Activating workflow in S4HANA

This blog will explain how to activate workflow in S4HANA. If you have to activate workflow in classic ECC system use this blog.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How to activate workflow in S4HANA?
  • What do I need to do with the workflow activation in case of an upgrade to S4HANA?
  • Where to find more background information on workflow activation in S4HANA?
  • Why is WF-BATCH replaced with SAP_WFRT user?

Workflow activation in S4HANA

First make sure you have created system user SAP_WFRT. Start with assigning SAP_ALL to this user. You can replace it with lower rights after the activation is done properly according to OSS note 1574002 – WF-BATCH and SAP_WFRT Authorizations.

Start transaction SWU3:

Select the Edit Runtime Environment and press the button Execute Activity. This will activate all the actions below.

After it is done you can press the button Start Verification Workflow to check if the workflow runs properly. After 1 minute (it needs compilation in the background) start transaction SBWP.

All background information regarding SWU3 can be found in OSS note 2366252 – Transaction SWU3 explained.

Activating workflow after upgrade to S4HANA

After upgrading to S4HANA workflow will not work any more. You first need to create system user SAP_WFRT and redo the SWU3 setup.

Background user SAP_WFRT will replace background user WF-BATCH.

For more background on this replacement see oss note 2568271 – Change of workflow system user and workflow system jobs with S/4HANA On-Premise 1709 and oss note 2637240 – Error in SWU3 – System user ‘SAP_WFRT’ does not exist.

If you have issues with the workflow batch jobs after the upgrade, please check OSS notes:

After the user and RFC activation you need to schedule the new workflow jobs in SJOBREPO:

Read OSS note 3109917 – How to change the step user of workflow system jobs while keep the other technical jobs in job repository unchanged for instructions on the job user for workflow.

Explanation OSS notes:

Workflow and SNC

If you also use SNC, please follow the instructions in OSS note 3137350 – Workflow RFC destination no longer works after SNC activation carefully.

More workflow

For workflow tips and tricks: read this blog.

Setup of FIORI my workflow inbox: read this blog.

For deletion and archiving of workflow: read this blog.

Activating embedded BI in S4HANA

This blog will explain how to activate embedded BI in S4HANA.

Questions that will be answered are:

  • How to activate embedded BI in S4HANA?
  • Where to find more background information about embedded BI activation in S4HANA?

Setting up embedded BI in S4HANA

To start setup of embedded BI in S4HANA go to transaction STC01 and start task list SAP_BW_SETUP_INITIAL_S4HANA:

The task list will ask you to confirm that you have read OSS note 2303900 – Latest Information about BW Setup in S/4HANA Systems. You should really read the note before and apply the known issue notes listed in this note.

Then you need to set the BI client: best to use the same client as your data client. Withe BW content option, just choose all.

Now run the task list and be patient. If the task list finishes correctly you are done. You can use transaction RSA5 to check the content activation.

OSS note 2636754 – Configuration steps for embedded Analytics in ABAP based Applications contains detailed explanation of all the steps in this task list.

Bug fix OSS notes:

Full list is in OSS note 2303900 – Latest Information about BW Setup in S/4HANA Systems.

Known issues

EQ_RS_AUTOSETUP: you might run into an issue with this program.

First apply OSS notes 2704713 – Report EQ_RS_AUTOSETUP: improvements and enhancements and 3005612 – Report EQ_RS_AUTOSETUP: improvements and enhancements (2) to get the latest patches for this program. Then run the program EQ_RS_AUTOSETUP manually:

Transaction RSTCO_ADMIN: this one might not have gone right.

Re-install the content if required.

In case of issues with BGRFC supervisor destination: Use transaction code SBGRFCCONF and check the last tab that the supervisor destination is assigned. In systems with CUA there might be an issue with creating the supervisor destination. In this case follow the steps of OSS note 2775490 – Error in customizing while creating supervisor destination.

Other bug notes:

3283169 – Virtual time hierarchy 0YEA_QUA_MON is not activated when running task list SAP_BW_SETUP_INITIAL_S4HANA

Background information

Good background information can be found at:

The configuration of embedded analytics is also part of the SAP best practices:

Download the full configuration guide.

S4HANA standard batch jobs

In S4HANA standard jobs are scheduled in a different way.

This blog will answer the following questions:

  • How to see then new standard jobs via transaction SJOBREPO?
  • Where to find more information on more advanced functions?
  • Which background OSS notes can I read on the S4HANA stand batch job repository?
  • I have done a change to SJOBREPO and it is not visible? (it takes up to 1 hour!)

Viewing the job repository

Start transaction SJOBREPO to view the job repository:

The jobs running are different per release. Check the corresponding note. Example for S4HANA 2020: 2992214 – Jobs in the Technical Job Repository (SJOBREPO) in SAP S/4HANA 2020.

Use transaction SWF_JOBREPO_SLG1 to see logs of potential job issues.

To assign a standard user to job steps use transaction SJOBREPO_STEPUSER to set standard job step user:

See OSS notes

Checking the activation status of SJOBREPO

With program R_JR_UTIL_1 you can check the current status of SJOBREPO or activate it:

See OSS note 2790150 – Automatic Job Scheduling is switched off.

Activation and monitoring

In SJOBREPO, more background information can be found by clicking the button Monitor help:

A very important remark is made here that it can take up to 1 hour before changes to SJOBREPO are visible in the monitoring overview. This is a very annoying feature.

Advanced functions in SJOBREPO

All the advanced configuration functions of the S4HANA job repository can be found as PDF attachment to OSS note 2190119 – Background information about S/4HANA technical job repository.

Activation of server group for technical job repository

Apply OSS note 3057980 – Targetservergroups in SJOBREPO in Release 7.55 to get the function for server groups for the technical job repository.

Scope dependent jobs

In customizing you can activate scope dependent jobs:

See also OSS note 3085988 – Technical job is not getting schedule in S/4HANA SJOBREPO because the job is showing as ‘Not in Scope’.

Background OSS notes

Useful background OSS notes:

Bug fix notes:

Activating search in S4HANA

This blog will describe the steps in activating search in S4HANA. We will explain both new fresh installation and upgrade from system which has search already activated.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How to activate search in S4HANA for an initial installation?
  • How to activate search in S4HANA after upgrade when search was already active?

Activating search in S4HANA new installation

To activate search goto transaction STC01 and select task list SAP_ESH_INITIAL_SETUP_WRK_CLIENT:

Open the details:

Make sure that you set the TREX destination to SAP HANA DB:

Then select the search model. For most use cases this will be SAPAPPLH:

Now run the task list and be patient. This can take quite some time. If the task list finishes correctly start transaction ESH_COCKPIT to check that all search connectors are correctly activated.

Search after upgrade to S4HANA

If you upgrade your existing system and have search already active, you get this message after launching ESH_COCKPIT:

Run report ESH_CDSABAP_ACTIVATION with default parameters:

This might be a long run:

If you run into issues, check that the following OSS notes are applied:

For some search connectors based on CDS you might see this error message:

In this case you need to goto transaction SFW5 and activate the needed switch for Enterprise Search for the specified object:

After the activation is done, rerun the search activation again.

Background: 2905864 – ESH_COCKPIT errors: ESH_DB037 – No activation of CDS-entities for Enterprise Search ESH_DB027 – Mandatory Data Source is missing.

More background information

More background on search can be found in the Search section of this blog. Also read OSS note 2626107 – How to execute task list SAP_ESH_INITIAL_SETUP_WRK_CLIENT.

Relevant OSS notes: