Author: Frank Umans

Working in SAP since 1998. Started as ABAP developer and later moved to SAP basis and authorizations. Since 2020 working with SAP Focused Run.

System monitoring custom metric for user lock status…

From security perspective, you want to validate that 2 important users are locked in the main system clients: SAP* and DDIC.

You can create a custom monitoring metric to measure and act on this.

Creation of the custom metric for user lock status

Create a custom metric following the steps in this blog. The template to be adjusted is the technical system SAP ABAP 7.10 and higher template.

Don’t forget to tick it on for monitoring otherwise it is not active.

In expert mode create a custom metric.

Create technical name ZUSER_LOCK_STATUS:

In the data collection:

Data to enter: RFC diagnostics agent (push). User Lock status Data collector. Enter as parameters the user ID (DDIC) and the COLLECTOR_CONTEXT_ID as TECHNICAL_SYSTEM.

Set the threshold as a text threshold:

Set the red rating in case the string contains the word ‘not locked’ and set to green in case it contains the word ‘locked’.

Now assign it to Alert group for locked users:

Save the metric.

Repeat the same for SAP*.

Alert Management overview…

The alert management function is a central alert inbox function for SAP Focused Run. All alerts from all tools are coming together in the alert inbox.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • Which alerts are sent to the Alert inbox?
  • How to organize alert handling?
  • How to execute alert review?
  • How to reduce the amount of open alerts?

For practical use of the alert management function, read this dedicated blog.

Alert inbox

All alerts from all SAP Focused Run monitoring tools end up in the Alert Inbox:

This can be alerts from:

Don't let yourself be impressed by the high amount of alerts: this counter is across all tools and all systems, including non production. After some fine tuning of monitoring templates and thresholds, and clean up in the systems, this number will go down fast.

Alert handling

An alert is sent to the alert inbox. But for each alert you can configure as well if an alert is e-mailed, and/or send to external tool like ServiceNow.

The alert inbox has a scope filter just like all the other Focused Run tools. Use it to filter the alerts for you most important systems (most likely the productive systems, or even filter on the core S4HANA and/or ECC systems).

Depending on your organizational structure and amounts of systems, you need to agree on how you handle the alerts. Aspects to be taken care of:

  • Prioritization of alerts; which ones go first? Solutions:
    • Use filters for important systems
    • First red alerts, then yellow alerts
      • Fine tune alert thresholds to reduce invalid red alerts
  • Assign processor or not: for larger teams do assign a processor to keep track
  • Fill out comments for alerts that take longer to solve, so you track what has been done
  • Consider to postpone alerts that require a change to get fixed (and the change takes a longer time to implement)
  • Using the SLA functions or not?
  • Who is allowed to confirm an alert?

Alert review

You can use the initial alert dashboard, or the alert reporting overview, or create your own dashboards:

The overview shows the open alerts:

At the start of your SAP Focused Run implementation you should at least weekly review this. It gives you insights into:

  • The type of alerts most frequently popping up
  • The systems that generate the most alerts
  • The average time an alert is open

When you are getting more mature and used to solving the issues and alerts, you can reduce the alert review frequency to for example monthly.

Open alert reduction

To reduce the open alerts consider this sequence:

  • Solve the issues in the systems: clean up, apply permanent solutions
  • Fine tune the metric thresholds for false alerts, and classify not so important alerts as yellow: keep red for the important alerts
  • Work on the resolution time: also here, focus on the red alerts which are important

Bad practices (often deployed by KPI drive service providers):

  • Increase thresholds, without clean up or without solving the issues permanently
  • Simply close each repetitive alert fast without checking and solving the root cause for repetitive failure
  • Only look at subsection of the alerts
  • Don’t look at self monitoring items (without solving self monitoring issues)
  • Blame Focused Run for having bugs (without looking for OSS notes and without reporting issues)
  • Don’t confirm the alerts (so they keep open and don’t send new mails, or don’t create new ServiceNow tickets)

If you are confronted with such a service provider, use the alerting reporting tools also for the closed alerts to find evidences of such behaviors.

Missed alerts

After incidents you have (mainly in your productive system), check if Focused Run generated the proper alert or not.

Cases that can happen:

  • Focused Run did alert the situation, but it was not picked up fast enough by the processors: organizational measures, or consider the mail sending option
  • Focused Run did measure the situation, but the alert was not configured (for example batch job alert was not set)
  • Focused Run did measure the situation, but the threshold was not reached: lower the threshold in the template
  • Focused Run did measure the situation, but it was not specific enough. This can happen with SM21 system messages. Consider creation of very specific custom metrics for specific messages (for example for application server connectivity loss to database).
  • Focused Run did not measure the situation: check if you can activate an out-of-the-box monitoring item for the situation. Not all measurements are active in the templates by default. If no out-of-the box exists, consider creating a custom metric. Or check if you can monitor side-effects of occurring bad situations.

The goal of this analysis is to keep improving the alerting accuracy: alerts should not be missed and valid (not false).

Cloud monitoring overview…

The integration and cloud monitoring function of SAP Focused Run consists of 2 main functions:

  • Cloud monitoring between on premise and cloud SAP products
  • Interface monitoring between SAP systems (read more on interface monitoring in this blog)

This blog will give an overview of the Cloud monitoring between SAP on premises systems and SAP cloud solutions.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How does the Cloud monitoring in SAP Focused Run look like?
  • How much details and history can I see in SAP Focused Run interface monitoring?
  • Can I link an Cloud monitoring event to and alert?
  • Which Cloud monitoring scenarios are supported?

Cloud monitoring

To start the cloud monitoring click on the FIORI tile:

Select the cloud scenarios:

You now reach the scenario overview screen:

Click on the tile for details (we will take Ariba as example):

Click on the red line between the on premise and the cloud system:

Click on the red errors number for the error overview:

Click on specific error:

Supported cloud scenarios

Not all cloud products and scenarios of SAP are supported via SAP Focused Run Cloud monitoring. On the SAP Focused Run Expert Portal the following scenarios are currently published:

Read the scenario details carefully! Inside the details there might be less monitored than you were expecting.

Could monitoring setup

The setup for cloud monitoring is explained in detail per use case:

Interface monitoring: web service monitoring…

The generic interface monitoring setup in SAP Focused Run is explained in this blog. This blog will zoom into monitoring of web services.

Web services monitoring automates the monitoring in transaction SRT_MONI, which is extensively explained in this blog.

This monitoring does not check the connection availability of the web service. To make that happen, you would need to install a custom program from this blog, that writes an entry to SM21. From the SM21 entry, you can create a custom monitoring metric that alerts on the connection issue. How to setup custom metrics is explained in this blog.

Data collection and alerting setup

In the configuration for interface monitoring in the Technical System settings, goto the monitoring part and activate the data collection for Web Service Errors:

In the monitoring settings, you can filter on specific criteria, or leave everything blank to report on everything:

In the alerting part check you can choose between amount of entries and number of error entries:

And set the filters for the alerting:

The filter for monitoring and alerting can be different. It could be you want to monitor all errors, but only activate specific important ones.

Save your monitoring data collection and alerting settings.

Graphical modelling

In the graphical modelling add the filter between two systems for the web service monitoring:

Also here: first scroll down to see the OK button. Press first OK before pressing Save, or you might loose the data and have to re-enter it. This it bit annoying in the UI.

Monitoring usage

The end result looks as follows:

You can click on the errors or success messages and zoom all the way down to individual messages:

SAP reference

SAP reference for web service monitoring can be found here.

Interface monitoring: qRFC monitoring…

The generic interface monitoring setup in SAP Focused Run is explained in this blog. This blog will zoom into monitoring of qRFC connections, which are frequently used in communication from ECC to EWM and SCM systems.

OSS notes for bug fixing

Please make sure bug fix OSS note 3014667 – Wrong parameter for QRFC alerts is applied before starting with qRFC monitoring.

Other OSS notes:

Data collection and alerting setup

In the configuration for interface monitoring in the Technical System settings, goto the monitoring part and activate the data collection for qRFC Errors:

In the monitoring settings, you can filter on specific queues, direction and RFC name, or leave everything blank to report on everything:

In the alerting part check you can choose between age of qRFC entries and number of entries:

And set the filters for which ones, and the metric threshold for CRITICAL errors:

The filter for monitoring and alerting can be different. It could be you want to monitor all errors, but only activate specific important ones.

Save your monitoring data collection and alerting settings.

Queued RFC’s are normally back and forth between 2 systems. If this is the case you have to make the settings for both systems.

Graphical modelling

In the graphical modelling add the filter between two systems for the qRFC monitoring:

Also here: first scroll down to see the OK button. Press first OK before pressing Save, or you might loose the data and have to re-enter it. This it bit annoying in the UI.

Queued RFC’s are normally back and forth between 2 systems. If this is the case you have to make the settings for both systems. You model first one direction and then model the direction back:

Monitoring usage

The end result in operations looks as follows:

You can see here qRFC is modelled back and forth between 2 systems. The blue line indicates messages in process. The red line is clicked on. Here you can see both messages in process and errors. Click on the red error number gives the details:

Interface monitoring: ODATA gateway monitoring…

The generic interface monitoring setup in SAP Focused Run is explained in this blog. This blog will zoom into monitoring of ODATA gateway connections.

We assume in this use case that end users are using the ODATA in FIORI apps. In case ODATA is consumed by external applications like Tibco, Mulesoft, Mendix, etc., you have to replace USER with the corresponding application.

Model end users in LMDB

Before we can start the scenario modelling, we first need to model the end users in LMDB as a Unspecific Standalone Application System), just like we did for TIBCO in this blog.

Name the ‘system’ USER:

Make sure the status is Active.

Add this new system USER to the Technical System list in the Integration Monitoring setup.

The system will be display only.

Data collection and alerting setup

In the configuration for interface monitoring in the Technical System settings, goto the monitoring part and activate the data collection for Gateway Errors:

In the monitoring settings, you can filter on specific items if wanted, or leave everything blank to report on any error:

In the tab alerting setup the alerting:

The filter for monitoring and alerting can be different. It cloud be you want to monitor all errors, but only activate specific important ones.

Save your monitoring data collection and alerting settings.

Graphical modelling

In the graphical modelling add the backend system and the system created for USER:

Now add the link starting with USER towards the backend system:

Save your changes.

Also here: first scroll down to see the OK button. Press first OK before pressing Save, or you might loose the data and have to re-enter it. This it bit annoying in the UI.

Monitoring usage

The end result in operations looks as follows:

In the graphical overview click on the red line. The screen with the exceptions opens. Click on the red number to see the overview:

Here you can see the trends and zoom into the specific errors:

Interface monitoring: RFC monitoring…

The generic interface monitoring setup in SAP Focused Run is explained in this blog. This blog will zoom into monitoring of RFC connections.

RFC’s between SAP systems

RFC’s with fixed user ID

The basic setup of monitoring RFC’s was explained as example for the generic interface monitoring setup in this blog already.

Trusted RFC’s

This RFC was an RFC with a fixed user ID. If you have to setup an RFC monitoring for a trusted RFC (for example between Netweaver Gateway system and ECC system), then you have to take care of the user ID’s and rights. The system from which the SM59 test will run, will use that Focused Run user ID to log on to the other system. If your user ID’s are unique for each system you have to create the user ID in the other systems with the rights to be able to execute a ping and logon for the test.

End result RFC checks

The end results of the RFC is list of RFC’s with the latency time, availability and logon test overview:

Transactional RFC towards external system

To monitor transactional RFC (type T) towards an external system like TIBCO, Mulesoft, etc, you first need to model the external system in the LMDB. To do this goto the LMDB maintenance FIORI app:

Then select Single Customer Network and select the option Technical Systems. In this section choose the Type Unspecific Standalone Application System:

And press Create:

Fill out the details and Save. Make sure the status is Active.

Now the system can be added in the configuration of technical systems in the Interface monitoring configuration:

Now you can model the tRFC interface connection monitoring:

OSS notes

Relevant OSS notes:

Interface monitoring setup…

In the previous blog on Interface Monitoring overview, we have explained the global functions of interface monitoring.

This blog will zoom into the setup parts. We will use a simple scenario to monitor a central user administration system which has RFC connections to the CUA child systems. Basically check that the connection in SM59 is working. More on CUA can be read in this blog.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How can I enable my systems for interface monitoring?
  • How do I set up a scenario to monitor?
  • How do I setup alerting for an interface scenario?

Concept

The concept for interface monitoring is unfortunately bit confusing at first.

There are 2 main things to remember:

  1. Systems data collection and alerting: this is where the action happens
  2. Graphical representation: this is where you make it visible

Unfortunately this means you have to do lot of double work.

Set up systems

Goto the Integration and cloud monitoring FIORI tile:

On top right click on the configuration icon to change or add a scenario:

First add the systems:

Select the system:

Select the configuration categories:

Select the monitoring:

Here you must add the connections you want to monitor.

The alerting configuration is empty initially:

We will fill this later if we want alerts for a specific interface connection.

Save this system and repeat for the rest of the systems.

The system determines the actual data collection and actual alerting. The system can be re-used in multiple scenarios.

Scenario configuration

On the configuration screen now add the new scenario. Add a name and description for the scenario:

In the topology screen now add the systems in the drop down for Node Selection and use the + icon to add them to the screen:

Now select the source system (we will have 1 CUA central and 2 child systems) and select the Action box:

Select Add link to and then select the system.

Now add a filter to the link by clicking on the line:

In the dialog screen on the right now add the details:

Start by giving the group a name. Now add the filter. Give the filter a name (in this case RFC1). Select the central component and the category (in this case Connection monitoring SM59). Now add the RFC connection type (3) and connection name to be monitored.

Very important here: press Ok first to transfer the data. Only then press Save. Otherwise your data is lost. SAP UI is not ok for this area.

Repeat for the second scenario. The end result is that the dotted lines are replaced by straight lines:

Then Save.

The scenario is active now:

Reminder: you did have to add the same information in the system level as well in the Technical System as well: this will perform the data collection itself. If this is not done, then the scenario overview will show grey results for missing data collection.

The scenario is to make the interfaces graphical visible.

Adding alert

When you have monitored the scenario long enough to see it is stable, the next step is to setup alerting so you get notified in the central alert inbox.

First add the alert in the Technical System as shown above. This will be the actual alert definition.

To add an alert to the graphical overview, go to the scenario definition and select the source system. Press the button alerts for component:

On the right hand side now add the alert by clicking the + button:

Then select the wanted Alert Category. And select the filter options. Add the connections for which you want to alert:

Give the filter also a name.

On the Description field you can set the alert to active:

You can also set the frequency of checking, and if an notification is to be send as well (via mail or towards outbound connector).

Also important here: first press Ok, then Save. Otherwise the data is lost. SAP UI is not ok for this area.

Summary and final check

After you have finished the graphical topology, you need to go back to the Systems overview to validate if everything is activated ok for both monitoring and alerting:

Reminder: there is a split in graphical representation in the topology and scenarios and the actual system monitoring and alerting in the Technical System overview.

Specific topics

For specific interface monitoring topics read these dedicated blogs:

ABAP code for implementation of ServiceNow alert…

In the previous blog on the ServiceNow outbound integration connection we deomonstrated the of the connection. This blog will explain the technical ABAP implementation.

The implementation below is based on the Restful implementation using the ServiceNow midserver concept. At the end the basic steps are explained if you want to use the ServiceNow webservice implementation.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How do I connect from the ABAP stack towards the midserver?
  • Which BADI do I need to activate for the outbound integration?
  • How do I call the midserver connection from the BADI?
  • How do I deal with the differences in severity definition between ServiceNow and SAP Focused Run?
  • If I want to set up the connection via web services, what do I need to do?
  • How can I include application logging in such a way that I can monitor the calls and issues in SLG1?

Set up the RFC destination

In SM59 setup the RFC connection towards the MID server as type H RFC connection:

Activation of the enhancement spot and BADI

The details of the enhancement spot and BADI implementation are in the SAP document published on the SAP Focused Run Expert Portal.

Use transaction SE18 or SE80 to activate enhancement spot ACC_REACTION_EXTERNAL and then activate BADI BADI_ACC_REACTION_EXT.

The result looks as follows:

Double click on the implementation:

Double click on the REACT_TO_ALERT interface to go to the code. The code we implemented looks as below:

  METHOD if_acc_reaction_ext~react_to_alert.

    IF is_alert-ref->get_type( ) <> 'ALERT'.
      RETURN.
    ENDIF.

    " Init. the application log.
    me->zgo_logger = NEW zcl_snow_bi_logger( ).

    " Add info message to notify reaction was triggered
    me->zgo_logger->bal_log_add_message(
      EXPORTING
        ziv_msgty = zif_snow_constants=>zgc_message_types-info
        ziv_msgno = '002'
    ).

    " Send message to service now
    NEW zcl_snow_bi_common( )->zif_snow_bi_common~send_message_to_snow(
      EXPORTING
        zii_logger              = me->zgo_logger
        zii_snow_message        = NEW zcl_snow_event_message( zii_alert = is_alert-ref  )
        ziv_resolution_state    = zif_snow_constants=>zgc_resolution_state-new
    ).

    " Save the application log
    me->zgo_logger->bal_log_save( ).

  ENDMETHOD.

What do we do in the code:

  1. We only react on type ALERT
  2. We make an entry in the application log (so we can check later on in SLG1)
  3. We call the actual interface which we have implemented in class ZCL_SNOW_BI_COMMON class

The implementation code

The sending code in method ZIF_SNOW_BI_COMMON~SEND_MESSAGE_TO_SNOW that was just called looks as follows:

  METHOD zif_snow_bi_common~send_message_to_snow.

    " Retrieve JSON body for the request
    DATA(zlv_snow_event_json) = zii_snow_message->get_json( ziv_resolution_state ).

    me->add_json_to_bal_log( EXPORTING zii_logger   = zii_logger
                                       ziv_json     = zlv_snow_event_json ).


    TRY.
        " Execute HTTP Post, send data to the MiD API
        DATA(zlv_http_status_code) = NEW zcl_snow_mid_api( )->post( ziv_event_messages = zlv_snow_event_json ).

        " Add HTTP response code to the log..
        IF zlv_http_status_code-code >= 200 AND zlv_http_status_code-code < 300.
          DATA(zlv_msgty) = zif_snow_constants=>zgc_message_types-success.
        ELSE.
          zlv_msgty = zif_snow_constants=>zgc_message_types-error.
        ENDIF.

        zii_logger->bal_log_add_message(
           EXPORTING
             ziv_msgty = zlv_msgty
             ziv_msgno = '001'
             ziv_msgv1 = |{ zlv_http_status_code-code } { zlv_http_status_code-reason }|
         ).

      CATCH zcx_snow_mid_api INTO DATA(zlo_exception).
        "Add exception to the application log
        zii_logger->bal_log_add_message(
          EXPORTING
            ziv_msgid = zlo_exception->if_t100_message~t100key-msgid
            ziv_msgno = zlo_exception->if_t100_message~t100key-msgno
            ziv_msgv1 = CONV #( zlo_exception->if_t100_message~t100key-attr1 )
            ziv_msgv2 = CONV #( zlo_exception->if_t100_message~t100key-attr2 )
            ziv_msgv3 = CONV #( zlo_exception->if_t100_message~t100key-attr3 )
            ziv_msgv4 = CONV #( zlo_exception->if_t100_message~t100key-attr4 )
        ).
    ENDTRY.

  ENDMETHOD.

What happens here:

  1. Data object is build in the data definition (details follow below)
  2. This is logged
  3. The actual call is performed by calling class ZCL_SNOW_MID_API (details follow below)
  4. The result is checked (200 is http code for Ok)
  5. Error result is logged in case of issues

The code for the message content

For the message content, we first define the message event type:

INTERFACE zif_snow_message
  PUBLIC .

  TYPES:
    BEGIN OF zgts_event,
      "! Source
      source           TYPE string,
      "! Name of the object
      node             TYPE string,
      "! Type of object, host, instance
      type             TYPE string,
      "! Severity
      severity         TYPE string,
      "! Date/Time(YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS)
      time_of_event    TYPE string,
      "! Alert description/name
      description      TYPE string,
      "! SAP System ID
      event_class      TYPE string,
      "! Unique ID
      message_key      TYPE string,
      "! Alert state
      resolution_state TYPE string,
      "! Resource
      resource         TYPE string,
    END OF zgts_event.

  METHODS get_json  IMPORTING ziv_resoultion_state TYPE string
                    RETURNING VALUE(zrv_json)      TYPE /ui2/cl_json=>json.

ENDINTERFACE.

This event is used in the actual message build code:

  METHOD zif_snow_message~get_json.

    DATA zlv_events TYPE /ui2/cl_json=>json.

    " Get current time stamp
    GET TIME STAMP FIELD DATA(zlv_time_stamp_now).

    DATA(zlv_event_json) = /ui2/cl_json=>serialize(
      EXPORTING
        data        =  VALUE zif_snow_message~zgts_event(
          source              = |{ syst-sysid } - FRUN |
          node                = zgi_alert->get_managed_object_name( )
          type                = zgi_alert->get_managed_object_type( )
          severity            = me->convert_severity( zgi_alert->get_severity( ) )
          time_of_event       = me->convert_alert_timestamp( ziv_timestamp = zlv_time_stamp_now )
          description         = COND #( LET custom_description = me->remove_html_tags( zgi_alert->get_custom_description( ) ) IN
                                        WHEN strlen( custom_description ) > 0 THEN custom_description
                                        ELSE me->remove_html_tags( zgi_alert->get_sap_description(  ) ) )
          event_class         = substring( val = zgi_alert->get_managed_object_name( ) off = 0 len = 3 )
          message_key         = zgi_alert->get_type_id( )
          resolution_state    = ziv_resoultion_state
          resource            = zgi_alert->get_name( )
        )
        pretty_name = /ui2/cl_json=>pretty_mode-low_case
    ).

    IF zlv_events IS INITIAL.
      zlv_events = zlv_event_json.
    ELSE.
      zlv_events = zlv_events && ',' && zlv_event_json.
    ENDIF.

    IF zlv_events IS NOT INITIAL.
      zrv_json =  '{ "records": [' && zlv_events && '] }'.
    ENDIF.

  ENDMETHOD.

Simple method codes:

  METHOD if_acc_mea~get_managed_object_name.
    rv_managed_object_name = ms_mea-context_name.
  ENDMETHOD.
  METHOD if_acc_mea~get_managed_object_type.
    rv_managed_object_type = ms_mea-context_type.
  ENDMETHOD.
  METHOD if_acc_mea~get_severity.
    rv_severity = ms_mea-severity.
  ENDMETHOD.
  METHOD convert_alert_timestamp.

    " Convert the timestamp
    CONVERT TIME STAMP ziv_timestamp TIME ZONE 'UTC'
      INTO DATE DATA(zlv_date) TIME DATA(zlv_time)
      DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME DATA(zlv_dls_time).


    zrv_date_time = |{ zlv_date+0(4) }-{ zlv_date+4(2) }-{ zlv_date+6(2) } { zlv_time+0(2) }:{ zlv_time+2(2) }:{ zlv_time+4(2) }|.

  ENDMETHOD.
  METHOD if_acc_mea~get_name.
    rv_name = ms_mea-name.
  ENDMETHOD.
  METHOD if_acc_mea~get_type_id.
    rv_type_id = ms_mea-type_id.
  ENDMETHOD.

Helper method to remove HTML tags:

  METHOD remove_html_tags.

    IF ziv_description IS INITIAL.
      RETURN.
    ENDIF.

    DATA(zlv_description) = ziv_description.

    DATA(zlv_newline) = cl_abap_char_utilities=>newline.

    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '<h2>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '</h2>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '<strong>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '</strong>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '<p>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '</p>' IN zlv_description WITH zlv_newline IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '<b>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '</b>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '<u>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '</u>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '<i>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '</i>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '<ul>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '</ul>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '<li>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '</li>' IN zlv_description WITH zlv_newline IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '<a href="' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF REGEX '">[A-Za-z0-9_\~\-+=&[:space:]]*</a>' IN  zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.

    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF ' ' IN zlv_description WITH '_'  IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF ':' IN zlv_description WITH ':'     IGNORING CASE.

    zrv_desription = zlv_description.


  ENDMETHOD.

Method to convert severity:

  METHOD convert_severity.

    CASE ziv_sm_severity.
      WHEN 1 OR 2 OR 3 OR 4.
        zrv_sn_severity = 5. " Info
      WHEN 5.
        zrv_sn_severity = 4. " Warning
      WHEN 6.
        zrv_sn_severity = 3. " Minor
      WHEN 7.
        zrv_sn_severity = 2. " Major
      WHEN 8 OR 9.
        zrv_sn_severity = 1. " Critical
      WHEN OTHERS.
        zrv_sn_severity = 0. " Clear
    ENDCASE.

  ENDMETHOD.

This method convert the SAP Focused Run severity code from 1 to 9 towards the codes in ServiceNow. Adjusts the codes per your requirement.

The sending code

The sending code is as follows (for more details on ABAP REST calls, read this blog):

  METHOD post.

    " Initialize the HTTP client
    me->init_http_client( ).

    " Set header
    me->zgo_http_client->request->set_method( method = me->zgo_http_client->request->co_request_method_post ).

    me->zgo_http_client->request->set_content_type( content_type = zgc_content_type ).

    " Set body
    me->zgo_http_client->request->set_cdata( EXPORTING data = ziv_event_messages ).

    " Send the data (POST)
    me->send( ).

    " Receive the response; needed to get the http status code
    me->receive( ).

    " Get the status code
    me->zgo_http_client->response->get_status(
      IMPORTING
        code   = zrs_status-code      " HTTP status code
        reason = zrs_status-reason    " HTTP status description
    ).

  ENDMETHOD.

Subimplementations of the methods:

  METHOD init_http_client.

    cl_http_client=>create_by_destination(
      EXPORTING
        destination              = zgc_destination      " Logical destination (specified in function call)
      IMPORTING
        client                   = me->zgo_http_client  " HTTP Client Abstraction
      EXCEPTIONS
        argument_not_found       = 1
        destination_not_found    = 2
        destination_no_authority = 3
        plugin_not_active        = 4
        internal_error           = 5
        OTHERS                   = 6
    ).

    IF sy-subrc NE 0.
      me->raise_exception_for_sys_msg( ).
    ENDIF.

  ENDMETHOD.
  METHOD send.

    me->zgo_http_client->send(
      EXCEPTIONS
        http_communication_failure = 1
        http_invalid_state         = 2
        http_processing_failed     = 3
        http_invalid_timeout       = 4
        OTHERS                     = 5
    ).

    IF sy-subrc NE 0.
      me->raise_exception_for_sys_msg( ).
    ENDIF.

  ENDMETHOD.
  METHOD receive.

    me->zgo_http_client->receive(
      EXCEPTIONS
        http_communication_failure = 1
        http_invalid_state         = 2
        http_processing_failed     = 3
        OTHERS                     = 4
    ).

    IF sy-subrc NE 0.
      me->raise_exception_for_sys_msg( ).
    ENDIF.

  ENDMETHOD.
  METHOD raise_exception_for_sys_msg.

    RAISE EXCEPTION TYPE zcx_snow_mid_api
      EXPORTING
        textid = VALUE scx_t100key(
                      msgid = syst-msgid
                      msgno = syst-msgno
                      attr1 = syst-msgv1
                      attr2 = syst-msgv2
                      attr3 = syst-msgv3
                      attr4 = syst-msgv4
                  ).

  ENDMETHOD.

What is important here is that in the constant ZGC_DESTINATION is the definition of the H type RFC destination towards the midserver.

Helper code: zcl_snow_event_message

Method ZIF_SNOW_MESSAGE~GET_JSON with input ZIV_RESOULTION_STATE type STRING and returning ZRV_JSON type /UI2/CL_JSON=>JSON, code:

  METHOD zif_snow_message~get_json.

    DATA zlv_events TYPE /ui2/cl_json=>json.

    " Get current time stamp
    GET TIME STAMP FIELD DATA(zlv_time_stamp_now).

    DATA(zlv_event_json) = /ui2/cl_json=>serialize(
      EXPORTING
        data        =  VALUE zif_snow_message~zgts_event(
          source              = |{ syst-sysid } - FRUN |
          node                = zgi_alert->get_managed_object_name( )
          type                = zgi_alert->get_managed_object_type( )
          severity            = me->convert_severity( zgi_alert->get_severity( ) )
          time_of_event       = me->convert_alert_timestamp( ziv_timestamp = zlv_time_stamp_now )
          description         = COND #( LET custom_description = me->remove_html_tags( zgi_alert->get_custom_description( ) ) IN
                                        WHEN strlen( custom_description ) > 0 THEN custom_description
                                        ELSE me->remove_html_tags( zgi_alert->get_sap_description(  ) ) )
          event_class         = substring( val = zgi_alert->get_managed_object_name( ) off = 0 len = 3 )
          message_key         = zgi_alert->get_type_id( )
          resolution_state    = ziv_resoultion_state
          resource            = zgi_alert->get_name( )
        )
        pretty_name = /ui2/cl_json=>pretty_mode-low_case
    ).

    IF zlv_events IS INITIAL.
      zlv_events = zlv_event_json.
    ELSE.
      zlv_events = zlv_events && ',' && zlv_event_json.
    ENDIF.

    IF zlv_events IS NOT INITIAL.
      zrv_json =  '{ "records": [' && zlv_events && '] }'.
    ENDIF.

  ENDMETHOD.

Method Constructor with input ZII_ALERT type IF_ACC_MEA, code:

  METHOD constructor.

    me->zgi_alert = zii_alert.

  ENDMETHOD.

Method CONVERT_ALERT_TIMESTAMP input ZIV_TIMESTAMP type TIMESTAMP, returning ZRV_DATE_TIME type STRING. Code:

  METHOD convert_alert_timestamp.

    " Convert the timestamp
    CONVERT TIME STAMP ziv_timestamp TIME ZONE 'UTC'
      INTO DATE DATA(zlv_date) TIME DATA(zlv_time)
      DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME DATA(zlv_dls_time).


    zrv_date_time = |{ zlv_date+0(4) }-{ zlv_date+4(2) }-{ zlv_date+6(2) } { zlv_time+0(2) }:{ zlv_time+2(2) }:{ zlv_time+4(2) }|.

  ENDMETHOD.

Method CONVERT_SEVERITY input ZIV_SM_SEVERITY type AC_SEVERITY, returning ZRV_SN_SEVERITY type INT4. Code:

  METHOD convert_severity.

    CASE ziv_sm_severity.
      WHEN 1 OR 2 OR 3 OR 4.
        zrv_sn_severity = 5. " Info
      WHEN 5.
        zrv_sn_severity = 4. " Warning
      WHEN 6.
        zrv_sn_severity = 3. " Minor
      WHEN 7.
        zrv_sn_severity = 2. " Major
      WHEN 8 OR 9.
        zrv_sn_severity = 1. " Critical
      WHEN OTHERS.
        zrv_sn_severity = 0. " Clear
    ENDCASE.

  ENDMETHOD.

Method REMOVE_HTML_TAGS, input ZIV_DESCRIPTION type STRING, returning ZRV_DESRIPTION type STRING. Code:

  METHOD remove_html_tags.

    IF ziv_description IS INITIAL.
      RETURN.
    ENDIF.

    DATA(zlv_description) = ziv_description.

    DATA(zlv_newline) = cl_abap_char_utilities=>newline.

    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '<h2>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '</h2>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '<strong>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '</strong>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '<p>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '</p>' IN zlv_description WITH zlv_newline IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '<b>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '</b>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '<u>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '</u>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '<i>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '</i>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '<ul>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '</ul>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '<li>' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '</li>' IN zlv_description WITH zlv_newline IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF '<a href="' IN zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF REGEX '">[A-Za-z0-9_\~\-+=&[:space:]]*</a>' IN  zlv_description WITH '' IGNORING CASE.

    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF ' ' IN zlv_description WITH '_'  IGNORING CASE.
    REPLACE ALL OCCURRENCES OF ':' IN zlv_description WITH ':'     IGNORING CASE.

    zrv_desription = zlv_description.


  ENDMETHOD.

Helper code: zcl_snow_bi_logger

Exception class ZCX_SNOW_MID_API as redefinition of CX_ROOT with re-implementation of constructor; inputs TEXTID type F_T100_MESSAGE=>T100KEY and PREVIOUS type PREVIOUS.

Code:

  METHOD constructor ##ADT_SUPPRESS_GENERATION.

    CALL METHOD super->constructor
      EXPORTING
        previous = previous.

    CLEAR me->textid.

    IF textid IS INITIAL.
      if_t100_message~t100key = if_t100_message=>default_textid.
    ELSE.
      if_t100_message~t100key = textid.
    ENDIF.

  ENDMETHOD.

Helper class zcl_snow_bi_logger.

Method: ZIF_SNOW_BI_LOGGER~BAL_LOG_SAVE:

 METHOD zif_snow_bi_logger~bal_log_save.

    IF me->zgo_bal_log IS BOUND.

      me->zgo_bal_log->save( ziv_commit = abap_true ).

    ENDIF.

  ENDMETHOD.

Method: ZIF_SNOW_BI_LOGGER~BAL_LOG_ADD_EXCEPTION

Import parameter: ZIX_SNOW_EXCEPTION type ref to ZCX_SNOW_MID_API

Code:

  METHOD zif_snow_bi_logger~bal_log_add_message.

    IF me->zgo_bal_log IS BOUND.

      me->zgo_bal_log->add_message(
        EXPORTING
          ziv_msgty = ziv_msgty
          ziv_msgid = ziv_msgid
          ziv_msgno = ziv_msgno
          ziv_msgv1 = ziv_msgv1
          ziv_msgv2 = ziv_msgv2
          ziv_msgv3 = ziv_msgv3
          ziv_msgv4 = ziv_msgv4
      ).

    ENDIF.

  ENDMETHOD.

Method: ZIF_SNOW_BI_LOGGER~BAL_LOG_ADD_FREE_TEXT

Inputs ZIV_MSGTY type SYMSGTY and ZIV_TEXT type ZCL_BC_BAL_LOG=>ZGTV_FREE_TEXT “(which is TYPES zgtv_free_text TYPE c LENGTH 200) .

Source:

  METHOD zif_snow_bi_logger~bal_log_add_free_text.

    IF me->zgo_bal_log IS BOUND.

      me->zgo_bal_log->add_free_text(
        EXPORTING
          ziv_msgty = ziv_msgty
          ziv_text  = ziv_text
      ).

    ENDIF.

  ENDMETHOD.

Constructor code:

  METHOD constructor.

    me->zgo_bal_log = zcl_bc_bal_log=>factory(
        ziv_object     = zif_snow_constants=>zgc_bal_log-object
        ziv_sub_object = zif_snow_constants=>zgc_bal_log-sub_object
    ).

  ENDMETHOD.

Using the ServiceNow web services

The ServiceNow webservices including instructions on how to download the WSDL are published on the ServiceNow help web pages.

Download the WSDL file and follow the instructions from this blog to import the WSDL file inso SE80 and generate the ABAP web service proxy object. In SOAMANAGER setup the logical port towards your ServiceNow installation and make sure the connection is working.

Then implement the ABAP code as above.

In stead of calling the REST service, you now call the ABAP proxy generated:

* Data Declarations
DATA: zcl_proxy TYPE REF TO zco_zbapidemowebservice, " Proxy Class
      zdata_in  TYPE zzbapidemo, " Proxy Input
      zdata_out TYPE zzbapidemoresponse, " Proxy Output
      zfault    TYPE REF TO cx_root. " Generic Fault

* Instantiate the proxy class providing the Logical port name
CREATE OBJECT zcl_proxy EXPORTING logical_port_name = 'ZDEMOWS'.

* Set Fixed Values
zdata_in-zimport = '1'.

TRY .
    zcl_proxy->zbapidemo( EXPORTING input = zdata_in
                          IMPORTING output = zdata_out ).
    WRITE: / zdata_out-zexport.
  CATCH cx_root INTO zfault.
* here is the place for error handling

ENDTRY.

Off course you will use the generated in and out data from the generated service.

Upgrading SAP Focused Run…

All new functions and innovations for SAP Focused Run are delivered in either upgrades or feature packs. This blog will explain how to plan and execute upgrade for SAP Focused Run.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • What is the SAP Focused Run release strategy?
  • How to prepare for the SAP Focused Run upgrade?
  • How do I execute the SAP Focused Run upgrade?

Release strategy of SAP Focused Run

In the SAP Focused Run overview document created by SAP there is one slide containing the SAP Focused Run release strategy:

All new functions and innovations are delivered in either upgrades or feature packs.

Preparations for SAP Focused Run upgrade

First look up the specific upgrade OSS note. In case of upgrade to Focused Run 3.0 SP02 these are OSS notes 3116196 – Release Information Note for Focused Run 3.0 FP02 and 3127574 – Focused Run 3.0 Feature Pack 02 – Update Preparation and Postprocessing Documentation.

In this note you will find:

  • HANA database version needed
  • Needed versions of the SDA (simple diagnostics agent)
  • Scenario specific pre and post actions required
  • Updates to authorizations in SAP Focused Run
  • Updates to authorizations in the connected systems
  • Pre upgrade and post upgrade actions to be performed

The HANA database can be upgraded before the actual upgrade or can be combined with the upgrade. The same applies for the SDA agent.

Best practice is to execute the HANA and SDA upgrades before. Upgrade your Focused Run test system first, leave the versions there for a few weeks to prove stability, then deploy on productive Focused Run system.

In case of changes to authorizations in the connected systems, you can already update these before the upgrade.

In case you use custom descriptions in the metrics, you must download them before the upgrade and upload them again after the upgrade. More information in OSS note 3077162 – Backup and Restore of MAI Custom description BEFORE and AFTER system Update/Upgrade.

ZDO upgrade option

As of Focused Run 3.0 you have the choice to go for a ZDO (Zero Downtime Option) upgrade to reduce the downtime of the upgrade.

Read the following notes carefully before deciding to go for this option:

Executing the SAP Focused Run upgrade

Start your upgrade first on your SAP Focused Run development system and write down all the steps you execute. You will need to repeat all steps in your productive system later on.

During the technical upgrade, you will have to perform with the SUM tool, you will need to execute the SPDD and SPAU technical upgrade actions. Store the actions in transport to be used in productive upgrade. After SPUA is done, also apply the updated collective notes listed in the central note 3116196 – Release Information Note for Focused Run 3.0 FP02.

After the technical upgrade has been completed, follow and document carefully all the steps in the OSS upgrade note. For example running extra tasks lists, programs, redo SSI for JAVA, etc.

It can also be you come across items and issues that are not documented in the OSS note. Please write them down in your own runbook for production. When upgrading to SAP Focused Run 3.0 we found that the standard jobs are switched to the technical job repository SJOBREPO (since the 3.0 ABAP stack is based on the S4HANA 1909 version).

Apply all collective notes for all functions you are using. The collective note numbers are listed in the Release Information Note.

After the documented steps, update the authorizations in SAP Focused Run to get the new tiles for new functions available.

Rerun the task lists for the initial setup in STC01 (SAP_FRUN_SETUP_FOUNDATION and SAP_FRUN_SETUP_USECASE) with the variants of the use cases that you are using.

Update the monitoring content according to OSS note 2991255 – Manual content update for FRUN-CONT 300 in SAP Focused Run (FRUN-CONT). For the steps in detail, read this blog.

Check in the upgrade manual if any SSI needs to be redone. This is often the case with JAVA systems.

Finally when all actions are done, refresh your browser cache and backend FIORI cache (follow all steps from this blog).

Testing

Before deploying the Focused Run upgrade in production, you must test all your functions in the Focused Run development system. It is very helpful if you have a set of documented test cases that you can easily repeat each upgrade. With testing first focus on testing the current functions you are using. In a later stage you can explore, activate and test new functions.

While testing you will find issues. Solutions are normally:

  • Updates in authorizations
  • OSS notes to be applied
  • SICF services and Gateway services activation
  • Forgotten step in the activation

Capture all fixes in either transports or in your runbook.

If you still have key issues with bugs, you will need to raise a message to SAP.