What is SAP Early Watch Alert

[former_member182470]

Introduction

                 Anything in this World requires General/Critical maintenance to increase the survival. I will take two Classic examples here, to make you more clear about What I am going to talk about in this blog. One is Human body and another one is Vehicle. Both require regular Check-ups/Maintenance to have long life. Similarly, all our SAP Systems require regular Check-Ups and General/Critical Maintenance to keep them lively. You will find interesting sections below which could be produced by EWA. I am gong to show only very important sections but not everything. Let's jump into EWA now.

• An SAP EWA can be produced by SOLMAN, which is nothing but Solution Manager
• It can be generated on Weekly basis to keep an eye on whole Production System status
• I am using the same terms which SAP uses in the report and you could find explanations for some of them in brackets
• I am highlighting Column headers and imagine your configuration details in those tables to make sense
• My intention is to show you What all parameters(Column Headers) will SAP EWA consider
  
• There will be multiple sections describing about your Hardware details
• Report starts with all Hardware and Software information precisely for BASIS administrators (as well as for BW guys for Knowledge sake)
• Lower part of the report is for BI Developers/Support Guys which talks about Largest Aggregates etc.,
  

Your report heading would be like Early Watch Alert - BI_SYSTEM_LANDSCAPE

It gives a complete high level overview of your BW system with ratings on various parameters

Topic	Sub Topic	Rating
Performance Overview	Performance Evaluation	Eg: Green Tick Mark
SAP System Operating	Program Errors (ABAP Dumps)
	Update Errors
Hardware Capacity
Database Performance	Missing Indexes
BW Checks	BW Administration & Design
	BW Reporting & Planning
	BW Warehouse Management
Security	SAP Security Notes: ABAP and Kernel Software Corrections
	Users with Critical Authorizations
JAVA System Data	Java Workload Overview
	Java Application Performance

Service Summary

Performance Indicators for Production BW (System Name)

Area	Indicators	Value	Trend
System Performance	Active Users (>400 steps)
	Avg. Availability per Week
	Avg. Response Time in Dialog Task
	Max. Dialog Steps per Hour
	Avg. Response Time at Peak Dialog Hour
	Avg. Response Time in RFC Task
	Max. Number of RFCs per Hour
	Avg. RFC Response Time at Peak Hour
Hardware Capacity	Max. CPU Utilization on Appl. Server
Database Performance	Avg. DB Request Time in Dialog Task
	Avg. DB Request Time for RFC

Landscape

1) Products and Components in current Landscape

Product

SID	SAP Product	SAP Product Version
	SAP NetWeaver	Eg: 3.5 / 7.0 / 7.3

Main Instances (ABAP or Java based)

SID	Main Instance
	Eg: Application Server JAVA
	Eg: Enterprise Portal

Databases

SID	Database System	Database Version
	Eg: Oracle, MS-SQL, HANA etc,

2) Servers in current Landscape

SAP Application Servers (If you have multiple servers, those will be listed down below)

SID	Host	Instance Name	Logical Host	ABAP	JAVA

DB Servers

SID	Host	Logical Host( SAPDBHOST)

Components

Related SID	Component	Host	Instance Name	Logical Host

3) Hardware Configuration

Host Overview

Host	CPU Type	Operating System	No. of CPUs	Memory in MB

ST-PI and ST-A/PI Plug-Ins. This will indicate you to update to the latest levels.

Rating	Plug-In	Release	Patch Level	Release Rec	Patch Level Rec
	ST-A/PI

Software Configuration For your Production System

SAP Product Version	End of Mainstream Maintenance	Status
Eg: SAP NetWeaver Version 7.0	31.12.2017

Support Package Maintenance - ABAP.

This info can be found in your BW System via System-->Status, except Latest Available Patch Level Info. Below table indicates us to update to latest Patches.

Software Component	Version	Patch Level	Latest Avail. Patch Level	Support Package	Component Description

Support Package Maintenance - JAVA

Component	Version	SP	Latest Available SP

Database - Maintenance Phases

Database System	Database Version	End of Standard Vendor Support*	Comment	End of Extended Vendor Support*	Comment	Status	SAP Note
							1177356

Similar table for your Operating System also.

SAP Kernel Release. You can find this via System-->Status

Instance(s)	SAP Kernel Release	Patch Level	Age in Months	OS Family

They indicate you to update to latest Support Package Stack for your Kernel Release, if required.

Overview System (your SID)

General

This analysis basically shows the workload during the peak working hours (9-11, 13) and is based on the hourly averages.

CPU

If the average CPU load exceeds 75%, temporary CPU bottlenecks are likely to occur. An average CPU load of more than 90% is a strong indicator of a CPU bottleneck.

Memory

If your hardware cannot handle the maximum memory consumption, this causes a memory bottleneck in your SAP system that can impair performance.

Workload Overview (Your SID)

• Workload By Users
• Workload By Task Types Eg: RFC, HTTP(S)

Th above information will be given in fantastic graphical presentation by SAP.You can make out good sense out of them.

BW Checks for (Your SID)

BW - KPIs : Some BW KPIs exceed their reference values. This indicates either that there are critical problems or that performance, data volumes, or administration can be optimized.

KPI	Description	Observed	Reference	Rating	Relevant for Overall Service Rating
	Nr of Aggregates recommended to delete	Eg: 25	Eg: 13	Yellow

This indicates all Zero calls Aggregates can be deleted.

Program Errors (ABAP Dumps)

This section shows the ABAP Dumps(ST22) which have occurred in the last week. They will suggest us to monitor on a regular basis and we should determine the possible causes asap. Eg : CX_SY_OPEN_SQL_DB

Users with Critical Authorizations

This section suggests us to review all our Authorization Roles and Profiles on a regular basis. for additional info SAP Note : 863362

Missing Indexes

This section indicates us to have an eye on whether Primary indexes are exists on the tables in database. Because, missing indexes can lead to severe performance issues.

Data Distribution

Largest InfoCubes : We should make sure we do Compression on a regular basis.

InfoCube Name	# Records

Largest Aggregates : Large Aggregates high run times for Roll ups and Attribute Change runs. So we should check them periodically and modify them at least on quarterly basis.

InfoCube	Aggregate Name	# Records

Analysis of InfoProviders : This table basically shows the Counts

Info Providers	Basis Cubes	Multi Providers	Aggregates	Virtual Cubes	Remote Cubes	Transactional Cubes	DSO Objects	Info Objects	Info Sets

DSO Objects : This table basically shows the Counts

# DSO Objects	# DSO Objects with BEX flag	# DSO Objects with unique flag	# Transactional DSO Objects

InfoCube Design of Dimensions : You can check this by running SAP_INFOCUBE_DESIGNS in SE38

InfoCube	# rows	Max % entries in DIMs compared to F-table

Aggregates Overview : We can take a call to delete unused Aggregates by observing this table

#Aggregates	#Aggregates to consider if to be deleted	#Aggregates with 0 calls	#Basis Aggregates

Aggregates to be considered for deletion (Most important Section to take a quick action)

Cube name	Aggr.-cube	# entries	Avg. reduce factor	# calls	Created at	Last Call	# Nav. Attr.	# Hier.

DTP Error Handling : You can deactivate error stack if you don't expect errors often. It's better to use "No Update No Reporting" option.

# DTPs with error handling	# Total DTPs	% of DTPs with error handling

BW Statistics

All your BI Admin Cockpit information will be provided in detailed tabular presentation about OLAP Times, Run time etc., Many tables will be there for every aspect which I cannot show you in this blog, as it is already too big now :wink:

Conclusion

"SAP Early Watch Alert" gives us a complete picture of our BW System in all aspects. This is a fantastic service gives by SAP to keep us alert before any damage happens to the system. I have tried to show you almost all important things in this blog.