Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Network Inside and Outside the Company You Work For
Sometimes the issue at hand is not in your domain expertise and you will need to discuss it
with other domain experts inside and outside of your company. This is where your network
will help. Develop a good network of professionals inside and outside of your company so
that you can share your experiences and tap into this network when you need information.
Isolate the Problem
Sometimes the issue at hand is complex and even the problem clustering approach may not
help to narrow down the issue. Under these situations, you can try to use the elimination
technique.
Short-Term Workaround vs. Long-Term Fix
Sometimes you will be able to troubleshoot the problem but the long-term fix will need a lot
of time. For example, you have found a bug in the SAP standard software and SAP needs
some time to provide a patch to the problem. Under these circumstances it is a good idea to
provide a short-term workaround to the end user instead of waiting for the long-term fix.
Log a Support Ticket with SAP
There will be times where there is no apparent solution to the issue at hand. You have tried
everything you know and are not able to find a solution to the problem. It is recommended
that you log a support ticket with SAP as soon as you find yourself in this situation. You can
continue investigating the issue while SAP support is looking into it.
Structured Monitoring and Analysis in ABAP Systems
In this section we will cover the system startup problem scenarios and resolution, SAP
standard monitoring transactions, and several ABAP system-specific problem scenarios and
the troubleshooting steps that have to be taken.
Troubleshooting SAP ABAP System Startup Problems
One of the main job responsibilities of a SAP Basis administrator is to make sure that the
system is available for the business during the hours established in the service levels of a
given organization. SAP system availability in some industries is very demanding and is ex-
pected to be available 24/7/365. The following section discusses in detail the various scen-
arios in which a SAP system could hang and would not start up normally and where a Basis
administrator has to find out the root cause and bring the system back up.
Table 16-1
provides real-life scenarios that can happen with production and nonproduction SAP sys-
tems. The list is not comprehensive, but gives an overview of the problem scenarios that you
could encounter and suggests possible approaches to resolving them.
