How to apply or implement SAP OSS notes

Go to transaction SNOTE to check compatibly of SAP OSS notes to your current environment and to implement them. You need to have authorization for this T-Code which is generally restricted to BASIS team members. 

1. Go to Transaction Code SNOTE

2. Click on "Download SAP note" button.

3. Provide OSS note number and hit execute button.

4. You will see that note is downloaded under "New"

5. Double click on the note you just downloaded.

6. The next screen will show if a note can be implemented in the implementation status field. 

7. As we can see our note can be implemented. Click on execute button at the top left hand corner of the screen.

8. Depending the note you will get several prompts asking you to confirm or execute next steps. Say yes or execute the steps as required. System will automatically make required changes as you go through this process.

9. If there are any manualy steps that need to be performed (the steps that system can't doautomatically like adding new fields to tables/structures etc). Please see yes to this prompt. Please note that you would need to manually perform these actions (like going into se11 and adding fields to structure).

10. It will ask you for a transport number provide transport number. You use transport to move the changes made this note from development to other environments in your landscape.

11. After successful implementation you can see the status "Completely implemented" as below.

SAP BW 7.3 - New Feature: Switch Info package in PC to Delta

As of BW 7.0 we need to manually change all the delta init packages in the process chains to delta when we move the changes to QA or Production environments or we have to create separate delta init packages and manually run them to do initialization before we could schedule the process chains with delta info packages. This is going to change in SAP BW 7.3. 

 There is a new option "Switch Info Package. In PC to Delta" under update tab of info package. If we check this option the info package will be automatically executed as delta package if already there is a successful initialization. Otherwise, it will be executed as ainit package when there is no successful initialization. This will be useful and save us some time with new projects and enhancements. 

Screenshot of "Switch Infopackage.in PC to Delta" option

F1 Help for 'Switch Infopackage. in PC to Delta"

Convert Initial Info Package into Delta Info Package

You use this indicator to specify whether you want the system to automatically convert an Info Package that is being used in a process chain into a delta Info Package when the delta transfer has been initialized successfully.

Use

If you set this indicator, the following applies to the Info Package when it is executed in a process chain.

·         If you set the Initialization of Delta Process indicator on the Update tab page and there is no active initialization request with the same or overlapping selections for this DataSource/source system combination, the Info Package is executed as an initialization Info Package.

·         If there are one or more active initialization requests with the same or overlapping selections for this DataSource/source system combination, the InfoPackage is converted to a delta InfoPackage just before it is executed in the process chain.
After it has been converted, the Info Package stays as a delta Info Package in the process chain.

SAP BW 7.3 - New Feature: Automatically repeat red DTP requests in Process Chains

This is another cool nice feature in SAP BW 7.3. Sometimes DTP load fails with one off error messages like RFC connection error, missing packets, database connection issues etc. Usually these are resolved by repeating the failed DTP load. 

In BW 7.3 there is an option under execute tab which if you check will automatically repeat red requests in process chains. I think this is a cool feature and saves us time and effort in monitoring data loads. 

Below is F1 help on this option.

Automatically Repeat Red Requests in Process Chains

If a data transfer process (DTP) has produced a request containing errors during the previous run of a periodically scheduled process chain, this indicator is evaluated the next time the process chain is started.

If the indicator is set, the previous request that contains errors is automatically deleted and a new one is started.

If the indicator is not set, the DTP terminates and an error message appears explaining that no new request can be started until the previous request is either repaired or deleted.

Use

If you set the indicator, you reduce the administrative effort for process chains. Terminated process chains can repair themselves.

Dependencies

Note that if a delta update is carried out, the repaired request contains not only the data of the terminated request, but all data that has been added to the source since then. This can lead to both performance and consistency problems.

Example of a Consistency Problem:

A transfer that has the prerequisite that the data of only one day is transferred at a time, and that produces incorrect results, leads to consistency problems if, during the repair, the data of more than one day is to be transported at the same time.