Performance Analysis Monitors

Prepared By: Dated: 25-November-2023

Mohammed Azher Ul Haque, MCA, M. Tech – 14 Years Experience.
SAP Technical Architect, Saudi Arabia.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohammedazherulhaque/

The Operating System Monitor - SAPOSCOL process/SAP Host Agent

SAP Transaction Codes: ST06/ST06N
If you are interested to learn the operating-system-related information as the current
load on the CPU(s) of the machine on which the SAP application server resides, there are
several ways for you to get this information.
Here, we will focus on the tools offered by SAP, especially on some transactions within
the SAP system. However, before going straight to these transactions, some background
information is needed on how the SAP system collects operating system data.
The program SAPOSCOL (SAP Operating System Collector), the SAP system gains access
to a lot of information about the hardware on which it runs. This information includes:
CPU information, file system information, paging/swap activity reporting, and process
information. SAPOSCOL should run once on each server that is relevant for the
availability of the SAP system.
 To clarify this, we will discuss some different scenarios:
Different scenarios of using SAPOSCOL/SAP Host Agent
1. One SAP application server on one host - You will have one SAPOSCOL process/SAP
Host Agent running on this host.
2. Two or more SAP application servers on the same host (it does not matter if these
application servers belong to the same or to different SAP systems). You will have
one SAPOSCOL process/SAP Host Agent running on this host. Both SAP application
servers will request information from the same source.
3. The database runs on its own host; there is no SAP application server on the same
host. You need to install the SAP Host Agent separately on this host.
SAP Note 1031096: Installing Package SAPHOSTAGENT for further details.

Monitoring the Operating System

To access SAPOSCOL information from within the SAP system, you can choose different
functions in SAP systems. The most direct method is using transaction ST06.
(Identical) Transactions for accessing operating system information in SAP systems
● Transaction ST06 – the look and feel are different, depending on the release of the SAP
system.
● Transaction OS07N has been changed, so that it points to the same function as
transaction code ST06, depending on the release of the SAP system.
● Transaction ST06N points to the same function as transaction code ST06, depending
on the release of the SAP system
Fundamental Usage of Transaction ST06
In ST06 you find the following information on the entry screen.
Essential Information on the Entry Screen of ST06
CPU Utilization
The CPU utilization will always sum up to 100%. User utilization should not exceed a
value of 50% to 60%. System utilization should be below 20%, and Idle time should be
above 20%. An idle time below 20% will lead to CPU bottleneck situations.
I/O wait “utilization” accrues when the CPU would be able to do some work, but the
CPU is waiting for I/O responses. Therefore, I/O wait utilization is absolutely unwanted
and a value of more than 10% is of concern. In this situation, you should check the I/O
performance of disk subsystems, network, and so on. Fortunately, I/O wait usually is a
state seldom observed. During upgrade, client copy and similar I/O intensive activities
I/O wait can play a critical role in SAP system performance.
Average processes waiting (1, 5, and 15 minute averages): Average number of processes
that are ready for execution, but which must wait for the CPU. If the average number of
processes waiting is higher than the number of available CPUs, this indicates that the
CPU is reducing the overall performance of the SAP system.
A high value here and a high value for utilization can indicate that too many processes
are active on this host. A high value here and a low value for utilization can indicate that
the main memory is too small.
Number of CPUs - This is the number of the CPUs available on the host.
Memory: Physical memory - This number gives the size of the RAM of the host.
Swap size: Configured swap size - This is the sum of physical RAM and swap/page space.
This sum is also known as virtual memory in SAP systems.
Swap size: Maximum swap size - This number gives the amount of configured
swap/page space on this host.

Additional Functions of ST06:

Choose Additional Functions → Administrate SAPOSCOL on the entry screen
Here can you find functions for starting and stopping SAPOSCOL from within the SAP
system. You can also access SAPOSCOL log and status information.
Choose Snapshot All → Top 40 CPU processes
Here you will find the top 40 processes sorted by CPU usage and their current memory
consumption (physical RAM used).
Hint: The sum of CPU usage usually is normalized to 100% for the sum of all CPU (cores).
However, in older releases there was also the normalization of 100% per CPU (core) in
use. Remember this fact if you encounter CPU usage summing up to more than 100% on
a multi-CPU (core) host.
Choose Previous hours All → Memory
The swap/paging activity on OS level per hour should not be higher than one-fourth the
size of the physical RAM. Otherwise, it's likely that you will observe a decrease in SAP
system performance caused by heavy CPU and I/O utilization.
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