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Author's profile photo Andreas Lichtenau

Downtime Optimization – Get insights using the new TDO app

Features of version 1.0 (released on 11 June 2020):

  • Procedure events can be browsed, sorted, and filtered
  • General procedure information is displayed in the header part
  • Duration information is divided into sections that can be opened separately
  • First optimization recommendations are provided

Features of version 1.1 (released on 01 October 2020):

  • Upload functionality of upgana.xml and/or applana.xml files
  • Several checks are available (R3trans & SUM version check, R3trans process amount, PARDIST_SHD & KERNEL_PRE runtime)
  • Display elements details for TABIM & data transfer phases (EU_CLONE_*)

Features of version 1.2 (released on 25 February 2021):

  • Simulation for nZDM, Downtime-optimized DMO, Downtime-optimized Conversion and ZDO
  • Download of UPGANA & APPLANA files
  • Extension of filter options
  • Header shows procedure type
  • Integration of System Data, Financial Data Quality and Data Volume Management app
  • Visual improvements
  • Support of Update events in addition to Conversion and Upgrade

Features of version 1.3 (released on 12 August 2021):

  • Compare View has been launched

Features of version 1.4 (released on 03 August 2022):

  • Revision of the event comparison in TDO
  • Display of runtimes of phases in TDO
  • Display of runtimes of phases in a comparison view (selection “Compare”)
  • Selection “View” removed
    Configurable event table
  • New timeline (Note: This new feature is currently not available for events with system move)

Features of Version 1.5 (Released on 18 November 2022):

  • Added: Cutover Planning Tool

Features of Version 1.6 (Released on 02 February 2023):

  • Enhancement of Simulation Results and Timeline
  • Timeline Enabled for System Move Events
  • Interactive Cutover Planner Table
  • Datepicker for Start of Downtime in Cutover Table
  • App performance improvements

Features of Version 1.7 (Released on 07 March 2023):

  • For planning of productive Conversion the financial downtime is now available in the Cutover Plan.

Prerequisite: An uploaded applana.xml is required to see this feature. (applana Generation described in Features of Version 1.1)

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A transition to SAP S/4HANA is on everyone’s agenda. Sooner or later you will start your journey to SAP S/4HANA. In such projects you deal with longer runtimes. As a result there are troubles meeting the requested downtime window by the business unit.
A downtime event is always costly for a company. Often not more than a weekend is allowed to ensure an uninterrupted operation. Hence, the downtime can be a showstopper for any project and needs to be kept under control.

In this blog post I would like to introduce the Technical Downtime Optimization app.
It helps upgrade/conversion project members meet tight downtime requirements by providing easy to consume analytics and tailored downtime minimization advices and simulation from continuously updated knowledge base curated by upgrade/conversion experts.

 

How does it work?

The Software Update Manager (SUM) collects runtime statistics in the UPGANA.XML file. They can be send to SAP along with the SUM feedback form at the end of your Upgrade or Conversion run.

SUM1

SUM2

An automated algorithm in the cloud backend processes the data and presents them after approximately three hours. This step is fully automated and doesn’t require any interaction from your side.
Finally you are ready to analyze your data and identify potential downtime savings. 

 

How to get this app?

There are two ways entering the app:

  1. Using the SAP ONE Support Launchpad
  2. Using the direct link: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/downtimeoptimization

 

If you would like to go for the SAP ONE Support Launchpad then search for the “Technical Downtime Optimization” app. Afterwards add this tile to a group. Now you can see information about the number of maintenance events in the past 365 days as well as the data of the last available event.

Launchpad1
Finally you enter the start page and are good to go.

Launchpad2

 

Forgot to send your data?

No problem! With the new upload functionality you are now able to upload your UPGANA.XML and APPLANA.XML file. The processing time of about three hours applies as well.

 

How to use the app?

On the start screen, set a filter to reduce the number of displayed events or directly choose a desired maintenance event and check the analysis by clicking the event.

The analysis screen is divided into three parts: the header, the time chart and the recommendation part.

Start%20Screen

The Header
The header of the app always contains information of the displayed maintenance event. Here you will see (1) the installation number, product, host and type of event, as well as information on source and target system including start and end date.
Additionally to that (2) you are able to open the UPGANA.XML and APPLANA.XML files to get more data of the event . Please note, that the APPLANA.XML file is just available for SAP S/4HANA conversions and if created and uploaded manually.
(3) Furthermore you have the possibility to switch the timeline between “Complete upgrade without tool waiting time” and “… with tool waiting time”.

The Timeline
The timeline (4) consists of an overall runtime and a detailed analysis.
The overall runtime includes Uptime, Downtime and Postprocessing. The detailed analysis is dependent on one of that parts. As we focus on downtime optimization, we directly switch to the orange part, the “Technical Downtime”.

Launchpad4

The detailed analysis will now show SUM phases which run during the downtime. When clicking on a downtime phase you will see analysis and recommendation in the recommendation part (5).

The recommendation part
The last part of the app is also divided into three parts.

At the beginning you will read about the chosen phase, its runtime and how to optimize it. Afterwards you see the processes sorted according their duration and the line chart which shows the parallel processes. The granularity of the charts can be adjusted using either more or less bins.

 

How to check the Financial Data migration runtime?

In order to evaluate the Financial Data Migration runtime choose “Application analytics document” on the top right side of your start screen.

APPLANA

This will direct you to a structured view of the APPLANA.XML file.

FIN%20MIG

In the next version it is planned to have a more detailed analysis on the Financial Data Migration part included into the app.

 

How to use the Compare View?

The major deliver of release 1.3 was the compare view. You have now the possibility to compare two runs of a recent project. This can be done as follows:

  1. Select a specific run of a maintenance event
  2. Press the “Compare View” button in order to choose the event you want to compare
  3. Select the second event:
  4. See both events and their runtimes next to each other for better comparison.

Using the compare view you have the chance to check what improvements you achieved. In above example the first run was executed using standard methodology. After implementing downtime decreasing parameter and choosing nZDM method in Software Update Manager the overall SUM downtime has been reduced by 57% with major improvements in Main Import (71%) and Data Conversion (72%).

With the 1.4 update in August 2022 you can now also see the detailed phases and their runtimes.

 

How to use the Cutover Planning tool?

The major deliver of release 1.5 was the cutover planning tool.
With the Cutover Planner it is possible to create a rough plan for an upcoming maintenance event based on the currently selected event. Adjustments can be made based on the required time windows. Once completed, an export function is available to use the plan in a spreadsheet program.

Note: The Cutover Planning Tool is currently not available for SUM procedures with ZDO.

 

You can enter the cutover planner in the event of your choice.

In the tool itself you see the most important cutover activities, like:

  • Ramp-Up / Ramp-Down
  • Buffer Time
  • Customer Postprocessing
  • Backup
  • Financial Downtime

These times can be changed by moving or resizing the blocks directly in the timeline. The orange blocks are proposals and might need to be changed. Durations are rounded to the nearest fifteen minutes.

 

Summary

Using the Technical Downtime Optimization app you get easy to consume analytics and simulation from an up-to-date knowledge base to evaluate your runtime and detect possible downtime drivers. This tailored downtime minimization advice is included in the SAP support offering and comes with no extra costs.

For more details and updates on new functionality and answers to frequently question, check:

  • SAP Note 2881515 – Introduction to the Technical Downtime Optimization App​
  • SAP Note 3036423 – Frequently Asked Questions about Technical Downtime Optimization App​

 

 

Andreas Lichtenau

Expert Support Engineer, Premium Hub CoE, Customer Success, SAP SE

Assigned Tags

      22 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Eduardo Hartmann
      Eduardo Hartmann

      Hi Andreas!

      Very interesting app with important info for management point of view.

      I checked the version 5, released today (28-Sep) of the note 2881515, it brings information about the data migration phase:

      Features of version 2 (released on 01 October 2020):

      It is possible that you can see a visual analysis and evaluation of a downtime-optimized system maintenance procedure to SAP S/4HANA Finance 1909 or higher. However, the statistics of this procedure are not listed in the file upgana.xml, which is the normal basis of the analysis, but in the file applana.xml. This file must be generated and downloaded manually. To do this, proceed as follows:

      a) SAP S/4HANA 1909

      1. Logon to your SAP system and execute transaction FINS_MIG_SATUS.
      2. Check if the data migration is completed. Only in this case, you can generate the file applana.xml.
      3. Open the ABAP Editor (transaction SE38) and execute the report FINS_MIG_APPLANA_XML.
      4. Save the generated xml-file as applana.xml to your local download folder.

       

      BUT, there is nowhere to upload this file (at least I didn't find it). As the note mentions 01 October 2020, may we expect an update of the app by then?

      Or is this upload/analysis for the applana.xml still not in this release?

       

      Thank you and congrats for the tool and blog!

       

      Kind regards,

      Eduardo Hartmann

      Author's profile photo Andreas Lichtenau
      Andreas Lichtenau
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Eduardo,

      thanks for the feedback and the kind words.
      Yes, the upload button is to be expected on October 01.

      Best regards,
      Andreas

      Author's profile photo Eduardo Hartmann
      Eduardo Hartmann

      Hi Andreas,

      The button is available to upload the files. I uploaded the APPLANA.XML file but nothing seems to have changed in the results.

      Is there anything else that must be done or some part of the app not released yet to consider these data?

      Thanks and regards,

      Eduardo Hartmann

      Author's profile photo Andreas Lichtenau
      Andreas Lichtenau
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Eduardo,

      some technical problems have been detected and the developers are working on a fix. Will contact you once fixed.

      Best regards,
      Andreas

      Author's profile photo Eduardo Hartmann
      Eduardo Hartmann

      Ok!

      If you prefer I can open an incident for that, just let me know.

      Best regards,

      Eduardo

       

      Author's profile photo Andreas Lichtenau
      Andreas Lichtenau
      Blog Post Author

      Hi Eduardo,

      yes, please. For tracking please open an incident on SV-SCS-TDO.

      Thank you very much and a nice weekend to you,
      Andreas

      Author's profile photo Eduardo Hartmann
      Eduardo Hartmann

      Hi Andreas,

      Done, incident 687211 / 2020. The description is awkward, forgot to adjust before sending it :p

      Thank you! Have a great weekend 😉

      Eduardo

      Author's profile photo Ricardo Valderrama
      Ricardo Valderrama

      Hi Andreas!

      Very useful blog and app, it's very friendly.

      Thanks for sharing your knowledege

      Regards,

      Author's profile photo Michael Wirtz
      Michael Wirtz

      Hi Ricardo

      Thanks for your feedback. After using the app several months it would be great to get your feedback by using feedback button in the app or reply here.

       

      Thanks

      Michael

      Author's profile photo Robinson Hincapie
      Robinson Hincapie

      Hi Andreas!

      Very useful blog.

      The app is very friendly, it's very much easy to calculate all time of our migrations to SAP S/4 HANA.
      Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.

      Regards,

      Author's profile photo Michael Wirtz
      Michael Wirtz

      Hi Robinson

      Thanks for your feedback. After using the app several months it would be great to get your feedback by using feedback button in the app or reply here.

       

      Thanks

      Michael

      Author's profile photo Eduardo Hartmann
      Eduardo Hartmann

      Hi Andreas & Michael!

       

      I continue to use the app and it has helped a lot. Thanks again for that!

      I'd like to suggest some improvements:

      1. Include in the app the step ID of the Financial Data Migration (like MUJ, R21,...);
      2. Include in the applana file the results of all the migration steps, i.e. the entire "Conversion of Accounting to SAP S/4HANA" section;
        1. It could be interesting to show the "non-processing" times, to track "dialog process time" (when the system is waiting for user's interaction).
      3. Allow to edit the description of the maintenance events.
      4. It would be awesome to have an export option to send to a spreadsheet the activities and times (Start/end). We could use this to link it easier to the cutover plan, to generate a more detailed timeline, etc..

       

      Thanks and kind regards,

      Eduardo Hartmann

      Author's profile photo Michael Wirtz
      Michael Wirtz

      Hi Eduardo

       

      Thank you very much for your feedback. We will check the proposals in detail and come back to you.

       

      Regards

      Michael

      Author's profile photo Anton Golubev
      Anton Golubev

      Hi Eduardo,

      We've added the Cutover Planner feature to the app, which covers the 4th requirement from your list. Press Cutover button from the main event list and then click Download to export the migration plan in the Excel format. Try it out!

      Author's profile photo Eduardo Hartmann
      Eduardo Hartmann

      Hi Anton!

       

      I checked the new functionalities and overall behavior. It looks very good (better than it already was), although at the moment I am not working in a conversion.

      Anyway, I checked some of the new stuff:

      • Cutover planning, very handy! I just missed the financial conversion section. Is it there and I didn´t see somehow?
      • The graphical view with timeline and the activities! This is awesome to help investigation!!
      • Top phases times more clearly displayed;
      • Financial times easier to check also.

       

      Congratulations for the results and for helping partners and customers to make their work easier 🙂

       

      Kind regards,

      Eduardo Hartmann

      Author's profile photo Anton Golubev
      Anton Golubev

      Thanks a lot, Eduardo, for your feedback! I'll pass it over to my fellow developers. This motivates to continue improving the tool!

       

      >  I just missed the financial conversion section. Is it there and I didn´t see somehow?

      The cutover planner indeed covers only the standard upgrade part (does not include the financial conversion part). But it is a good idea to extend the too, if it helps. We'll have to check with conversion experts, which steps we need to consider there, because we have to admin we don't know exactly how the fin part is planned. If you can share list of steps (incl. any manual activities), which are specific for financial migration part, we'll be glad to integrate it into the app!

      Author's profile photo Eduardo Hartmann
      Eduardo Hartmann

      Hi Anton!

      These financial steps are included in the APPLANA.XML file. Basically the steps there could be included in the cutover planning. Also, the dialog times (time between each of the applana activities).

      During our tests, we had had long dialog times when the system was waiting for user input (sometimes during the night there were no operations)..

      During Production conversion, these dialog times were reduced a lot, but it might be significant also and could be pointed in the cutover plan - basically, when there is a dialog time we could save time if the monitoring happens "online".

      I can mention two different scenarios:

      Customer A, the financial part was finished in around 4 hours; The dialog times were almost irrelevant.

      Customer B, the financial part took:

      Runtime:21 hours and 14 minutes
      Start Date: 13/May 08:05:20
      End Date: 14/May 09:09:33

      We can see that we spent around 5h of dialog time. In this time are included some activities that were executed, but also some idle times also.

       

      But, even without this section, it is a great tool (Y)

       

      thanks again,

      Kind regards!

      Author's profile photo Anton Golubev
      Anton Golubev

      Thanks, Eduardo, for suggestions! It can be then two additional items in the Planner for the S4HANA Conversion case:

      1. Financial Conversion,

      2. Manual activities.

      We prefill financial conversion as a net runtime of fin conversion tasks. Manual activities we will pre-fill as a fin conversion gross time minus net time.

      Author's profile photo Anton Golubev
      Anton Golubev

      Hi Eduardo,

      We've released the extension to include financial conversion part in the Cutover Planner!

      Would like to hear your feedback!

      Author's profile photo Anton Golubev
      Anton Golubev

      Regarding (1) - we indeed show only the "human friendly" description of the step, like Check Material Ledger Master Data

      Do you like to have the step ID additionally to the description for searcher correlation with the APPLANA content, like:

      Step Description

      DAA Data Migration into Unified Journal: Aggregate Deltas

      Author's profile photo Thyge Friis
      Thyge Friis

      Nice with further development of the TDO app.

      Previously in the graphical overview beneath the current 'Overall Runtime' green + orange bar, there was a visual break-down called 'Downtime Analysis'. This is not displayed anymore.

      I think the TDO app displayed varying recommendations, when I clicked on the different parts of that break-down. Is there another way to do this now?

       

      UPDATE #1: Created an incident for above finding.
      UPDATE #2: Issue solved via the incident.

      Author's profile photo Mirja Kempin
      Mirja Kempin

      Thank you for your question!

      When I access a maintenance event in Technical Downtime Optimization (TDO) App, both bars are available: "Overall runtime" and "Downtime Analysis".

      Would it be possible for you to double-check if this view is still missing for you?

      Best regards,

      Mirja