• Use step-by-step instructions to increase the efficiency of your daily work
• Learn from hundreds of screenshots and numerous checklists
• Discover tips and tricks for both routine and special activities

This administrator's guide explains the tasks that you have to accomplish in order to master the administration of SAP systems. Click-by-click and with numerous screenshots, you will learn about all work processes that are relevant to everyday practice: routine and special tasks, administration with SAP Solution Manager, and the administration of operating systems, databases, and authorizations. The book is based on SAP NetWeaver AS ABAP 7.0/7.1, and is applicable to users of earlier and later releases.

Routine and Special Administration Tasks
Learn about every administration task, from daily jobs to system recovery steps that must be performed after a serious system failure.

Practical Knowledge
Benefit from descriptions that focus on real-life duties, with background information that will help you to better accomplish your tasks.

Detailed Click-by-Click Instructions
Explore detailed step-by-step instructions, illustrated by screenshots. This enables you to easily understand the processes and reproduce them in your system.

Checklists, Transactions, Forms, and More
Download all checklists—for critical tasks or for a security strategy—from the book. The appendices also contain helpful lists with transactions and tables, as well as predefined forms.

Highlights

• Security administration
• User administration
• Database administration
• Network administration
• Operating system administration
• Output management
• System maintenance
• Change and transport management
• Performance
• Diagnostics and troubleshooting
• Disaster recovery

The Author

Sebastian Schreckenbach has worked with SAP software for many years, and is currently an SAP Basis administrator for the city administration of Dresden, Germany. His work focuses on user administration and authorization management.

Table of Contents

• ... Introduction ... 17
• 1 ... Fundamentals of SAP System Administration ... 23
• 1.1 ... Tasks of a System Administrator ... 23
• 1.2 ... Guiding Principles for System Administrators ... 25
• 1.3 ... Definitions ... 32
• 1.4 ... Summary ... 34
• 2 ... SAP System Administration ... 35
• 2.1 ... Starting and Stopping the SAP System ... 35
• 2.1.1 ... Starting the SAP System ... 36
• 2.1.2 ... Stopping the SAP System ... 41
• 2.2 ... Instances and Operation Modes ... 46
• 2.3 ... Maintaining Profile Parameters ... 62
• 2.4 ... Specific Monitoring Transactions ... 70
• 2.4.1 ... System Log ... 70
• 2.4.2 ... ABAP Dump Analysis ... 73
• 2.4.3 ... Checking the Application Servers and Work Processes ... 77
• 2.4.4 ... Lock Entries ... 80
• 2.4.5 ... Canceled Update Requests ... 83
• 2.5 ... System Messages ... 87
• 2.6 ... Connections ... 89
• 2.6.1 ... RFC Destinations ... 90
• 2.6.2 ... SAP Gateway Monitor ... 97
• 2.6.3 ... SAPconnect ... 99
• 2.6.4 ... Message Server Monitor ... 103
• 2.6.5 ... Internet Communication Framework ... 104
• 2.6.6 ... ICM Monitor ... 108
• 2.7 ... Client Administration ... 109
• 2.7.1 ... Creating Clients ... 110
• 2.7.2 ... Copying Clients ... 114
• 2.7.3 ... Deleting Clients ... 129
• 2.7.4 ... Checking the Client Copy Log ... 132
• 2.8 ... System Copy ... 133
• 2.8.1 ... Database Copy of the Production System ... 134
• 2.8.2 ... Client Copy with Data ... 135
• 2.8.3 ... Client Copy without Data ... 135
• 2.9 ... Summary ... 136
• 3 ... System Monitoring ... 137
• 3.1 ... The CCMS Alert Monitor ... 137
• 3.2 ... System Monitoring with the Standard CCMS Alert Monitor ... 138
• 3.3 ... Adapting the CCMS Monitor Sets ... 148
• 3.3.1 ... Hiding Monitor Sets ... 148
• 3.3.2 ... Defining a New Monitor Set ... 153
• 3.3.3 ... Adding a Monitor to a Monitor Set ... 156
• 3.3.4 ... Deleting a Monitor from a Monitor Set ... 159
• 3.3.5 ... Changing Alert Threshold Values ... 163
• 3.4 ... Auto-Reaction Methods ... 167
• 3.4.1 ... Changing an Auto-Reaction Method ... 168
• 3.4.2 ... Assigning an Auto-Reaction Method to a Monitor Object ... 173
• 3.5 ... Summary ... 178
• 4 ... System Administration with SAP Solution Manager ... 179
• 4.1 ... Functional Spectrum of SAP Solution Manager ... 179
• 4.2 ... Maintaining the System Landscape ... 181
• 4.2.1 ... Creating a Server ... 182
• 4.2.2 ... Creating a Database ... 184
• 4.2.3 ... Creating a System ... 186
• 4.3 ... Solutions ... 201
• 4.3.1 ... Creating a Solution ... 202
• 4.3.2 ... Activating and Deactivating Solutions ... 206
• 4.3.3 ... Self-Diagnosis ... 208
• 4.4 ... System Administration ... 211
• 4.4.1 ... Central System Administration ... 211
• 4.4.2 ... Central System Monitoring ... 227
• 4.4.3 ... SAP EarlyWatch Alert ... 240
• 4.5 ... Maintenance Optimizer ... 256
• 4.6 ... Summary ... 268
• 5 ... Scheduled Tasks ... 269
• 5.1 ... Critical Tasks ... 270
• 5.1.1 ... Check Whether the SAP System Is Running ... 270
• 5.1.2 ... Checks to Determine Whether Your Backups Have Been Successful ... 270
• 5.2 ... Daily Tasks ... 274
• 5.2.1 ... Critical Tasks ... 274
• 5.2.2 ... SAP System ... 275
• 5.2.3 ... Database ... 277
• 5.2.4 ... Operating System ... 277
• 5.2.5 ... Other ... 278
• 5.3 ... Weekly Tasks ... 278
• 5.3.1 ... SAP System ... 278
• 5.3.2 ... Database ... 279
• 5.3.3 ... Operating System ... 279
• 5.3.4 ... Other ... 280
• 5.3.5 ... Overview of Transactions ... 280
• 5.4 ... Monthly Tasks ... 281
• 5.4.1 ... SAP System, Database, Operating System, Other ... 281
• 5.4.2 ... Checking Consumable Items ... 283
• 5.5 ... Quarterly Tasks ... 284
• 5.5.1 ... SAP System ... 284
• 5.5.2 ... Database ... 285
• 5.5.3 ... Operating System ... 286
• 5.5.4 ... Other ... 286
• 5.6 ... Annual Tasks ... 287
• 5.6.1 ... SAP System ... 287
• 5.6.2 ... Database ... 288
• 5.6.3 ... Operating System ... 289
• 5.6.4 ... Other ... 289
• 5.6.5 ... Overview of Transactions ... 289
• 5.7 ... Summary ... 292
• 6 ... Backup and Restore ... 293
• 6.1 ... Backup ... 293
• 6.1.1 ... What Has to Be Saved? ... 294
• 6.1.2 ... Backup Types ... 298
• 6.1.3 ... Backup Strategy ... 304
• 6.1.4 ... Strategy Recommendations ... 305
• 6.2 ... Restore ... 308
• 6.3 ... Performance ... 310
• 6.3.1 ... Performance Factors ... 310
• 6.3.2 ... Backup Performance ... 311
• 6.3.3 ... Restore Performance ... 313
• 6.4 ... Summary ... 314
• 7 ... Disaster Recovery ... 315
• 7.1 ... Preliminary Considerations ... 315
• 7.2 ... Planning for an Emergency ... 317
• 7.2.1 ... Which Measures Apply to Disaster Recovery? ... 317
• 7.2.2 ... When Should the Disaster Recovery Procedure Begin? ... 318
• 7.2.3 ... Expected Downtime ... 319
• 7.2.4 ... Restore Time ... 320
• 7.2.5 ... Communication in the Event of a Disaster ... 320
• 7.3 ... Recovery Team and Role Distribution ... 321
• 7.4 ... Types of Disaster Recovery ... 323
• 7.5 ... Emergency Scenarios ... 323
• 7.5.1 ... Damaged Database ... 324
• 7.5.2 ... Hardware Failure ... 324
• 7.5.3 ... Complete Loss or Destruction of the Server Facility ... 325
• 7.6 ... Recovery Script ... 327
• 7.7 ... Crash Kit ... 329
• 7.8 ... Testing the Disaster Recovery Procedure ... 333
• 7.9 ... Minimizing the Risk of Failure ... 335
• 7.9.1 ... Minimizing the Risk of Human Error ... 335
• 7.9.2 ... Minimizing Single Points of Failure ... 335
• 7.10 ... Continuing Business During a System Recovery ... 336
• 7.11 ... Summary ... 337
• 8 ... Database Administration ... 339
• 8.1 ... Planning Database Administration Tasks ... 340
• 8.1.1 ... Planning Database Tasks ... 340
• 8.1.2 ... Changing and Deleting Database Tasks ... 344
• 8.1.3 ... Checking the DBA Planning Calendar ... 347
• 8.2 ... Checking Database Actions ... 350
• 8.3 ... Performing a Database Analysis ... 352
• 8.4 ... Monitoring Database Performance ... 359
• 8.5 ... Database Administration—DB2 ... 363
• 8.5.1 ... DB2 Command Line Processor ... 364
• 8.5.2 ... Starting and Stopping the Database ... 367
• 8.5.3 ... Executing SQL Statements ... 368
• 8.5.4 ... Updating and Checking the Database Manager Configuration ... 369
• 8.5.5 ... Updating and Checking the Database Configuration ... 371
• 8.5.6 ... Managing Tablespaces and Associated Containers ... 372
• 8.5.7 ... Backing Up the Database ... 375
• 8.5.8 ... Restoring the Database ... 377
• 8.6 ... Database Administration—Oracle ... 379
• 8.6.1 ... SQL*Plus ... 379
• 8.6.2 ... Starting and Stopping the Database ... 382
• 8.6.3 ... Executing SQL Statements and SQL Scripts ... 387
• 8.6.4 ... Managing the Database ... 389
• 8.6.5 ... BR*Tools ... 389
• 8.6.6 ... Checking and Changing the Status of the Database Instance ... 391
• 8.6.7 ... Checking and Updating the Database Configuration ... 393
• 8.6.8 ... Managing Tablespaces and Associated Data Files ... 396
• 8.6.9 ... Backing Up the Database ... 400
• 8.6.10 ... Restoring the Database ... 404
• 8.6.11 ... Checking the Database ... 407
• 8.7 ... Database Administration—Microsoft SQL Server ... 410
• 8.7.1 ... SQL Management Studio ... 411
• 8.7.2 ... Starting and Stopping the Database ... 413
• 8.7.3 ... Files and Logs ... 416
• 8.7.4 ... Initiating a Backup Process ... 422
• 8.7.5 ... Setting Up Maintenance Plans for a Backup ... 425
• 8.7.6 ... Backing Up System Databases ... 431
• 8.7.7 ... SQL Server Logs ... 434
• 8.8 ... Database Administration—MaxDB ... 435
• 8.8.1 ... Database Studio ... 435
• 8.8.2 ... Starting and Stopping the Database ... 436
• 8.8.3 ... Database Monitoring ... 438
• 8.8.4 ... Backing Up the Database ... 443
• 8.9 ... Summary ... 447
• 9 ... Operating System Administration ... 449
• 9.1 ... Checking the Memory Usage of the File System ... 449
• 9.1.1 ... Monitoring the File System Using the CCMS Alert Monitor ... 450
• 9.1.2 ... Changing Alert Thresholds ... 452
• 9.1.3 ... Releasing Memory at the Operating System Level ... 454
• 9.2 ... Retrieving Operating System Information ... 458
• 9.3 ... Summary ... 464
• 10 ... Security Administration ... 465
• 10.1 ... What Is Security? ... 466
• 10.1.1 ... Protecting Data Against Damage or Loss ... 466
• 10.1.2 ... Adhering to Legal or Quasi-Legal Provisions ... 466
• 10.2 ... Security Levels ... 467
• 10.2.1 ... Access Security ... 467
• 10.2.2 ... Operational Security ... 469
• 10.2.3 ... Data Security ... 470
• 10.3 ... Safeguarding the SAP System ... 471
• 10.3.1 ... Preventing Multiple User Logons ... 472
• 10.3.2 ... Passwords ... 473
• 10.3.3 ... Limiting Access for SAP* or DDIC Users ... 477
• 10.3.4 ... Locking Critical Transactions ... 477
• 10.3.5 ... Preventing Changes in the Production System ... 480
• 10.3.6 ... Operational Security ... 486
• 10.4 ... Audits ... 487
• 10.4.1 ... Auditing Aspects ... 488
• 10.4.2 ... Auditing Tasks for SAP Administrators ... 489
• 10.5 ... Auditing Tools ... 491
• 10.5.1 ... Audit Information System ... 491
• 10.5.2 ... Security Audit Log ... 493
• 10.6 ... Summary ... 507
• 11 ... Performance ... 509
• 11.1 ... Short-Term Remedy of Performance Problems ... 509
• 11.2 ... Detailed Analysis of Performance Problems ... 514
• 11.2.1 ... System Load Analysis ... 515
• 11.2.2 ... Buffer Analysis ... 520
• 11.2.3 ... Memory Defragmentation ... 522
• 11.3 ... Analysis at Other Levels ... 523
• 11.3.1 ... Analysis at the Database Level ... 523
• 11.3.2 ... Analysis at the Operating System Level ... 523
• 11.3.3 ... Analysis at the Hardware Level ... 523
• 11.4 ... Summary ... 524
• 12 ... SAP GUI ... 525
• 12.1 ... Installation Requirements ... 525
• 12.1.1 ... Minimum Requirements for the User’s PC ... 525
• 12.1.2 ... Network Functions ... 526
• 12.2 ... Installation Scenarios ... 526
• 12.2.1 ... Installing SAP GUI from an Installation Medium ... 527
• 12.2.2 ... Installing SAP GUI from an Installation Server ... 530
• 12.3 ... Adding Systems to SAP Logon ... 547
• 12.4 ... Summary ... 550
• 13 ... User Administration ... 551
• 13.1 ... General ... 551
• 13.2 ... Setting Up New Users ... 554
• 13.2.1 ... Copying Existing Users ... 554
• 13.2.2 ... Creating a New User ... 562
• 13.3 ... Maintaining Users ... 563
• 13.4 ... Mass Changes ... 563
• 13.5 ... Resetting the Password ... 566
• 13.6 ... Locking or Unlocking a User ... 568
• 13.7 ... Central User Administration ... 571
• 13.7.1 ... Setting Up a Central User Administration ... 571
• 13.7.2 ... Creating and Maintaining Users Via a Central User Administration ... 592
• 13.7.3 ... Troubleshooting ... 596
• 13.7.4 ... Deactivating or Deleting a Central User Administration ... 599
• 13.8 ... User Groups ... 608
• 13.9 ... Deleting User Sessions ... 610
• 13.9.1 ... Displaying Active Users ... 610
• 13.9.2 ... Deleting User Session ... 612
• 13.10 ... System Administration ... 613
• 13.10.1 ... Special User IDs ... 613
• 13.10.2 ... Special Authorizations ... 614
• 13.10.3 ... User Passwords ... 615
• 13.11 ... Summary ... 616
• 14 ... Authorization Management ... 617
• 14.1 ... Authorization Check Process ... 618
• 14.2 ... Authorization Roles ... 618
• 14.2.1 ... Creating and Maintaining Single Roles ... 619
• 14.2.2 ... Creating and Maintaining Composite Roles ... 629
• 14.3 ... Authorization Profiles ... 636
• 14.4 ... Utilities for Authorization Management ... 640
• 14.4.1 ... Default Values and Check Indicators ... 640
• 14.4.2 ... Authorization Trace ... 645
• 14.4.3 ... Infosystem Authorizations ... 650
• 14.5 ... Summary ... 652
• 15 ... Background Processing ... 653
• 15.1 ... Creating Background Jobs ... 653
• 15.1.1 ... General ... 654
• 15.1.2 ... Creating and Scheduling Background Jobs ... 655
• 15.2 ... Monitoring Background Jobs ... 662
• 15.3 ... Graphical Job Scheduling Monitor ... 665
• 15.4 ... Performance Factors for Background Jobs ... 666
• 15.5 ... Summary ... 669
• 16 ... Output Management ... 671
• 16.1 ... Setting Up the Spool Servers ... 671
• 16.2 ... Setting up Printers ... 675
• 16.2.1 ... Configuring Network Printers ... 675
• 16.2.2 ... Setting up Frontend Printers ... 681
• 16.2.3 ... Transporting Output Devices ... 684
• 16.3 ... Outputting Data ... 686
• 16.4 ... Output Control ... 688
• 16.5 ... Deleting Old Spool Requests ... 695
• 16.6 ... Checking the Spool Consistency ... 696
• 16.7 ... Checking the TemSe Consistency ... 697
• 16.8 ... Summary ... 699
• 17 ... Change and Transport Management ... 701
• 17.1 ... General Notes on Change Management ... 702
• 17.2 ... Transporting Objects ... 704
• 17.2.1 ... Creating a Transport Request ... 705
• 17.2.2 ... Recording Changes in a Transport Request ... 708
• 17.2.3 ... Releasing a Transport Request ... 710
• 17.2.4 ... Importing Transport Requests ... 713
• 17.2.5 ... Checking the Transport Log ... 719
• 17.3 ... Direct Table Maintenance ... 721
• 17.4 ... Summary ... 725
• 18 ... System Maintenance ... 727
• 18.1 ... Downloading SAP Support Packages ... 728
• 18.1.1 ... Determining the System’s Current Support Package Level ... 729
• 18.1.2 ... Finding Support Packages ... 734
• 18.1.3 ... Downloading Support Packages ... 748
• 18.2 ... Important Notes on Preparing and Executing System Maintenance ... 751
• 18.3 ... Performing a Kernel Update ... 752
• 18.3.1 ... Kernel Backup ... 753
• 18.3.2 ... Unpacking a New Kernel ... 753
• 18.3.3 ... Stopping the SAP System ... 755
• 18.3.4 ... Replacing Kernel Files ... 755
• 18.3.5 ... Starting the SAP System and Checking the Logs ... 756
• 18.4 ... Applying the SPAM/SAINT Update ... 757
• 18.5 ... Importing ABAP Support Packages ... 761
• 18.5.1 ... Making the Support Packages Available ... 762
• 18.5.2 ... Importing the Support Packages ... 766
• 18.5.3 ... Performing a Modification Adjustment ... 778
• 18.5.4 ... Regenerating Objects ... 779
• 18.5.5 ... Performing Regression Tests ... 783
• 18.6 ... Installing Add-Ons ... 783
• 18.7 ... Summary ... 789
• 19 ... Diagnostics and Troubleshooting ... 791
• 19.1 ... Basic Procedure ... 791
• 19.2 ... Troubleshooting with the SAP Support Portal ... 794
• 19.2.1 ... Searching for SAP Notes with the SAP Support Portal ... 795
• 19.2.2 ... Customer Messages ... 798
• 19.3 ... Creating a Remote Service Connection ... 819
• 19.4 ... Implementing SAP Notes ... 828
• 19.4.1 ... Checking the System Patch Level ... 830
• 19.4.2 ... Implementing SAP Notes with the Note Assistant ... 832
• 19.5 ... Summary ... 836
• ... Appendices ... 837
• A ... Useful Transactions ... 839
• B ... Security-Relevant Transactions ... 845
• C ... Useful Tables ... 851
• D ... Forms ... 855
• E ... Bibliography ... 861
• F ... The Author ... 863
• ... Index ... 865