How To Move Monitoring Templates from Solman 7.1 to Solman 7.2

[bud_sloniger]

 Moving Monitoring templates from Solman 7.1 to Solman 7.2

 

Solution Manager implementations are often greenfield implementations where the system is essentially re-implemented.  Usually the factor that determines if SolMan will be upgraded or re-implemented is content. There are obvious contents like blueprint documentation and system connections.  But starting with Solution Manger 7.1, the Technical Monitoring functions moved from the traditional CCMS (Computing Center Management System) to MAI (Monitoring & Alerting Infrastructure).

If you moved or upgraded from an earlier version of Solution Manager to Solution Manager 7.1 you would have had to convert all of your CCMS monitoring to MAI. This usually is a significant effort, and you don't want to have to do that again!

These MAI monitoring functions are controlled by templates.  As the name implies, they can be copied and tweaked for certain landscapes and even one-off situations.  As time goes by, these templates become more and more specific to the environment.  Re-creating them can then become even more cumbersome.

Monitoring templates are ABAP repository objects and can be transported.  But when repository objects that belong to a system that can be 6-8 years old, they are not backward-compatible, so this can’t be done.  It’s just not gonna work to transport 7.1 MAI object up to a 7.2 system.

 

My colleague had discovered a rather obscure note that does allow you to do this.  But there are some conditions, and there are specific procedures to be followed.  This blog is an explanation of my research on the feasibility of transporting Monitoring templates from Solution Manger 7.1 to Solution Manger 7.2.

 

System Environment

Source System:  SAP Solution Manager 7.1 SPS 10, Kernel 722.400,  Oracle on AIX

Target System:  Sap Solution Manager 7.2 SPS 6, Kernel 749.401,  Oracle on AIX,  ASCS & DIA on Linux

 

Solution Manager 7.1 Source System Actions

I only wanted to move templates that are being used by a monitored system.

To determine this, I performed the following steps:

1. Log into the Solution Manager 7.1 system as a Solution Manager Administrator user.


2. Go into the SOLMAN_SETUP transaction

3. Log into the template maintenance section of your 7.1 systems and go into expert mode

3. I only wanted to copy the templates that are currently being used. You are likely doing a greenfield implementation because you don’t want to upgrade all the junk in your old system.  In that mindset, you generally don’t want to migrate templates that you don’t use.


4. To determine if a template is used: Select a template from the list on the left and open the ‘Managed Objects’ tab, in my systems I only copied templates that had systems under this tab.

Note:  There is a ‘Generate Request’ button that takes you to a dialog to select various templates and other CIM content.  I tried several iterations and methods to use this function and could not get it to work for me.

6. Go back to the ‘Template Settings’ tab and click the ‘Copy Custom Template’ button.

7. The ‘Copy Custom Template’ button automatically copies the template and names it ‘Copy of …’

I just used the default name as “Copy of…” in order to transfer of the templates.

8. Click “Save”

8. When prompted for a package, make sure it is a transportable package. NOT $TMP !!  Do Not check ‘Local Object’.

8. The template will be placed in a transport request. Name it appropriately.

Here’s an example of the same procedure with a ‘Host’ template.

I have a couple Linux servers using this template, so I will copy it and put it in my transport along with the other templates I want to move.



‘Copy Custom Template’, then click ‘Save’

    

Provide a transportable package

       

Place the copy of the template in the transport request.



After each used template that we want to copy is saved, you will see the requests in the source system.

Also note that the copied template contains all of the active flags, customized selection criteria, adjusted thresholds, etc.

11. Release the transport containing you copied templates and move the data and cofile over to the target system

7.2 Solution Manager Target System preparation

 

There is an SAP Note that describes the situation and provides a means of transporting templates from a 7.1 Solution Manager to a 7.2 system.

Note 2292871 - Process to port some or all of the Custom templates used in a 7.1 system, into a newly ins...

This note requires Note 2288577 - Issues with migration of MAI repository data from SolMan 7.1 to 7.2 as a prerequisite.

Apply these two notes to your 7.2 System.  The notes applied to my 7.2 SPS 6 test system with no problems.





Here are the Solution Steps as outlined in Note 2292871 with screen shots from my test system:

 

1. Apply the automatic corrections from this note in your freshly installed 7.2 system.

My system was not ‘freshly installed”.  The configuration was done up to the point of the assignment of managed systems to monitoring templates.  Thus I will show the deviation conditions below.

2. Export your custom templates into a Transport Request (TR) in the 7.1 system.


3. Import the TR into the 7.2 system.

The systems are different releases, so you have to use the ‘Ignore Invalid Component Version’ import condition flag.

4. Launch the Solution Manager Set up in this 7.2 system.


5. Check “Template Maintenance” step to view the Custom templates you ported.

 

In the following two cases you need to carry out additional steps, or repeat steps above, as detailed below.

This was the case for my system:

(a) You had already run the Solution Manager set up in the 7.2 system, by mistake or for other reasons, before importing the custom templates from 7.1 system.

(b) You had imported few Custom templates from the 7.1 system into the 7.2 system earlier, but you want to import some other Custom templates again.

 

In these cases, follow steps 1 and 2 as above. Then, go to transaction SE24 and type in the class name “CL_MAI_REP_MIGRATION_720”. Click the button ‘In Test Environment’ (alternatively, press the F8 key). In the ‘Methods’ section, click the’ Execute method’ button for the method ‘Execute’.



Note that if you imported one or more Custom templates that were imported earlier as well, followed by further changes to those in the 7.2 system, these templates would get back to the state in which those were in the 7.1 system again, after re-import, and changes would be lost. It is recommended that you do not import the same custom templates more than once from the 7.1 system into 7.2 system, unless this overwrite is what exactly you wanted.

Follow step 4 as above.

 

 

Solution Manager Template Maintenance results



My AIX baseline template copied from my old 7.1 system!   🙂



And my customized file system traps for my system transferred over with no problems.

 

Now that you have the copies from the 7.1 system loaded, you can continue with the System Monitoring setup and invoke these templates in your Solution Manager 7.2 Landscape.