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Function documentationInterface and Connection Monitoring

 

Interface and Connection Monitoring monitors the interfaces and connections between business-critical systems, in real-time.

It provides the following benefits:

  • You can monitor interfaces in detail, for example the performance of connections between systems or define interfaces on the level of functions called in a system. These function calls may be, for example, a function module (in the case of an RFC connection) or a method called via a web service.

  • To provide aggregate overviews, organize the monitoring as follows:

    • Define scenarios which comprise all systems on which, for example, certain critical business scenarios depend.

    • Cluster the relevant interfaces in interface channels between the systems in your scenario, according to the type (RFC connection, Web Services, SAP Process Integration, for example). When you monitor an interface channel, you can drill down to individual interfaces.

  • To identify the interface channels according, for example, to their business relevance, you can define, in each scenario, attributes which you assign to the interfaces and interface channels. When monitoring the interfaces in real-time, you can filter by these attributes.

Typical Interface and Connection Monitoring use cases are the following:

  • As a technical administrator, set up monitoring of critical channels, which are important, for example, for transferring data between systems.

  • As an application owner, identify critical business processes, and monitor the corresponding technical systems and interfaces, technically.

You can monitor the following connection types:

  • Remote Function Call (RFC, tRFC, qRFC, bqRFC): You can monitor, for example the exceptions, usage, or response time. The interface is defined by destination and remote-enabled function module.

    In qRFC or bgRFC interfaces, to monitor either outbound or inbound queues, you can specify whether data is collected on the source or target system.

  • Web service (WS): You can monitor, for example, the availability, usage, or response time. The interface is defined by web service/web service method/logical port and/or web service user.

  • SAP NetWeaver Gateway service: You monitor, for example, the usage or response time of services.

  • SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (PI): You monitor, for example, how many messages were processed, how many errors occurred, and the average processing time. The interface is defined by the sender and receiver attributes of middleware components in a PI domain.

    To monitor message flows on instance level, use Message Flow Monitoring.

  • IDoc Communication: You monitor the average processing time and the number of documents failed or processed successfully. To do so, specify the business partner and the message type.

  • BDocs & CRM Middleware: You monitor the number of documents failed or processed successfully.

  • SAP Public Cloud Communications (SAP HANA Cloud Integration, Dell Boomi, SuccessFactors, for example): You monitor the number of erroneous iFlows.

  • File system: To monitor FTP-based communication, you check, for example, the availability of files in a folder, and the time since it was stored. To do so, specify the host, the folder and a file name pattern.

  • Workflow: You monitor, for example, the number of erroneous events or the average age of incomplete work items.

  • Communication with systems which are not registered in the SAP Solution Manager Landscape Management Database (LMDB). You can monitor communication with unspecific managed objects, such as, for example, the following:

    • Third-party systems: Specify the RFC destination of the target system

    • Virtual objects, for example sources, such as groups of mobile devices or agents:

      • Mobile devices: Specify the SAP Gateway Services parameters

      • Agents: Specify a web service called by specified agents

Depending on the interface type and configuration, you can monitor, for example, the availability, number of exceptions or average processing time, of each interface of an interface channel. For more information on how you can display various metrics, see Displaying an Interface and Connection Monitoring Scenario.

Integration

Interface and Connection Monitoring is integrated in the E2E monitoring and alerting infrastructure, incident and notification management, and central Exception Management in SAP Solution Manager. This gives you the following options:

  • Display and access alerts in the Alert Inbox of the System & Application Monitoring work center

  • Display details of exceptions in the Exception Management Cockpit

  • Generate notifications or incidents automatically, when threshold values are exceeded

Prerequisites

  • The managed systems involved have the current ST-PI (not necessary for SAP NetWeaver PI and SAP Public Cloud Communications).

  • You have identified, in cooperation, for example, with the process owners of business processes, the relevant components, systems, and function calls.

Note Note

Data collectors are available as follows:

  • RFC and Web Service Monitoring:

    • RFC and Web Service data collectors for ABAP performance metrics are available only for ABAP systems with SAP Basis 7.00 or higher.

    • Web Service data collectors for non-ABAP performance metrics are available as of SAP Solution Manager 7.10 SP06.

    • Data collectors for ABAP Dumps, Web Service Exceptions, AppLog Exceptions are available as of ST-PI 2008_1 SP06 for managed ABAP systems with SAP Basis 6.20 or higher.

    • Data collectors for exceptions collected via the Exception Management Instrumentation Platform (EM-IPA) are available as of ST-PI 2008_1 SP06 for managed ABAP systems with SAP Basis 7.00 or higher.

  • SAP NetWeaver PI: Data collectors are available for systems with SAP PI 7.00 or higher.

  • SAP NetWeaver Gateway, IDoc, BDoc, CRM Middleware, Workflow, qRFC, bgRFC, tRFC: The managed system has SAP Basis 7.0 or higher.

  • IDoc, BDoc, CRM Middleware, Workflow, qRFC, tRFC, bgRFC: The managed system has ST-A/PI 01R.

End of the note.

Features

  • SAP Solution Manager Documentation (transaction solman_setup): Define a monitoring scenario comprising interfaces grouped into interface channels. Define attributes for filtering, and threshold values for alerts.

  • Interface and Connection Monitoring application: Monitor the specified interfaces, in real-time. You can monitor performance metrics for the various interface channels.

  • Display details of Web services and RFC exceptions, in the Exception Management Cockpit.

  • Reporting: Display the most important monitoring data through time – from today to the previous year –, centrally. Identify potentially problematic trends early, and get an overview of the availability and performance of your scenarios.

Activities

  1. Preparation: Specify the technical requirements (systems, functions, and interfaces to be monitored, threshold values for alerting), with the persons responsible for critical business processes.

  2. Define a monitoring scenario, attributes, interface channels, interface, and threshold values for alerting. For more information, see Configuring an Interface and Connection Monitoring Scenario.

  3. Monitor the interfaces of your scenarios in real-time, or set the time range to display long-term trends based on aggregated data. For more information, see Displaying an Interface and Connection Monitoring Scenario.

  4. To display alert details and process alerts, navigate to the Alert Inbox.

  5. To view details of system monitoring statuses, navigate to the System Monitoring application.

  6. Create notifications or incidents directly in the Interface and Connection Monitoring application.