SAP Solution Manager vs IT-Conductor for SAP Monitoring

  

SAP Teched 2017 Las Vegas covered many sessions on SAP Solution Manager 7.2 (Solman 7.2). When it comes to technical SAP monitoring and Basis operations, we have gotten just as many questions about how different is Solman 7.2 in comparison to Solman 7.1 as well as IT-Conductor.  We have published many guides for deploying Solman technical monitoring and comparing it to other tools available, so we recommend you check out some of the following posts and make your informed decisions about whether to upgrade, reimplement, and/or use Solman 7.2 for SAP monitoring.

IT-Conductor customers went to TechEd with one less worry since we are actively monitoring the availability and performance of their SAP applications WITHOUT Solman, so they are free to focus on other projects.

Key Areas

SAP Solution Manager

IT-Conductor

Infrastructure

Two separate landscapes needed to be sized (SAP Quick Sizer) and procured both hardware and software.

  • Development
  • Production

Shared with other Solman users for non-monitoring applications such as ChaRM, Documentation, Quality testing, Maintenance, etc.  Performance can impact monitoring itself.

IT-Conductor Gateway behind customer firewall (can be VM), 4vCPU, 8GB RAM.  Can be shared with other systems.

  • Primary
  • Standby (Optional)

IT-Conductor cloud platform is designed for automation and monitoring at global high availability and scalability.

Installation/Setup

Preparation/planning: several days, lots of SAP notes and manuals

Actual installation: 2-3 days: Server, OS, Storage, DB, SAP SWPM (ABAP, Java)

Post-Install Setup: 1-2 days: Monitoring Infrastructure (SLD, LMDB, Java Connectivity, BW Setup, Users, CA, Introscope, Email, CRM Basis, Gateway services)

Preparation: Subscribe online.  Also available through SAP Store or AWS Marketplace

Installation: 10 minutes: IT-Conductor only requires a GATEWAY installation, a 5-minute process. This can be installed on an existing Windows/Linux.

Post-Install configuration: NONE! IT-Conductor does not require any configuration, as systems management infrastructure such as Sites, Users, Groups, and Email notifications are already integrated.

Configuration

Basic Configuration: 1-2 days

  • Schedule Jobs
  • SAPRouter
  • User creation and connectivity to SAP Support Hub Communication
  • Client libraries install on Solman as needed for managed systems such as HANA
  • Update MAI (Monitoring Alerting Infrastructure) Content 

Users: 5 min/system: Monitoring users with provided monitoring roles on systems to be managed 

SAP Transport (Optional)

  • 5 mins/SAP system
  • Advanced monitoring such as End user experience, and workload profiles

Add Systems to Monitoring

Managed System Configuration:

1-2 hours/system

  • Diagnostic agent installation per linked systems and integration with SLD
  • Upload Extractors (if Monitoring HANA 2.0)
  • Assign Products
  • Check Prerequisites
  • Maintain RFCs
  • Assign Diagnostic Agent
  • Enter System Parameters
  • Enter Landscape Parameters
  • Maintain Users
  • Finalize & Check the Configuration

Use wizards to add apps for monitoring: 5 min/system

  • IT-Conductor automatically ’discovers’ all related objects for an SAP product using best-practices templates.
  • Availability and Performance Monitoring of systems normally ready in 15 minutes or less

System Monitoring

  • Fiori tiles-based and SAPUI5 interface
  • Manage thresholds and alerts via Templates
  • Monitoring the Top 10 critical areas in SAP can be done automatically via threshold settings and subscriptions, and applied to all systems.
  • Secure Web access from anywhere
  • Users, Groups, Distribution List, built-in API integration to other IT service management platforms
  • Dynamic Health services monitoring and SLA drill-downs to root-cause

Life Cycle Management

Requires upgrade of SOLMAN, which involves almost the same effort if not more than installation: 

  • Housekeeping
  • BW Administration
  • CRM Administration, TREX is needed if Solman is not installed on HANA
  • ABAP & JAVA Basis Administration for standard SAP landscape
  • Frequent Content Updates
  • Frequent Security Updates
  • Template Maintenance
  • Solman itself needs Monitoring
  • Monitoring is not available while upgrading the production SOLMAN (unless manual setup for Emergency Monitoring – this puts the monitored system at risk without any monitoring tool).
  • SAP Monitoring as a Service operates with high availability, flexibility, and scalability of the cloud.
  • Your SAP environment is monitored continuously whether on-premise, on the cloud, or in hybrid environments, so customers can be monitored during upgrades and migrations.
  • Application monitoring is continuously enhanced and delivered seamlessly to customers globally as part of the service.

Technical Support/Expertise

 

Requires dedicated SME for SolMan which includes:

  • Full SAP landscape management
  • Continuous education and Solman-specific training courses
  • No training is required.
  • Online support available via chat, email, service desk, wiki, webinars, and a remote SAP Basis expert Trusted Advisory team
  • CoE: Customer Center of Excellence Basis team learns more about monitoring aspects and performance analysis while using IT-Conductor advanced features.

Summary

Cost: $$$ High initial cost and ongoing support costs, especially if using Focus Insights

Personnel: dedicated SMEs

Complexity: High

Flexibility: Medium

Usability: Medium

Availability: Needs self-monitoring and alternate monitoring methods during upgrades

Cost: $ Initial cost, and $ full service subscription

Personnel: existing Basis, Managers, and Operations become users - not platform administrators

Complexity: Low

Flexibility: High

Usability: High

Availability: High

 

 

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