Finding missing IDocs

[Former Member]

Someone claims to have sent an IDoc from SAP ECC (or any other IDoc sender) to SAP PI, but it seems the message never arrived at the expected receiver. Or the other way around: an IDoc was expected in SAP ECC but never arrived. Below are the steps you can take to find out where the IDoc went missing. This will be your starting point for a more thorough investigation.

Note that I do not intend to describe all possible causes of IDocs going missing IDocs and their resolution.

For both directions (from and to SAP ECC) the basic steps are the same, but the implications are a bit different. I will therefore discuss these scenario's separately.

IDocs SAP ECC to PI

Runtime Workbench in SAP PI Can you find the message in the runtime workbench? If you can, find out whether it really did not reach the receiver and, if so, why. In this case the poblem lies in PI, the receiver of the message or the communication between the two. Use the RWB to find further evidence of problems. IDX5 in SAP PI Can you find the IDoc in transaction idx5 in SAP PI? And is it without errors? Transactional RFC monitor in SAP ECC Can you find an entry in the transactional RFC monitor in SAP ECC (transaction SM58)? If so, this indicates a communication failure between ECC and PI. Check the error message to find out why the IDoc was not sent to PI. IDoc monitor in SAP ECC Can you find the IDoc in the IDoc monitor (transaction we02/we05/...) in SAP ECC? If not, the IDoc was never generated and therefore never received at the other end of the line. If the IDoc exists, does it have status 03? If not, the IDoc was not sent to PI. Find out why using the error mentioned in the IDoc monitoring.

IDocs SAP PI to ECC

IDoc monitor in SAP ECC Can you find the IDoc in the IDoc monitor (transaction we02/we05/...) in SAP ECC? If you can, the problem lies within the IDoc processing in SAP ECC. Check the IDoc status and any errors that occurred in the IDoc processing. Transactional RFC monitor in SAP PI Can you find an entry in the transactional RFC monitor in SAP PI (transaction SM58)? If so, this indicates a communication failure between PI and ECC Check the error message to find out why the IDoc was not sent to ECC. IDX5 in SAP PI Can you find the IDoc in transaction idx5 in SAP PI? And is it without errors? Runtime Workbench in SAP PI Can you find the message in the runtime workbench? If you can, find out what happened to the message. If you cannot find it here, the message was never successfully received in SAP PI. Check the sending application and adapter logs to find out what happened.

If you cannot find the message in one of the steps above and you can find it in the next step, the cause of the problem must lie between those two steps, as described in my blog Interface Troubleshooting Basics. Focus your search in this area and, if needed, find possible solutions on SCN. Sometimes you may need to re-check previous steps after an insight you gained from later steps. For instance, the IDoc monitor may provide you with an IDoc number that you can use to re-check IDX5.