An SAP Solution Manager is a standalone installation of SAP Web Application Server, providing central functions to the SAP landscape It is integral in new SAP landscapes, optional in old ones and now mandatory to receive full Earlywatch Support from SAP for some products.
The current release of SAP Solution manager is 4.0. This runs on a dual stack (ABAP and JAVA) Web Application server Release 7.00 and has been generally available since December 2005.
There are 5 main components within SAP Solution manager, Implementation, Solution Monitoring, Operations, Support Area and Upgrade. The ones most relevant from a BASIS point of view are Solution Monitoring and Operations and these are discussed below.
SAP Netweaver "Unifies and aligns people, information and business processes, integrates across technologies and organizational boundaries and is a safe choice with full .NET and J2EE interoperability" - But what does this really mean?
The central monitoring available within SAP Solution Manager extends the features available within the Standard CCMS central monitors for the ABAP stack to fully support the JAVA stack using Solution Manager Diagnostics. Solution Manager Diagnostics is built into SAP Solution Manager 4 and is the only way permitted by SAP to fully support a SAP Standalone J2EE server, used for SAP Enterprise Portal and SAP XI (See SAP Note 829218). Through Solution Manager, it is now possible to run Earlywatch Alert reports against an SAP J2EE Netweaver Application server, as well a traditional ABAP based Application Servers.
This section of SAP Solution Manager concerns the services SAP provide to improve the operation of your SAP system. The main ones utilised are the SAP Earlywatch Health Check and the SAP Earlywatch Alert reports. These are both included in the regular maintenance agreement with SAP and should be taken advantage of. The Earlywatch Alert report provides great benchmarks for system performance as it is standard and automated, freeing up your own team to deliver more proactive monitoring. The Earlywatch Health check provides advice on changes to make to your system and is effectively free consultancy.
For more information on our Fixed Price Implementations of SAP Solution Manager please submit an enquiry by clicking here
For SAP's own fixed price Solution Manager Packages, have a look at www.sap.com/uk/direct/
http://service.sap.com/solutionmanager - The starting point on the SAP Service Marketplace for Solution Manager information
http://service.sap.com/rkt-solman - Some excellent free SAP training on what SAP Solution Manager is and how to configure it
http://service.sap.com/diagnostics - Further information on SAP Solution Manager Diagnostics
SAP Help Website - The English SAP help on SAP Solution Manager