Work Mode Management for SAP Solution Manager 7.2

In this blog you will learn about Work Mode Management (WMM). WMM is used to manage (perform a create, edit or delete) various components of an IT Landscape. The IT Landscape components that are supported in SAP Solution Manager 7.2 Support Pack Stack 03 are

• Technical Systems
• Databases
• Technical Instances
• Hosts
• Technical Scenario

The major use-cases of WMM are as follows:

• Alert Suppression
• Landscape Planning
• Downtime Reporting

WMM is tightly coupled with IT Calendar (the single source of truth for all events planned in landscape) and the only launch point for WMM is IT calendar. The Workmodes defined on various technical components can be viewed from IT Calendar.

Let’s take an example to understand the concept better.

Bob is a system administrator of XYZ Company. He uses SAP Solution Manager Service Support Stack 03 and has his landscape set up. He gets notified when a system is down. At times, he purposefully schedules a workmode on the system for maintenance. The alerting infrastructure at SAP Solution Manager notifies him every minute and he does not want this. So, IT Calendar and WMM will help Bob suppress alerts when he brings down the system on purpose and lets him plan his landscape more effectively.

Step 1: Launch IT Calendar application.

Bob, as a Solution manager user can launch the Fiori-launchpad of the Solution Manager System. In the launchpad he can find the IT Calendar under the Technical Administration Tab. He clicks on the tile to launch IT Calendar.

Step 2: Select a technical system using the scope selector.

 Step 3: Select a day and press on “schedule Workmode”. It will open the work mode management screen in a new window.

Step 4: The time zone, start and End date and time will be prefilled keeping in mind the selections you had made in IT calendar. You may go ahead and change them.

Step 5: Select a type that suites your case and choose a category. Supply a title to the Workmode. Click on Save.

Step 6: Go to IT Calendar and reload the application. You will find the created Workmode.

Based on the example above, a work mode is setup for 1^st October and hence Bob doesn’t get notified during that time range.

Note: Alert suppression feature needs to be configured in the Solution Manager Setup before it can be achieved.

The next part of the blog will focus on mass maintenance of landscape components and creation of recurring Workmodes.