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Categories
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Testing/Troubleshooting
Testing/Troubleshooting
- A Custom Performance Test — Is It for You?
by Susanne Janssen and Dr. Ulrich Marquard
A load test makes sense — in fact, it's an absolute must — for large, complex, or highly customized systems with add-ons. In these situations, a load test, whereby you physically test a heavily loaded system before it is deployed, is the only way to verify that the hardware sizing, configuration, and parameterization of your system will be powerful enough to support your business transactions with adequate response times and throughput.
How do you know if your system requires a custom load test? The first part of this article shows you how to answer this question. And, supposing your system does warrant a custom load test, how do you proceed? What steps must you take to successfully devise and then execute the test? This article answers these questions as well.
- An insider’s guide to writing robust, understandable, maintainable, state-of-
the-art ABAP programs: Part 1 — fundamental rules and formal criteria
by Andreas Blumenthal and Horst Keller
Whether you are new to ABAP or have been using it for years, in the end you are probably satisfied if your application code somehow just works. But ABAP is a vibrant, evolving language, with new features and modifications that can significantly improve your programs. The multitude of choices can seem overwhelming, however. This article is the first in a three-part series that presents basic guidelines, gathered directly from the ABAP Language Group at SAP, for the effective use of the many possibilities ABAP provides for creating applications. This first article lays some groundwork for the next two by introducing fundamental rules and criteria for modern ABAP programming.
- An insider’s guide to writing robust, understandable, maintainable, state-of-
the-art ABAP programs: Part 2 — best practices
by Andreas Blumenthal and Horst Keller
As application needs have grown and changed, so have programming languages to meet those needs, and ABAP is no different. ABAP has evolved to offer developers new and more efficient ways to accomplish a wide and diverse range of programming tasks. The combination of new features and those preserved for downward compatibility has led to an exponential increase in the options available to developers. To help developers — both those who are new to ABAP and those with proven experience — this second installment of a three-part article series presents basic guidelines and best practices for the effective use of ABAP so you can create well-structured, high-performing, robust applications.
- An insider’s guide to writing robust, understandable, maintainable, state-of-
the-art ABAP programs: Part 3 — additional best practices and administrative
issues
by Andreas Blumenthal and Horst Keller
With the already large, and ever-increasing, amount of options available for ABAP programming, there has long been a need for a comprehensive guide to help navigate through the maze of possibilities and pitfalls. While many guidelines on the use of ABAP already exist both inside and outside of SAP, most tend to focus on specific areas of the language. Based upon the daily experiences of the ABAP Language Group at SAP, this article is the final installment of a three-part article series that aims to provide a cohesive set of recommendations on the use of key ABAP programming features that can serve as a foundation for or complement to guidelines specific to your own organization.
- An Integrated Approach to Troubleshooting Your ABAP Programs: Expert Tips for
Making the Most of the ABAP Debugger
by Boris Gebhardt, NetWeaver Developer Tools ABAP Group
While there is no way around the work involved in troubleshooting problems in your ABAP programs, SAP provides a variety of standard logging, analysis, and trace tools that help you identify, understand, and resolve problems without using the ABAP Debugger, a tool that can consume excessive time and resources when used in the wrong situation. However, only the ABAP Debugger can perform a detailed analysis at the source code level, to determine the value of a specific variable or to figure out where a special variable is changed, for example. This article shows you how to use the ABAP Debugger appropriately and effectively, so that when you must use it, you will be able to do so with confidence and a minimum of time and effort.
- An Integrated Approach to Troubleshooting Your ABAP Programs: Using Standard
SAP “Check” Tools During Development and Testing
by Erik Sodtke, NetWeaver Developer Tools ABAP Group, SAP AG
ABAP is a powerful language for building sophisticated applications. But as any developer is painfully aware, even the most carefully written and tested programs can wind up terminating with a runtime error, producing unexpected messages, returning incorrect results, or causing application performance problems.
- An Integrated Approach to Troubleshooting Your ABAP Programs: Using Standard
SAP Investigative Tools for Production Problems
by Boris Gebhardt, NetWeaver Developer Tools ABAP Group, SAP AG
No matter how carefully you test programs before deploying them productively, sooner or later bad performance, unexpected behavior, or even runtime errors will crop up. Fortunately, SAP provides standard tools for identifying such problems. Bug hunting with the wrong tool, however, can be costly — using the ABAP Debugger in the wrong situation can turn an analysis that should take minutes into one that consumes days or even weeks. This article explains when and how to use alternatives to the ABAP Debugger for troubleshooting production problems, and shares some undocumented tricks to boost your efficiency and help you leverage these tools to your full advantage.
- Analyze Memory-Related Problems in Your ABAP Programs in Less Time and with
Less Effort Using the ABAP Memory Inspector
by Christian Stork and Wolf Hagen Thümmel, NetWeaver Developer Tools ABAP Group,
SAP AG
When your ABAP application terminates because memory is exhausted, one possible reason is errors somewhere in the program code. Finding such errors in your code, however, is no easy task — memory objects are hidden in the ABAP runtime environment, and runtime errors do not always indicate the true source of the problem. This article introduces you to the ABAP Memory Inspector, a tool specifically designed to help you identify memory-related problems in your code, and demonstrates how it can help you quickly assess the current state of memory consumption for your ABAP program and pinpoint the most likely source of any problems.
- Attention ABAP Developers! Boost the Quality of Your Programs by Writing
Automated Unit Tests with ABAP Unit
by Jürgen Staader, NetWeaver Developer Tools, SAP AG
Detecting errors during development is far less costly than detecting them in production — the later a bug is found, the harder it is to identify, and the more expensive it becomes to correct. However, manually testing and retesting your code throughout the development process consumes an increasing amount of time and effort as the program becomes more complete, and more complex. To address this challenge, SAP Web Application Server 6.40 introduces the ABAP Unit test tool, which allows you to run automated, unattended, repeatable tests, so you can concentrate on coding rather than on running the tests. This article shows you how to use the tool to produce higher-quality code in less time and with less effort.
- Best practices for performance-tuning SAP R/3 and Oracle database
configurations: Part 1 — SAP tools for monitoring R/3 functionality
by Kostas G. Gavrielidis
Performance-tuning your SAP system and database is like walking a tight rope while holding a pole for balance. Hold the pole off-center or drop an end too far and you might not make it to the other side. This article is the first in a three-part series that shares SAP R/3 performance-tuning best practices for production-class configurations running on Unix with an Oracle RDBMS. This first article provides a veteran’s look at the SAP tools available to monitor R/3 functionality that affects database performance. The next installments examine the monitoring and performance optimization tools available for Oracle databases and performance issues related to running SAP R/3 in a Unix environment.
- Best practices for performance-tuning SAP R/3 and Oracle database configurations: Part 3 — The top 10 performance
challenges of running SAP R/3 on HP Tru64 Unix
by Kostas G. Gavrielidis, Master Technologist, Hewlett-Packard Services
Performance-tuning your SAP system and database configurations is critical
to maintaining a healthy and reliable system environment. This is the final
installment of a three-part series that together provides a comprehensive guide
to performance-tuning SAP R/3 production configurations running on Unix with
an Oracle database. Part 1 described how to use SAP-provided tools to tune
your SAP R/3 system. Part 2 covered how to optimize the Oracle database. This
final installment reviews the 10 most common performance challenges of running
an SAP R/3 system in an HP Tru64 Unix 5.x environment and how to address them.
- Evaluating the Quality of Your ABAP Programs and Other Repository Objects with
the Code Inspector
by Randolf Eilenberger, Performance and Benchmark Group, SAP AG and Andreas Simon
Schmitt, Business Programming Languages Group, SAP AG
Developers and quality managers must know precisely how closely their programs adhere to standards that govern their software's accessibility, security, and performance. SAP Web Application Server 6.10 introduces the Code Inspector, a new tool that checks ABAP programs, function groups, classes, and other repository objects to ensure that they meet defined standards, and enables you to identify potential problems before they reach the production system. This article introduces you to the Code Inspector's features, functions, and built-in checks, and helps you get started using this tool.
- Evaluating, Incorporating, Altering, and Testing Headquarters-Defined Customizing: Lessons for
Subsidiaries
by Dr. Matthias Melich, Technical Product Manager, Solution Life-Cycle Management, SAP AG
Once a company's headquarters has established an SAP system landscape based upon a common standardized core, and developed a global template that defines which customizing values are to be standardized across its systems, it rolls out the global template to its subsidiaries. So what happens next? This article answers that question — it shows you how subsidiaries can evaluate the customizing content of the BC Sets sent in the template from headquarters, apply it in the local system, and conduct testing. It also shows you how the subsidiaries can deviate from the template in situations where they cannot work with headquarters' definitions.
- Extend the Range and Reduce the Costs of Your SAP Testing Activities with eCATT
by Jonathan Maidstone, Product Management Specialist, SAP AG
With SAP Web Application Server 6.20, the new extended Computer Aided Test Tool (eCATT) picks up where CATT leaves off. In addition to CATT's existing capabilities (the ability to record classic R/3 transactions, check and assign variables to fields, and create test cases), eCATT enables you to test controls-based and external transactions, use function modules with structured or tabular parameters in test scripts, write ABAP code directly in test scripts, and easily run an end-to-end test across your system landscape. This article introduces you to eCATT and details its most sought-after new function - the ability to test controls-based transactions.
- How to prepare for an SAP audit: What you need to do to ensure a successful result
by Steve Biskie, Founder, SAP Audit Solutions
It’s audit time! Do your employees know what to do? You’re not alone if they don’t. There are books and newsletters and Web sites to tell your auditor what to do, but until now, nothing for the poor “auditee.” That’s about to change. This article, the first in a series, is designed to help SAP project managers, administrators, and users to understand the typical SAP-related audit requirements and to ready these individuals for their next SAP-related audit. You will find information about the primary categories of an SAP audit, as well as specific tips on the General Computer Controls (GCC) audit. No one likes an audit, but it’s a lot easier if you know what to expect.
- Improve Testing by Tracing ABAP Program Execution: Take a Closer Look with the Coverage Analyzer
by Dr. Christian Hansen, Server Technology Internationalization, SAP AG
Even the most extensive testing doesn't catch everything in your system, and some elusive error always seems to be lurking in the shadows. As of Release 6.10, with the ABAP Coverage Analyzer, you can improve the quality of your ABAP programs by making your testing more effective. This article shows you how by discussing what the Coverage Analyzer is and how it works, and walking you through some practical examples for using it, including how to make a system-wide test more effective and how to assess the usage data of a program or its subroutines.
- Improve your software quality by using ABAP checkpoint statements
by Gerd Kluger, SAP NetWeaver Foundation ABAP, SAP AG
Wolf Hagen Thümmel, SAP NetWeaver Foundation ABAP, SAP AG
The correctness of a program is based on certain
assumptions about its state at various points during
execution (e.g., that the values of certain variables
stay within specific ranges). How can you ensure
that these conditions hold true, even after the program
has been changed? And is there a way to identify
problems before they reach the production system?
The answer is ABAP “checkpoint” statements,
introduced with SAP Web Application Server 6.20,
which are solely dedicated to ensuring program correctness
and maintainability. Through step-by-step examples,
this article explains the ABAP checkpoints concept
and shows you how to use these statements efficiently
to improve the quality and maintainability of your
code.
- Introducing the next generation of ABAP debugging — the New ABAP Debugger
by Boris Gebhardt and Christoph Stöck
SAP provides a wide variety troubleshooting tools that you can use to identify, analyze, and resolve problems that arise in your ABAP programs. The ABAP Debugger in particular has been a well-known, tried-and-true tool for many years. SAP NetWeaver ’04 and 2004s introduce the “New ABAP Debugger,” which includes enhanced versions of all the tools and functionalities of the original debugger (now known as the “Classic ABAP Debugger”), such as the addition of data tooltips to the Source Code display tool, as well as new tools, such as a comparison tool for structures and internal tables, and a state-of-the-art user interface. This article explains the architecture of the New ABAP Debugger and guides you through the new world of ABAP debugging.
- Need to Get Your Customizing and Testing Ready for a Global Rollout? Use BC Sets and the Test
Organizer to Smooth the Way!
by Dr. Matthias Melich, Product Manager, Advanced Implementation Solutions
Companies with numerous subsidiaries and installations often want to establish an SAP system landscape based upon a common standardized core, otherwise known as a global template, which embodies the R/3 settings and data that headquarters wants rolled out to the subsidiaries.
This article shows you how BC Set technology can be used to capture the customizing settings that determine your company's standard business processes, and how to use the Test Organizer, a powerful, built-in testing facility, to identify which processes to test and monitor their progress. Even if you are not undertaking a global rollout, you will find valuable information that can be applied in other customizing contexts, including reuse, preconfiguration, variants, documentation, and testing.
- Performance Testing Your SAP System - Best Practices for Preparing Your Test
Environment
by Tim K. Nguyen, Managing Principal, Orchid Consulting Group
If you are an SAP project leader or IT manager, then you know that testing is a vital aspect of your job. With crucial business decisions depending on your tests, and ultimately the profitability of your enterprise at stake, knowing how to conduct accurate and meaningful SAP tests is critical. This article, the first of a two-part series, shares best practices for test preparation. It helps you make sense of the myriad testing and performance tools currently available, and provides guidance on how to form a testing team and set up the test itself, from defining test scenarios to setting up and configuring the test bed. It also discusses the options available for involving outside resources, and when it makes sense to do so.
- Performance Testing Your SAP System — Strategies for Ensuring a Successful Test
Execution
by Tim K. Nguyen, Managing Principal, Orchid Consulting Group
“Learn by doing” is a time-honored maxim, but when it comes to performance-testing your SAP system, there are some things you’d rather not learn by doing wrong. A performance test project involves many highly skilled people from both inside and outside your organization. Once test execution begins, you can’t afford to have these people standing around idle or not using their time efficiently. While a certain amount of downtime is unavoidable for both people and systems, it can be minimized. Successfully executing efficient performance tests requires discipline, leadership, quick thinking, and even a bit of luck. Most of all, it requires thorough planning and the right testing strategies.
- Put Better Programs into Production in Less Time with Code Reviews: What They
Are, How to Conduct Them, and Why
by David F. Jenkins, Independent Consultant
There is no substitute for a close examination of others’ code before it is released into production. A “code review” is the process of having someone other than the author evaluate a program at various points in the development cycle, prior to placing it into productive use. This article provides a brief introduction to the concept of code reviews — what they are, how they’re conducted, and what benefits you can expect from their use — along with some tips for conducting your own code reviews, including an extensive sample checklist you can use as a template to help you deliver error-free programs on time and within cost constraints.
- Ready to Start Leveraging eCATT? Take Your Existing CATT Tests with You!
by Jonathan Maidstone, Product Manager, SAP AG
Since its introduction in R/3 3.0, SAP customers have come to rely on the Computer Aided Test Tool (CATT) to test their centralized SAP installations and standard UIs. Testing distributed systems, controls-based UIs, and web applications, which are now commonplace in most installations, is a different story. To support these developments, SAP released the extended Computer Aided Test Tool (eCATT) as part of SAP Web Application Server 6.20. But what about all your existing CATT test procedures and modules? This article shows you how to safeguard your current CATT investment and leverage eCATT’s new capabilities by migrating your CATT objects to the new eCATT environment, leaving your CATT objects as-is in 4.6C and calling them remotely from eCATT, or doing both.
- Solve configuration-related problems faster and better in your Java-based SAP NetWeaver ’04
systems: A system
administrator’s troubleshooting guide
by Robert Heidasch, Enterprise Services Infrastructure, SAP AG
The reality is that even well-designed, well-managed SAP NetWeaver systems are likely to experience some type of problem sooner or later. This article shows you how to efficiently investigate common configuration problems that can prevent the startup of your Java-based SAP NetWeaver system. It describes the features that are provided to help you detect system and SAP NetWeaver application problems and introduces key system characteristics that are critical to understanding and addressing an out-of-memory condition, which is typically the most difficult to resolve in any Java system, to help shorten your learning curve, and ultimately to save you time in administering Java-based SAP NetWeaver systems.
- Standardize your testing and improve software reliability - Integrate SAP
Solution Manager with SAP Quality Center by HP
by Henrik Zimmermann, Senior Product Manager, SAP AG, and Jürgen Tonhäuser,
Development Architect, SAP AG
SAP Solution Manager is SAP's answer to business' increasing needs to manage systems, promote flexibility, and control and document change. You can integrate SAP Solution Manager and SAP Quality Center by HP to provide a more efficient testing process that improves software quality and reliability, standardizes testing, and consolidates results in a single view. This article surveys the SAP Solution Manager testing tools Test Workbench and extended Computer Aided Test Tool (eCATT) and in particular focuses on the integration of the partner product SAP Quality Center by HP via the SAP Solution Manager adapter for SAP Quality Center by HP.
- Test and Manage Your SAP Configuration the Smart Way: Start Using Your eCATT
Test Scripts and BC Sets Together!
by Jonathan Maidstoner, Product Manager and Matthias Melich, Director of Product
Management, SAP AG
Despite your most careful development and testing efforts, at one time or another you have probably encountered a problem in your production system, and then spent a significant amount of time and effort identifying the customizing settings related to the problem, and fixing and testing repairs to the problem. What you need is a reliable, transparent way to manage configuration changes and troubleshoot production issues on a large scale. Fortunately, you already have two tools available in your SAP system that can together provide the solution — the extended Computer Aided Test Tool (eCATT) and Business Configuration Sets (BC Sets). This article shows you how to set up an integrated eCATT/BC Sets landscape, and how to use it to improve your testing and troubleshooting processes.
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