Introduction

This document provides various recommendations to prepare your up-and-running SAP Solution Manager 7.1 solution documentation for a smooth transition to the upcoming SAP Solution Manager 7.2 release.

Please note: This is a collection of tips and tricks. Not all information in this document might be relevant for every customer, depending on the individual setup of SAP Solution Manager.

Start using SAP Solution Manager innovation today on 7.1

Project Management in SAP Solution Manager

SAP Solution Manager 7.2 has integrated project management capabilities. The functional differences between Project Management on SAP Solution Manager 7.1 and the project management in SAP Solution Manager 7.2 are non-disruptive and therefore manageable. Using Project Management already on 7.1 simplifies the transition to 7.2. For more information on integrating Project Management and SAP Solution Manager 7.1, see the documentation.

Minimize activation effort: “Smart document” your solution today

Keep your business process structure simple

The business process structure in SAP Solution Manager 7.1 is limited to the three levels “Scenario” – “Business Process” – “Business Process Step”. If you needed more than three levels, SAP AGS best practices recommended circumventing this restriction with naming conventions, e.g. “level 5 -> level 4 -> scenario”.

If you use these naming conventions, do not change anything in SAP Solution Manager 7.1. You can change the additional levels into regular folders, manually, after upgrading to SAP Solution Manager 7.2.

If you start using SAP Solution Manager 7.1 now, and intend to use such a naming convention, follow the guidelines in this best practice document. Only do so if it is unavoidable, because it can require additional effort to change the additional levels into regular folders in SAP Solution Manager 7.2.

Assign executables on process step level

To ensure a smooth transition and reduce post-activation effort, assign test cases and one executable (transaction/report, etc.) on process step level wherever possible, to ensure correct functioning of Test Management, Business Process Monitoring and other SAP Solution Manager capabilities.

Executable variants

The executable variants concept in SAP Solution Manager 7.1 let you add variants to an executable attached to a process step. In SAP Solution Manager 7.2, executable variants will be represented by single process steps (one step for each variant)., Executable variants will be converted into single process steps during content activation.

Deprecated SAP attributes

In SAP Solution Manager 7.2, the set of SAP attributes has been cleaned up and reduced, so the attributes listed below will no longer be available. If you use them now, and want to retain them after the upgrade to SAP Solution Manager 7.2, you can convert them into customer attributes during content activation.

Structure element attributes:

• Industry, Component, Template ID, Custom Development, SAP Modification, SAP with Enhancement, SAP Standard, ESR Assignment Key, BPMS Assignment Key, Keywords

Assignment attributes:

• Keywords, Is Default, Processing Type, Ext. Test Tool relevant

Document attributes:

• Blueprint-Relevant, Duration, Technical Name, Business Partner, General Documentation, End User Documentation, Ext. Test Tool, Solution Builder Key, Solution Package ID

Tag your copied projects

This information is only relevant for customers who regularly create copies of projects, to keep a snapshot of a project.

This is not generally recommended, because it greatly increases the number of projects in SAP Solution Manager. The result may be that projects which are not required are activated during content activation. Customers may then have to invest in unnecessary post-activation clean-up activities.

If you need to take project snapshots in SAP Solution Manager, label them as not activation-relevant, using a naming convention. Project-based archiving capabilities are planned for a later functional enhancement of SAP Solution Manager 7.2.

Clean up your existing solution documentation

To ensure a smooth transition, clean up your existing solution documentation.

• Clean up „dead-end“ shortcuts which point to elements that no longer exist
• Use report AI_DIR_STRUCTURE_NO_LOGCOMP to find process steps which have no logical component assigned, and assign a logical component to them (or remove the steps)
• Use report SOLMAN_DOCU_VERSION_ARCHIVE* to archive old versions of KW documents. Alternatively, you can use report SOLMAN_DOCU_VERSION_DEL* to delete old versions of KW documents. This step is optional, to free up database space.

Please note: KW documents which are not assigned to any structure object will not be activated. They will no longer be accessible after content activation. You can use report SOLMAN_UNUSED_DOCUMENTS to find unassigned KW documents.

(* Implementation of corrections from SAP Note 1360988 and 1360436 necessary )

Ensure a smooth transition: update your managed systems

Keep your managed systems up-to-date

SAP Solution Manager 7.2 needs connectivity to the SAP systems in the customer landscape, for example to retrieve data for library generation and for monitoring purposes. This is technically ensured through the ST-PI and ST-A/PI packages, which are installed in the managed systems.

To ensure that the technical upgrade of your SAP Solution Manager system runs smoothly, SAP recommends that the ST-PI and ST-A/PI levels of customers’ managed systems should be at the latest available version. Please see the minimally required versions below.

As this may affect a high number of systems in customers’ system landscape, SAP recommends to include this update into the regular maintenance schedule or carefully plan the update before updating SAP Solution Manager to release 7.2.

Keep your CIM model and CR content up to date

SAP provides product information and landscape data via updates of the CIM model (Common Information Model) and CR content (Component Repository content).

In preparation of the content activation, SAP recommends to update CIM model and CR content before the actual upgrade to SAP Solution Manager 7.2. Otherwise, updating the CIM model and CR content has to be performed during the mandatory post-upgrade activities and can be quite time-consuming.

You can find more information in SAP note 1701770 (LMDB CIM model and CR Content prerequisite) and in SAP note 669669 (Update of SAP System Component Repository in SLD).

Evaluate your existing projects & solutions

Overview Report

The “overview report for projects and solutions” gives you an overview of your existing projects and solutions in SAP Solution Manager 7.1. It will help you to identify projects relevant for activation, and projects which can be discontinued or deleted. The information from the report will help you to prepare content activation, and reducing the effort required. The report can be downloaded via SAP Note 2161244.

Prepare the content activation in advance

The guided procedure in transaction PREPARE_ACTIVATION helps you to define the activation scope before you start the activation process. It also helps you to understand and plan the future logical component group design, and to align it within your company. The execution of this procedure is a prerequisite of content activation. It will not change existing data in your SAP Solution Manager 7.1 system.

Please see the Content Activation Wiki for information and documents.

Authorizations

SAP Solution Manager 7.2 has new authorization objects:

SAP_SM_SL_* (Process Documentation)

SAP_SM_KW_* (Document Management)

Roles and profiles must be updated to reflect these new authorization structures. See the SAP Solution Manager 7.2 security guide.

Additional topics: Preparation activities beyond Solution Documentation

Maintenance Planner

Maintenance Planner replaces Maintenance Optimizer in SAP Solution Manager 7.2, and is already available for SAP Solution Manager 7.1. Using the Maintenance Planner already in 7.1 simplifies the transition to 7.2. For more information, see this blog and this document.

SAP S/4HANA can only be maintained and updated using the Maintenance Planner.

Prepare Business Process Monitoring

In SAP Solution Manager 7.2, all Business Process Monitoring capabilities will be available on the Monitoring and Alerting Infrastructure ONLY. Customers who use capabilities like Business Process Monitoring on SAP Solution Manager 7.1 SP 12 (or higher), and have not yet completed the transition to MAI, should move to MAI before upgrading to SAP Solution Manager 7.2.

Prepare Custom Code Management

In CCM, infrastructure elements and data models have changed in past SPs on SAP Solution Manager 7.1 and also changed in SAP Solution Manager 7.2. This leads to a necessary conversion of data when upgrading to SAP Solution Manager 7.2. There is a dedicated migration scenario in SOLMAN_SETUP on SAP Solution Manager 7.2 which covers all possible combinations to convert the data from any previous data model.
There is no ‘must do’ required action, however to ensure the shortest total conversion time.

• Recommended – start the upgrade at least with SAP Solution Manager 7.1 SP12, since in earlier SPs on SAP Solution Manager 7.1 the data model was much different and more data would need to be converted.
• Optional – ideally start the upgrade at SAP Solution Manager 7.1 SP14 since the data model difference from this level to SAP Solution Manager 7.2 is the smallest, hence the total conversion time is the shortest.

Additional knowledge resources

You can find lots of additional information related to the transition to SAP Solution Manager 7.2 in the Content Activation WIKI.