SAP Omnichannel POS by GK - Admin & Operational topics

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This is the start of a new set of blogs, which focus on Technical Topics related to SAP Omnichannel POS by GK.

SAP Omnichannel POS by GK, is a partner product, which enables a seamless and scalable solution to manage the Retail Stores.

This blog discusses and helps in Administrating & running a GK Solution w.r.t its specific Technical sophistication and complexity

This page discusses specifically about the Restart pitfalls and Restart tips of 'SAP Omnichannel POS by GK'

 

Background:

GK Solution, without any doubt is the lifeline of all Retail Customers to have their stores running, because:

• Any unforeseen issues with any of the 25 odd GK applications will have the potential to bring the retail business to a stand still.


• Any extension of planned downtimes will mean a lot of chaos and contingent busines planning to be put into action, to keep the business running, until the System / Solution is back

Technical detail:

GK Solution, especially the GK central Applications from their Store Device Control, Omnichannel POS, Offline Mobile Store, Label and Poster Printing/Service are very critical to the Business Operations. In addition, they also are very delicate and sophisticated, because:

• The GK Central applications form a cluster of their own on top of SAP Enqueue Server (in some installations) and on top of the DB (for DB based Cluster management).


• The core of the cluster is ActiveMQ, which is embedded into the Cluster Infrastructure Server (CIS)


• Hence, the application Cluster Infrastructure Server (mostly identified as CIS) is the Cluster Master.


• All other GK Central applications are actually dependent on at least one instance of the above mentioned CIS.


• This means, any disturbance to CIS application (DB unavailability, Network issue, application restart inadverdently, or any other possible issue) has the possibility to bring the complete GK retail solution to a standstill.


• The actual health & status of any GK cluster application can only be gleaned from their respective logs (directory which is defined in the config tool with the parameter 'app.root.dir.local')

Alternatively, a glimpse of the status of GK Cluster applicaitons can be seen from the table: GKR_MASTER.GK_CLUSTER_PARTICIPANT (Example screenshot below)



But be aware, the above table might be only useful to get a glimpse. To get the detailed status of any GK application, check the logs of them on each server node.

Restart Tips:

To restart a Netweaver Java system running all these GK Cluster applications, follow the below procedure:

• Edit the timeout parameter for 'jms-engine.jndi.lookup.timeout' for CIS and all other GK Cluster applications in the SM client. Set the value to only a reasonable maximum amount of time, that the Cluster applications can try and connect to the Embedded ActiveMQ inside of CIS. Format = XXm (i.e: 10m --> this denotes 10 minutes of timeout)


• During Stop, follow the sequence:
  
  
  
  1. Stop all GK Cluster applications except CIS
  
  
  2. Stop CIS at last
  
  
  
  


• During Start, follow the sequence
  
  
  
  1. Startup CIS
  
  
  2. Confirm that CIS is up and running from the logs
  
  
  3. Startup all other GK cluster applications
  
  
  4. check logs / above mentioned table for the status of the GK Applicaitons.
  
  
  
  

Bookmark this page to know about other additions on all GK related Admin, Operational topics.

Blog series on: SAP Omnichannel POS by GK

GK Applications startup issues - Troublehsooting guide

Preventing GK Systems standstill due to Leaked lock entries