Funniest SAP notes ever

Here are my top forty funniest SAP notes I’ve ever gone through:

1. A lot of notes saying: “No documentation”.
2. 67739 - Priorities of problem messages – Yes, always better to prioritize your work.
3. Note saying: “Obsolete!” – Everybody gets older.
4. 397871 - Solution only possible via customer project – self explanatory
5. Some note saying: “unfortunately” – You mean fortunately?
6. 987267 - SAP Expert Forums - link to OSS refers to SDN.
7. A lot of notes saying: “EN Caution: Translation Not Current!” or “This note is in the selected version / language not up to date” – OK, switch to German.

        For details on this message see here.

8. 7 - Error caused by customer modification/development – Big brother is watching you
9. A note saying: “There is no error.” – Is there/was there an error? Let me think about it.
10. 197504 - We will close your message - SAP AG – do not  mess with mammy
11. A lot of notes saying: “You must refer to the following notes: Note ” – Let’s implement everything!
12. 1 - Customer reports that problem is resolved – What’s up then?
13. A note saying: “recommended with restriction” – Who wants be restricted?
14. 46962 - More information required – Everybody needs information.
15. Some note saying: “It is not clear which” – I have a doubts about myself either, so what?
16. 2 - Customer action not performed -> Message closed – Need something?
17. Note saying: “various problems” – Life’s so different.
18. 1006335 - Priority 'Very High' for messages for SAP Best Practices – Always be best.
19. Note saying: “If you find a relevant note” – Who? Me???
20. 9 - Error cannot be reproduced -> No solution – It so simple, why worried about?
21. A note saying: “try to deimplement this note or another note” – Let’s dig in thousands notes.
22. Note saying: “cannot be solved” – Really???
23. 11 - Requested function not contained in standard system – Do you really need it?
24. Note saying: “may cause major problems” – Help! My problem can be bigger?
25. 13 - Functionality present in a newer release – Hurry up to upgrade…
26. 15 - Problem not related to SAP (hardware, operating system, ... – Think twice please…
27. 418347 - RHDOCCPL: The entry object type is always 'O' – there’s a phrase “shit planning” used text of message (sorry about that) J
28. 18 - Functionality planned for a future release – Why are you so in hurry?
29. 20 - Inquiry implemented without development request – We are masters of disasters!
30. 19 - Inquiry has been converted into development request – Just be patient!
31. 61 - Possible side effect for an SAP note – Be aware of side kicks.
32. 62 - SAP suspects that an SAP note version has to be corrected – It is up to you!
33. 978089 - LIS/BW-BCT: Reproducible example requested – C’m!
34. 403191 - Prompt message processing – Pay monkeys get peanuts.
35. 170272 - What to consider when applying advance developments – Be careful!
36. 736045 - Complaints concerning SAP AG service & support - who is to be blamed?
37. 732082 - Wrong Query Result or No Data found when using Pre Query – “probably valid”? Do you really mean that?
38. 1026749 - Hierarchies: Consistency check for duplicate nodes – “there is uncertainty” – What a nice.
39. 370928 - Good OSS messages for BW-BCT
40. 375631 - Extract of BW Support Strategy – Strategy is very important. Does somebody have it?

P.S. to all SAP Active Global Support (AGS) people: This doesn’t mean that I have something against a job you are everyday doing. Just to be sure; at the end everybody depends on you: partners, consultants and customers. Good job, we rely on you.

IFR vs. ESW

For long time ago InterFace Repository (IFR) was a place where developer could find any BAPI for business scenarios that he/she was working on. It was based on XML schemas directly available for you integration scenarios where several software components communicate between each other using inter/intranet. IFR was available online and it was published on CD be obtained via SAP Shop.

Since SAP has changed it integration strategy to SOA oriented; to call it in SAP terminology we say SAP's Enterprise Service Oriented Architecture (enterprise SOA or ESA) or we can say that in case of SAP’s strategy: Enterprise Services Architecture (ESA) is enhanced version of SOA. Under this terms IFR is replaced by so called Enterprise Service Workplace (ESW). The purpose is the same. Here you can browse enterprise services SAP delivers in the latest solutions of SAP Business Suite. ESW is trying to keep enterprise SOA more accessible. To see how enterprise services are working; enterprise services index is available; business context within the appropriate Solution Map is available as well. There is a detailed documentation on enterprise services to the detail of technical WSDL file definition.

So forget about IFR there’s just ESW.

SAP virus scene alive?

It is been quite a long time now; since first SAP virus appeared in year of 2002. It was the first and most likely the famous one till now; very last virus for enterprise application environment – SAP. It seems to be written earlier in 2000 as a proof-of-concept virus. Concept is proofing that not business application platform as SAP is not resistant from viruses. The Virus is also known as SAP.VSoft.A, SAP.Willi.A, ABAP/Rivpas was probably coded by some Spanish speaking guy as can be observed in its code. It is written in ABAP and its purpose is to spread itself without monitoring of its activity. Of course virus will not replicate in its form and it is needed to be installed manually for first time in SAP system and therefore is kind of intended virus. To be setup such a virus there always must be somebody with user’s authorization for accessing developer’s transaction like SE38/SE80. For detail analyses of this virus see here.

SAP AG published a consulting SAP note 512595 related to this virus describing its behavior and how to prevent it.

Until this “first occurrence” of SAP virus no other viruses for SAP business application platform has been reported. SAP AG is paying a lot of attention to secure its products. E.g. refer to its security guide, security portal on OSS, security notes in OSS components: BC-SEC or BC-SEC-VIR, etc. Within the NetWeaver platform there is a broad focus on security aspect. A brand new Virus Scan Interface (VSI) is available to be used for integrating external virus scanner programs into SAP system to for scanning files or documents that are processed by SAP applications for viruses. In case of ABAP Application server stack check following transactions: VSCAN, VSCANGROUP, VSCANPROFILE, VSCANTEST, VSCANTRACE. For overview of SAP’s data security products check out note 786179.

I don’t believe that there are no and will not be other viruses or similar malicious type of software “dedicated” to SAP platform. Now we are quite safe but time is passing by so fast and new, more sophisticated techniques in creating such a “software” are in development and they will come to reality very soon.

Deletion of data row from PSA

Is it possible to delete whole single or multiple rows from PSA storage? This was an issue I faced recently and since I was too lazy to get back to my source system to adjust data there I simply wanted to delete some records which were erroneous in PSA and then re-uploaded PSA request furthermore to InfoProvider above PSA. My intention was simple; to go to PSA screen of RSA1; find my PSA request; choose “Edit data” from right-context menu on request and delete records on maintenance screen. Then I wonder why there is no Delete item in the menu of this screen enabled. I probably guess that I have forgotten to delete data request from InfoProvider above PSA but I haven’t. Request was deleted from InfoProvider. They I tried to do the same with additional authorization. I got SAP super user with SAP_ALL and SAP_NEW authorization. And you guess it right: it still didn’t work for me: Delete item in menu was disabled. OK; I was thinking; it is the highest time to search for some SAP note on service.sap.com/notes. Another bad news for me was that I wasn’t successful while searching for notes. The only official information I got was an online help at this page saying: “If you change the number of records for a request in the PSA, meaning adding or deleting records, a correct record count in the BW monitor is no longer guaranteed when posting or processing a request.Therefore, we recommend not changing the number of records for a request in the PSA.” This was my guideline. I finally realized that this is possible. I went through PSA-API in order to create custom ABAP program to delete the lines in PSA I wanted. Soon I comprehended that I have no time to play with PSA-API function modules so I made quick and dirty solution and I got rid of unwanted records in PSA in transaction SE11 while I debugged it and deleted it by changing of sy-subrc value.

Conclusion is: You can change records in the PSA or you can delete complete data from PSA but not single record even changing is only allowed if the request is not posted yet to InfoProvider above.

A consultant’s joke

During the team building event of one of former Big 5 consultancies consultants were asked to tell three things about them and one would be a lie. One of participants says:

• I climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro.
• I pitched the first ball at a Padres game.
• I oversaw the smooth implementation of SAP software.
  

Everybody with consulting background but even our customers surely recognize which one is not true. Am I right? :-)