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Procedure documentationSetting Up Alerting and Analytics Objects

 

You use Business Process Analytics or Monitoring and Alerting to monitor systems that are relevant for core business processes. To do so you create and configure Analytics or Alerting objects in Solution Documentation. Link Alerting Objects to business process steps, or interfaces. The related monitoring objects collect data periodically in the production system and then report the data or alerts into the SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse. Business Process Monitoring allows you to define alerts based on this data.

For background information and examples, see SAP Support Portal at Start of the navigation path https://support.sap.comInformation published on SAP site Next navigation step SAP Solution Manager Next navigation step Processes Next navigation step Business Process Operations End of the navigation path.

Prerequisites

In Solution Documentation you have defined business processes, with steps that are linked to logical components to which production systems are assigned. In Solution Documentation you have set the system role to Production System (analogously you can also monitor test systems) For more information, see Solution Documentation.

Note Note

If you want to use Business Process Analytics only, you do not have need to create business processes.

End of the note.

The latest release of software component ST-A/PI is installed in the managed systems.

You have authorization for the Business Process Operations work center.

Optional: You have created a monitoring concept and defined the business requirements for the monitoring of business process steps or interfaces. For more information, see Specifying Technical Requirements.

Procedure

Caution Caution

The collection of data may affect the performance of production systems.

To keep the system load of the managed systems as low as possible, specify which key figures to analyze, and which must not necessarily be analyzed.

End of the caution.

  1. Call the Business Process Operations work center.

  2. Check the solution documentation content and ensure the following:

    • To use Business Process Analytics, you have assigned the relevant system via a logical component group to the solution.

    • To use Monitoring and Alerting, you have assigned the relevant system via a logical component group to the solution and created at one scenario containing a business process with at least one process step.

  3. Create and configure Alerting or Analytics objects:

    • To use Business Process Analytics, you have to create an analytics object in the Solution Documentation Analytics Library. Proceed as follows:

      1. Select a folder in the Analytics Library and place your mouse into the elements section below.

      2. Right-click and choose Start of the navigation path New Next navigation step Analytics End of the navigation path. In the creation dialog box choose option Create from Local Catalogue or Create from Cloud Catalogue.

      3. Select a key figure and configure and activate it.

    • To use Monitoring and Alerting, you have to create an alerting object in the Solution Documentation Business Processes section at a process, step or interface level. Proceed as follows:

      1. Select a process, step or interface and place your mouse into the elements section below.

      2. Do a right mouse click and choose Start of the navigation path New Next navigation step Operations Next navigation step Alerting End of the navigation path and in the creation dialog box choose option Create new.

      3. Select the monitor or key figure in the tree structure, configure and activate it.

      4. Configure the parameters of the monitoring object:

        Note Note

        The list of available application monitors depends on the ST-A/PI add-on release. If monitors are missing, make sure that the latest ST-A/PI add-on release is installed in the managed systems and load the monitor definitions for the system in the creation dialog box.

        End of the note.

        1. Enter into the Alerting or Analytics configuration UI by right-clicking on the object and choose Display.

        2. Select the key figures to be collected in the Monitoring Configuration tab page.

          Caution Caution

          The number of key figures selected affects the performance of production systems.

          To prevent overload, select only the key figures that are necessary for your analysis.

          End of the caution.

        3. To configure key figures, create at least one parameter set.

          Example Example

          You may want to create alerts based on various conditions. For plant A, the appropriate threshold value for confirmed production orders might be 1000, the appropriate threshold value for the smaller plant B might be 500. You create two parameter sets, accordingly.

          End of the example.

          1. Select a key figure.

          2. Specify filter parameters, for example, the shipping point or delivery type (options depend on the selected key figure).

            Caution Caution

            The granularity of the data affects the performance of production systems.

            To keep the system load of the managed systems as low as possible, you can, for example, exclude countries that are not relevant for your analysis.

            End of the caution.

            Note Note

            If you want to use Business Process Analytics, consider the following:

            • If you analyze throughput data, select Active in the Data from previous day field.

              Note Note

              To provide relevant throughput data, you must collect the data from the previous day to make sure that the data covers the complete business day.

              End of the note.

            • Depending on the selected key figure, to specify the dimensions of the data collection runs, you can select Group by check boxes. You must select at least one dimension.

              Note Note

              An analysis of the distribution is possible only for those fields, for which the Group by checkbox is selected.

              If you want to analyze, for example, the distribution of overdue outbound deliveries across shipping points, the Group by checkbox must be selected for the Shipping Point field.

              In the analysis, such fields are available as so-called dimensions.

              End of the note.

              Caution Caution

              The granularity of the data affects the performance of production systems.

              To keep the system load of the managed systems as low as possible, carry out one- dimensional data collection runs.

              End of the caution.
            End of the note.

          3. If you want to use Monitoring and Alerting, enter threshold values.

      5. Specify the execution time of the data collection

        Note Note

        Data collection for business process monitoring puts load on the monitored system. Consider how often a data collection (monitoring, for example) makes sense. For technical monitors or critical jobs, a frequency of 5 minutes might be reasonable, but for backlog key figures, even weekly schedules might be sufficient.

        End of the note.

        The scheduling options depend on the object as follows:

        • Simple schedule

          You define on which week days, with which frequency and in which time window (start time and end time), the monitoring is to take place.

        • Extended schedule

          You define on which work days the monitoring is to take place. You can refer to a factory calendar (on the SAP Solution Manager system or on the monitored system).

      6. Optional: If the data collection is supposed to take a lot of time, select the Data Collection in Background field. In the following cases, choose this option:

        • The alerts generated are not time-critical.

        • You use the monitoring object for throughput and backlog key figures.

        Note Note

        It cannot be guaranteed that the background job (BPM_DATA_COLLECTION* ) is executed on time, according to the schedule.

        End of the note.

      7. If you use monitoring and alerting, you can carry out the following optional steps:

        • To be informed about alerts via e-mail or SMS, for example, configure an automatic notification. For more information, see Setting Up Alert Notifications.

        • To define the retention time of alerts in the Alert Inbox, or the language of messages, adapt the default Alert Inbox parameters.

      8. Repeat steps 6 to 10 for all logical components or business process steps to be monitored.

      9. Activate the monitoring and alerting:

        The activation is required for the data collection (subsequently the monitoring and alerting) to start. You can activate single or multiple monitoring objects.

        1. Select the monitoring object or objects you want to activate.

        2. Right-click and select option Change Monitoring Status, then choose Activate.

      10. To see texts and not only IDs in the Analytics UI, you need to load the SAP Solution Manager BW master data:

        1. In the WoC under Related Links select Maintain BPO Reporting Infrastructure.

        2. Select the Master Data tab and in the table you see a list of semantic IDs for which master data is required to use the Analytics function.

        3. You can manually load the master data or schedule regular loadings.

Result

You have created and activated an Analytics or Alerting object and the system collects the key figures and loads the measured values into SAP NetWeaver BW. Alerts are displayed in the Alert Inbox. Business Process Analytics can access the key figures and you can perform analyses.

To list all objects for a process including the steps, you need to select the process and click List in the Solution Documention UI. You can apply to same pattern to any folder structure in Solution Documentation, i.e. for deep-retrieval use the List function.

To carry out mass changes (of threshold values, parameters or monitoring schedules, for example) you can select multiple objects and right-click Display, which starts a mass maintenance application.