Performance

Techniques for Unicode

Conversion of Single
Code Page Systems
Richard Bernat, Chevron Corporation

Theodore Duong, Chevron Corporation

Learning Objectives

As a result of this workshop, you will

be able to:

Select an appropriate environment strategy for your project

Understand the Unicode conversion process
Use SAP tools and techniques for high performance
conversion to reduce downtime
Use Oracle features to enable continuous processing due to
space consumption

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Agenda
Agenda Chevron Corporation
SAP Landscape
Conversion
Planning
Environment Strategy
Process
Tips and Tricks
Q&A
Chevron – About Our Company

One of the world’s largest global energy companies

Active in more than 180 countries
47,000 employees worldwide
$150 billion in revenue for 2004

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Agenda
Agenda Chevron Corporation
SAP Landscape
Conversion
Planning
Environment Strategy
Process
Tips and Tricks
Q&A
 SAP Landscape

HPUX PA-RISC &

IA64
Hitachi
7 Production
environments
500 GB - 4TB
40+ Environments
Oracle 9.2.0.5+

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

H.R. Landscape Prior to The Conversion

HPUX 11.11 PA-RISC

SAP Enterprise 4.71
5 App. servers
2 ITS servers
500 GB DB
Timesheet access via ESS and Portal
24,000 users

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

H.R. Landscape After The Conversion

HPUX 11.23 IA64

SAP R/3 Enterprise 4.71 Unicode

3 Application servers

2 ITS servers

450 GB DB

Timesheet access via ESS and Portal

24,000 users

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Agenda
Agenda Chevron Corporation
SAP Landscape
Conversion
Planning
Environment Strategy
Process
Tips and Tricks
Q&A
Conversion Planning - Documentation

Unicode Conversion Guide

SAP Installation Guide
System Copy Guide
Migration Monitor Guide
Read OSS Notes

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Conversion Planning - Hardware

Change platform to Itanium

Need OS skills to patch and certify new platform
Making existing scripts work on new platform
While HR is relatively small, need to make sure to
have enough disk space for export
Given a 24 hour window for data movement downtime

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Conversion Planning - Downtime

Understand what customers are willing to endure for

outage duration

Downtime started on Friday Evening

Go/No-Go decision on Sunday Morning

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Agenda
Agenda Chevron Corporation
SAP Landscape
Conversion
Planning
Environment Strategy
Process
Tips and Tricks
Q&A
Conversion Environment Strategy

All prior experience based on upgrade strategy

Identified that Unicode Conversion does NOT need to

use the same strategy as an upgrade

Dual support stack not needed, although may be

preferred ( it’s up to you)

Key learning – development environment does not

need to be unicoded immediately

Fix ABAP code prior to converting an environment.

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Conversion Environment Strategy Continued

Chose to apply ABAP unicode changes via transport

bundles after conversion

Needed a separate environment to transport and test

ABAP Unicode ( can not use existing Staging / QA)

Sand box for initial learning

Even though this was for technical learning, users wanted to see
it.

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

H.R. Itanium / Unicode Environment Strategy / Timeline

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Agenda
Agenda Chevron Corporation
SAP Landscape
Conversion
Planning
Environment Strategy
Process
Tips and Tricks
Q&A
Conversion Process

Have a rock solid detailed plan

Understand the environment architecture

Create sand box for learning

Apply OSS notes

Far fewer OSS notes to apply than SAP R/3 Enterprise

Upgrade

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Conversion Process - Know Your Files

Type of file ( Extension) Purpose

EXT Initial extent for tables

STR Structure/Table Definition
TOC Table of Content
CMD Command
LOG Import/Export package logs
TSK Task
DBSIZE.xml DB Size Definition
DDLORA.TPL DDL Statement Template for
Object Creation
SGN Communication Between Export
and Import Processes
import/export_state.properties Migration Monitor Status

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Conversion Process - Create DB/Central Inst.

Create a skeleton DB with locally managed tablespace

(LMTS) and automatic segment space management
(ASSM)
Improve performance
Easier to manage disk space

Run SAPINST to create central instance

Since the DB was created earlier (to fit our standards), chose MCOD to
bypass DB creation
Extract R/3 Kernel, but not Oracle Client
Client already installed in our Shared Oracle_Home
May need to run CROCLLNK script from OSS Note #’s 521230, 539922

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Conversion Process - Prepare Export/Import

Run INSTALL executable non-Unicode version for

export

After initial media extract, run sapinst version if you

need to restart

Run INSTALL executable UNICODE version for import

Get familiar with keydb.xml file

Change ORACLE_HOME references
Acknowledge steps that have been performed
Change status from ERROR to OK ( ie: after Migration Monitor)

Terminate the export/import when R3load is running

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Conversion Process

Setup Migration Monitor

Move your split table files into place.

Wait for scheduled downtime

Bring down SAP R/3

Take the last backup

Start Migration Monitor

Have plenty of snacks available

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Agenda
Agenda Chevron Corporation
SAP Landscape
Conversion
Planning
Environment Strategy
Process
Tips and Tricks
Q&A
Configure ‘Resumable Query’ for SAP Schema

Create a logon trigger to set resumable when SAP WP’s

start or connections are made to SAPR3 (R3load)
CREATE OR REPLACE TRIGGER logon_set_resumable
AFTER LOGON
ON sapr3.schema
BEGIN
execute immediate 'alter session enable resumable
timeout &&TIMEOUT_VAL';
END;

The TIMEOUT_VAL is one of your choosing.

We choose 7200 (seconds) in PRD and 1800 in all others.

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Enable Autoextend on your tablespace datafiles

Set all your datafiles to autoextend

SELECT 'ALTER DATABASE DATAFILE '||file_id||' AUTOEXTEND
ON NEXT ${EXTNDSIZE}M MAXSIZE ${MAXDFSIZE}M;'
FROM dba_data_files a, dba_tablespaces b
WHERE a.tablespace_name = b.tablespace_name
AND b.contents NOT IN ('UNDO','TEMPORARY')
AND a.tablespace_name NOT IN
('PSAPTEMP','PSAPROLL','SYS_AUDIT');

This was used in conjunction with a script that periodically checks

to add disk space from a pool and extends file systems.

Manage PSAPTEMP separately. With Resumable query, you have

time to analyze usage and extend if needed.

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Favorite monitoring queries – who_is_sorting.sql

who_is_sorting.sql
column tablespace format a10;
column osuser format a10;
column machine format a10;
column bytes format 999,999,999,990
break on tablespace skip 1
compute sum of bytes on tablespace
set linesize 180

SELECT b.tablespace, b.segfile#, b.segblk#,

b.blocks, b.blocks*8192 as bytes, a.sid, a.serial#,
a.process, a.machine, a.username, a.osuser,
a.status
FROM v$session a,v$sort_usage b
WHERE a.saddr = b.session_addr
ORDER BY b.tablespace, b.segfile#, b.segblk#,
b.blocks;

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Favorite monitoring queries – sqlactive.sql

sqlactive.sql
set pagesize 60
set linesize 130
set long 1000
column sql_text format A50 word_wrapped

select b.hash_value, a.status, b.executions NumExec,

b.buffer_gets BuffGets,
(b.buffer_gets/b.executions) GetsPer, a.sid,
rpad(a.username,8) usernm, b.sql_text
from v$session a, v$sqlarea b
where a.sql_address = b.address
and a.sql_hash_value = b.hash_value
and a.username <> 'SYS'
and b.users_executing > 0
and b.executions > 0
and a.status != 'INACTIVE'
order by buffer_gets;

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Tips and Tricks - Continued

Export/import_monitor_cmd.properties (Migration
Monitor)
Use mounted file system - nfs vs. ftp
Saves on space and no need to enable ftp (security risk)
Use explicit export order to force large packages earlier and get
them importing (and indexing) (OrderBy=<filename>)
ExportNumJobs=16 ( on an 8-CPU system)

Restarting export/import process

Know your tools R3load and status
(import/export_state.properties)
Know how to reset an export/import package (LOG, TSK,
SAPxxx.00x files)

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Tips & Tricks - Continued

Splitting large tables into multiple packages

Very worthwhile, need to know your tables & indexes to determine
where/how to split (‘where clause’ generation).
Query to define boundaries for split table “where clause”
select min(DOCNUM), max(DOCNUM), pcntile from (select
DOCNUM, ntile(10) over (order by DOCNUM) pcntile from
sapr3.EDIDS where mandt='002')group by pcntile;
“Where clause” bypasses export sort!!!
“Where clause” for export/import MUST be identical ( including white
space)

Custom indexes need to be rebuilt (if not in SAP DD)

Great opportunity to upgrade & reduce hardware

The move to IA64 and faster CPU’s yielded a reduction in app servers
from 5 to 3.

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Summary

Unicode is not to be feared… don’t believe all the myth/horror!

Outage can be reduced using parallel/concurrent processing

techniques

Oracle “resumable query” is a key to a successful migration

It’s vital to have in-depth knowledge of your files and status for
restarting specific packages/phases

Practice… practice… practice makes perfect!

Technical downtime for data movement (R3load/MigMon)
450GB instance
Export time: 4h:40m, Import time: 7h:45m
Last hour of import was just one package
Concurrent Export and Import using MigMon

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Further Information

Public Web:
www.sap.com
www.sdn.sap.com

Americas’ SAP Users’ Group (ASUG)

www.asug.com

Related Workshops/Lectures at SAP TechEd ’05

SPC204 Performance Techniques for Unicode Conversion of Single Code Page
Systems
Tue, 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m., 253B, Thu, 5:15 p.m. – 6:15 p.m., 258B
SPC202, Conversion of SAP Systems to Unicode
Wed, 1:45 p.m. – 3:45 p.m., 258C, Fri, 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m., 258A
SPC250 Making Programs Unicode Enabled
Wed, 10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., 103, Thu, 1:45 p.m. – 3:45 p.m., 103
SPC251 Unicode Interfaces – Data Exchange Between Unicode and non-Unicode
Systems
Wed, 4:15 p.m. – 6:15 p.m., 103, Thu, 4:15 p.m. – 6:15 p.m., 103

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

Questions?

Q&A

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

 Feedback
Please complete your session evaluation.

Be courteous — deposit your trash,

and do not take the handouts for the following session.

Be kind to others.
Thank You !

SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204

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SAP TechEd ’05 / Session ID / SPC204