HP Operations Smart Plug-in for SAP

for HP Operations Manager for Windows®

Release Notes

Version 11.10 October 2008

This document provides an overview of the changes made to the HP Operations Smart Plug-in for SAP (SPI for SAP) for the software version 11.10. Release notes contain important information not included in the product manuals or online help.

In This Version
Documentation Updates
Installation Notes
Known Problems, Limitations, and Workarounds
Patches and Fixes in This Version
Documentation Errata
Verified Environments
Local Language Support
Support
Legal Notices

In This Version

This version of the Smart Plug-in for SAP includes the following features:

Documentation Updates

The first page of this release notes document contains the following identifying information:

To check for recent updates or to verify that you are using the most recent edition, visit the following URL:

http://h20230.www2.hp.com/selfsolve/manuals

  1. In the Product list, click the product name.
  2. In the Version list, click the version number.
  3. In the OS list, click the OS type.
  4. In the document list, click the document title.
  5. To retrieve the document, click Open or Download.

NOTE: To view files in PDF format (*.pdf), Adobe Acrobat Reader must be installed on your system. To download Adobe Acrobat Reader, go to the following URL:
http://www.adobe.com

Installation Notes

The HP Operations Smart Plug-in for SAP Configuration Guide lists the hardware and software requirements for the SPI for SAP for HPOM for Windows and provides instructions for installing and configuring the software. The document is available on the HP Smart Plug-ins, New and Upgraded for Operations/Performance for Windows DVD set in the following location:

<DVD_Drive>\Documentation\SPI Guides\SAP_Config.pdf

Before starting the installation of the SPI for SAP, make sure you read through the "Installation Requirements" section of the HP Operations Smart Plug-in for SAP Configuration Guide. If you are upgrading from a previous version of the SPI for SAP, you will need to look at the "Changes and Modifications" section, too.

For more information about the localized versions of the SPI for SAP, see Local Language Support.

To install the SPI for SAP 11.10, you will need to use the information concerning installation and upgrade in the HP Operations Smart Plug-in for SAP Configuration Guide. For example, you will need to use the HP Operations Smart Plug-in for SAP Configuration Guide to help you check system pre-requisites and verify the installation of the SPI for SAP software was successful. After you install the SPI for SAP on the HPOM for Windows management server, you will also need to use the HP Operations Smart Plug-in for SAP Configuration Guide to help you through the process of configuring the SPI for SAP to monitor your environment. When performing the installation or upgrade, note the additional information in: SPI for SAP Transport Numbers.

Before you download necessary SAP libraries (by following the Downloading SAP Libraries section in the SPI for SAP Configuration Guide), refer to the CR “QXCR1000864051: SAP RFC SDK Library information for the SPI for SAP.”

 

SPI for SAP Transport Numbers

For a list of the current SAP R/3 transport numbers provided with the SPI for SAP, see the following file on the HPOM for Windows management server after you have successfully installed the SPI for SAP software:

%OvShareDir%\Packages\SAPTransports\readme

NOTE: The read-me file for the SPI for SAP transports provides information about additional transport files for the CCMS-based trees for the Enterprise-Portal monitor.

When you are importing the SPI for SAP transports into SAP, note the following important points:

Known Problems, Limitations, and Workarounds

This section lists known problems that could not be fixed before the release of the SPI for SAP software. Click the item in the list immediately below to see a more-detailed description of the problem.

  1. SAP GUI:

    SYMPTOM: The SAP GUI is needed for many operator-initiated actions defined in the SPI for SAP, but it is not part of the SPI for SAP installation media.
    SOLUTION: Install the SAP GUI binary on the HPOM management server and any remote consoles. The SAP GUI binary is included on the SAP "Presentation" CD. See "Installing the SAP GUI on the HPOM Management Server" in the HP Operations Smart Plug-in for SAP Configuration Guide.
  2. User Monitor values differ from SM04:

    SYMPTOM: The number of logged in users reported by the collector is different to the number users shown in the SAP transaction SM04.
    SOLUTION: The difference is based on the fact that the collector counts the `itouser' as a fully logged-in user. Therefore some differences between the two numbers can occur.
  3. No error when deploying the same configuration-file policy subtype to Microsoft Windows managed node:

    SYMPTOM: The user can deploy a configuration-file policy of one particular subtype (same application/subgroup/file combination; for example. SAP-SPI/global/r3itosap.cfg) that has already been deployed to that node with a different value/content.

    Both policies appear in the node's policy inventory, but at the file-system level, the second deployment overwrites the configuration file. The state of the system is inconsistent and the user cannot tell which policy wrote the current content of the configuration file.

    On Unix managed nodes the error does not occur, but an error message is issued when the user tries to redeploy a config-file policy of the same subtype as an already existing one. However, a message does appears in the HPOM for Windows console.

    SOLUTION: To prevent this problem, deploy only config-file policies of unique subtypes (e.g. SAPSPI/global/r3monsap.cfg) to Windows managed nodes.

    To get your system back to a consistent state if this problem occurred, undeploy all configuration-file policy subtypes (e.g. for example: application/subgroup/filename), and redeploy the correct ones.

  4. Message duplication and slow performance if host configured twice:

    SYMPTOM: Monitors of type snapshot send duplicate messages to the message browser and the overall performance of the SPI for SAP is very slow.
    SOLUTION: Check to see if you have entered a managed node twice in any of the configuration files, for example: once using a short host name (sapsystem) and once using a fully qualified name (sapsystem.domain.company.com). If there are two entries, the monitor binaries will open two connections to the SAP system for each monitor call, thus consuming more resources and sending messages twice.

    Each system must be configured only once in the configuration files, preferably with its fully qualified name.

  5. Poor Performance of Monitors:

    SYMPTOM: The SPI for SAP monitors take a very long time to obtain information from the SAP system.
    SOLUTION: Check how often you use the CP (Contains Pattern) option in your configuration files. The CP option consumes both time and system resources. You should try as much as possible to replace the CP option with an EQ operation. If this is not feasible, try to avoid using a fully unqualified CP, for example; CP*. Instead, try whenever possible to qualify the CP option with a pattern, for example; CP MY_JOB*.
  6. SPI for SAP tool generates "missing dll" errors:

    SYMPTOM: If you launch SPI for SAP tools such as Write Statistical Records on a remote-console system, in some cases you see popup windows telling you that certain dll's are not located in the specified path, for example:

    "r3itocfg.exe - Unable To Locate DLL

    The dynamic link library opcapi.dll could not be found in the specified path C:\...

    SOLUTION: For the Statistical-records tools in the SPI for SAP group to work correctly on a remote console system, you need to deploy an HPOM agent to the remote console.
  7. SPI for SAP service reports error 534:

    SYMPTOM: Some SPI for SAP reports are missing or are empty, and "ERROR 534" messages appear in the HP Reporter status pane.
    SOLUTION: There are two possible solutions to this problem:
    1. Report data is missing; try running the HP Reporter's gather-data command again.
    2. If none of the systems present in the SAP R/3 report group has an instance of the DBINFO_PERF performance monitor running, you need to remove from the SAP R/3 Reports Group all those SPI for SAP service reports, which use data collected by the DBINFO_PERF monitor, namely:
      • SAP R/3 Database Performance
      • SAP R/3 Database Quality
  8. Performance Metrics: WLSUM_PERF and DOCTSTAT:

    SYMPTOM: The new SPI for SAP performance monitors, DOCSTAT and WLSUM_PERF, do not collect any data.
    SOLUTION: In order to collect useful data from the SAP performance component, you have to schedule the SAP report RSCOLL00 to run once an hour on your SAP R/3 System. For more information about how to schedule standard reports or jobs in a SAP component, see the SAP OSS note 16083.
  9. SPI for SAP creates service tree for each physical node in an SAP high-availability cluster:

    SYMPTOM: The HPOM for Windows service tree shows multiple subtrees for a virtual SAP instance inside a cluster, even though the new "Host-Mapping" feature is used to virtualize the cluster instance. A subtree is shown for each physical node of the cluster.
    SOLUTION: In the current release, there is no solution to this problem.
  10. No statistical records from the performance monitors:

    SYMPTOM: No statistical records are provided by the SPI for SAP performance monitors.
    SOLUTION: You need to ensure that you have written the r3perfstat.cfg settings into the SAP System after adding all login information into the r3itosap.cfg file. To write the new configuration you have saved in the r3itosap.cfg file to the SAP System, select the appropriate SAP system in the navigation pane and launch the "Write Statistical Records" tool, which you can find in the "SAP R/3 Admin" tools group.
  11. Service-discovery tool, r3sd, displays service-discovery information twice:

    SYMPTOM: When r3sd runs on a machine hosting both an SAP central instance and an SAP application server, both of which belong to the same SID, the SPI for SAP displays the service-discovery information twice.
    SOLUTION: On the managed node where the problem occurs, use the environment variable SAPOPC_SAPPROFILEDIR to define the list of profile directories. Make sure that you include only one instance of the profile directory, for example; either the local path (including the drive letter) or the UNC notation.
  12. Service discovery fails to discover SAP instances on Microsoft Windows managed nodes:

    SYMPTOM: If the service-discovery tool, r3sd, is running under the system account and the SAP installation directory is specified in UNC syntax, for example; "\\server...", SAP instances are not discovered for managed nodes running Microsoft Windows, and the R3-Info tool completes its run but does not produce any output.
    SOLUTION: Either specify a local path to the SAP installation using the environment variable SAPOPC_SAPPROFILEDIR (only possible on SAP central instances), or configure the HPOM agent to run under a different user account to enable it to access network paths using the UNC notation.
  13. Reports do not show data from the hour between 00:00 and 01:00:

    SYMPTOM: Work-load and user reports using data gathered by the SPI for SAP performance monitor WLSUM_PERF do not show any results for the period between midnight (00:00) and 1 a.m. (01:00).
    SOLUTION: This is due to a difference between the way SAP and the SPI for SAP handle time. Try to avoid scheduling reports to start between 00:00 and 01:00: schedule reports to run after 01:30 instead.
  14. SPI for SAP WLSUM reports show irregular values for continuous data:

    SYMPTOM: The SPI for SAP WLSUM reports show irregular values for data that normally should be continuous. For example, a report for an SAP System normally displays around 1000 dialog steps per hour, but for one hour it displays no steps at all, and for the following hour it displays 2000 steps, which is double the usual amount.

    SOLUTION: The data collection for the WLSUM monitor is based on the internal SAP job "COLLECTOR_FOR_PERFORMANCEMONITOR". If this job does not run correctly or at the correct time, the data usually collected by the WLSUM_PERF monitor run will only be picked up by subsequent runs of the SPI for SAP performance monitor and, as a result, displayed in the wrong place. Note that you can use the SPI for SAP job monitor, r3monjob, to monitor the behavior of the internal SAP performance-collector job "COLLECTOR_FOR_PERFORMANCEMONITOR".
  15. r3montra seems not to be scheduled and cannot be saved:

    SYMPTOM: The default configuration of the r3montra policy lists the polling interval as 0 hours, 0 minutes, and 0 seconds. When you modify this policy and try to save the changes, the monitored system complains that the scheduling interval cannot be less than 5 seconds, which can lead to the impression that the monitor is not scheduled to run.
    SOLUTION: The problem is in the policy editor and does not affect the running of the monitor itself. In fact, the r3montra policy is scheduled by default to run once a day ("1d"), and both the HPOM for Windows database and the agents handle the policy schedule correctly. The setting of "0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds" can safely be ignored and does not affect the r3montra functionality. If you want to modify this policy, a value of "24 hours" should be entered in the scheduling section.
  16. Multiple thresholds not allowed with r3monjob:

    SYMPTOM: You cannot configure r3monjob to send a WARNING message if the run time for a batch job exceeds 5 minutes and then a CRITICAL message if the run time for the same batch job exceeds 10 minutes.
    SOLUTION: With the current version of the SPI for SAP, it is not possible to configure more than one threshold with the same alert type for a given batch job.
  17. r3monpro requires r3status history file:

    SYMPTOM: The SAP process monitor r3monpro cannot determine the status of the SAP systems it is monitoring. As a result, it assumes that the SAP instance is available and does not suppress any messages.
    SOLUTION: r3monpro needs to know where to find both its own history file r3monpro.his and, in addition, the r3status history file r3status.his, which it uses to determine whether a monitored SAP instance is available or not. Both history files must reside in the location defined by the HistoryPath keyword in r3monpro's configuration file r3monpro.cfg. If r3monpro cannot locate the r3status.his history file, it assumes that the monitored SAP instance is available, and does not suppress any messages.

    Make sure that the history files r3monpro.his and r3status.his reside in the same location and this location is known to the r3monpro monitor. You can define the location of the monitor history files either with the environment variable SAPOPC_HISTORYPATH or the keyword HistoryPath[Unix|Windows|AIX].

  18. Old policy groups remain after a software upgrade:

    SYMPTOM: After upgrading the SPI for SAP software, the following, old, SPI for SAP policy groups remain visible, but are empty, in the SPI for SAP policy group:
    • SAP R/3 3.1I AppServer
    • SAP R/3 3.1I CentralInstance
    • SAP R/3 4.0/4.5 AppServer
    • SAP R/3 4.0/4.5 CentralInstance
    • mySAP.com ITS
    SOLUTION: Use the HPOM for Windows GUI to remove the empty policy groups from the console.
  19. Policies are not removed from the management server after removing the SPI for SAP :
    SYMPTOM: SPI for SAP policies resides on the management server even after you remove the SPI. These policies can be accessed from the Agent policies grouped by type group.
    SOLUTION: After removing the SPI for SAP, remove the policies manually from the Agent policies grouped by type group.

Patches and Fixes in This Version

This section provides information about patches and fixes that have been produced to address problems with current or previous versions of the SPI for SAP software.

NOTE: Some information is available only on the HP Support web site, which requires an HP Passport login ID for access. For more information about HP Passport IDs, see Support.

To display information about a problem that has been fixed for this release, click the appropriate reference-number link in the following list:

  1. QXCR1000716763 : HostMapping is processed incompletely

  2. QXCR1000436921: r3monsec fails if Cross-Client Object Changes set to 'No changes to Repository'

  3. QXCR1000433050 : r3perfagent SYSUP_PERF data not backwards compatible

  4. QXCR1000714677 : r3mondisp on passive node creates confusing messages

  5. QXCM1000370665 : r3monal mismatches Message Host

  6. QXCR1000747132 : r3monal doesn't use correct severity mapping for correct SID and Nr

  7. QXCR1000450154 : r3perfagent doesn't collect data for WLSUM_PERF

  8. QXCR1000448905 : r3monjob JOB_MAX_RUN_TIME mismatches MAX_RUNTIME specs

  9. QXCR1000454902 : r3montra abap code loops and uses CPU time

  10. QXCR1000323874 : r3monlck fails with config_data_error on MC/SG cluster node

  11. QXCR1000418692 : R3mondmp sends opcmsg with the wrong node name for SAP 7.0

Documentation Errata

This section lists errors or omissions in the current SPI for SAP product documentation, which could not be corrected before the product release.

At the time of release, there were no known documentation errata to report.

Verified Environments

For information about the platforms, operating systems, and product versions which the Smart Plug-in for SAP supports, see the "Installation Requirements" section in the HP Operations Smart Plug-in for SAP Configuration Guide.

Local Language Support

In addition to the English-language version of the SPI for SAP, version 11.10 of the SPI for SAP will also be available for the following environments:

The Japanese-language version 11.10 of the SPI for SAP provides the following localized elements:

To activate the Japanese environment, perform the following steps during the installation process:

  1. When specifying the SAP Systems to be monitored in the "Specifying SAP Systems to Monitor" section of the HP Operations Smart Plug-in for SAP Configuration Guide, note that you must also specify the Japanese language in order to activate the full Japanese localization. For all supported versions of SAP, use "JA".
  2. When you are carrying out the instructions described in the "Applying the SAP Transport" section of the HP Operations Smart Plug-in for SAP Configuration Guide, remember to apply the additional Japanese transports on the managed node (SAP server). The SAP-transports readme file includes a complete list of the transports that the SPI for SAP provides. You can find the SPI for SAP transports readme file in the following location on the HPOM for Windows management server after installation of the SPI for SAP:

    %OvShareDir%\Packages\SAPTransports\readme

  3. On managed nodes where the SPI for SAP’s CCMS-alert monitor r3monal connects to a Japanese SAP server with Japanese as the connection language, set the environment variable SAP_CODEPAGE=8000 to ensure that the messages that r3monal sends display Japanese characters correctly.

Support

Please visit the HP Software support web site at:

http://www.hp.com/managementsoftware/support

This web site provides contact information and details about the products, services, and support that HP Software offers.

HP Software online support provides customer self-solve capabilities. It provides a fast and efficient way to access interactive technical support tools needed to manage your business. As a valuable support customer, you can benefit by being able to:

NOTE: Most of the support areas require that you register as an HP Passport user and log in. Many also require an active support contract. To find more information about support access levels, go to the following URL:

http://h20230.www2.hp.com/new_access_levels.jsp

To register for an HP Passport ID, go to the following URL:

http://h20229.www2.hp.com/passport-registration.html

Legal Notices

©Copyright 1998 - 2008 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

Confidential computer software. Valid license from HP required for possession, use or copying. Consistent with FAR 12.211 and 12.212, Commercial Computer Software, Computer Software Documentation, and Technical Data for Commercial Items are licensed to the U.S. Government under vendor's standard commercial license.

The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

For information about third-party license agreements, see the spi-thirdparty-license-agreements\unzip and spi-thirdparty-license-agreements\xerces directories on the product installation DVD-ROM.

The information contained herein is subject to change without notice.

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