Structure of Store ABAP_NOTES in CCDB and Target Systems

ABAP_NOTES Store in CCDB

For validation of implemented SAP Notes the configuration data from Configuration Change Database (CCDB) of SAP Solution Manager is used. Originally these data is extracted from the Note Assistant transaction (transaction code SNOTE) of satellite systems and stored in the Config Store ABAP_NOTES in the CCDB. As a result the content of the Store ABAP_NOTES is defined by available data in the transaction SNOTE

In general for an existing system the Store ABAP_NOTES has the following columns NOTE, VERSION, TEXT, PRSTATUS and PRSTATUST.

ABAP_NOTES Structure as it is stored in the CCDB for an existing system

You can see the content of an ABAP_NOTES Store in the Change Reporting application. Navigate in the SAP Solution Manager to the Root Cause Analysis work center à System Analysis. Then select a required system and start Change Reporting

In the displayed tree select ABAP_SOFTWARE group at the left side and display content of ABAP_NOTES Store.

ABAP_NOTES Store in Target System

To define the dependency of a SAP note on the component, release and kernel level the store ABAP_NOTES in a Target System has additional columns: COMPONENT, RELEASE, EXTRELEASE, KERN_REL and KERN_PATCHLEVEL. For validation of SAP Notes the following fields are taken as keys: NOTE, COMPONENT, RELEASE and KERN_REL. As a result a target Config Store can contain several entries for the same SAP Note but for different components, releases and kernel level.

ABAP_NOTES Structure as it is stored in for a Target System

You can use these columns to define for which component, release and kernel level a SAP Note is relevant.

In the example below you can see definition for the SAP Note 0001146690 done for the release 620, 640, 700 and 710.

You can display the information about a SAP Note available in SAP Market Place via the icon   to check the affected releases: 

Operators and validation examples

In the Store saved in Target System both field values and operator definition are provided. You can display examples of operator implementation via the button  (Display examples of operator implementation).

In the pop-up window the examples corresponding to the Store type will be displayed.

Operators for key fields:

Operators for value fields:

Finding not compliant ABAP Notes

The correction of a SAP note is supposed to be applied to the system of a landscape. After some days you would like to know whether the note is applied to the productive system. You can compare the notes, versions and their Implementation Status in Production System with reference to the Development System.

Selecting Reference and Comparison System

It is possible to compare Implementation Status for the SAP Notes directly using the Development System as reference system, it is not necessary to create a target system to get this information. In this case it will be checked, whether SAP Notes from the reference system exist in the comparison systems and whether the implementation status for these Notes is the same as in the reference system.

In our example we are going to compare SAP Notes from Development System SD7 with the production one SI7. Therefore we navigate to the Tab “Report Execution” in the main window. In the left part of the section “Reference System and comparison systems” we type in the input field SD7 and deselect option “Only Target Systems” to display existing systems.

In the right part we are selecting Comparison List S7_LINE that includes both SD7 and SI7. If no comparison lists are defined yet, skip this step and select the comparison system in the variable screen afterwards.

Choose a validation template

At the next step we need to select a corresponding report for validation. The report 0TPL_OSMD_VCA2_NCOMPL_CI_REF provides an initial drilldown for “non-compliant items only” and all the non compliant SAP Notes will be displayed in the initial drilldown.

After the validation template is selected the validation could be started via the link . You will be prompted to check the input data. It is necessary to insert ABAP_NOTES into the input field Config Store to restrict validation only for SAP Notes

Click the button to start validation.

Output

The initial view displays only the SAP Notes that exist in the reference and comparison systems but having different Implementation Status or Version, because these get the Compliance ‘No’. To display also missing SAP Notes you need open Navigation Block at the left side and click on the Compliance filter:

From the displayed Pop-up window you should select option “Item not found”. And click the button “Transfer” at the bottom left part of the window.

The displayed list now includes both the SAP Notes that do not exist in the comparison systems (In the column “Compliance” they have the value “Item not found”) and the SAP Notes that differ either in Implementation Status, Implemented Version or Component / Release conditions.

If you select additionally Compliance ‘Additional in Comparison System’ also the SAP note displayed that are not applied in the reference system, but in the comparison system.

It is possible to see the validation details for the entries which are valuated with Compliance ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ . Perform right mouse click on any entry.
Select from the context menu Goto - Config. Validation – Items- Validation Details

In the displayed table you will find the detailed information for the validation of the selected entry. From this table you can see that the SAP note 0001475639 is valuated as not compliant because of the different version of the note in system SD7 (0002) and SI7 (0003).

Providing information on relevant component, release / kernel level for ABAP Notes

By default component, release and kernel level information is not provided for Configuration Validation of SAP Notes. For example when the validation is done for an existing system the original Store ABAP_NOTES contains only one entry for each SAP Note. The release information is not available for relevance check.

To validate a SAP Note for different releases and levels we need to create a Target System and adjust the operators and values. With this target system the Configuration Validation can give the answer to the question whether a note has to be applied at all to the comparison systems.

Configuration Validation - “Target System Maintenance” - “Create” display the system SD7  and filter store ABAP_NOTES.

Select the Store ABAP_NOTES and click the button   .

Provide name for the Target System and save Target System:

Edit Target System to copy entry for a SAP Note

After Target System created you can edit Store ABAP_NOTES to add additional entries for an SAP Note for different releases. Let us edit for example 0001085326 – “SAP Note Security Note: Check for 'System - Status' (SE80)”.

Configuration Validation - “Target System Maintenance” - “Edit”.

Display the created Target System.

You can see that by default information of the relevant release is not provided. To add this information select the entry for the SAP Note 0001085326 and edit its content in the section “Field Values and Operators”. For the release 46C this Note is applicable for the EXTRELEASE less than 54.  Insert corresponding entries in the fields RELEASE and EXTRELEASE. :

The content of the fields PRSTATUS and PRSTATUST have the following correlation.

So you can set the operator ‘Ignore’ for PRSTATUST and use the operator ‘=’ for PRSTATUS.

After you have adjusted the operators and values click the button   or Enter. The applied values will be displayed in the note content:

To provide info for further releases select the entry and copy it via the icon:
Repeat the steps done earlier. After the information for all the releases is entered the Note content would see as follows:

Validation Rules

For ABAP Notes validation the validation rules and Software / Kernel dependency can be used to ensure the consistency of validation.
If the validation rules and Software/ Kernel dependency specified in the Target System  the Validation Processor takes for each compared system the information on the applied Notes as well as applied Support Packages and their versions and also the installed SAP Kernel. This information is used to prove if the Note from Target System is valid for the compared one. In case the applied Software Packages or SAP Kernel release does not match the valies provided in the Target System the validated Note is marked as "Compliant" even if it is not found in the compared system. Only in case the applied component or kernel release do match the vlues from the Target System and the Note is not found in the compared one this Note is marked as "Non-compliant". In the picture below you can see the possible examples for the validation logic used for ABAP Notes validation. 

Note: Validity of SAP Note is taken into account only in case Software / Kernel dependency is provided in the Target System. In case no validity information is provided SAP Note is marked as "compliant" if it is found in the compared system and as "Non-compliant" if it is not found.

Find Security ABAP Notes missing in the comparison systems

You would like to know which ABAP Notes from the SAP Security have to be applied. The configuration validation can create a list of missing notes of the comparison systems

Preparation

For this example you can create a target system with the security SAP Notes for ABAP. The easiest way is to copy an original Target System e.g. S7NOTE to SECNOTE. Navigate to the Tab “Target System Maintenance” and then to the section “Edit”. Please select the Target System and copy it using the   icon.

Provide the corresponding name and description for the Target System and save it.

At the next step we need to modify the newly created Target System SECNOTE.
In the Long SID input field enter of the Detailed Selection “SECN*” and click button    (or press the Enter key). From the displayed list select the Target System SECNOTE. The Config Stores contained in this Target System will be displayed at the right side. Click on the store name ABAP_NOTES to edit its content.

 In the next step we will need to replace the content of the Target Store with the SAP Security Notes. For that click the button to delete all unselected entries. And then click the icon 
  to load all ABAP Notes from the SAP Security List.

The ABAP_NOTES store will be filled with the SAP Security notes also with the component as well as the release information. You can display the detailed information by selecting an entry. For example for the SAP Note 0000957038 the following information is provided.

Note: Implementation of SAP Note 0001411818 depends on the implementation of SAP Notes 1030838, and 1381947. As a result several entries exist for this Note in the SAP Security Note List. Since these entries differ only in EXTRELEASE they are recognized as duplicates by saving the Target System. To avoid a risk of information loss these duplicates are not deleted but marked so the customer can decide which entries are to be left.

These duplicates are marked automatically by saving of the Target Store and you can display all entries by using the filter for the Note number (*0001411818).

In that case it makes sense to delete the marked duplicates and for the left entries change the EXTRELEASE conditions so it covers also the highest Ext. Release:

Now you can save the Store via   Button.

Test Compliance Validation

You can test Compliance Validation via the  button in top the menu for Store content editing. In this case validation would be done for the Comparison Store displayed in the left top part of menu.

Note: You can choose a Comparison Store from another Existing or Target System via the button

The validation results are displayed in the column “Item Compliance”. You can see that for some of the entries Item Compliance is set to “Not relevant”. To display the details you can click on this line.

Compliance logic for the SAP Notes:

Step 1: Find the SAP Note in the Comparison System.

In the above example the selected SAP Note 0000957038 from the Target System has not been found in the Comparison System. As the result the field compliance for the field “NOTE” is marked as “Not compliant” (the first line).

Step 2: Check the SAP Note relevance.

In case the SAP Note from the Target System has not been found in the Comparison System and the information on the relevant component and release is provided the SAP Note a check is done whether these requirements are met. In our example the component “ERECRUIT” is not found in the Comparison System (Store ABAP_COMP_SPLEVEL). Thus as an overall result the above mentioned SAP Note is not relevant.

Choose a validation report

The report 0TPL_OSMD_VCA2_NCOMPL_CI_REF provides an initial drilldown for “non-compliant items only”. Thus all missing SAP Notes from the security list will be displayed in the initial drilldown.

Selection

As reference system the target system SECNOT is used which contains the above shown compliance rules. For comparison the systems SD7 and SI7 have been used.

Output

The SAP Notes missing for the systems SI7 and SD7 are shown as non-compliant Config. Items for system SI7

Display details

It is possible to see the validation details for each entry. Perform right mouse click on an entry and select from the context menu:
Goto - Config. Validation – Items- Validation Details

In the displayed table you would find validation details done for all entries for this note. The validation results for not relevant entries are ignored (in the table below that is the validation for release 711)

The component SAP_BW is found and the Release 702 fits. The note is valid for the support package level of this system, but is not applied yet. Thus the validation results in Compliance ‘No’.

Using Report functionality to find SAP Notes with the “bad” Implementation Status

In this section we would see the reporting functionality of Configuration Validation to report on SAP Notes implemented in the comparison systems. Using filter functionality allows adjusting reports for different needs. For example display all SAP Note with the Implementation Status different from “Completely Implemented” across several systems.

Choosing the report

For the Configuration reporting we do not need a Target System since no validation has to be done.

Navigate to the Configuration Validation à “Report Execution”. At the bottom part you would find section “Configuration Reporting”. Select the report 0TPL_0SMD_VCA2_VAR_REP_FLAT which displays data as a flat table without validation.

‘Start configuration reporting’ link. In a new window you can enter the systems to be reported (Comparison Lists can be used is the same way as for the Configuration Validation).

Insert the value “ABAP_NOTES” into the field Config Store to restrict the report for SAP Notes only.
There is no need to select a ‘Reference System’, because no validation will be done.

Start reporting via the button   .

Output

In the displayed table all the SAP Notes implemented in the systems SD7 and SI7 will be displayed.

To filter SAP Notes with a “bad” implementation status open the Navigation panel at the left side and select filter for “Config. Item Value”.

In the displayed screen all possible values for validation will be displayed. These values consist of version and implementation status for SAP Notes. To display SAP Notes with “bad” implementation status we need to select all the entries that are different from pattern “<version>Completely Implemented”:

After you have selected the entries click the button “Transfer”. In the displayed table all SAP Notes will be displayed with the status different from “Completely Implemented”

JAVA_NOTES

In contrast to the ABAP Notes the SAP Notes for J2EE are not applied via Note Assistant (transaction code SNOTE) and Configuration Change Database does not contain information on the implemented SAP Notes for J2EE. On the other hand the SAP Security Note list contains also SAP Notes relevant for J2EE.  For validation of JAVA Security Notes you can create JAVA_NOTES in any Target System.

Select a Target System in the “Target System Maintenance” and click the button    from the top menu. The Config Store JAVA_NOTES will be created in this Target System and filled with the SAP Notes relevant for J2EE from the SAP Security Note list.

To display the content of the JAVA_NOTES Store filled from the SAP Security Note List click on the name of the Store.

Structure of Store JAVA_NOTES in Target Systems

Store JAVA_NOTES has the following fields:

Validation of JAVA Security NOTES

You can perform a test validation of JAVA Security Notes in the Target System Maintenance application via the button  in the menu of Target Store editing

If in the compared system the component release level is higher as it is defined in the JAVA_NOTES for an SAP Note, then this note is marked as “Not Relevant”. In case the component is available, the release and/or the level is lower, then this entry is marked as “Not compliant”

Choosing a Report

To execute Configuration Validation for several systems navigate to the “Target System Maintenance” à “Report Execution”.

Select a Target System with a JAVA_NOTES Store and comparison systems, for which we would use the SD7 and SI7 systems in our example.

The report 0TPL_OSMD_VCA2_NCOMPL_CI_REF provides an initial drilldown for “non-compliant items only”. All non compliant JAVA Notes from the security list will be displayed in the initial drilldown. In the variable screen insert JAVA_NOTES into the Config Store input field to restrict validation only for the JAVA Notes.

Run the validation report via the button “Execute”.

Output

In the displayed table all the non compliant SAP Notes for J2EE will be displayed. In other words in the displayed table SAP Notes are displayed, if its software component exists in the comparison system, but the release and/or the level is lower.

The details (via right mouse click à Goto à Config. Validation – Items- Validation) show that for the comparison system (SD7) the EXTRELEASE for the component SAP_JTECHF is 4 while the issue described in the SAP Note 0001471118 is solved as of EXTRELEASE 5. That is why the system SD7 is not compliant related to SAP Note 0001471118.

Displaying Changes in Change Reporting

In some cases it could be useful to display changes of the valuated items. It can be done directly from the output of validation results. Click on the link “CR: Changes (last 28 days)”.

You would be directly navigated to the Change Reporting application for the current system and Store. The initial screen shows only items that had been changed the last 28 days, so - may be - no items are displayed. Deactivate the ‘History filter’ to get the current items displayed: