Anthony Cecchini is the President of Information Technology 麻豆TV网站 (ITP), an SAP consulting company headquartered in Pennsylvania. ITP offers comprehensive planning, resource allocation, implementation, upgrade, and training assistance to companies. Anthony has over 17 years of experience in SAP R/3 business process analysis and SAP systems integration. His areas of expertise include SAP NetWeaver integration; ALE development; RFC, BAPI, IDoc, Dialog, and Web Dynpro development; and customized Workflow development. You can reach him at [email protected].
Troubleshooting ABAP
SAT is the transaction name of the new ABAP Runtime Analysis in ABAP Tool, which is one of the most significant improvements in ABAP in the NetWeaver 7.0 EhP2. For those of you who are already familiar with the transaction SE30, the former ABAP Runtime Analysis Tool, transaction SAT is the successor of SE30. SAP has completely听enhanced the tool with effective new analysis tools and features. The old SE30 transaction offered only two main tools, the听Hit List听and the听Call Hierarchy. SAT offers a rich set of new tools to analyze different aspects of a trace. Some other benefits include 听a modern听UI, new analysis tools, easy navigation between tools…etc…etc. This first blog of the series about SAT gives overview of the most useful SAT improvements (particularly in comparison with the former SE30) and gives a quick听“how to”听in order to get you started using this for a听runtime analysis of any ABAP application.
Getting Started
Starting a trace measurement in SAT is quite similar to SE30. There are no major changes on the听first screen from SE30 to SAT. A new tab听Evaluate听has been added to the screen. On the听贰惫补濒耻补迟别听tab you can take a look at existing听trace measurements results with their status, date of creation, total runtimes. Only your traces are shown, but you can change this by right-clicking on the column听Trace user听and choosing the听Set Filter (see below)
In the old SE30, internal tables were identified only by their internal names (IT_<no>). A nice feature in the new听SAT transaction is that now SAP can determine and show the听names of internal tables as they appear in your ABAP source code for the trace measurement results.
Another听new benefit of SAT is a new storage system for traces.听 SAT stores traces in the database. That means that you can display a trace from any application server in the system (in SE30 only traces of the current application server are visible). When you display a trace measurement result the first time (e.g. by you double clicking it on the Evaluate听tab), it gets formatted and written to the database.
听Measurement Variants
Variants are the听foundation of all measurements in the Runtime Analysis transaction. You can maintain trace conditions and restrictions in a variant for the new SAT transaction, the same way you did for SE30. A default variant named “DEFAULT” is supplied by SAP. We recommend you create your own variant. (see below)
To create your own variant use the 
听button in the听厂别迟迟颈苍驳蝉听area on the initial screen.听You will see the screen with three tabs, which you already know from the SE30:听Duration and type, Statements,听Program Parts. (see below)
The main goal of using a variant is to get the trace data you need while keeping extraneous data and storage use to a minimum. Especially for long running trace measurements. To help out, below our some tips within each of the Tabs to restrict the results while still getting you the trace data you need.
OK, lets say your Object has method FORMAT_SCREEN. Your Object calls this method 20 times. One way to restrict the size of the trace file can be found on the “Duration and Type” tab. There you will see a set of radio buttons for aggregation. (see below)
If you were to choose None, then the trace file would have 20 entries with runtimes,听which could result in a larger trace file then you need. So what happens if you choose Per Call Position? You would get only one entry听created in the trace file, which would contain 20 as number of the hits and the sum of the runtimes. If you extrapolate this out, say it was called 100 times, you could see how the trace file size could grow needlessly. One caveat, if your intention is to create a 颁补濒濒听贬颈别谤补谤肠丑测 in听your trace, then it seems reasonable that you could not select听Aggregation you must select NONE and you will get the object flow.
Ok, now lets set some useful guidelines… First听if you have an idea where the issue is, for instance inside a certain class, function group,听subroutine, or method, name it on the Program Parts tab. To do this go to that Tab and set the Limitation on Program Components radio button, then add the specific object elements in the Grid below.
OK, so you don’t know where to start. OK, well don’t trace everything! Start small and widen the net. For instance, in the Statements Tab start with only听Processing Blocks听in a first run to find out the relevant parts of the code being hit. If this is a Dialog, then you’ll be interested in the flow Logic and Modules in the Screen section. Again, you might be interested in SQL, so the Database Accesses section may be where you start. I am just saying be smart and fence the issue in until you can switch over to the Program Parts Tab and name the specific area, like we did above, that has the problem.
One final way to restrict the size of the trace file is听to switch the trace on/off听only where you need it.听For example if you are interested in a specific begin and endpoint, like between the initial screen and the first ALV grid, 听of a transaction听then this option allows you to switch the trace on or off during that ABAP program execution. You do this on the Duration and Type tab under options. (see below). You听must also activate听Limitation on Program Components听on the听笔谤辞驳谤补尘听笔补谤迟蝉听迟补产.
The trace will be started as soon as you enter听“/ron” (trace on) in the OK code field in your transaction. With听“/roff ”听(trace off)听the trace is stopped. The runtime analysis can be switched on and off in the program as well using the ABAP statement听SET RUN TIME ANALYZER {ON|OFF} 听in the source code.听 And finally听you can also use the menu path:听System -> Utilities -> Runtime Analysis -> Switch On / Switch Off.听
Summary and what’s next…
We learned that the new SAT transaction is what we should use from now on for our Runtime Analysis needs. It has many advantages, including a new UI look and feel, better tool integration, and a host of evaluation tools which we will begin diving into in the next blog听when we take our variant just created and run a trace measurement.
