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A number of activities are critical at ensuring high availability of the SAP system. These administrative tasks are usually performed by the SAP system administrator, who is saddled with the responsibility of ensuring that the system is performing optimally at any point in time. Find following a brief description of some critical administrative activities associated with the SAP system.

1. SAP System R/3 System Status Check: Logon Test
The availability of the SAP R/3 system is a pre-requisite for using the SAP system for data processing. Suffice to say that for you to establish connection to the SAP system at any point in time, the system must be up and running. A simple way to ascertain this is to try and log on to the SAP system.

2. Backup Management: DB12
It is recommended that backup of the SAP system and other non SAP (but relevant files) be carried out daily, weekly and quarterly. There is more to configuring backup jobs or schedule them in the SAP system. The success or failure of the backup run has to be monitored daily. Backup as it were is used to guide against data loss, hence, the need to ensure that it is done properly so that you can recover the system state when the need arises. When a backup run fails, you should immediately resolve the problem and possibly perform an “emergency” backup. There must be no room for procrastination! With transaction DB12, it is possible to check backup status and status of the archive directory. Also, a recovery report can be generated to ascertain if all backup are available to perform a restore and recovery operations.

3. Application Servers Status Check: SM51
The application server is one of the components of the SAP system architecture. Typically, the SAP system architecture consists of the database server, one or more application servers and one or more presentation servers. The application servers handle the processing of business logic and used for load balancing, hence, the need for their availability. The application server represents the runtime environment for the business application of the SAP system. You can use transaction SM51 to display the status of the instances of your SAP system

4. CCMS Alerts Check: RZ20
Normally, thresholds for certain activities are defined in the CCMS monitor. Alerts are generated if defined thresholds are executed. The CCMS alert monitor displays monitoring data in a tree-like structure. It is important to review alerts on a regular basis before they degenerate into serious problems. Transaction RZ20 allows you to centrally monitor all systems in your SAP system landscape. Using transaction RZ20, all defined alerts can be monitored. Furthermore, the CCMS monitor provides a current status view and open alert view which displays recent reporting data and history information respectively.

5. Work processes Status Check: SM50
Work processes are the engine room of the SAP system. A number of work processes exist in the SAP system and they include Background, Enqueue, Spool, Update and dialog. Work processes are essential for the effective functioning of the SAP system; hence it is important to ensure that all configured work processes possess their correct status at any point in time. The SAP administrator should be able to know when to add or redistribute work process based on trend analysis. Transaction SM51 provides an overview of work processes

6. Failed Updates Monitoring: SM13
Failed updates are transaction processing activities that are not committed in the database. Suffice to say that the supposed modification to the database are not effected and does not reflect in the database. The SAP system administrator needs to critical review such updates. The administration data for the update request can be used to investigate the reason why an update process terminated. In the update report overview displayed via transaction SM13, a terminated update has the status cancelled. It is the responsibility of the system administrator to critically examine the cause and reprocess the failed update if need be.

7. System Log Review: SM21
The SAP system has its own system log which records events as they occur. These events are well categorized thus aiding objective analysis. The system log contains error, warning and problem messages. The application server records events and problems in the system log and has a log that contains the messages output. The benefit of reviewing the system log is enormous. Serious system issues can be averted if the system log is well analyzed on a regular basis. You can use transaction SM21 to access the system log.

8. Jobs Monitoring: SM37/SM35
Some processing activities in the SAP system have serious implication on the performance of the system. In order to optimize resources and increase performance, some operations are performed at the background via batch, defined or standard jobs. Background job as it were, is supposed to perform a particular task. The SAP system administrator must review the status of jobs that have been defined in the SAP system and consequently investigate any abnormality or failure. Transaction SM37 provides an overview of jobs and session overview of batch input job is displayed using transaction SM35.

9. Check for old locks SM12
The SAP system has a lock mechanism that helps to enforce data consistency. When a user is working on a table for example, SAP imposes a lock on that table so that same information is available across board until the modification is effected or committed. The implication is that users cannot effect any modification on records that is been worked on. Certain irregularities are associated with the lock mechanism. Locks can be held against a user because of network break or unreleased transaction. As an administrator, it is your responsibility to investigate and act on old locks in the system. If old locks are not deleted from the SAP system, other people waiting to work on a record will not be able to do that. Transaction SM12 can be used to administer lock entries in the lock table of the enqueue work process.

10. Spool Administration SP01
The SAP system has a printing architecture that needs close administration and monitoring. It is organized in such a way that when users send a print job in the system, the spool work process prepares data in the spool request and generates output requests that contains the formatting details of the printer. Long ruining active print jobs is probably an indication of spool problems and needs to be investigated. You need to check that old spools are deleted from the SAP system. Transaction SP01 provides an environment to get a clue of the cause of a printing or spool problem.

11. Check for ABAP/Short dumps ST22
ABAP or Short dumps occurs as a result of serious error encountered when running a report or processing a transaction. This error is registered in the SAP system log and also the system registers a snapshot of the program termination to a table. When short dumps are reported, the SAP system administrator needs to review the dumps properly and deduce the cause of the program or transaction termination and take corrective actions. Details of ABAP shot dumps can be obtained using transaction ST22.

12. Work load Analysis: ST03/ST03N
One of the responsibilities of the SAP system administrator is to ensure that the performance of the SAP system is optimal at any point in time. Every SAP system is unique, hence, the need to understand the SAP system in your environment especially as it relates to performance indicators and metrics. An SAP administrator needs to critical analyze the workload statistic over time and be informed of what actions to take to enhance performance. With the workload monitor, it is possible to display totals for all instances and compare the performance of individual instances over specific period of time.

13. Review buffer statistics ST02
Too much buffer swapping has deteriorating effect on the SAP system performance, hence the need to reduce swapping. Buffer statistics needs to be closely monitored. Transaction ST02 provides monitoring and statistical information on SAP buffers – NAMETAB, Table and Program and SAP Memory – Roll, Paging and Extended. This transaction provides detailed information on the status of the different buffers of the SAP instance, instance level table buffering and memory usage of the SAP instance

14. Database Performance Analysis ST04
The database system is the data store of the SAP system. To a large extent, the performance of the database system has serious implications on the overall performance of the SAP system. Using transaction ST04, the SAP system administrator can analyze database performance records without explicitly logging on the database system. Database growth, I/O statistics and alerts are some of the performance metrics that can be analyzed. Other performance indicators that are displayed are buffer cache quality, statistics of user calls and number of blocks read per SQL statement.

15. User Management SM04/AL08
The SAP system is not a robot. It needs users to enter data or process data into it. The administration of users is a daily affair and can be very tasking especially in a large organization. There will always be a need to monitor users that are logged on to the SAP system and from which terminal and to which application server amongst other. Transaction SM04 and AL08 can be used to display an overview of users that are logged on to the SAP system. Of recent (starting with SAP Web AS 6.20: Basis support package 38), transaction SM04 now include a new column for monitoring memory usage per user session.
Source Kehinde Eseyin

16. Operating System Monitoring: OS06
The SAP system sits on an operating system. Every operating system has some functionality that aids information gathering especially as it relates to the OS performance. Logs of evens are generated and needs to be monitored. Possible events that might be logged include disk array battery failure or disk array physical drive failure. Most times than not, logged events need actions by the administrator to correct a situation that might be disastrous if unattended to.