transaction code triggering the exceptions
3. Save your interface channel by clicking on the 'Save' button. 

Thresholds and the collection schedule are maintained in the next step of the guided procedure. Once you have maintained all your channels, click 'Next' in the main guided procedure to move to the step 'Activation'.

Maintain Thresholds and Schedule:

1. Select the Alert for the interface channel (the alert is the line with the red flash icon next to it)
   • On alert level you can maintain notification and incident message creation
   • Do not remove the flag for 'Do not Group Individual Occurrences' as this flag ensures that an alert each time new exceptions are found during a data collection interval
2. Select the Metrics
   • Do not change the data collector type or data collector name on the tab 'Data Collection' as the monitor will not work anymore if this is changed.
   • Do not change the threshold if it is set to 'Already Rated'.
3. Click 'Apply and Activate' → <Choose one option> to activate the monitoring 

If not active you can also activate the reporting for the channels by checking the box in the column 'Reporting'. This way you can see a history of the number of exceptions that happened and also place the metric on the OCC Dashboard in Focused Insights. 

Configuration for Monitoring Template: HTTP Client (from ABAP)

The HTTP channel type is used to monitor the availability and performance of HTTP RFC destinations (type G and H) communication between the Concur Integration add-on in SAP ABAP and the Concur cloud solution.

For detailed setup information how to set up this channel type please refer to the configuration of HTTP channels. The RFC destination to Concur is maintained during the Concur setup in transaction CTE_SETUP. You can use this transaction to find out which RFC destinations were created, or you can check in transaction SM59 under type G.

Use the template HTTP Client (from ABAP) for the monitoring. For the metric parameter 'Destination' use the name of the RFC destination. 

Configuration for Monitoring Template: RFC

The RFC monitoring template is used as a workaround  until we have added the metric for 'Number of AppLog Errors ' to the HTTP template. We use this template to collect the number of exceptions that are written to the SAP Application Log by the Concur Integration add-on.

For detailed setup information how to set up this channel type please refer to the Interface and Connection Monitoring wiki for configuration of RFC channels.

When you set up this channel set the Target system = the Source system. This will create a channel pointing to itself and make sure the measuring point is correct. You don't have to add an interface to the channel.

Select the metric 'Number of AppLog Errors (RFC)' and maintain the following metric parameters:

• Technical system: your ABAP system
• Object name: CONCUR_INTEGRATION
• Sub-object name: you can select one of the following sub-objects or use '*'
  • COST_CENTER
  • EMPLOYEE
  • GDPR_DESTRUCTION
  • GDPR_DISCLOSURE
  • GDPR_READ_ACCESS
  • INTERNAL_ORDER
  • NETWORK
  • NETWORK_ACT
  • PAYROLL
  • POSTING
  • PROJECT
  • PURCHASE_ORDER
  • SALES_ORDER
  • SYSTEM_SETUP
  • VENDOR

The metrics for the Application Log Monitoring will create alerts based on the number of errors in the SAP Application Log. If you set up the Exception Management as well, you can analyze the single exceptions in Exception Management to find out more details about the errors that occurred.