2222220 - FAQ: SAP HANA DBACOCKPIT

Symptom

You are interested about using the SAP ABAP transaction DBACOCKPIT in SAP HANA environments.

Environment

SAP HANA

Cause

1. What is DBACOCKPIT?
2. Where do I find more information about DBACOCKPIT?
3. What is the difference between DBACOCKPIT and other transaction codes like ST04 or DB02?
4. What are the minimum SAP basis releases to support a SAP HANA connection in DBACOCKPIT?
5. What are requirements to use the embedded statistics server with DBACOCKPIT?
6. How can I configure a remote SAP HANA database in DBACOCKPIT?
7. How can I make sure that DBACOCKPIT works well in case of failovers or takeovers on SAP HANA side?
8. Which users and privileges are required for DBACOCKPIT?
9. How can the use of the SQL editor in DBACOCKPIT be controlled?
10. What are the advantages of DBACOCKPIT compared to SAP HANA Studio?
11. What are typical reasons when calling transaction ST04 / DBACOCKPIT takes a long time?
12. Can the SAP HANA Load Graph also be displayed in transaction DBACOCKPIT?

Resolution

1. What is DBACOCKPIT?

DBACOCKPIT is a SAP ABAP transaction that can be used for administering, monitoring and optimizing databases. Its look and feel is similar for all SAP databases, but its functionality depends on the underlying database. In this SAP Note we focus on transaction DBACOCKPIT related to SAP HANA databases.

2. Where do I find more information about DBACOCKPIT?

You can find details about transaction DBACOCKPIT in the SAP online documentation, e.g. here for SAP NetWeaver 7.40.
Furthermore the following documents exist for specific areas in the context of DBACOCKPIT:

Document	Details
DBA Cockpit in Multitenant Environments	This document describes specific DBACOCKPIT functionalities related to multitenant database container environments (SAP Note 2101244).
New SAP HANA SPS 10 Backup Functionality and DBA Cockpit	Here you can find information about new SAP HANA SPS 10 features like incremental backup or differential backup in the context of DBACOCKPIT.

3. What is the difference between DBACOCKPIT and other transaction codes like ST04 or DB02?

All transaction codes refer to the same underlying transaction, but they enter at different places:

Transaction	Focus	Entry point
DBACOCKPIT	Overview	System Landscape
DB02	Space	Diagnostics -> Missing Tables and Indexes
ST04	Performance	Current Status

Further transaction codes also pointing to areas of DBACOCKPIT are DB01, DB03, DB50, DB12, DB13, DB13C and DB26. More details can be found in the online documentation (-> "Start DBA Cockpit" -> "SAP Transaction Codes for Administration and Monitoring").

4. What are the minimum SAP basis releases to support a SAP HANA connection in DBACOCKPIT?

See SAP Note 2223984 that describes the minimum SAP basis releases for using a SAP HANA connection in DBACOCKPIT. The minimum release level is 7.02 SP9.

5. What are requirements to use the embedded statistics server with DBACOCKPIT?

See SAP Note 1925684 for minimum DBACOCKPIT patch levels required for using the SAP HANA embedded statistics server (SAP Note 2147247).
In order to run embedded statistics server procedures (e.g. required for Solution Manager) you additionally have to apply the GRANTs provided in SAP Note 1917938.

6. How can I configure a remote SAP HANA database in DBACOCKPIT?

For various reasons it can be useful to configure a connection to a remote SAP HANA database in transaction DBACOCKPIT, e.g.:

• Central monitoring of several databases in SAP Solution Manager
• Possibility of using SAP ABAP DBACOCKPIT functionality also for non SAP ABAP systems
• Alternative in case the local SAP ABAP stack has troubles accessing the SAP HANA database

The online documentation (-> "Setting up Database Connections" -> "Add a Database Connection") or alternatively SAP Notes 1265134 and 1664432 describe how to configure a DBACOCKPIT connection to a remote SAP HANA database.

7. How can I make sure that DBACOCKPIT works well in case of failovers or takeovers on SAP HANA side?

If you operate a DBACOCKPIT SAP HANA database connection based on a static host name, you will have trouble to use DBACOCKPIT once this host is down and another node has taken over. SAP Note 1983628 describes how to configure DBACOCKPIT so that a database analysis is still possible after a failover or takeover. See SAP Note 2057595 for more information about high availability mechanisms in SAP HANA environments.

8. Which users and privileges are required for DBACOCKPIT?

See SAP Note 1640741 for detailed information about the users and permissions required for a connection of DBACOCKPIT to SAP HANA.

9. How can the use of the SQL editor in DBACOCKPIT be controlled?

The SQL editor allows to flexibly executes SQL statements for analysis purposes, e.g. SQL statements provided via SAP Note 1969700. This is particularly helpful when SAP expert services like the "SAP Technical Performance Optimization Service - HANA" (SAP Note 2177604) are delivered.

In order to be able to perform an efficient analysis, authorizations for the following authorization objects are needed:

• S_DBCON
• S_RZL_ADM

The setting of S_DBCON is particularly important for the SQL editor permissions. It depends on the SAP basis patch level and is changed as of SAP_BASIS 7.40 SP14 and SAP_BASIS 7.50 SP01 (see SAP Note 1933254):

ACTVT	Description	Original layout	New layout (SAP Note 1933254)
03	Display	The SQL editor is disabled.	The SQL editor is enabled, but only works for tables with explicitly activated table-level authorization.
23	Maintain	The SQL editor is enabled for SELECT statements.	-
36	Extended	The SQL editor is enabled for all types of SQL statements.	The SQL editor is enabled for all types of SQL statements.

For root cause analysis and TPO service deliveries a S_DBCON level of at least 23 (original layout) or 03 with accesses to at least SYS and _SYS* tables (new layout) is required.

10. What are the advantages of DBACOCKPIT compared to SAP HANA Studio?

SAP HANA Studio (SAP Note 2073112) is the standard SAP HANA administration tool which provides a large amount of functionality. For the following reasons it can anyway be of advantage to use DBACOCKPIT and provide access to it for SAP support consultants:

• Single tool for overall analysis (SAP ABAP, database)
• Optimal text based output for documentation purposes
• Close integration with SAP support internal analysis tool RSHDBSTT
• More efficient processing of SQL statements with large statement text
• Additional functionalities (e.g. “Caches”, “Large Tables”, “SQL Workload”)
• Access via “Easy logon” possible so that no manual password retrieval and specification is required
• No specific SAP Router configuration required
• Scheduling of periodic jobs (e.g. backup, consistency check) possible

11. What are typical reasons when calling transaction ST04 / DBACOCKPIT takes a long time?

When calling transaction ST04 takes a long time, you can check at first if calling transaction DBACOCKPIT is much quicker. Although both transaction codes are quite similar, they have different entrance screens and only with ST04 comprehensive SAP HANA performance data is shown.
If transaction ST04 is slow while DBACOCKPIT is much quicker, it may suffer from a high amount of SAP HANA alerts. If it takes many seconds or even minutes to start ST04, you can check according to SAP Note 2147247 if the number of alerts in table STATISTICS_ALERTS_BASE is too high and perform a cleanup.
In general you can create a SQL trace for starting ST04 / DBACOCKPIT using transaction ST05. This will show you which database requests take longest, so that you can analyze them more in detail.

12. Can the SAP HANA Load Graph also be displayed in transaction DBACOCKPIT?

Yes, this is possible starting with the following SAP Basis Support Package levels:

• 7.02 (1)
• 7.30 (13)
• 7.31 (15)
• 7.40 (10)
• 7.50

See SAP Note 2222110 ("How can I monitor the SAP HANA load history information?") for more information.

Keywords

DBA cockpit