SAP Net Weaver Application Server Java (NWA/EP) Troubleshooting Cum Analysis Document

Prepared by:
Mohammed Azher Ul Haque, MCA, M.Tech.
Technical Lead – SAP Basis HANA Cloud Architect, Hyderabad, India. Mobile: +919346344403.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohammedazherulhaque/

The aim of this article is to provide details of the SAP NetWeaver Application Server for Java (AS Java) Startup and Control
Framework run-levels. It also dives into the logs that needs to be checked if a particular run-level fails. Performance
issues can encompass a single transaction or an entire SAP landscape. The aim is to identify the exact root cause of the
issue in order to help optimize the specific source of the performance issue. It should be noted that performance issues
can have more than one root cause, in which case two or more aspects of the landscape contribute to an overall
degradation (e.g. Network issues paired with DB issues).
More specifically, the following areas are covered:
 Slow performance or hanging of AS Java in Startup phase, Running phase or during Deployment.
 High CPU issues in relation to slow performance of AS Java server.
 Memory issues of AS Java.
Determining the initial root cause can be achieved through answering the following questions.

1.General questions:
 Is the Performance issue sporadic/random or does it occur at a fixed time?
 If the performance issue is sporadic, run the /n/SDF/MON performance monitoring tool to check your overall
system performance, if this occurs at a specific time, always recommended to document this within the incident.
 Is this issue with some transaction /job specific, a specific job or transaction can be analyzed with an ST12 trace
to further determine the root cause, Does the system performance degrade gradually throughout the day or is
this a spike in poor performance, have you recently implemented any changes to your system landscape?
 This could indicate issues with your buffer areas. This can be checked in ST02. You should generally have no
more than 10,000 swaps per day, identify a time when the performance of the system degraded?
 Is this isolated to a single server? Have you recently had an Early Watch service? If so, have the
recommendations been actioned? Does this concern a single user, or multiple users?
 Do you have load balancing or logon groups configured, has there been a recent increase in system users?

2. Identifying the issue:

 Do you have batch job processing which occurs during peak hours?
 This can be identified with the ST03 "Time profile" and in SM66 where multiple BTC work processes will be
occupied, SAP recommends processing only essential batch jobs during peak hours.
 Do you have long running jobs in SM66/SM50? Do you see a high level of swaps in ST02?
 If you identify issues with all work processes being consumed, you may have a DB issue which can be further
confirmed by identifying "Sequential read" processes, do you see high average processing times in ST03N.
 If particular processes are exceptionally high, this will help focus on the root cause of the issue (e.g. High RFC
times, Background processes with high DB accesses).
 Here, you can also compare average CPU process time with average DB time, to see where the majority of the
overall process time is being spent, have you witnessed low CPU idle values in ST06?
 A high level of Swaps indicates an issue with buffering and insufficient Swap space.
 If you see a CPU utilization that is less than 90%, this may have indicated high CPU utilization.
 Has the network been investigated internally? Latency and throughput issues can effect communication
between servers? SAP recommends determining if the Network is an issue with a Niping trace?

3. Clarifying the issue:

 The following below will be requested when insufficient information has been given to analyze a performance
issue, is there any transactions, Users and/or reports being effected, Time performance issue last occurred in
terms of system time, Ideal runtimes compared with the issue being experienced by the user.
 Any recent changes made on the system (e.g. upgrades, migrations, patch level updates)
 Any checks that have been made by teams on the customer side (network, database, basis).
I hope the following below consolidated Guided Answers and SAP Notes will help you to find out the main culprit of the
bad performance and resolve the problems that you encounter with the SAP Netweaver AS Java in terms of general or
specific performance issue, high CPU or out of memory, etc.

2973991 - AS Java Startup and Control Framework run-levels explanation

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2973991
2726936 - SAP NetWeaver Application Server Java - High CPU / Performance / Memory issues - Guided Answers
https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2726936
SAP NetWeaver Application Server Java - High CPU / Performance / Memory issues
https://ga.support.sap.com/dtp/viewer/index.html#/tree/2233/actions/28655
Java performance problem: the logs which needs to be collected for SAP Support
https://blogs.sap.com/2014/11/14/java-performance-problem-the-logs-which-needs-to-be-collected-for-sap-support/
J2EE Engine Problem Analysis Scenarios
https://help.sap.com/viewer/ff5437cc6c551014a792af52796c5763/7.02.24/en-
US/12d4fc3f8fc2c542e10000000a1550b0.html
Portal Platform Problem Analysis Scenarios
https://help.sap.com/viewer/ff5437cc6c551014a792af52796c5763/7.02.24/en-
US/de893341762ff523e10000000a155106.html
SAP NetWeaver™ Problem Analysis Guide (PAG)
https://help.sap.com/viewer/ff5437cc6c551014a792af52796c5763/7.02.24/en-
US/6c7ffb3f6c78ee28e10000000a1550b0.html
2733856 - AS Java Transactions and Resource Handling (BC-JAS-TRH): Guided Answers
https://ga.support.sap.com/dtp/viewer/#/tree/2361/actions/30909
2468530 - Web Dynpro JAVA - Guided Answers
https://ga.support.sap.com/dtp/viewer/#/tree/797/actions/8715

2456218 - Performance issue definition and determination

2399769 - General Performance: Troubleshooting Questions
2383809 - How to use the SDF/MON tool to analyses performance issues.
604080 - Starting the J2EE Engine from within an R/3 environment
915825 - AS Java Bootstrap Troubleshooting
710663 - AS Java Bootstrap Synchronization
604564 - Initial help for SAP J2EE problems in WebAS 6.20 environment
997510 - Troubleshooting J2EE Engine 6.40/7.0 Bootstrap Issues
2492174 - How to increase tracing/logging of the JStart process
1593107 - Logwatch Tool - Collecting Portal DefaultTrace logs
1820417 - How to trace system connection test errors in the portal [VIDEO]
1596214 - How to find the latest default trace file of the NW AS Java right after reproducing an issue
599539 - J2EE Engine: How to create a full thread dump
1600085 - Dbpool of AS JAVA causing application related issues
2534160 - SAP Netweaver Scheduler for JAVA- Guided Answers
2648598 - Scheduling Jobs on AS Java on Particular Instance
2621071 - Java scheduler jobs stuck in status STARTING
3012575 - How to check whether the specified connector is available and running on AS Java

Request you to please remember me in your precious supplications

We can be in touch on my LinkedIn platform as well
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohammedazherulhaque/

“Best of luck”