ABAP performance techniques

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The ABAP Runtime Analysis (transaction SE30) is the best starting point if you want to execute performance or flow

analysis of your ABAP program. Unfortunately many people use ABAP Runtime Analysis only to look for performance

bottlenecks and don't know that ABAP Trace is the only tool with which you can trace the execution flow of an ABAP

program at the statement level. This blog will show you how to use ABAP Trace of ABAP Runtime Analysis (SE30) to follow

the flow logic of your ABAP program.

1. Why analyze the flow of an ABAP program?

The ABAP Runtime Analysis (transaction SE30) gives you one tool for solving two problems. You can measure performance and find bottlenecks. You can also analyze the program flow of your ABAP program. In this blog we will focus on program flow analysis.

Why do you need to analyze the flow of ABAP program? Let me give you just a couple examples.

First, you may need to find the exact source code location of a particular ABAP statement (a method call, function call...) you are interested in. You would then run the ABAP Trace and afterwards search the required line in the result list of the ABAP statements.

Second, you may want to compare the flow of your ABAP program in different systems. Imagine, for example, that your ABAP program runs as expected in the test system but shows a completely differently behavior in the production system, or even worse, aborts with a short dump in the production system. You could then simply run the ABAP Trace in both test and production systems and compare the trace results.

2. How to find exact source code line of an ABAP statement?

Just imagine, you go to the ABAP Editor (transaction SE38), type "XXX" into the "Program" field, press the "Display" button and get the error message on the status bar "Program XXX does not exist". How could you find out the exact source code line of the ABAP statement that produced the message?

You could of course start the ABAP Debugger and try to debug in single step. And then after hours or weeks of intensive debugging you might be lucky enough to find the source code line of the ABAP statement. But why waste time? Here is how to use the ABAP Runtime Analysis to find this error message in a couple of minutes.

If you press "?" button or click on the status bar near the error message, you will see the F1 help on the message, in the performance assistant. This tells informs you that the number of the error message is DS017. Therefore you have to look for the "message DS017":

ABAP Runtime Analysis (SE30) - How to analyze ABAP program

flow Olga Dolinskaja Business Card Company: SAP AG Posted on Dec. 11, 2009 05:45 PM in ABAP, Application Server

Page 1 of 16SAP Network Blog: ABAP Runtime Analysis (SE30) - How to analyze ABAP progra...

28/02/2010http://weblogs.sdn.sap.com/pub/wlg/17050

To find the message, first start the ABAP Runtime Analysis and create a measurement variant.

1. Start the ABAP Runtime Analysis (transaction SE30) via System -> Utilities -> Runtime Analysis -> Execute or call the transaction directly with "/nse30".

2. Type "SE38" into "Transaction" field.

3. Create a measurement variant for your user:

Type a name into "Variant" field and press "Create" button

Set aggregation to "None" on the "Duration/Type" tab

For memory usage info check the "With memory use" flag

Switch on "Particular units" on the "Program(Parts)" tab

Save your variant



Before we go on, some important notes.

Don't use aggregation if you want to trace ABAP in order to follow the program logic (what we are doing here). Aggregation summarizes the trace data for a particular type of event in a single trace record and therefore reduces the number of entries in the trace file. But to see the complete program flow you need all trace data.

Try to use "Particular units" where possible in order to reduce trace file size and trace only the code you really need to see. The option "Particular units" allows you to switch on/off the ABAP trace during the running transaction. The trace will be started as soon as you enter "/ron" (trace on) in the OK field in your transaction. With "/roff " the trace is stopped. Alternatively you can also use the menu path: System -> Utilities -> Runtime Analysis -> Switch On / Switch Off.

Let's execute the measurement:

1. Press "Execute" button. Transaction SE38, the ABAP Editor, starts.

2. Type "XXX" into the "Program" field and turn on the trace with System -> Utilities -> Runtime Analysis ->Switch On.

3. Press the "Display" button and turn off the trace with System -> Utilities -> Runtime Analysis -> Switch Off.

Step back to the Runtime Analysis and analyze the trace results:

1. Press the "Evaluate" button.

2. Press the "Call Hierarchy" button and you get a list which represents the complete path through your program.

3. Search for "message DS017" in the Call Hierarchy list.

4. Double-click on the entry in the Call Hierarchy list to jump to the source code line, which initiated the error message.



3. How to trace a long running batch job?

Now imagine the following situation. You are the administrator of a production system, and you encounter in the Process Overview (transaction sm50) a batch process, which already has been running several days and has been selecting data from a database table. This process is blocking other background jobs and you have to find out what this process is actually doing:



You can find this out very easily with the ABAP Runtime Analysis. You can use the ABAP Runtime Analysis (SE30) to trace programs which are running in a parallel session.

1. Ensure that you run SE30 on the same server as the running process!

2. You must create or adjust a trace variant for tracing the parallel process. Set aggregation to "None" again to get the Call Hierarchy

3. Press the "Switch On/Off" button to trace processes running in a parallel session. The Runtime Analysis displays a list of the running processes similar to the Process Overview (transaction sm50).

4. Use the "Start measurement/End measurement" buttons to activate and deactivate trace.

Caution: Deactivate the trace again after short tracing time so that you do not reach the trace file quota! Before deactivating the trace, refresh the work process display. The dialog step that was active in the work process with the activated trace may have changed, and that deactivates the trace automatically.



5. Press "Evaluate" button to analyze trace results.

4. How to trace HTTP/RFC requests or processes of other users?



There are also often situations where you need to trace HTTP or RFC requests or processes of other users. Let me give you some examples.

Imagine there is an online flight booking system. If a user wants to reserve a flight, his HTTP request arrives in your backend system. And you need to trace the reservation process which is running in your ABAP backend system. In such case you don't know which ABAP backend process handles which HTTP request and have no idea when the HTTP request will reach your ABAP backend system. Therefore it is difficult to capture such a request for debugging in the appropriate ABAP backend process.

Another good example would be frequent RFC requests which reach your ABAP system and last only several hundred milliseconds. It is quite hard to trace such short-lived requests.

Maybe you also have to deal with a batch job that runs under another user, which always starts at a different time and aborts sporadically with a short dump. How can you trace something like this?

The ABAP Runtime Analysis (SE30) provides an answer. It lets you schedule a trace for any user on the current server.

1. Start ABAP Runtime Analysis (SE30).

2. Create your trace variant and set aggregation to "None" again to get the Call Hierarchy.

3. Press "For User/Service" button in the "Schedule" area of the initial screen.

4. Press "Schedule measurement" button on the Overview of Scheduled Measurements screen.

The transaction presents a popup on which you can schedule an asynchronous trace according to these criteria:

User

Client

External session (choose "Any" if you are not sure in which session the application will run!)

Process Category (dialog, batch, RFC, HTTP, ITS, etc.)

Object Type (transaction, report, function module, any, etc.)

Object (e.g. only transaction se38)

Max. No. of sched. Measurements (specify the maximum number of traces)

Expiration Date and Time (specify the time frame when the trace shall be active)

When the trace is scheduled, the ABAP Runtime Analysis automatically starts the trace as soon as session that meets your criteria is started



on the system. The user you have specified logs on to the system and executes his task, and the ABAP Runtime Analysis starts to write the trace. The trace results can be analyzed - as usual - in the ABAP Runtime Analysis (using the "Evaluate" button on initial screen).

Olga Dolinskaja is a Product Specialist in the SAP NetWeaver Solution Management for ABAP

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Comment on this weblog

Really helpful

2010-02-27 12:18:51 Ferran Bonamusa Francisco Business Card [Reply]

Thank you for this helpful information.

Great !

2010-02-24 03:22:17 Avraham Kahana Business Card [Reply]

Indeed helped me find the source code of my error way faster than I would have done otherwise.

sufficiently explanatory for newbies

2010-02-20 04:49:13 Priyanka Roy Business Card [Reply]

Very useful and well documented.

Very useful, highly recommended!

2010-01-31 14:55:52 Joo G Neves Business Card [Reply]

Hello Olga,

Thank you for this post, one of the most useful I've seen. A great help for any SAP consultant!

Regards,

Joo

Programs which go ! in the night

2010-01-31 14:02:19 Julius von dem Bussche Business Card [Reply]

Thank you Olga!

I have been for some time now looking for a more efficient way to do forensics on programs from the namespace "!". Sometimes I am

called upon to do this.

Often the security audit log is "too late" for successfully submitted reports and I was "too slow" for STAD to give me these details.

In addition to the developer trace, I had not thought of using SE30's own results yet.

Many thanks!

Showing messages 1 through 47 of 47.

Titles Only Main Topics Oldest First



Julius

Problem tracing report

2010-01-27 05:11:30 Sebastian Millies Business Card [Reply]

Hi there,

thanks for the nice blog. I've run into a problem, though:

I've created a variant for a report of mine exactly as described. The report is started using a variant. The report, when debugged, makes

a couple of PERFORMS and a method call during START-OF-SELECTION. It then starts a couple of jobs in the background (which I don't

expect to be measured) and displays a list at the end.

However, the call hierarchy does not reflect any of this. Instead, it contains only one line saying "Runtime analysis" for

"CL_ABAP_TRACE_SWITCH==========CP". The measurement file has only 5 KB. Any idea what might be going wrong?

-- Sebastian


2010-01-28 01:40:50 Olga Dolinskaja Business Card [Reply]

Hi Sebastian,

Are you sure that the report was executed, e.g. have you seen the list at the end? If yes, for me it looks like the trace was not

switched on.

Please make sure that you run your report on the same application server as SE30. If the report runs correctly without SE30 and

without debugger, please try again to run the measurement with SE30 and explicitly switch on/off it by choosing "Particular units"

option in your variant and using "/ron" "/roff" commands as described in the blog.

Best Regards,

Olga.



thanks, it now works (except I'm often running against a limit on the trace file size). -- Sebastian



Hi Sebastian,

you could increase your trace file size on the "Duration/Type" tab in your variant. Better way would be to switch on/off the

trace only where you really need it (/ron and /roff commands).

Regards, Olga.



thanks, that worked, except I had to talk the administrator of the server to give me a bigger quota. One idea for an

improvement for the transaction would be the possibility of local measurement files (i. e. residing on the client, at least



up and download should be possible).

The reason for the big increase in file size was that some processes got started asynchronously and the process I was

tracing then did active polling in a loop. I'd basically like to skip this part of the trace. I think a big improvement to the

transaction would be the possibility of an exclude list in the "particular units" part of the variant.

-- Sebastian



Hi Sebastian,

Thank you for the feedback.

Just to let you know, we have made some improvements in the new version of Runtime Analysis (successor of

SE30). The trace files will be written directly to the database, and you shouldn't have a problem with a disk quota for

your trace files anymore. This feature will be available within SAP Business Suite based on Netweaver 7.0 EHP2.

I have also forwarded your wish about the "exclude list" to the development.

Regards,

Olga.

One of the best Webblog

2010-01-27 01:30:37 Abhinandan Alandkar Business Card [Reply]

Hi Olga,

This is really magic man. I am happy to know that we could do this using SE30.

Great Webblog ever..

Regards

Abhii

Run time analysis

2010-01-21 20:59:39 Sanjay Madhav Lavlekar Business Card [Reply]

This is very good informative article.

Sanjay

SE30 for BW

2010-01-21 04:05:53 Silvia Giussani Business Card [Reply]

Hi Olga....your instructions on ABAP debug is really good. I would like to use it with BW ABAP code (Start/End Routines,etc). How should

I use it? Is there any change to apply?

Thanks in advance for your comments.

Silvia

Page 10 of 16SAP Network Blog: ABAP Runtime Analysis (SE30) - How to analyze ABAP prog...


SE30 for BW


Hi Silvia,

the SE30 allows you to examine the runtime of any ABAP programs, such as reports, subroutines, function modules or classes, that

you create in the ABAP Workbench.

I am not sure which type of BW applications you want to measure, but actually it should work the same way for BW ABAP

applications as described in the blog.

Best Regards,

Olga.

Superb weblog. Empowering new knowledge.

2010-01-20 23:48:41 Ardavan Goharjou Business Card [Reply]

Yesterday did exactly as mentioned in the introduction. Spent many hours debugging a transaction to get to the root of the problem. I

could've saved many hours if I knew of this weblog before. But I now know how to use SE30 and it'll be my savior.

Many thanks for sharing your knowledge.

I'll also try to learn about ST12 as suggested by another kind soul.

BSP?

2010-01-20 20:52:12 Abhijeet Kulkarni Business Card [Reply]

Hi Olga,

It was really useful. While we regularly used to test the t-codes, programs and FMs, we never explored the parallel session and

user/service options. This would certainly help us reach the root of the problem even faster. However, I was unable to trace a BSP

application. I gave these settings from user 001671 for another user (These were visible as on 21.01.2010)-

Measur. ID 4

User 000984

Sessn Any

ProcessCat Any

ObjectType

Object Name HAP_DOCUMENT

Scheduled 1

Started 0

Errors 0

Status Executed

Exp. Date 20.01.2010

Expir.Time 12:02:42

After setting this up, I used the BSP application HAP_DOCUMENT. No trace was generated.

Please suggest the correct settings, or if you know any document that can help. Thanks.



-Abhijeet.

BSP?


Hi Abhijeet,

your measurement settings look ok so far.

Please verify that user mapping (on the other user) does not take place during execution of your BSP before calling

HAP_DOCUMENT. Otherwise schedule measurement for e.g. "any" user. Please also verify that BSP request really arrives on the

same application server of your ABAP backend system, where you scheduled your measurement in the SE30.

For more details on measurement settings please take a look at the Runtime Analysis Docu on SAP Help Portal:

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_NW70EHP1/helpdata/en/42/eaae4baeb732c3e10000000a1553f6/frameset.htm

I hope this helps...

Best regards,

Olga.

BSP?

2010-01-21 04:20:28 Abhijeet Kulkarni Business Card [Reply]

Hi Olga,

I would check the timing of user mapping and try tracing with the suggested settings. Interestingly, ST12 worked! I had put

following setting in ST12-

Trace For- User

User name- 000984

Task Type- H HTTP (HTTP request/BSP)

Thanks for the guidance.

-Abhijeet.

Illuminating and very timely

2010-01-20 14:30:11 Sharon Todd Business Card [Reply]

Very useful for tracing RFC requests of other users. Thank you for an excellent post.

timely & useful; minor edit needed

2010-01-20 12:14:38 Leon Steinhardt Business Card [Reply]

Thank you very much; this very useful tutorial link arrived in my email just when I needed it.

I found one minor error:

'Search for "message DS017" in the Call Hierarchy list' won't find it. As your picture shows, the code line is "Message S017" -



"DS017". Same for all messages: Snnn, Ennn, etc.; the full number from the F1 help box never shows in the code.

Amazing blog

2010-01-20 06:07:53 Mykola Gorbarov Business Card [Reply]

Great post for complex topic described in easy to read and understandable manner

Excelent

2009-12-27 19:10:49 Mr sai Business Card [Reply]

Thanks for the blog

amazing job!

2009-12-23 17:45:21 Daixiong Jiang Business Card [Reply]

very good and thanks for sharing.

Best one

2009-12-23 00:48:50 Raghavendra C Business Card [Reply]

Hi

Thank you for all your efforts and time spent on the this.

KRC

Excellent

2009-12-22 11:54:04 chetan sakunde Business Card [Reply]

Keep it up.Gr8.

nice summary..

2009-12-22 05:16:59 A. de Smidt Business Card [Reply]

of the course COMP267 given by Boris Gebhardt on debugging at SAP TECHED last year in Berlin.

still a pitty that this is not a regular training since it already saved me months of cluelessness in debugging possibilities.

I also made a summary of it but now I can link to this blog

ABAP Troubleshooting summary?


Hello Arthur, I'd be most interested in your summary of COMP267, as a complement to this excellent blog. Where can it be found?

-- Best Regards, Sebastian

Also useful for program flow ST12

2009-12-22 01:31:39 Christian Lechner Business Card [Reply]

Another tool that is very useful to gather information about the program flow is the "Single Transaction Analysis" (ST12)

This toool has some features that go beyond SE30 e. g. the bottom-up analysis of an ABAP trace that displays the hierarchie of the

callers in a quite comfortable and inuitive way.

Everyone should know

2009-12-20 21:54:12 Manjunadh Lolla Business Card [Reply]



Often many inmportant topics are ignored to be studied in detail. Every ABAPer should fundamentally know these. And this blog serves

the need.

Well Done

2009-12-20 21:37:57 Gaurav Patwari Business Card [Reply]

Its great work, I have also published one article on SE30 but not as this much detail.

Good job keep it up.

Excellent

2009-12-20 21:17:23 Benu Mariantony Business Card [Reply]

Excellent Blog.. Would have saved a lot of time if i know this before...

Very useful blog!

2009-12-19 14:35:30 Victor Konstantinovich Alehin Business Card [Reply]

Thanks! I just have save a few days of my life!

!

Good

2009-12-18 20:53:23 Chintan P. Contractor Business Card [Reply]

Fantastic Blog with useful info.

well done

2009-12-16 05:39:56 Sergio Ferrari Business Card [Reply]

very useful topic

Good effort..

2009-12-14 19:02:19 Uthaman Palaniappan Business Card [Reply]

But I do want to comment that for finding from where the message was issued for SE38, we could still use "watch-points", which is

equally quicker and cheaper(in terms of effort).

I appreciate your effort ...

Bye,

Uth

Good effort..

2010-01-20 15:13:06 Naimesh Kundanani Business Card [Reply]

Even better, just keep a break-point on Statment "Message" , it'll be seconds before you reach the desired statement.

This is how i teach the functional consultants in our team, cos just /H & they are on their way... while SE30 & other tools are best

left to developers.

Regardless, your blog is most enlightening, thank you :)

Good effort..




Hi Uth,

in the example with a message you could indeed set a watchpoint on a variable SY-MSGNO and debugger would stop as soon as it

changes. But it works only if you know that message number is stored in the SY-MSGNO. If you dont know it you cannot work with

a watchpoint. The ABAP Trace makes sense if you are not familiar with the code and variables and need quickly to analyze its

behavior.

Best Regards,

Olga.

Good one!!

2009-12-14 08:36:57 Raja Thangamani Business Card [Reply]

Good one... Keep it up.

Raja

Great

2009-12-14 02:38:34 Bjorn-Henrik Zink Business Card [Reply]

Hi,

thanks for an excellent blog. Very useful information, especially the part on HTTP tracing.

/Bjrn-Henrik

Great


Thank you very much! I hope it will help to analyze the behavior of Web Dynpro applications as well.

Great

2009-12-14 02:42:34 Bjorn-Henrik Zink Business Card [Reply]

Hi again,

in fact, the blog is fantastic and the most useful blog I have read this year on SCN. It will surely speed up my analysis of HTTP/RFC

applications.

/Bjrn-Henrik

Awesome..!

2009-12-13 23:57:16 Ramakrishna Sirasanagundla Business Card [Reply]

Good one, very helpful...

ABAPer

2009-12-13 22:03:48 Kanakaraj G Business Card [Reply]

Good one, very Help for abaper to analyze the performance issues.

at least 100 points from me



2009-12-12 05:35:45 greg misiorek Business Card [Reply]

very helpful and comprehensive. thank you for sharing.

Awesome!

2009-12-11 22:40:36 Ritesh Mehta Business Card [Reply]

Very Nice blog and very much required one. Helps to analyze the performance issues.

Awesome!

2010-01-02 10:24:30 S N Business Card [Reply]

Thanks for the blog ,I am a functional person. with your blog reference i have solved my batch job issue.

Thanks again

S.N

Showing messages 1 through 47 of 47.



ABAP performance techniques

Documents

flow of abap program

abap statements

abap debugger

particular abap statement

program flow analysis

abap editor transaction

program field

error message