SAP Basis Brown-bag Session 1

Part 2

FROM: SUMIT SHARMA

VS SAP BASIS POOL - D
Today’s discussion topics.

1.What is SAP transport?

2.How does the various SAP landscape look like?
3. When and why does these alerts come up?
• Server server0 is not running. Server server1 is not running
• Java instance stmvspi01a_00 status is SAPCONTROL-YELLOW/Grey
• jstart is not GREEN: SAPControl-GRAY:Stopped.
• al_engine: Process al_engine is not running
• /sapmnt/data?
4. Who will renew these Certificate? e.g. below
a0e1us042nim001 - URL Certificate due to expire in '59' days for profile 'd07ix200'
'https://d07ix200.na.ko.com:8100/sap/bc/gui/sap/its/webgui'
a0mzus042nim001 - URL Certificate due to expire in '159' days for profile 'PY8_APP2'
a0mzus042nim001 - URL Certificate due to expire in '31' days for profile 'QB9_F5'

5. When does the URL response comes up is this directly connected to system been down?
a08vus042nim002 - URL response for 'VSPE1-Authentication' failed. 7 Couldn't connect to server
a0jyus042nim001 - URL response for 'PSJ' failed. 28 Timeout was reached
a0hjus042nim001 - URL response for 'SJ2' failed. 7 Couldn't connect to server
Q .1: What is SAP transport?
 Transport Requests (TRs) – is a kind of 'Container / Collection' of changes that are
made in the development system. It also records the information regarding the type of
change, the purpose of transport, request category and the target system. It is also
known as Change Requests
 Each TR contains one or more change jobs, also known as change Tasks (minimum
unit of transportable change). Tasks are stored inside a TR, just like multiple files are
stored in some folder. TR can be released only once all the tasks inside a TR are
completed, released or deleted.
 Change requests are named in a standard format as:  <SID>K<Number> [Not
modifiable by system administrators]
SID – System ID
K – Is fixed keyword/alphabet
Number – can be anything from a range starting with 900001
Example: DEVK900030
TYPES of Transports requests:

Workbench Request – contains repository objects and also 'cross-client' customizing objects. These requests are
responsible for making changes in the ABAP workbench objects.
Customizing Request – contains objects that belong to 'client-specific' customizing. As per client settings, these
requests are automatically recorded as per when users perform customizing settings and a target system is
automatically assigned as per the transport layer (if defined).
Transport Of Copies - This is a type of transport similar to customizing and workbench with its different behavior.
Beauty with this type of transports is, it dies in the next target system.
SE01 – Transport Organize – Extended View
How to Create a Change Request ?
Change Request can be created in two ways:
• Automatic – Whenever creating or modifying an object, or when performing
customizing settings, the system itself displays the 'Dialog box' for creating a change
request or mention name of an already created request, if available.
• Manually – Create the change request from the Transport Organizer, and then enter
required attributes and insert objects.
•Position the cursor on the TR name or a Task name & choose the Release icon (Truck), a record of the TR
is automatically added to the appropriate import queues of the systems defined in the TMS.
•Releasing and importing a request generates export & import logs.
How to import transport request ?
We need to access the import queue and for that, we need to execute transaction code STMS_Import
Import Queue -> is the list of TRs available in the common directory and are ready to be imported into the
target system, this is the SAP Application View, at the OS level it is also known as Import Buffer.

One of the important information provided

by logs are the return codes:

0: The export was successful.

4: Warning was issued but all objects were
transported successfully.
8: A warning was issued and at least one
object could not be transported
successfully.
12 or higher: A critical error had
occurred, generally not caused by the
objects in the request.
Q. 2: How does the various SAP landscape look like?
SAP system landscape is defined as an arrangement of SAP servers. Ideally, in a
Sap environment, a three-system landscape exists. A system landscape consists
of Development Server (Dev), Production Server (PROD), and Quality Assurance
server (QAS).

DEVELOPMENT - >>>> Quality ->>>> PRODUCTION

Let us now discuss the system landscape −

Sandbox Server
When a project is implemented, at the initial stages, a sandbox server is used where all the
customization, configuration is performed.

Development Server
Next is to save the configuration in development server and saved in workbench requests and
this has to be transported to Quality and then to the Production server.

Production Server
You can consider it as the final or the most refined stage where the work is done when project
is in production/go live. All the changes that are required by the client are performed in the
DEV environment and later, the request is transported to production.
SAP System 3 – Tier Architecture

The image given below shows 3-tier architecture of the SAP system. The presentation layer is the
topmost one. This contains the device/application to control the SAP system. This can include mobile
devices, end user systems or SAP GUI or web browser based client.

The presentation layer communicates with the

application server to perform all the processing
and which is known as brains of an SAP system.

An application server consists of multiple instances

and communicates with the database layer of the
three-tier architecture.

The bottom layer is called the database layer.

This is responsible to store all the data. The
database of SAP system is kept on a separate
server for performance and security reasons.
The key components of the application layer include the following −

Message Server − This is used to manage communication between distributed dispatchers in

the ABAP system.
Also this is used to manage server processes and JAVA dispatchers. It is used to manage
communication within JRE.

Dispatcher Queue − This is used to store multiple work process types.

Dispatcher − This is used to distribute the requests to the work processes.

Memory Pipes − This is used to manage communication between ICM and ABAP work
processes.

Enqueue Server − This is used to handle logical locks set by the executed Java application
program.

Java Dispatcher − This is responsible to receive the client requests via presentation layer and
forward to the server process.

Gateway − This is used to manage communication between SAP system and external systems.

ABAP Work processes − This separately executes dialog steps in R/3 applications separately.
Q .3 :When and why does these alerts come up?

• Server server0 is not running. Server server1 is not running

This alert appear if the any of the server is in hung or stopped state.
We have to check the server processes with sapcontrol and the server logs. This could be due to network glitch, Filesystem
issues, resource utilizations like memory and CPU .
Command : jsmon pf=<profile instance path> to check the server status.
• Java instance stmvspi01a_00 status is SAPCONTROL-YELLOW/Grey
• jstart is not GREEN: SAPControl-GRAY:Stopped.
SAPCONTROL is service tool used to check the status of services running on host.
Check status with command : sapcontrol –nr <instance no> -function GetProcessList

GREEN means that the process is running and everything is OK;

GRAY means that the process is not running;
YELLOW means that the process is running, but something is not OK
We have to check the server logs to find the root cause.
• al_engine: Process al_engine is not running
al_engine is a core Data Services process. It is responsible for executing jobs, importing and exporting repository objects, and so
on.
Data Services uses two processes during job execution: AL_JOBSERVER and AL_ENGINE.
Data Services initiates one AL_JOBSERVER process for each Job Server that you configure on your computer.
AL_ENGINE runs when a job starts. Data Services runs an AL_ENGINE process for each data flow in a job. It
runs AL_ENGINE as a single process for real-time jobs.
Ai_engine troubleshooting logs can be analyzed: \SAP BusinessObjects\Data Services\log\\
Q .4: Who will renew these Certificate? e.g. below?

a0e1us042nim001 - URL Certificate due to expire in '59' days for profile 'd07ix200'
'https://d07ix200.na.ko.com:8100/sap/bc/gui/sap/its/webgui’

a0mzus042nim001 - URL Certificate due to expire in '159' days for profile 'PY8_APP2’

a0mzus042nim001 - URL Certificate due to expire in '31' days for profile 'QB9_F5'

SAP Application specific certificates will be taken care by SAP Basis Team, where as F5 load balancer specific alerts will
be handled by network team.

Ex: a0mzus042nim001 - URL Certificate due to expire in '159' days for profile 'PY8_APP2' - this is SAP application
specific, so it will be handled by SAP Basis Team.

Ex: a0mzus042nim001 - URL Certificate due to expire in '31' days for profile 'QB9_F5' - This is F5 load balance
specific, so it will be handled by Network Team.
5. When does the URL response comes up is this directly connected to system been down?

1. a08vus042nim002 - URL response for 'VSPE1-Authentication' failed. 7 Couldn't connect to server.

2. a0jyus042nim001 - URL response for 'PSJ' failed. 28 Timeout was reached

3. a0hjus042nim001 - URL response for 'SJ2' failed. 7 Couldn't connect to server

For these alerts we have to perform some sequence of checks :

1. Check if we are able to access the URL alert is generated for.

2. Check the status of services from OS level.
3. Check the database connectivity from application.
4. Check the Web-dispature status if it is running or not, if configured.
5. Check the server logs to find the root cause at : /usr/sap/SID/J<in no>/j2ee/cluster/server?/log.
6. Check the system resources like, memory consumption, CPU consumtion.
Thank you  .