Using the Check Directory Consistency Program

The tool to check the directory consistency is an expert tool for finding and analyzing errors within the end-to-end Monitoring and Alerting Infrastructure of SAP Solution Manager. The Alerting Directory contains the metrics, events, and alerts (MEA) for managed objects (MOs) that are monitored in the MAI. Together with the MOs, these objects form a hierarchy, and the entry point is the root node of that hierarchy. These entry points, each of which belong to a monitoring use case, are therefore the top hierarchy level of the MOs. In this way, for example, the entry point for the application case System Monitoring is technical system, and the MO types technical instance, host, and database are below it in the MO hierarchy.

The object in the Alerting Directory need to fulfill certain consistency conditions, such as:

There must always be an associated event and an associated metric for an alert
There must always be an associated metric for an event
All managed objects must be included in a hierarchy. The associated entry point is the root node of this hierarchy.
Metrics and events must have a category event to determine the status of the managed object for this category.
For metrics and events, a valid rule type must be set that determines when an event occurs

In this program, you can check the Alerting Directory for inconsistencies of this type and other, similar inconsistencies, and remove them. Since a check of this type for the entire Alerting Directory would be too complex, specify the entry points that you want to check.

Since semantically associated MOs belong to one entry point and are, for example, configured together and displayed together in the System & Application Monitoring work center, an entry point of this type is a useful selection criterion for checking the consistency of managed objects, metrics, events, and alerts.

To remove inconsistencies that are detected, the program provides the following options:

You can repeat the configuration of the entry point by performing the auto-configuration again.
You can delete the incorrect entries directly at database level. However, since this could cause additional inconsistencies, depending on the type of the inconsistency that is detected (see below), you should only select this method if a reconfiguration of the entry point has not corrected the error.

You can delete obsolete entries from the MAI tables as well as check consistency. Obsolete entries can arise if managed objects (e.g. a system or a host) are no longer used, or are no longer to be monitored for other reasons. In such cases, there may still be entries for such obsolete objects, in various MAI tables. This does not affect the function or performance of MAI, but the Event Calculation Engine outputs error messages. These messages are output, for example, in Monitoring and Alerting Infrastructure Self-Monitoring, in the technical component Event Calculation Engine.

Activities

Call Program

To call the Check Directory Consistency program, call the transaction MAI_TOOLS. In the Analysis tab, choose Check Directory Consistenccy.

Specify Consistency Check Scope

Note Note

To perform the consistency check, set the Find Inconsistent Data for Points of Entry radio button.

End of the note.

You can select the entry points for which the consistency check is to be performed. You can also restrict the entry points to particular monitoring use cases.

You can restrict the entry point to one Variant. The Variant is a key field for the objects in System & Application Monitoring. The UIs only display objects with the variant Active. The variants Inactive and Test are used by developers to test monitoring enhancements, without yet influencing the infrastructure functions or display. You should not need to change the default value Active.

Note Note

Since the check is CPU-intensive, by default the task is restricted to the results for 20 entry points.

End of the note.

Display Consistency Check Information

Once you have specified which entry points you want to check, choose the Execute (Execute) button. The results are displayed on a new screen in a three-level hierarchy:

Hierarchy Level	Display	Description
1	Entry Point	Checked entry point; if no inconsistencies were found for this entry point, no managed objects are displayed below this entry point. Note Note: An inactive entry point indicates that the configuration for this entry point has not been completed. End of the note.
2	Managed Objects	Managed objects of the entry point above, for which inconsistencies were detected (managed objects without inconsistencies are not displayed)
3	Message Texts	Determined inconsistencies; to display the associated database entries on a new screen, double-click the message text. Note The displayed entries are primarily information for development and SAP Support. End of the note.

You can divide the messages for the determined inconsistencies into two groups:

Messages with no effect on the functions of the MAI. In this case, entries were found in database tables with additional data for an object that does not exist. You can delete entries of this type without any problems by choosing the button Delete Inconsistent Entries from DB. These are the following messages:

Message Text	Description
Messages for non-existent alerts	Additional properties exist for a non-existent alert
Notification for non-existent alerts
Reactions for non-existent alerts
Events for non-existent alert
Consumers for non-existent MEAs	Additional properties exist for a non-existent MEA
Rule type with missing pointer to ACRULETYPESDIR in table:	Additional properties exist for a non-existent work mode
No metrics exist for collector description	Additional properties exist for a non-existent collector
No collector description exists for collector parameter
No collector description exists for collector selection options
Work mode not configured for rule type	A work mode is not completely configured.
Rule type for non-existent metric or event in table	There are references to non-existent metrics or events.

Messages that can affect the functions of the MAI, since required data is missing or inconsistent. To correct these problems, perform the auto-configuration for the relevant entry point again by choosing the button Reconfigure Entry Point.

Message Text	Description
Missing Relationship to managed object (root)	The managed object belongs to an entry point, but is not in its MO hierarchy. Do not delete these entries, to avoid additional errors.
Events without relationship to category event	For metrics and events, there must be an associated category event that determines the status of the corresponding managed object for that category (Availability, Performance, Exception, and Configuration). In this case, this relationship is missing.
Metrics without relationship to category event
Managed object is not assigned to an entry point	All managed objects must be included in a hierarchy. The associated entry point is the root node of this hierarchy. In this case, this relationship is missing.
Invalid event hierarchy entries	Only certain orders and sequences of metrics and events are permitted in the event hierarchy. In this case, these rules have been violated. Do not delete these entries, to avoid additional errors.
Managed object (type) not permitted	The different monitoring use cases each permit different types of managed objects. In this case, a type was found that is not permitted for this monitoring use case.
Metric with no rule type	For metrics and events, a valid rule type must be set that determines when an event occurs In this case, this relationship is missing.
Events with no rule type
Metrics with no collector description	In this case, vital information for data collection is missing; the status of the metric is therefore always gray (value is obsolete).
Invalid rule type
Definition of rule type is missing
Events with no metric in underlying hierarchy	For an event, there must always be an associated metric below the event in the hierarchy.
Alerts for non-existent MEAs	There must always be an associated event and an associated metric for an alert. In this case, this relationship is missing.

Note Note

If the error continues to occur despite a reconfiguration, check the associated template. If you still cannot determine the cause of the error there, create a support message on the component SV-SMG-MON-ALR-DIR.

End of the note.

Find and Delete Invalid Data

To delete the obsolete entries in the MAI tables, proceed as follows:

In the Directory Consistency Checks screen, choose Find Unassigned Data, and (Execute).
Sie sehen in der Registerkarte Entries with No Active Managed Object tab lists the MAI tables with obsolete entries. To delete the obsolete entries, choose Delete All.
The Managed Objects with No Valid Point of Entry tab lists the managed objects with no valid point of entry. To delete the obsolete entries, choose Delete All.