SAP Process discovery

SAP offers new tool called Process discovery.

This tool can help you to prepare for an S4HANA conversion.

SAP pathfinder will most likely by succeeded by Signavio process insights. Read this blog for more information on Signavio process insights, discovery edition.

Preparation

Apply OSS notes 2758146 and 2745851  and move them to your productive system.

Then run program RC_VALUE_DISCOVERY_COLL_DATA in productive system with the business scenario recommendation option.

The first option is for the pathfinder tool. You can read more on this option in this blog.

Let the batch job collect the data. Run the program again and use button Download Analysis Data to download the data.

The analysis

Now you can upload this file to the SAP site. Wait about 5 working days for SAP the process the data.

You can look at a sample report on this link:

And you can see the demo results:

Background

Background on SAP process discovery can be read in this SAP blog.

In case of issues you can read the troubleshooting guide: 2977422 – Process Discovery (evolution of SAP Business Scenario Recommendations) & SAP Pathfinder report – troubleshooting guide.

Read more in OSS note 2918818 – Usage and Performance Data Collection for Process Discovery (evolution of SAP Business Scenario Recommendations) and SAP Innovation and Optimization Pathfinder on Spotlight on the inclusion of usage and performance data.

SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA upgrades

The SAP readiness check is normally used to asses the impact of an ECC to an S4HANA system upgrade or conversion (read this blog).

It can also be used to asses the impact of an upgrade of a lower S4HANA version to a newer S4HANA version.

Preparation for the S4HANA readiness check

First apply the notes listed in master note 3059197 – SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA upgrades. If you have a short dump after start of program RC_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA, follow the instructions in OSS note 3093810 – Executing report RC_VALUE_DISCOVERY_COLL_DATA immediately results in an ABAP Dump CX_SY_DYN_CALL_ILLEGAL_FUNC.

Also apply the notes mentioned in OSS note 3061414 – Enabling extended integration impact analysis for SAP Readiness Check, if you want to include ALE scenario’s in your analysis.

If you have to upgrade to a newer version, apply the latest version of the 305197 note and afterwards use the “Update latest version form SAP catalog”, as explained in OSS note 3213713 – SAP S/4HANA Readiness check report do not show latest S/4HANA target releases.

Running the check

Start program RC_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA:

Start the batch job and wait until it is done.

Start program RC_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA again and push button Download Analysis Data.

This file you need to upload on the SAP Readiness check site.

Result

After you have uploaded the results SAP needs about 1 hour to process the results. Then you can look at the items you need to consider for your S4HANA release upgrade:

Remark: the amount of items will be far less than the ECC to S4HANA conversion readiness check.

Bug fix notes

Bug fix notes:

SAP password hash strengthening

The SAP password hash can be deciphered. See for example this blog. By increasing the complexity of the hash, you can slow down this process.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How can I strengthen my SAP password hash?
  • Does it also work when I use CUA?

Password hash algorithm strength

Main blog for SAP password hash algorithm is 1458262 – ABAP: recommended settings for password hash algorithms. Note 2140269 – ABAP password hash: supporting salt sizes up to 256 bits describes the actual parameter value.

In RZ11 you need to set parameter login/password_hash_algorithm to exactly this value: encoding=RFC2307, algorithm=iSSHA-512, iterations=15000, saltsize=256.

Make sure you follow the correct syntax. The syntax is listed in OSS note 991968 - List of values for "login/password_hash_algorithm". If you don't do it properly, you might get the issue reported in OSS note 3043774 - Iterated salted hash is empty after having assigned or changed a password.

End result

Example for a test user. Before the setting the PWDSALTEDHASH field has this value:

After change of the parameter we reset the password of the user and the hash now looks like this:

Really more complex, hence more complex to decipher: the hashes are far stronger now. It can still be cracked, but it takes far more time on either single password or large group of passwords.

The parameter only effects new passwords. Not the existing ones.

CUA

If you use CUA, the password can be distributed from CUA. If you CUA system and connected systems are modern enough there is no issue at all. See the CUA section of OSS note 1458262 – ABAP: recommended settings for password hash algorithms.

Test drive SAP Cloud ALM demo system

SAP Cloud ALM is a solution offered by SAP for managing cloud products of SAP.

The tool is still in build up, but is looking promising. If you are interested in what Cloud ALM can do, you can read the documentation, but also try out in the online Cloud ALM demo system.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How can I see online in a demo system what SAP Cloud ALM can do?
  • Where can I find more information on SAP Cloud ALM?
  • Does SAP Cloud ALM require a license or is it free for use?

If you look for a SAP solution manager demo system: read this blog.

The SAP Cloud ALM demo system

The SAP Cloud ALM demo system can be accessed on the ALM demo tenant page:

Use one of the users listed to logon:

Background information on Cloud ALM

General information about Cloud ALM can be found on this link.

All technical background and implementation information on Cloud ALM can be found at the SAP Cloud ALM expert portal:

SAP Cloud ALM license

According to this SAP blog, the use of SAP Cloud ALM is part of the general SAP license, just like SAP solution manager. It’s use is free of license cost, but off course, time you need to spend on implementation and activation is not.