Root Cause Analysis and Features in SolMan 7.2

 Introduction

Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is a tool within the Solution Manager (SolMan) used to identify the root cause of an error for the end user’s benefit. Root cause analysis is a structured approach to identifying, isolating, and fixing the root cause of an incident or problem within an IT environment. SAP RCA tools are designed to reduce the number of resources in each step of the resolution process.

Extractor Framework (EFWK) also has an integrated resource control to ensure that neither the SAP Solution Manager nor the managed system gets overloaded with data extraction. Housekeeping is governed by the EFWK so that the data growth stays acceptable.

Overview:

Root cause analysis provides an immediate workaround to get services back on track for end-users while minimizing disruption. RCA offers a complete solution to the issue at hand.

This blog gives you an overview of end-to-end analysis tools and getting to the Data volume Management launchpad group from SMworkcenter. You also get prerequisites for RCA and the roles required for RCA.

Benefits

• Reduced license cost- No additional license is required, and it comes with standard maintenance
• Provides central access to all systems in the landscape
• Data is collected and displayed in a unified view
• Easy to investigate the cause
• Empowers customers to resolve the problem on their own
• It helps accelerate the problem-resolution process
• EFWK manages the data extraction aggregation and deletion, so no manual interaction is needed

Navigation:

• Execute TCODE SM_WORKCENTER.
• Select the section Data Volume Management.
• Select Data Volume Management – Work Centre.

Prerequisites

• Complete mandatory configuration.
• Complete the Managed system configuration before performing Root Cause Analysis
• Perform thorough Technical monitoring given that it is integrated with RCA
• Activate extractors in the extractor framework for the managed system
• Dashboard data will not be populated if DVM-related extractors are not activated

Roles required for Root Cause Analysis:

• SAP_RCA_DISP
• SAP_RCA_ADT_ADM
• SAP_RCA_CONF_ADMIN

Features:

Root Cause Analysis Tools for E2E analysis:

• End-to-End Workload Analysis
• End-to-End Trace Analysis
• End-to-End Change Analysis
• End-to-End Exception Analysis
• System Analysis
• Host Analysis
• Database Analysis

End-to-End Workload Analysis

SAP Solution Manager regularly collects the data from the managed systems and makes it available to all the users centrally in the root cause analysis application.

This tool is used when a system faces bottlenecks caused by sizing problems or performance problems that affect all users of a particular system.

End-to-End Trace Analysis

This provides the information of a single-user interaction through a complete landscape and gives the trace information of the components involved, starting with the user interaction in the browser and ending with data being committed to the database. E2E Trace analysis is used to identify the long-running user requests within a complex system landscape.

We can only identify the functional errors, and the exceptions, such as dump, are then attached to the trace, which can be used to perform functional testing.

End-to-End Change Analysis

E2E change analysis is used to identify the changes that have been applied to a system within a specific time frame.

• The change might be in transports, support package updates, and profile parameter
• If the system behaves differently from a particular date or changes E2E, change analysis is the tool to use first
• Change reporting based on the daily configuration of system, host, and database-related configuration data
• It enables users to compare different systems in the landscape and generate the report

E2E Change Analysis for SAP HANA shows several HANA DB parameter changes over time

End-to-End Exception Analysis

Exception Analysis provides the basis for statistical analysis on exceptions in the landscape. It also allows you to access component-specific logs and dump viewers directly by navigating to the appropriate tool on the managed system.

Host Analysis

With host analysis, it is possible to measure the most critical OS metrics, like,

• CPU
• Memory
• Paging
• Network
• Disk/file system

The file system browser provides read-only access to predefined directories on the managed system without having to log on to the console of the managed system.

OS Command Console can execute predefined commands like ping, netstat, iostat, etc. Both tools ensure that even though access to the managed system is granted, no change can be made, no business data can be accessed, and no harmful commands can be executed.

Database Analysis:

Using this in-depth database system analysis is possible for associated applications.

RCA Database Analysis supports the following vendors exclusively:

1. SAP HANA DATABASE
2. DB2 FOR LUW
3. DB2 FOR Z/OS,
4. MSS SQL SERVER,
5. MaxDB, ORACLE

For other vendors, like DB2/400 or Sybase ASE, use, for example, the Database Performance Warehouse from DBA Cockpit.

Conclusion:

EFWK collects root cause analysis data of managed systems, and this reduces human intervention and resources. The EFWK in SAP Solution Manager is the central infrastructure for data collection and distribution. In the event of errors in this framework, no alerts or only alerts of limited capabilities can be generated. At the same time, safe and reliable data extraction aggregation and deletion management are managed using a set of rules. This helps ensure system agents extract the correct data without manual involvement. Consequently, EFWK is extremely important for monitoring the system landscape.

Suppose you want to know what happened and why there’s no better starting point than the root cause analysis data in EFWK. This automated, real-time layer in your solution provides the highest level of detail on any piece of information. It enables you to analyze and address the problems before they affect production environments, identify trends in configurations and issues, understand usage patterns to facilitate resource optimization, and enable predictive capabilities that help keep your operations running smoothly.

YASH can consultatively work with your teams in enabling RCA for your environments. Reach out to us to discuss

References:

https://support.sap.com/en/alm/solution-manager/expert-portal/root-cause-analysis-overview.html#section_1303581752

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2248724

https://help.sap.com/viewer/0043dbb640674d9bb916602fe2ec90e8/7.2.12/en-US/578ce28296412176e10000000a42189c.html?q=Root%20cause%20analysis%20roles

• SAP
• SAP RCA
• Solution Manager