Auditing and Monitoring in SAP BW/4HANA

Auditing and Monitoring in SAP BW/4HANA

How to Manage Your SAP BW/4HANA System with Auditing and Monitoring

SAP BW/4HANA is a modern data warehouse solution that enables fast and flexible analytics on large volumes of data from various sources. However, SAP BW/4HANA also requires proper management to ensure its performance, security, compliance, and quality. Therefore, it is essential to audit and monitor your SAP BW/4HANA system regularly.

Auditing and monitoring are two related but distinct activities that help you manage your SAP BW/4HANA system. In this blog post, we will explain what auditing and monitoring are, how they differ, and how they can be applied in SAP BW/4HANA.

What is Auditing?

Auditing is a process of reviewing and verifying the activities and events that occur in your SAP BW/4HANA system or database. Auditing helps you track who did what, when, where, and why in your system. Auditing also helps you detect and prevent unauthorized access, misuse, or fraud in your system.

Auditing is useful for scenarios where you need to comply with internal or external regulations, policies, or standards that require you to document and report the actions and changes in your system. For example, you may need to audit your SAP BW/4HANA system to comply with GDPR or SOX regulations, which require you to protect personal or financial data from unauthorized access or disclosure.

What is Monitoring?

Monitoring is a process of observing and measuring the performance and status of your SAP BW/4HANA system or database. Monitoring helps you identify and resolve any issues or problems that may affect your system. Monitoring also helps you optimize and improve your system performance, availability, reliability, and quality.

Monitoring is useful for scenarios where you need to ensure that your SAP BW/4HANA system is running smoothly and efficiently. For example, you may need to monitor your SAP BW/4HANA system to ensure that your data loading, processing, and analysis processes are completed successfully and timely.

How to Audit and Monitor Your SAP BW/4HANA System?

SAP BW/4HANA offers various options to audit and monitor your system depending on the use case and requirement.

Auditing Options

  • SAP HANA Auditing: This option allows you to audit the activities and events that occur in your SAP HANA database. You can create an audit policy that defines which events you want to audit, such as logon/logoff, SQL statements, security changes, or errors. You can also assign an audit trail that defines where you want to store the audit logs, such as a table or a file. SAP HANA Auditing helps you track who accessed or modified your data or database objects.For example, you can create an audit policy named AUDIT_LOGON that audits the logon events of all users in your SAP HANA database using the following SQL statement:CREATE AUDIT POLICY AUDIT_LOGON AUDIT LOGON; CopyYou can also assign an audit trail named AUDIT_LOGON_TRAIL that stores the audit logs in a table named AUDIT_LOGON_TABLE using the following SQL statement:CREATE AUDIT TRAIL AUDIT_LOGON_TRAIL TABLE AUDIT_LOGON_TABLE; Copy
  • SAP Audit Management for SAP S/⁠4HANA: This option allows you to audit the business processes and transactions that occur in your SAP S/⁠4HANA applications. You can build audit plans, prepare audits, analyze relevant information, document results, form an audit opinion, communicate results, and monitor progress. You can also use predefined audit programs or create your own custom audit programs. SAP Audit Management for SAP S/⁠4HANA helps you ensure compliance with internal or external regulations, policies, or standards.For example, you can create an audit plan named AP_2021 that defines the scope, objectives, timeline, resources, and risks of your audits for the year 2021 using the following steps:
    • Go to transaction FIORI_LAUNCHPAD
    • Select the tile Manage Audit Plans
    • Select the button Create
    • Enter the name AP_2021
    • Enter the description Audit Plan for 2021
    • Enter the start date 01/01/2021
    • Enter the end date 12/31/2021
    • Save the audit plan

Monitoring Options

  • Process Chain Monitoring: This option allows you to monitor the execution of process chains in your SAP BW/4HANA system. Process chains are sequences of processes that load, transform, or analyze data in your system. You can use various monitoring functions to keep an eye on the status, duration, errors, or warnings of process chains or individual processes.For example, you can monitor the execution of a process chain named PC_LOAD_SALES_DATA that loads sales data from a source system to your SAP BW/4HANA system using the following steps:
    • Go to transaction RSPC
    • Select the process chain PC_LOAD_SALES_DATA
    • Select the button Display Log
    • Check the status, duration, errors, or warnings of the process chain or individual processes
  • BW Job View Monitoring: This option allows you to monitor the execution of jobs in your SAP BW/4HANA system. Jobs are tasks that run in the background of your system. You can use various monitoring functions to keep an eye on the status, duration, errors, or warnings of jobs or job steps.For example, you can monitor the execution of a job named JOB_LOAD_SALES_DATA that runs the process chain PC_LOAD_SALES_DATA using the following steps:
    • Go to transaction SM37
    • Enter the job name JOB_LOAD_SALES_DATA
    • Select the button Execute
    • Check the status, duration, errors, or warnings of the job or job steps
  • Data Transfer Process Monitoring: This option allows you to monitor the execution of data transfer processes in your SAP BW/4HANA system. Data transfer processes are tasks that transfer data from one object to another object in your system. You can use various monitoring functions to keep an eye on the status, duration, errors, or warnings of data transfer processes.For example, you can monitor the execution of a data transfer process named DTP_LOAD_SALES_DATA that transfers sales data from an advanced DSO to an InfoCube using the following steps:
    • Go to transaction RSA1
    • Select the advanced DSO ADSO_SALES_DATA
    • Select the tab Data Transfer Process
    • Select the data transfer process DTP_LOAD_SALES_DATA
    • Select the button Monitor
    • Check the status, duration, errors, or warnings of the data transfer process
  • Cache Monitor: This option allows you to monitor the usage of cache memory in your SAP BW/4HANA system. Cache memory is a temporary storage area that improves the performance of queries by storing frequently accessed data or metadata. You can use various monitoring functions to keep an eye on the size, hit ratio, invalidation rate, or refresh rate of cache memory.For example, you can monitor the usage of cache memory for a query named QRY_SALES_ANALYSIS that analyzes sales data using the following steps:
    • Go to transaction RSRT
    • Enter the query name QRY_SALES_ANALYSIS
    • Select the button Execute and Debug
    • Select the tab Cache Monitor
    • Check the size, hit ratio, invalidation rate, or refresh rate of cache memory
  • Query Runtime Statistics: This option allows you to monitor the performance of queries in your SAP BW/4HANA system. Queries are tasks that retrieve and analyze data from your system. You can use various monitoring functions to keep an eye on the execution time, resource consumption, or optimization potential of queries.For example, you can monitor the performance of a query named QRY_SALES_ANALYSIS that analyzes sales data using the following steps:
    • Go to transaction RSRT
    • Enter the query name QRY_SALES_ANALYSIS
    • Select the button Execute and Debug
    • Select the tab Statistics
    • Check the execution time, resource consumption, or optimization potential of queries

Conclusion

Auditing and monitoring are two important activities that help you manage your SAP BW/4HANA system. Depending on the use case and requirement, you can choose from different options to audit and monitor your system at different levels of detail, scope, or frequency. By auditing and monitoring your SAP BW/4HANA system, you can enhance the security, compliance, performance, and quality of your system.

Disclaimer: This content is generated by AI.

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