SAP Blogs: 2013

Tuesday, December 10

J2EE Engine hangs because of unsufficient system threads

Symptom
J2EE engine does not respond to any requests, the system is frozen and the cluster node (if allocated) should be restarted to solve the issue temporarily.

Other Terms
hang, freeze, not responding, thread, performance, j2ee

Reason and Prerequisites
Very often for SAP Net Weaver systems running J2EE Engine with Enterprise Portal there are recommendations , that a number of 20 or 40 for the Application Threads are sufficient. This is true for the application threads, but too often these recommendations are understood as concerning the number of the System Threads, even for dispatcher nodes.

Please note, that System Threads and Application Threads pools are two separate thread pools with absolutely different functionality and mixing them, i.e setting any not recommended by SAP J2EE Engine support value to the System Threads number, could be fatal. Please be very careful regarding exactly which number is changed.

Solution
When J2EE Engine stops responding, please do the following steps:

1. Make (at least one) thread dump of the cluster node that hangs (or of all the cluster nodes, including dispatcher ones if the node is not allocated).

procedure to create thread dump is explained below in the post.

2. If the thread dump(s) show that there are no free System Threads, i.e. if there are no threads with the stack trace:
"SAPEngine_System_Thread[impl:5]_#" prio=1 tid=0x09aa4cb0 nid=0x453f in Object.wait() [0x58a09000..0x58a09228]
at java.lang.Object.wait(Native Method)
- waiting on <0x6b4f0060> (a com.sap.engine.lib.util.WaitQueue)
at java.lang.Object.wait(Object.java:429)
at com.sap.engine.lib.util.WaitQueue.dequeue(WaitQueue.java:238)
- locked <0x6b4f0060> (a com.sap.engine.lib.util.WaitQueue)
at com.sap.engine.core.thread.impl5.SingleThread.run(SingleThread.java:127)

please proceed to step 3.

3. Check the values for the System Threads in the visual configtool:

- start the configtool script in /configtool;
- in the left GUI pane expand Cluster Data -> Global server configuration -> managers -> ThreadManager;
Check the values of the properties MinThreadCount, InitialThreadCount and MaxThreadCount.

4. Check the values of the same properties for the dispatcher nodes under Cluster Data -> Global dispatcher configuration -> managers -> ThreadManager.

The values of all the properties mentioned must be at least the default ones. Pressing the "Restore to default" button (after having in mind the current values) would give you the defaults.
In case the current values are lower than the default, please keep the default values (Select from the menu File -> Apply and confirm all popups and then restart the cluster in order for the changes to take effect).
In case the current values are higher than the default values, and still there are no free system threads, please report an SAP message in BC-JAS-COR component, attaching to it the thread dumps you have made in step 1. In this case do not apply the changes.
In case of lower than the default values, if resetting them to the defaults does not solve the issue, please report an SAP message in BC-JAS-COR component, attaching to it the thread dumps you have made in step 1. Please keep the System Thread pool configured with the default values meanwhile.

Create a thread dump from all Java threads running on a Java node

You are using the J2EE Engine and want to create a thread dump from all Java threads running on a Java node.

Reason and Prerequisites

For platforms using a JDK from SUN:

Please check that the Java node is not in "console" mode.

Open the /usr/sap// /j2ee/cluster/instance.properties file and check that the node does not have a "ID.Console=yes" attribute.
If the console mode is active, the output of the node is not redirected and you will not find a std_.out file.
You can deactivate the console mode by clearing the "Show Console" checkbox of the node in the ConfigTool.

Solution

Use the JCMon tool to initiate a thread dump.
1. Start the JCMon program with the profile of the instance.

The JCMon binary is located in the /usr/sap///j2ee/os_libs directory or in the /usr/sap//SYS/exe/run directory.

2. Enter "20" to go to the "Local Administration Menue".

3. Choose the "Dump stacktrace" menu item by entering its number.

4. Select the Java node from the list of processes above and enter the value from the "Idx" column.

5. Confirm the command with a "y" if the selected node is correct. After completion, you will find the thread dump:

in the /usr/sap///work/std_.out file (for JDK's from SUN and HP, according to the patch level of jlaunch also for Classic VM on IBM i)

for JDK's from IBM: javacore..txt in directory

/usr/sap///j2ee/cluster/dispatcher

/usr/sap///j2ee/cluster/server#

/usr/sap///SDM/program

according to the patchlevel of jlaunch in a spoolfile QDMPJVM of the workprocess user (for Classic VM on IBM i)

Alternative procedure on Unix

1. Start the JCMon program with the profile of the instance.

2. Enter "20" to go to the "Local Administration Menue".

3. Note the process ID (PID) from the Java node.

" command from the shell.

Alternative procedure on Windows
This procedure is not applicable for double stack installations (R/3 and J2EE Engine running in the same instance).

1. Open the SAP Management Console.

2. Navigate to the Process table of the Java instance.

3. Right-click on the Java node and choose "Dump Stack Trace" from the context menu. Alternative procedure on iSeries

OFR.

)

Jobs labeled "PGM-JLAUNCH" in column "Function" are java processes. In earlier support packages, those processes had the job name "JLAUNCH", with higher SP levels, they have job names "SDM", "DISPATCHER", "SERVER0" etc. Please substitute in the following lines accordingly.

). These values are needed to create a java thread dump.

4. To create the java thread dump, do one of the following:

) USER() NUMBER()

DMPJVMSAP creates a spool file QDMPJVM. In this spool file not only all java threads dumps are to be found but also the heap stack and the class loader information. DMPJVM does not stop a running JVM. This means that you can create a java thread dump at any time without stopping a JVM.

Note that DMPJVMSAP only works with Classic VM. If your system is configured to run with IT4J this method cannot be used. Choose the commonly described method using jcmon for IT4J. The one below is only applicable to systms using Classic VM.

b) Go to menu R3PROBLEM and choose option 16 'Trigger Java VM Dump' also specifying the job data. Location of the dump depends on the JVM you are using and on the patch level of your system (see generic description above).

5. To look at the spool file created by DMPJVMSAP, enter command WRKSPLF. Use the function key F11 to collect the following information: file number, job name and job number.

(for example: getJavaDumpFile.bat as0096 SIDOFR secret QDMPJVM 2
QPADEV0004 SIDOFR 060594)

Monday, September 2

Merge Id, Merge priority and can be merged properties of PCD objects

Merge Id, Merge priority and can be merged properties of PCD objects normally come to use when we implement business packages. Buisiness packages contain roles, worksets, pages, iviews, folders etc. It may happen that multiple business packages contain the same workset. When those business packages are deployed onto portal and roles are assigned to users it may happen that same workset is assigned twice or than twice to the same user or to the same group. for example

business package B1 has workset W1 and W2. Business package B2 has worksets W1 and W3. Also B1 has roles R1 and R2. R1 contain worksets W1 and W2. R2 contain W3 and W4. Business package B2 has roles R3 and R4. R3 contain worksets W1 and W3

How to setup a support desk scenario on portal

Once a support desk scenario is established for portal, end users can raise support tickets and the tickets go and sit in the solution manager system. But before we go ahead and setup a support desk scenario for portal, we need to make sure that solution manager is installed and support desk plugin is installed in it. Solution manager system is added in the portal system landscape using the system landscape directory. User mapping between portal solman system is done. The user in solman system using which user mapping has been done must have suffisient rights in solman system to open support tickets.
Once these prerequisites are met, create the support iview and attach it to the iviews on which you want support iview to appear. Configure your iviews to display “report a problem” option in the options menu. Follow below steps to do all these actions.
1. In top-level navigation, choose

Content Administration

Portal Content

.
2. In the context menu of the relevant folder and choose

New

iView

to launch the iView wizard.
3.     In the Source Type step, select Portal Component, and choose Next.
4.     In the Portal Archive Selection step, select com.sap.portal.epsolman, and choose Next.
5.     Select the EPSolman portal component, and choose Next.
6.     Fill out the general iView properties and choose Next.
7.     Choose Finish.
8.     Select Open the object for editing.
9.     In the Property Editor, choose the Show All property category.
10.  Maintain the following properties:
o    R/3 Installation Number of the Solution ManagerThis can also be the SAP NetWeaver Portal installation number. This number is provided by SAP.o    Portal DBMS short nameo    Portal DBMS releaseo    Valid R/3 connection in jcoDestinations.xml in the Portal System LandscapeThis is usually the system alias that you defined for the Solution Manager system in the system landscape.o    Target R/3 Solution Manager versionRelease of the Solution Manager system.o    System ID of the Portal (optional)
11.  Assign the Report a Problem iView to a role corresponding to your Support Desk scenario.
12.  Optional: You can add an item to the Options menu that enables portal users to access the Report a Problem iView. You can add the option to thePage Title Bar in the framework page, or directly to the tray of specific iViews.
o    To add the Report a Problem option directly to the tray of any iView:
1.     Open the relevant iView in the Property Editor.
2.     From the Property Category dropdown list, select Appearance – Tray.
3.     In the Show ‘Report a Problem’ Option property, select Yes.
o    To add the Report a Problem option to the Page Title Bar:
1.     Open the framework page in the Page editor.
2.     Select the Page Title Bar iView and choose Properties.
3.     In the Property editor, from the Property Category dropdown list, select Appearance.
4.     In the Show ‘Report a Problem’ Option property, select Yes.

Wednesday, August 28

Configuring User mapping for SAP enterprise portal

Thursday, August 15

SAP EP User administration

What is UME? What are UME Action? What are UME roles and what are portal roles? How to map users for single sign on purposes?

UME
UME stands for user management engine. It is a service of SAP EP using which user and user attributes can be maintained. UME can be configured to use few datasources as user bases. Multiple datasources also can be configured using the UME configuration. UME enforces authentication and authorization in SAP EP. Authnetication means validating the user when he is trying to login to SAP EP. Authorization means providing a user with sufficient rights to work with objects within SAP EP. for example, there are 2 iviews say contact details iviews and user data iview on a screen of SAP EP. user data is some information which identifies the user uniquely within a system. As administrators of a system we would not want the user to modify that information so we would provide only read access for the iview to the end user. On the other hand, contact details iview is user's personal information which he can change by logging into SAP EP. To that iview we can provide read, write access. These are called authorizations.

UME action
In order to enforce authorization within portal as explained above, you need to define some actions, permission and roles. To put it simply, some permissions grouped together form action. Some actions grouped together form role. Role are assigned to user or group of users. So ultimately it is the permissions that are being assigned to the user of group of users.
Permissions are defined as code level within the portalapp.xml file. So for each application that gets integrated within the SAP EP, there are a set of permissions defined. Users who would be given those permissions would be able to access those applications through iviews.
Also within the java code of the application, permissions are grouped into actions. Actions are then visible in the administration console on user management and can be grouped together to form a role.

UME roles and portal roles
UME roles are a group of ume actions defined in the java code of an application. There are some standard ume actions available in a fresh enterprise portal. installation. So UME roles serve the purpose of authorization only within the portal. Authorization is based on the actions available within the UME role. portal role on the other hand decides which content is to be made visible to the user who has that portal role. Also it can be assigned ume actions to define authorization. So UME roles are only for authorization while portal roles are for both authorization and content to be displayed to the user.
UME roles can be created using the identity management of portal. Portal roles can be created using the portal content directory tool of portal. UME roles are stored in the User management tables of the J2EE database while portal roles are stored in the PCD tables of J2EE database.
In portal context it is always better to use portal roles because they serve both the purpose of authorization and content assignment.

How to map users for single sign on purposes
We need user mapping to make sure that user is able to access backend system from portal. Enabling the user to do this is called single sign on. And we would require to do mapping of the users only when user ID of the user is not the same in portal and the backend system. If the user ID is same, user mapping would not be needed.
When a portal application tires to access a backend system, portal runtime checks portal system landscape and identifies the system. Then the runtime asks the UME whether a user mapping for the current user for the backend system is available or not. If available, then access to the backend system is granted to the user. There are 2 type of user mappings possible in portal.

User mapping using the logon ticket.
In this type of user mapping, the portal writes backend user ID in the logon ticket that portal issues when an application tries to connect to the backend system. The backend system then reads the user ID from the ticket and authenticates portal user to access the backend system
User mapping using user ID and password
In this type of user mapping, a portal user, group or roles is mapped to a specific ID in the backend system. When a portal user, tries to access the backend system, portal runtime checks with UME whether a mapping between current user and a user ID in the backend is done or not. If not, it checks whether a mapping between the group to which current user belongs to and the backend user ID is done or not. If not, it checks whether a mapping between one of the direct roles of current user and the backend user ID is done or not. Once mapping is found, portal user is allowed to access the backend system.

Related posts
Pointing UME of portal to Active directory
How to change portal runtime mode
SAP enterprise portal user administration
Methods of IUserFactory API and Iuser API

Wednesday, July 10

Iview Timeout error in SAP EP 7.0

Monday, June 10

Scope of work of SAP EP consultant

1. Deployment of Standard and Custom Portal Archive Application changes for Portal Theme

and Framework (Portal ARchive deployment, Java, JSP and JavaScript)

2. Configuration and development activities in NWDS and NWDI infrastructure

3. EAR/WAR Deployment experience for standard and custom portal applications

4. J2EE configuration for Creating/Maintaining WD Java JCO’s for ESS/MSS/SSS and Custom

deployments

5. Design and development of Portal Theme objects and Complex Role Navigation from

uploaded SAP Backend Roles

6. System Landscape Directory administration and Configuration for technical systems and

Project tracks Portal objects Configuration adhering to all SAP recommended

methodologies

7. Migration Experience of SAP Enterprise portal 7.0 EHP2 objects to 7.3 EHP1 Portal

8. Configuration of ESS, SLCM and SRM Business Packages

9. Configuration of SAP Enterprise portal 7.0 EHP2 / 7.3 EHP1 Portal Systems in

DEV/QA/PRD Landscape

10. Configuration for Employee Self Service/Manager Self Service EHP4 and EHP5 Business

Packages

11. Administration and configuration of Universal Work List (UWL) for SAP Standard and

custom SAP Applications

12. Configuration of Single Sign On with Various SAP systems (Including ERP, BI, SRM and

CRM) and Non SAP systems (Blackboard, Millennium)

13. Exposure to Web dispatcher, Load balancing techniques and reverse proxy methodologies

14. Exposure to Federal Portal Network configuration will be an added advantage

15. User Management Engine administration and System administration

Thursday, May 30

Create a KM Document Iview in SAP Entreprise Portal

Create a test folder. Right click on the folder and select new->Iview as shown below

Select Iview from template radio button in below screen

Select KM document iview in the next step of iview creation wizard

Enter Iview properties like name, ID prefix etc…as shown below and click next.

Iview summary will be shown to you. Click finish.

Select open the object for editing radio button to open for editing its properties.

There is a property called “path to document”. Change that to whatever path you want. The path should be available in KM. by default this property will have some value as shown In below figure.

Go to KM. Create a new file which you would like to be displayed in the above created iview. Do as shown below

Enter some data as asked in below page for the creation of the text file in current folder of KM

Click save button on above screen and the Test text document will be created in current KM folder and shown below

To get the path of the document you just created, right click on it and select properties option as shown below

Select the part after docs. In our case it is documents/Test.txt.

Copy documents/Test.txt and put it in the ‘path to document’ property as shown below and click on save button.

Click on the Preview button and the text document you had created in KM will be displayed in preview.

This Iview which displays a KM document can be used anywhere in web applications hosted on portal. For example you have a .Net application where you want to display a document stored in KM, you can create a link on .NET page and link it to the KM document iview created above.
Please feel free to comment on the above post, any improvements suggested will be implemented. Try above with your SAP EP installation and let me know if you face problems while creating KM Document Iview...

Unlocking a locked object in SAP EP

When we open an object from the portal catalogue in edit mode, it is locked by current user. During the same time, if any other user try to put it in edit mode, portal does not allow him to do so. It needs to be unlocked before it can be edited. An unlocked object is shown below. Notice the warning message that is shown below the top level navigation and detailed level navigation area.

To unlock, go to system admin->monitoring->portal->object locking and you will see below screen where all locked objects will be displayed. Select the one which you want to unlock and click on the unlock button.

Tuesday, May 28

Pointing UME of Portal to Active directory or LDAP

To give a background of UME : UME stands for user management engine of sap enterprise portal. It stores the user attributes like groups, roles, user names, user contact details etc.

UME can be configured to take all the above data from various data sources like active directory or LDAP, SAP CRM system, SAP J2EE engine database etc.

In this post we are going to learn the steps required to integrate Active directory or LDAP with the UME of portal.

before you start configuring the UME to use LDAP, 4 things needs to be in place:
1. During installation of WAS ie web application server, UME was configured to use J2EE engine database as data source.
2. LDAP consists of a hierarchy of users and groups which are supported by the UME of portal.
3. Data source configuration XML file is in place. This file can be obtained from the administrator of LDAP.
4. The administrator of LDAP has created a user using which Portal UME can connect to LDAP. The user created for connection purpose must have read and search permissions. This user is called service user. UserID and password of service user can be obtained from the administrator of LDAP.
If above 4 things are in place, you are all set to go ahead and configure UME of portal to use LDAP as a user data source.

Step1. Start the configuration tool by executing \j2ee\configtool\configtool.bat.

Choose UME LDAP in the configuration tool as shown below

In the LDAP configuration tool under Data Source Configuration file, choose Browse and browse to the new configuration file dataSourceConfiguration_ads_readonly_db_with_krb5.xml

Choose upload.

Step2. Enter connection data to LDAP server. Service user provided by LDAP administrator be used in this step.
Start the config tool as explained in step1, go to connection data and enter connection data with below values

LDAP Server Type MICROSOFT ADS – Predefined

Server Name

Server Port

User      Service User*

Password      Password of the Service User*

SSL   Not Selected

UME unique id with unique LDAP attribute    Samaccountname

User Path    CN=Users,DC=,DC=org

Group Path   CN=Users,DC=,DC=org

Then chose test connection to test the connection with LDAP with the data you entered above. Thats it !!! done with LDAP configuration !

Please feel free to add comments to this blog post to improve it...

Monday, May 27

SAP EP Pictograms

Use your own pictograms. What are pictograms? Where are these used? Where are they located within SAP EP.
Pictograms are nothing but small icons which can be used to be displayed beside relevant text on applications within portal. SAP EP content admin tab has all the content that SAP EP needs to render to relevant users when they log in to the portal. These content are stored as content objects in hierarchical manner. Pages have iviews, Roles have Iviews, pages etc...
Each object of the hierarchy can be displayed along with a icon which is stored in pictograms folder under Web resource repository under content admin tab.

From SAP EP 7.3 onwards, each object in the portal content catalogue has a property called pictogram. by changing the pictogram property you can make the new icon appear beside that object whereever that object appears within the portal.
You can even upload your own custom pictograms within the pictogram folder. Also you can change the location of pictogram folder. It is by default as said earlier under the Web resource repository under content admin role. You can change it from nwa.
under the application: com.sap.portal.navigation.mimeservice
find the service: navigation_mime_repository configurations
property: Path to Web Resource Repository folder where pictograms are stored

Please share your experiences with SAP EP pictograms and make this post more educative and productive to others in the SAP EP community...

Saturday, May 25

Custom theme for a Java web dynpro application in SAP EP 7.3

A java web dynpro application when run within portal, takes up portal theme by default. There can be business scenarios where certain web dynpro applications need be given a different theme than the one portal has. How to acheive this ?

Set WDJ application parameter
WDJ application has a standard parameter called theme. Once the application is launched, the value of that parameter can be set to a custom them which is avaialable on the Portal. In addition to this, the URL of WDJ application can be given a parameter called theme which can then be internally set in the WDJ application standard theme parameter.

There can be scenarios where in we need to run a web dynpro application standalone and still would want it to take portal default theme or a custom theme. Please post comments on this post if someone has ideas as to how this can be done...

Friday, May 24

Launch Portal UWL from within an email notification

Various busines scenarios use UWL for the assigning tasks to respective task owners. It basically manages the tasks that individual need to perform as part of a business process. Whenever a particular task is completed, it is forwarded to the next business taks owner in the chain who then performs action on it to drag the business process to completion.

In UWL, we can make settings so that email notifications are send to the owners of the tasks wheneven a new task appears for them. They can then login to portal, navigate to the UWL and action their task. Alternatiively, we can provide a direct link to the UWL in email notifcation which the user can click within the email and directly the UWL page is opened for him.

UWL has various tabs like completed items, pending items etc. Custom tabs also can be created. Is it possible to navigate to a particular tab by default or to frame the question more appropriately, is it possible to provide 3 links in the email notification each pointing to a different tab within the UWL. So if the user wants to see completed tasks, he can directly click on the completed tasks link and the UWL page launches with the completed tab selected by default. Please discuss to shed some light on the matter...

Thursday, May 23

Customize Portal Branding on Masthead using Theme editor

The scenario here is the customer is not using AJAX framwork page and he is on SAP EP 7.3
He wants the branging image to be customized. The problem we faced during customization is that branding image is being overlaid by the welcome text which appears on the top left side of portal masthead. Is there some way that the branding image starts at the welcome text has finished so that the overlapping of branding image and the welcome text does not happen.

Wednesday, May 22

Change the text of Help option that appears in Iview options

It is possible to change the text of help option which is one of the options under IView options. This can be done by changing the text in a property file called headeriView_nls.properties which will be located at dist\PORTAL-INF\private\classes on the server, restart the portal and check if the changes are reflected or not.

In case the changes are not reflected, please comment on the steps to be followed...

Upgrade SP level of SAP Portal

We have portal installed and running sice last 2 years. Version is 7.0 SP 15. We want to upgrade the service pack to a higher version to suite system requirements. The backend to whihc we connect is SAP R/3 system which is undergoing an upgrade. How do we calculate which version of SP should we upgrade the portal to ?
Any information on the topic is most welcome and will be served as help to all others trying to perform upgrade of service pack of SAP EP.

Following some discussion of the internet, I came to know that we'll need to create a maintenance transaction with Maintenance Optimizer in Solution Manager system MOPZ will draw information from SLD and use it to calculate a Support Package Stack to apply to Portal system. MOPZ will also approve all files for download and add them to SAP download basket. In NW 7.0, you can use the Java Support Pack Manager (JSPM) tool to deploy this SP Stack.

But these steps are not pretty clear

How to create a maintancne transaction in with maintanance optimizer in solution manager system?
What is MOPZ?
how to start the Java support pack manager ?

Creating JCo destinations

JCo or Java connectors connect SAP EP to the backend systems from which SAP EP takes data to be displayed to the user. Unless you have JCos in place, you wont be able to connect to the backend systems. To create JCos, SSO configuration is a prerequisite.

There are two methods to create JCo destinations.

Using the SLD web UI and
Using web dynpro content admin tool.

Please post comments on the steps of creation of JCos using the above two methods.
Which method is more suitable and why ?

Options to customize logon page of SAP EP

Logon page of SAP EP can be changed from UME, from NWA wherein you can change the logon application property. How to change logon page's branding image and text from the config tool ?
how to change the Alias of the aplication for customizing login pages (ume.logon.application.ui_resources_alias) property?
Please comment if you are aware of the topic...

Storing video or audio files on KM

It is possible to store video or audio files on the KM component of SAP EP. But is it recemmended to do so ? For example I have a user manual in the form of a video....the size of which is 100 MB. If I upload this video on KM and provide its link on the portal for end user to access and watch it, will it be user friendly in terms of loading and playing ? What other solutions do I have for this requirement ?

As far as I remember, the default maximum file size allowed on KM is 20 MB. Don't whether it is possible to increase.
Any suggestions welcome...

Wednesday, April 17

SAP EP Change Portal runtime mode. Activate emergency user in portal

How to change portal runtime mode

By using this doc you can change the portal mode from/to production to/from development.
In NW 700:
Navigate to System Administration => System Configuration => Service Configuration => Portal Runtime => Central Configuration
Once there, update the parameter portal.runtime.security.mode == “development”
This is also a place to update the portal html head on all pages
portal.html.head.title == “SAP Net Weaver Portal Supported By ABC”

How to Activate the Emergency User in Portal

1. Activate the SAP* user:
Start the config tool for editing UME properties
\j2ee\configtool\configtool.bat.
In the tree, navigate to Global server configuration > services > com.sap.security.core.ume.service.
The list of UME properties appears.
To change the value of a property: Select a property from the list. In Value at the bottom of the screen, enter a new value.
a. Set the following properties:
ume.superadmin.activated true ;This activates the SAP* user.
ume.superadmin.password ;Enter any password of your choice. This defines the password for the SAP* user.
b. Restart the Java application server.
The SAP* user is now activated. While it is activated, all other users are deactivated. You can only log on with the SAP* user.
2 . Fix your configuration as required, logging on with the user ID SAP* and the password you specified.
Option1: User Administration Console
http://:/useradmin

Option2: Visual admin Tool.

1. Server > Services > security provider
2. select Runtime tab > then select User Management tab
3. Switch to edit mode by click on pen
4. Search for locked user to unlock. (in our case dpsadmin)
5. Select the listed user and click Unlock button.

More SAP EP Articles:
Enterprise Workspaces: Power to the People!
Knowledge management component of SAP Enterprise portal

Saturday, January 5

Enterprise Workspaces: Power to the People!

Being the team that manages the SAP NetWeaver Portal landscapes at Colgate-Palmolive, we have been interested in Enterprise Workspaces since its inception. One of our primary goals is to continually increase the ability of our business units in the management of rich content and access to applications within our portals. The more power and control we can provide to our business units, the faster content and application access can be made available. Enterprise Workspaces promises to be an excellent tool for us in working towards this goal. This is an overview of what we are currently doing with Enterprise Workspaces and where we plan to go with it in the future.

Concept
If you are unfamiliar with Enterprise Workspaces (EW), it is an add-on to the NetWeaver Portal that allows users to create their own, personal portal pages using assets from a Module Gallery. It also allows teams to create Shared Workspaces of portal pages, similar to the concept of a portal role. The ease of the Flash-based user interface makes the management of page content extremely simple, and the overall concept would enable business units to do page and role creation and changes. It provides real-time, controlled page and role content management, without a lengthy transport and change control process. …Power to the People!

Starting-out
In early 2010, we took part in the Sprint Customer Review sessions for EW 1.0. We did the Customer Validation for its installation and we signed-up for the Ramp-up program. In mid-September, we installed the Ramp-up software. For us the timing worked-out well, because we were in the process of migrating our corporate intranet portal to a new landscape. This gave us the opportunity to install EW onto our new intranet portal landscape and see how well we could match the branding. We were extremely pleased with the result.

Building a Catalog of Modules
We wanted to start a pilot with a controlled group from our larger Application Architecture organization and development teams. This would be necessary to get familiar with creating our own modules, administering Workspaces, and to prepare demonstrations to introduce EW to other teams. Since our pilot group would be all IT users, we focused on creating modules relevant to their (and our) daily work. In EW 1.0, the out-of-the-box Modules consist of:

Generic URL Module
Link List
Text Pad
Document List
Member List

During the course of a week, we developed and refined a simple RSS feed reader application. We implemented the feed reader as a generic Module, where a user could add it into a Personal or Shared Workspace and configure their own desired feed. We also used this feed reader to create “canned” feed Modules for specific content from the Lotus Connections collaboration suite. One of these feeds provides access to an individual’s list of files shared through Connections, which only makes sense in the context of a Personal Workspace. Altogether, the feed reader application allowed us to quickly create 7 additional modules—One Generic RSS Feed Reader, and 6 Lotus Connections specific feeds.

Next we created Modules based-off of existing applications used by IT. Some of these applications are used on a daily basis, while others are used ad hoc and monthly. These include:

An SAP GUI Launcher (using Single Sign-on from the portal)
A Favorites view of the GUI Launcher
An Application used for Monthly Time Allocation to Projects
A Security Request Application
Enterprise Search

Shared Workspaces
Using some standard Modules, the RSS feed Modules, and the application Modules, we created a Shared Workspace named, “Utilities.” We then shared this among 25 developers under our Application Architecture organization in 2 different locations.

As I mentioned at the beginning, our own team is in charge of administration of our NetWeaver Portal landscapes, as well as being an application development team. For ourselves, we created a Shared Workspace named, “Portal Core Team,” in which we have a Module built from an application for monitoring the up/down status of our portal nodes. We have a counterpart to our portal team across the globe for 24/7 coverage, and it is important to be able to see an overview of country-specific holidays, personal vacation schedules, production lock-down periods, and scheduled downtimes for system maintenance. For this, we created a Module based-off of a Lotus Notes Mail-in Database calendar (i.e. a group calendar), and here we mark dates relevant to the global team. We also included a page with the URLs to each of our portal application server nodes and a page for EW documentation.

Our Goal for the FutureYou have now seen some examples of what we have done with Enterprise Workspaces 1.0. This is just the beginning…. We have plans for the future of increasing our Module catalog with more applications and rich content sourced from all of our portal landscapes. We are signed-up for the Ramp-up program for EW 1.1, and we are ready to install the software. One of the key features in which we are interested in EW 1.1 is the ability to quickly expand our Module catalog using our vast repository of rich content exposed through the Knowledge Management layer. In addition to this, we plan to integrate content and more applications from other portal landscapes and systems, using the Application Integrator.

Below is a content example we quickly put together from our development systems for a demo, using EW 1.0. The first screen shot is the homepage of our global HR Portal. Below it is the same content exposed on the separate landscape of our intranet portal, built using EW. The first image shows a page that was created and designed using standard portal configuration. The second image shows how the same page could be built quickly and easily using EW, with the content exposed as Modules. With EW, new additions to the page or rearranging the content would be simple drag and drop actions.

This is a crude example, but it demonstrates where we want to go with EW. We ultimately want to provide a catalog of rich content and applications across multiple portals and systems from which our end-users and business units can build meaningful Personal and Shared Workspaces. This will give them the ability to design their own pages and roles within the portal and to organize content in a way that streamlines their work and reduces their navigation across systems. …Power to the People!

Source : SAP SDN