Process Monitoring with PMI (Process Monitoring Infrastructure)

Purpose

The purpose of monitoring IT landscapes is to determine the status of IT components and processes that run on multiple components, and to display them in one central system. If errors occur, alerts are to be output. Using the allocated analysis methods, you can then jump directly to the corresponding transaction or tool, to analyze the problem.

The following types of monitoring are available:

· System monitoring using the CCMS

System monitoring monitors the status of the different components, such as monitoring the availability of a system.

· Process Monitoring with PMI (Process Monitoring Infrastructure)

Process Monitoring monitors the universal process, which comprises multiple components. Here it is the steps within the process that are important, not the status of the components involved, as is the case for system monitoring.

PMI forms the infrastructure for business process monitoring. Here however, PMI does not start with defined business processes, instead it orientates itself towards the technical processes that form the basis of the individual business processes. For example, if an order has been created and is sent to another system through XI for processing, the following technical process steps may form the basis for this process: IDoc outbound, tRFC, XI processing, tRFC, IDoc inbound and calling the corresponding application in the other system.

PMI monitors these technical process steps, which can also be asynchronous, across multiple systems. Here, PMI collects process step data from applications on different components. This data is then transported into the Central Monitoring System. In the Central Monitoring System, the individual process instances are then reconstructed, and they can be analyzed using monitoring tools. For more information about PMI architecture, see the section How PMI Works.

Implementation Considerations

The following prerequisites must be fulfilled in order to be able to perform Process Monitoring with PMI:

· The PMI can only check the status of processes that run on multiple components if the corresponding process type has been set up for PMI Monitoring. Currently, XI message processing can be monitored and in this context, IDocs and tRFC/qRFC as well.

· For the user to be able to access Process Monitoring data in his or her application, the Process Monitoring itself has to be integrated into that application. Process Monitoring is already integrated in XI Runtime Workbench 3.0.

· To be able to implement PMI, your local systems must be of release level 4.6C or later. In addition, the corresponding Support Packages must be implemented.

For using Process Monitoring with the SAP Exchange Infrastructure (XI 3.0), the local system and the central system must have at least 6.40 status.

· An ITS service must be running for you to be able to view logs in the application log.

· Operators and administrators also require the corresponding authorizations:

¡ Operators must have an adjusted copy of the role SAP_BC_BASIS_Monitoring assigned to them to be able to display PMI.

¡ Administrators must have an adjusted copy of the role SAP_BC_BASIS_ADMIN assigned to them to be able to make administrative settings.

Within the XI Runtime Workbench, authorizations are already included in the XI roles.

Features

PMI provides a Web-based user interface for Process Monitoring that can also be integrated in other applications and whose features include the following:

...

· Graphical display of the process flow, that is the information flow within processes is displayed

· Display of aggregated values, such as average process duration, minimum and maximum duration, giving you an overview of the performance

· Quick overview of the current status of processes and process steps, for example which ones are free of errors, and for which ones warnings or errors occurred

· Display of detailed information by way of a ’drill-down’ mechanism

You can display an instance for a process type, such as XI message processing, together with the status of the process steps that were run through in this instance. If errors have occurred, you can display detailed information about them.

· Ability to jump directly to analysis tools and tools for correcting errors

For more information about the PMI administration user interface, see the section Process Monitoring Display and Administration and all its subsections.

Examples for Using Process Monitoring

· PMI supports administrators and Support when locating and analyzing errors and performance bottlenecks. This increases the availability of the solution, which in turn reduces the support resources required.

In a system landscape, processes can run on multiple components. Different administrators may well be responsible for different parts of a process. If this is indeed the case, it is important to find out exactly where the error has occurred and who is responsible for it.

· PMI also supports developers when locating errors and performance problems, therefore improving the quality of the software.

The implementation team wants to check whether the process is running the way in which it was designed to. To do so, they perform single and mass tests. PMI can be used to display the test results. The user interface shows whether all process instances have run with or without errors occurring. This is particularly suitable for mass testing.

· By using the PMI user interface, new colleagues in your IT organization can get a quick overview of the structure of your processes. For example, these colleagues have to know which technical steps the process consists of, and at which points processing the steps occurs asynchronously. This allows the new colleagues to get used to the processes quickly, which saves on training costs.