System Monitoring in SAP
Are you an SAP basis engineer, system administrator, or HANA database administrator in a company that runs SAP? If so, you are the one expected to keep critical systems running and healthy at all times. You are also required to minimise downtime and service outages to avoid losses to slow or down servers.
Learn More We help you gain knowledge and identify a few tools that could make your job easier
We understand that SAP system monitoring involves checking numerous parameters daily for one or several systems, and everybody is looking up to you to ensure the optimal performance of the entire system. This means that you have a very complex job. 
As a team with experience, we understand the stress that it comes with. As such, I have created this blog to help you gain knowledge and identify a few tools that could make your job easier.
SAP System Monitoring Tools
Every SAP system contains several tools that display detailed information about application servers, work processes, and user sessions. These tools are available under administration and monitors on your computer. The system also contains test programs that you can take advantage of when operating at the system level to monitor the gateway or message server. These include:
NConsistency Check – It monitors possible inconsistencies in your servers before the system is placed in productive operation.
NDisplay and Control Work Processes – With this tool, you can monitor work processes belonging to an instance and assess the utilisation of the work process. It also allows you to manage the work process.
NAdministration of Number Range Buffer – This one gives you information about buffer and allows you to make configurations to ensure that it corresponds with your requirements.
NSAP Gateway Monitor – With this tool, you can monitor and manage RFC connections
NOverview of SAP Application Servers – This tool allows you to see the application server instances of the SAP system. It also allows you to monitor and alter their states.
NDisplay and Manage User Sessions – This tool allows you to see which users are logged in and what resources they are using on the instance. It also allows you the liberty to manage each session.
NProcess SAP System Messages – This tool allows you to create and send short messages to users who are logged on the SAP system.
NMonitor RFC Resources on the App Server – This tool allows you to check the utilisation of work processes by parallel RFCs.
NMonitoring and Administration of the SAP Message Server – This is the central location where information about the application servers is kept. It’s also the main area where servers exchange information.
NTrace Functions – This one allows you to configure, evaluate, and track errors.
NABAP Dump Analysis – It displays summaries of short dumps created when an ABAP program terminates uncharacteristically.
NSystem Log – System warnings and errors are displayed and recorded in the system log.
SAP System Monitoring and Health Check
The health of an SAP landscape dictates the success of your company. If it degrades, so does the productivity of the entire business. As such, you need to be proactive with your system monitoring job. Some of the concepts you can emulate include:
Monitor all application servers
Monitoring system work processes for both wide and individual instances
Check to know the available space in the database
Monitoring and updating processes
CPU utilisation
Monitoring lock entries
Checking buffer statistics and resolving them

Monitoring system log
Check for spool request
Monitoring batch jobs
Database check
Monitor application users
Check the number of print requests
ABAP dump analysis
Monitor the performance of your database

Best Practices in SAP Monitoring
SAP monitoring is an activity that involves checking whether the system is performing well on not. This activity helps you to discover issues in advance and take relevant actions to prevent and correct any problems that may arise.
best practices
Application Monitoring
Performance Issues
SAP Tcodes

Some of the best practices that will make your job easier are:
SAP Downtime Monitoring – Throughout the day, you ought to look out for and check whether there is a system crash, as well as failed or stopped processing on the operating system.
Ensuring SAP Availability – Be on the lookout for network or firewall access issues, which may block the SAP server from connecting to the internet. Such issues can leave you with an offline server.
SAP Performance Monitoring – There is a myriad of reasons why your SAP system can slowdown. Some of the common reasons you need to look out for are CPU performance, disk usage, database response, as well as memory utilisation and swaps.

Ideally, you may also minimise unplanned downtime by using an alert system which will monitor your server’s performance and alert you when there’s an issue. Also, to get alerts when the servers are inaccessible, you may use the cloud-based solution that runs outside of your company’s internal link.
SAP Application Monitoring
SAP contains a complex architecture that’s composed of diverse elements and multi-tiered applications. Each of these elements has to perform optimally for the entire system to provide reliable and responsive services. Managing these deep elements can be daunting, even for the best of us.
Luckily, there are SAP monitoring applications that you can work with to make your job easier and solve issues efficiently. These apps will help you find the root cause of any problems, thus aid in faster troubleshooting, which will make the process much simpler.
 
Related:
SAP Application Development
Tips For Performance Tuning in SAP
Why HANA Developers Should Work With SAP

How to Check Performance Issues in SAP?
To understand when there are performance issues in your SAP system, you need first to know its status when it’s operating optimally. Average performance varies from time to time, depending on its usage. For instance, during the day, the SAP server can be very busy hence slower. The system is also likely to be slow during the weekdays than on the weekends.
You should also know that your servers will be slower at the end of the month due to closing operation and increased usage in accounting departments.
 
After knowing the normal performance status of your SAP system, you may begin monitoring issues like:
Response time
Wait time
Roll in, out and related wait time
Load time
DB request time
How long the CPU takes to execute report logic
Information processing time

SAP Tcodes for Performance Monitoring
There are useful administration codes that act as shortcuts and make it easy and quick for you to monitor specific parameters of your company’s SAP system. Below is a summary of common ones and what each of them is used to monitor and control. 

SM51: Used to check if all servers are up
AL08: Helps you take a look at user distribution on servers or review different user IDs and terminals
SM12: Opens a lock entry list and allows you to check and analyse for locks older than a day
SM13: Opens up and updates records
SM21: Monitors system log
ST22: Allows you to assess and resolve ABAP dumps
SM37: Selects background jobs
ST02: Checks swaps in status indicated in red colour
ST06: Assesses memory status and CPU performance
ST03: Used to check the transaction and discover which ones are bad transactions. It also opens up response time.
SMQ1/SMQ2: Used to check the number of queue entries, stuck messages, as well as registered and deregistered queries
SOST: Check and analyse failed emails and faxes
SM58: Assess and analyse tRFCs
DB01: Open diagnostics and analyse blocked transactions in the DBA cockpit
DB02: Monitor table and indexes
DB03: Check for parameter alterations in the database
DB50: Opens current status and shows an overview in the DBA cockpit
DB13C: Opens jobs in the central calendar also in the DBA cockpit
DB26: Allows you to open DB profile, monitor, and make necessary configurations
DB12: Gives you access to the backup catalogue in the DBA cockpit

SAP System Is Slow, How To Troubleshoot?
Slow Performance
SAP slow performance can be caused by one or a variety of problems. It’s quite challenging to pinpoint the leading cause as it could be one or a combination of several issues. Some of the most common ones include:
Changes in the system parameter
Increased in number of users
Hardware changes
Faulty support packages
Kernel patch

Diagnosis
Whichever is the root cause of the problem, you may diagnose it by opening and assessing the following aspects of your SAP system:
Global and individual work processes
Process overview
Background and batch jobs
Lock concepts
Number of users
Performance analysis
Workload
DB performance analysis
Memory status of your server and CPU
Workload
Monitor the SAP gateway

You should also check whether there are recent modifications made in the affected transactions and others that relate to them.
Monitoring the SAP system can be the key to the success of a business. It involves the proactive assessment of all aspects of the SAP system, which includes CPU utilisation, application servers, database space, and monitoring log files.
This assessment is aimed at detecting issues and correcting them before they get out of hand. While SAP system monitoring is an extremely demanding and tedious job, knowing what to check can make your job easier. You may also take advantage of available codes and applications that will help you troubleshoot the issues quickly.
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