Using the Aggregate Statistics Program

The ECE aggregate statistics program is an expert tool for finding errors within the end-to-end Monitoring and Alerting Infrastructure of SAP Solution Manager. The program displays the aggregates for events and metrics that are stored in relevant table (MES_DB_AGGREGATE) of the Event Calculation Engine (ECE).

For example, an aggregate of an event includes all instances of the event that have the same event type, the same managed object, and, for successive runs of the Event Calculation Engine, the same valuation (that is, the same color: red, yellow, green, or gray). An aggregate is therefore characterized by the following data (its key):

Managed object, such as an instance of a managed system
Metric type or event type, such as the dialog response time
Metric path; in metric groups, this distinguishes between the different metrics of a managed object.

Example
An example of a metric group is the file system, since for a managed object (in this case, the host), there are usually several file systems (File System C: or File System D:) that are monitored. The variable part of the metric name (that is, C: or D:) is therefore the metric path; this is also technically uniquely identified by an ID.

End of the example.

Use this program primarily to check the following points:

Metrics or events with a large number of aggregates; a large number of aggregates is primarily created if the color of the corresponding metric or event frequently changes, that is, if it is flickering between colors. This is disadvantageous, since the aggregates form the basis of the data that is displayed in the Alert Inbox, and this therefore makes working with the Alert Inbox increasingly complex.
Metrics or events for which values are no longer delivered.
Number and distribution of aggregates to the different monitoring use cases.

Caution Caution

Depending on the number of aggregates in the database, executing this program can take several minutes.

End of the caution.

Activities

Call Program

To call the aggregate statistics tools, call the transaction MAI_TOOLS. Go to expert mode, and, in the Analysis tab, choose Aggregate Statistics.

Display the Desired Information

When you call the program, the aggregate statistics are displayed in an ABAP list. The first two tables display the number of aggregates, broken down by data type or monitoring use case. The table below this displays information about the aggregates in accordance with the keys described above:

Column Title	Description
Managed Object ID	ID of the managed object (MO)
Managed Object Type	Type of the managed object. There are different MO types for each monitoring use case. For example, in system monitoring, there are the MO types technical system, technical instances, host, and database. Note This column, like the columns Managed Object Name, Type Name, and Metric Path, is not immediately displayed when you call the program. To display this column, press `F7` (see below). End of the note.
Managed Object Name	Name of the managed object; these follow a particular naming convention, depending on the type of the managed object. For example, the naming convention for ABAP instances is `<System ID>~ABAP~<instance name>`
Type ID	ID of the metric or of the event
Type Name	Name of the metric or event, for example dialog response time
Metric Path ID	ID of the metric path of the metric or event
Metric Path	Name of the metric path of the metric or event
Counter	Number of aggregates for the relevant key, which consists of MO-ID, type ID, and ID of the metric path. A high number indicates that the event or metric is frequently changing color.
Lifetime (h)	The lifetime of the aggregates for the relevant key; this begins at the beginning of the of the oldest aggregate and ends at the end of the newest aggregate. Together with the value Age (h), below, this tells you the time interval for which there are values for the metric or event.
Frequency (/h)	Frequency with which the relevant key changed color. A high value here means frequent changes of color; this can have the following causes, among others: Problems with data retrieval; in particular, if it concerns frequent switches to or from gray. The measured values are fluctuating around the threshold values.
Age (h)	The age of the newest aggregate of the relevant key in hours. A large age indicates that the associated event or metric is no longer collected, or even that is has been deleted.

Adjust the Output

You can use the following function keys to hide and show columns, or to change the columns by which the output in the list is sorted:

Key	Meaning
`F5`	Switch the sort column from left to right; the sort column is highlighted by being displayed in a different color.
`F6`	Switch between showing and hiding the technical IDs.
`F7`	Switch between showing and hiding the displayed names.
`F8`	Refresh

Troubleshooting

If a high age was determined for a metric type or event type, check whether the metric still exists and whether data provision is working correctly. You can do this, for example, in the Metric Error Handling program or in the monitoring use case System Monitoring at metric level by choosing the context menu entry with the same name.

If a frequent change of colors was determined for a metric type or an event type, first check, as in the previous case, whether there is a problem in the data provision. If the problem is occurring due to the measured values fluctuating around the threshold values, check whether it would be useful to make appropriate changes to the threshold values. Note that you can set the threshold values between two colors differently, depending on whether the measured value is rising or falling, which is also a way of preventing the colors constantly changing.