Author: saptechnicalguru

SAT ABAP runtime analysis

The SAT ABAP runtime analysis tool can be used to identify performance problems in ABAP programs.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How to run the SAT tool?
  • How to read the results of the SAT tool?

Starting the SAT tool

The SAT ABAP runtime analysis tool can be started with transaction SAT:

Top left there is a Tips & Tricks button. This will bring you the to the following tool:

Here you can compare the optimal and not optimal way of coding. By hitting measure runtime button you can actually compare in real time the difference between the 2 methods.

The performance issue program

To test the tool, we first write a simple test program:

REPORT zperftest2.

DATA: zlt_vbak TYPE TABLE OF vbak.
DATA: zls_vbak TYPE vbak.
DATA: zlt_vbap TYPE TABLE OF vbap.
DATA: zls_vbap TYPE vbap.
DATA: zls_vbap2 TYPE vbap.

SELECT * FROM vbak INTO TABLE zlt_vbak UP TO 100 ROWS.

LOOP AT zlt_vbak INTO zls_vbak.
  SELECT * FROM vbap INTO zls_vbap.
    DO 10000 TIMES.
      zls_vbap2 = zls_vbap.
    ENDDO.
  ENDSELECT.
ENDLOOP.

Now we start the SAT tool, enter the program name. Make sure the tick box evaluate immediately is on and press Execute.

Now the measurement will start.

Result of the trace tool

The result of the trace tool is as follows:

On the left side you see the split in where the program spends it time. Here you can see that most of the time is spend on internal processing and not on SQL statements. SQL statement can be analyzed from the SAT tool or from the ST05 SQL trace tool.

By double clicking on the the internal access the right hand side of the screen is filled. Here you can see in which code blocks the most net and gross time is spent. It does not always point you to the exact statements that are not ok, but it can point you to the program that is causing the biggest delay.

In our case the DO 10000 TIMES loop is the performance killer. With only SQL tracing this cannot be found.

Runtime analysis for web applications

For runtime analysis for web applications, read this dedicated blog.

Relevant OSS notes

Check and if needed you can apply these OSS notes to solve bugs in the SAT tool:

ST05 SQL performance tracing

Performance issue solving is an important job for ABAP and basis consultant. One of the helpful tools is ST05 SQL performance trace tool.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How to switch on ST05 SQL trace?
  • How to read the results from the ST05 SQL trace?
  • How to use the ST05 SQL trace with multiple application servers?

The test program

First we create a small test program for our performance analysis.

REPORT zperftest.

DATA: zlt_vbak TYPE TABLE OF vbak.
DATA: zls_vbak TYPE vbak.
DATA: zlt_vbap TYPE TABLE OF vbap.
DATA: zls_vbap TYPE vbap.

SELECT * FROM vbak INTO TABLE zlt_vbak UP TO 1000 ROWS.

LOOP AT zlt_vbak INTO zls_vbak.
  SELECT * FROM vbap INTO zls_vbap.
    DO 10 TIMES.
      CALL FUNCTION 'BAPI_MATERIAL_EXISTENCECHECK'
        EXPORTING
          material = zls_vbap-matnr+0(18).
    ENDDO.
  ENDSELECT.
ENDLOOP.

Off course this program is written very badly to be really slow and making performance issues.

ST05 SQL trace

Start the ST05 SQL trace tool with transaction code ST05.

You can activate the trace for all users with the button Activate trace. But this is usually not needed and will only give you a long trace to analyze.

The usual method is to activate the trace with a filter, mostly on user name to trace a specific user action:

If the authorization team already started on ST01 authorization trace, you cannot start the SQL trace. First stop the ST01 trace.

Now you can start the performance test program in a different session. Just wait until it is finished. It is important the user you are tracing is only doing this action and does not perform any other action, since these other actions are also recorded and will make the analysis harder to read.

When completed go back to the ST05 and click Deactivate trace.

Trace analysis based on duration

Now press the Display trace to see the results. If your trace is large you will get this screen:

This is quite common and click yes. If your result is really too big, change the 5000 on the first screen in to a good maximum, or try to record a smaller time frame.

Result now looks like this after sorting on the column duration:

You can see that the total SQL commands took 48 seconds in total. The longest SQL single command took 78 milliseconds (which is very fast, so long running SQL’s are not the issue in this example).

In your case you might find very large single SQL commands. By selecting the line and pressing the button Display ABAP call location, you can jump to the place in the coding that fired the SQL command.

Summarized trace analysis

Since we have many records and many small ones, we need to use the summary tools. In the trace analysis select menu path Trace and then Structure Identical statements. This will give the following surprisingly short overview:

In the third column you can see that there are 100 identical calls, and also a high number of redundant calls.

If you now click on the second line to the ABAP call position you jump to our badly performing program and see that the majority of the delay is coming from the do 100 times loop. The first line is coming from standard SAP in the BAPI call.

This happens in real live as well that not all calls will point you into the right program. You might have to check multiple lines to find the right program causing the issue.

Multiple application servers

Development systems normally have only 1 application server. Productive servers can have more. If you have to analyze a performance issue directly on production with ST05, you have to be aware that the performance trace is per application server. If needed, you can select in ST05 as specific server, or you can select all. The trace display is still per server.

Relevant OSS notes

Notes to check or to apply:

Delete ABAP developer keys

This blog will answer the following questions:

  • How to delete old ABAP developer keys from my system?

ABAP developer keys clean up

If ABAP developers leave their key is still in your system and could potentially misused. Also when SAP comes to measure licenses they might peek in table DEVACCESS to see which developer keys are present.

Unfortunately SAP does not deliver a standard program delete an unused ABAP key. See OSS note 1710320 – How to delete SSCR Object and/or Developer Keys – SAP ONE Support Launchpad.

So you simply have to write your own customer program with a code that looks like:

DELETE FROM DEVACCESS WHERE UNAME EQ '<USERNAME>'.

Maintenance view on DEVACCESS

Alternative solution is to create a maintenance view on table DEVACCESS. This will require a once off modification key. Then you can delete and insert developers keys via the normal SM30 table maintenance transaction.

Developer key hack

The developer keys are not safe, so don’t rely on them. See this blog.

S4HANA

S4HANA does not have the developer key principle at all any more. You can delete all keys in S4HANA. Read more in this blog.

Analyzing code before upgrade or support package: CDMC toolset

This blog will explain on the use of the CDMC toolset you can run analyzing your custom code, before starting upgrade or support package.

CDMC toolset

Start transaction CNV_CDMC to goto the CDMC overview.

Goto ad hoc analysis:

Start SAP modification run

Wait for run to finish. If done, click the Display Results.

View results:

Setback of the modification overview: also OSS notes are marked as modifications.

Other useful runs: Syntax check and Inactive customer objects.

If you run these checks before an upgrade you can save quite some annoying issues during the upgrade itself.

OSS notes

Relevant OSS notes:

DB01 Oracle Lock monitor

This blog will answer the following questions:

  • How does a deadlock look like in DB01 Oracle lock monitor?
  • How can I solve the issue?

Deadlocks

A database deadlock can occur when 2 or more processes are trying to update each other and are also waiting for each other. This process will lead to infinite waiting.

DB01 Oracle lock monitor

With the use of transaction DB01 you can get overview of Oracle locks. A deadlock is observed when the status is on HOLD and more processes are in status WAIT.

Solving the deadlock can be done by the Oracle DBA on database level.

Background: 745639 – FAQ: Oracle enqueues.

Shared objects memory

ABAP programs (standard SAP and custom) use the shared memory objects technology.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How to set the shared objects memory size?
  • How to monitor usage of shared objects memory?

Monitoring shared objects

Shared objects can be monitored with transaction SHMM:

In the start screen you can see the objects now loaded and how much memory they consume. In the start screen you can also delete and invalidate the shared memory objects.

The deletion can lead to short dumps. Only use this in emergency cases and when you are really sure

In the second tab you can see the total memory overview:

Setting shared memory objects memory size

In RZ11 with system parameter abap/shared_objects_size_MB you can set the shared object size in MB. A restart of the system is required to activate any change.

Older documentation says 500 or 1000 MB is sufficient. In newer systems a value of 3000 to 5000 in not uncommon.

Useful OSS notes

Note on memory consumption: 1322182 – Memory consumption of ABAP Shared Objects.

Dump with shortage of shared objects memory: 972757 – Occurence of the SYSTEM_NO_SHM_MEMORY runtime error.

Guided answer note: 2474021 – [Best Practice] How to solve SYSTEM_NO_SHM_MEMORY runtime error – Guided Answer

Direct table hacking

Changing directly data on an SAP table is the IT admin and IT auditors worst nightmare. This blog will show you the ways it can be done.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How can I directly edit tables?
  • How can I prevent direct table editing?
  • How can I detect direct table editing?

Overview of methods

  1. Function module SE16N_INTERFACE
  2. Debug & replace
  3. SE16N_EMERGENCY mode
  4. Re-enable &sap_edit for SE16N

Direct table editing method 1: function module SE16N_INTERFACE

This method is available in the SAP S4HANA system. Start with transaction SE37 and key in function module SE16N_INTERFACE. Now press the test button. In this demo we will change dates for sales order table VBAK. In the SE37 test screen enter table VBAK and very important put X in the I_EDIT and I_SAPEDIT fields.

Now hit execute and voila: you are in direct edit mode:

Now we change a few values (date to the year 2027…) and press save:

Data is changed.

Detection of this method: audit logging. In audit logging you can see the user started SE37 and then used report RS_TEST_FRAME_CALL, but you cannot see which module was done, neither is the data change logged.

Prevention of this method:

  1. Debug/replace is needed to change the data: don’t hand out debug/replace.
  2. Deny access to this function module.

Direct table editing method 2: debug/replace

Start transaction SE16 and show the data of the table to edit. Example in this case VBAK data:

Now select a line and put /h for debugging in the command line input. Press enter and the debug screen will open. Double click on the SY-UCOMM field:

In the variables screen now change the value ENTR (for the enter command you gave) to value AEN2 (command to change). Make sure the value is accepted. Now hit F8 to continue. And voila: edit mode:

Change the values (dates in this example) and press save:

How to detect this method: in the SAP audit log (activation of audit log is explained in this blog) show the change in debug/replace mode:

Prevention of this method: don’t hand out debug/replace rights.

And configure the audit log for detection: 3226223 – How to monitor debug activities in SAP Netweaver.

Direct table editing method 3: SE16N emergency mode

In newer SAP netweaver releases there is a new SE16N emergency mode which can be started with transaction SE16N_EMERGENCY. Read all the details in this special blog on this topic.

Direct table editing method 4: re-enable &sap_edit again in SE16N and use it

Apply OSS note 1468636 – CO-OM tools: SE16N: Use of &SAP_EDIT. This seems old, but it is still valid for all S4HANA releases as well. After the note is installed run program RKSE16N_EDIT and activate the function:

Now start SE16N and select your inputs. Before hitting the execute button, enter the command &sap_edit:

Only now press execute. The result is fully editable table.

Audit log detection

Apply/configure OSS note 3140539 – SAL | New event definition for change access in SE16N for detection of table changes in the audit log.

Also check these notes:

STAUTHTRACE: improved authorization trace

If you are still using the old classic ST01 authorization trace, do keep on reading and you will want to switch to the new STAUTHTRACE improved authorization trace.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How to run the new STAUTHTRACE tool?
  • What are the major improvements in STAUTHTRACE tool?

Running new STAUTHTRACE tool

To run the new tool start transaction STAUTHTRACE. If the transaction code is too complex, add it as favorite to your start screen.

From the start screen you see the immediate benefits. You can start the authorization trace for:

  • All application servers in one go (this is highly useful in an authorization issue with RFC users or background users where you have no control on which application server it will run): just record on all servers
  • Specific user only, but errors only: this will reduce your logging footprint to errors only
  • Filter the results to not show duplicate entries

Results

The result screen from STAUTHTRACE is similar to ST01 trace

But the result is more comprehensive, since it can take errors only, with duplicates filtered and take data from all application servers. This make the result complete and more easy to catch authorization issues.

Background

The background and all feature of STAUTHTRACE are kept in SAP OSS note 2577291 – How to get trace of authorization checks using transaction STAUTHTRACE.

Extra functions:

3256212 – STUSERTRACE: Additional selection criteria for evaluation

Bug fix notes:

Generating substitution and validation rules

In the FICO module the consultant can define substitution and validation rules. These rules must be generated before they are active.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How can I generate substitution and validation rules?
  • Where can I find more background on substitution and validation rules?

Substitution and validation rules generation

Go to SE38 and start program RGUGBR00:


Simple select the correct application are indicated by the FICO consultant (this area can be FI, CO, etc). Select Generate validations and Generate Substitutions. Now execute.

Transport and system copies

You will need to run program RGUGBR00 locally on the system after the transport import is done.

Also after a system copy program RGUGBR00 must be run again.

See OSS note 1793212 – Transport validation or/and substitution.

Background on substitutions and validations

The full functional background on substitution and validation can be found this SAP wiki.

Licenses for SAP solution manager

SAP solution manager licenses have been renewed last few years by SAP.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • Do I need a user license for solution manager users?
  • If I run solution manager on HANA, do I need to pay HANA database licenses?
  • How can I get Focused Build and Focused Insights?
  • What about Focused Run licenses?

User licenses for SAP solution manager

Since 1.1.2018 the requirement of having named users was dropped by SAP.

HANA database licenses

If you want to run HANA database below SAP solution manager as database, you need to procure the infrastructure. The HANA database rights are included in SAP solution manager. This is the only exception SAP has. For all other use case you need to pay for HANA as database as well.

Using SAP solution manager for non-SAP components

You can use SAP solution manager to manage non-SAP components as well. Especially the ITSM service desk component can be used for this. When you use this function for non-SAP components, you will need SAP enterprise support rights for SAP solution manager in stead of the SAP standard support.

Focused Insights and Focused Build

SAP offers Focused Insights and Focused Build as extra options on top of SAP solution manager. Both are installed as add-on. Focused Insights brings extra dashboard building capabilities. With Focused Build you can get an extra grip on your solution build process.

As of 01.01.2020 both solutions are part of standard maintenance contract. See also OSS note 2361567 – ST-OST Usage Rights and Support.

If you want to try out these solutions, you can use the available free SAP demo system. Read more about this in the following blog.

SAP Focused run now also covers the functionality of Focused Insights, but in a far superior and more performing way. Read more in this blog.

Focused Run

Focused Run is separate solution with separate license to optimize the running of large SAP landscapes. Focused run does NOT run on SAP solution manager. It runs on a separate environment and only runs on SAP HANA. You cannot combine a Focused Run and SAP solution manager on one single installation. More information on Focused Run can be found on the SAP site. And on the specialized SAP Focused Run Guru site.

For licenses of Focused Run, read this dedicated blog.

Despite the fact that Focused Run is a paid solution, it offers by far the most sophisticated and added value product.

More background information

More information can be found on the SAP solution manager usage rights website.


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