Truma AG
SAP Monitoring with PRTG and Scansor
An innovative global production and distribution network needs a solid IT foundation that integrates the widely scattered sites, provides a centralized overview, and, above all, is high-performance and always available. Clearly, the threads of all of these sites need to be woven together simply and effectively using centralized and automated monitoring. Truma opted for the PRTG monitoring solution and the Scansor add-on for SAP monitoring.
Truma
The challenge
PRTG network monitoring from Paessler AG has been running successfully for years at Truma. Andreas Schmidt, Senior Systems Engineer, and his colleagues use it to coordinate management of the entire building, the IT infrastructure, and all networks and production systems, and were looking at how to integrate the monitoring for the SAP systems. However, there were some issues: “Internally, we don’t have may experts in the SAP sector. SAP is therefore hosted externally. It’s been like a black box for us for a long time,” says Andreas Schmidt. The external service provider and host possess the expertise. Consequently, dealing with any matters regarding SAP was a little hit-or-miss. If something didn’t go quite right, you couldn’t immediately see where the error lay. Issues with the SAP systems were often only noticed once the system had already slowed down and the business got in touch because, for example, IDocs were piling up or the system was dumping. “First, we’d have to find out what was going wrong and then, if we needed to, call the SAP service provider in order to find a solution.” This was a real time sink, because proactive monitoring couldn’t be carried out using in-house SAP tools.
That's how we solved it
The Scansor software from itesys for monitoring SAP systems remedied this situation and, in combination with PRTG, gave a clear overview of the IT infrastructure, network, production systems, and SAP systems. "Now, if there is an error in SAP, we see it right away and can nudge the service provider into action,” explains Andreas Schmidt. With the itesys SAP sensors, Truma can rely on comprehensive agentless SAP monitoring that is integrated as an add-on for Paessler’s PRTG, thanks to preconfigured SAP-specific sensors. Truma monitors the USA, UK, and Italian sites using remote probes. The monitoring data are encrypted and sent to the central PRTG installation in the data center in Putzbrunn, where it is evaluated and presented in dashboards. The IT team can see everything at a glance with this central solution. IT colleagues at other sites can also get a quick overview of their relevant systems with their own dashboards.
Benefits for the customer
Andreas Schmidt believes the greatest added value that Scansor provides for Truma is the time saved thanks to the significantly accelerated problem analysis. “You can see where there’s a glitch immediately and react to target the issue,” he says. The IT team is informed at an early stage by SAP monitoring, can react proactively and inform the SAP host, which can then troubleshoot errors such as excessive memory usage. The customer can thus save time in looking for the issue and, as an extra plus, there are no bottlenecks caused by waiting for hours or making calls back and forth. Critical information can be communicated to the correct people reliably and quickly, and critical incidents and emergencies can be reacted to speedily, before they impair the availability of important company systems and the quality of their services. Currently, Truma only uses a small monitoring package for a few processes, but the advantages of this are already clear for all to see. Due to this success, the monitoring will be expanded soon, with the go live for SAP S/4HANA. “The demand is constantly growing,” states Andreas Schmidt.
itesys' services
Truma Gerätetechnik GmbH & Co. KG | Wernher-von-Braun-Straße 12 | 85640 Putzbrunn | Germany
www.truma.com
SAP system landscape hosted by third-party provider
Switch to SAP S/4HANA in progress with itesys
Consultation and analysis on monitoring of systems that are outsourced with the host
Support for Scansor installation
Final configuration of SAP sensors and thresholds
Maintenance and support for Scansor
Provision of new releases
Consultation for further expansion of prompt values
Results
Monitoring SAP system landscape with Scansor SAP sensors and PRTG focused on general accessibility of the SAP system, monitoring of ABAP error reports (system dumps), faulty IDocs, and spool requests and usage of notifications.
Automated monitoring guarantees more insight into and a better overview of SAP
Faster problem analysis while cutting down massively on research and time needed
Detection of critical drops in output and identification of the causes
More control of the host
The fact that PRTG and Scansor allow as many different remote probes to be implemented with one license as are needed enables us to set up a global centralized monitoring system at a manageable cost.
Andreas Schmidt, Senior System Engineer, Truma Gerätetechnik GmbH & Co. KG