Introduction

SAP NetWeaver is SAP’s integrated technology computing platform and is the technical foundation for many SAP applications since the SAP Business Suite. It provides the development and runtime environment for SAP applications and can be used for custom development and integration with other applications and systems.

One of the vital components of SAP NetWeaver is its Application Platform, which is implemented by the SAP NetWeaver Application Server (a.k.a, the SAP NetWeaver AS or the SAP NW AS). 

The SAP NetWeaver Application Server can execute ABAP and/or Java programs, based on how you install the server.

If you install the SAP Netweaver Application Server as an ABAP system, you will be able to run only ABAP programs on that server. SAP ERP 6 is one example of a SAP business application that predominantly runs on NW AS ABAP. If the SAP NW AS is installed as a Java system, then you will only be able to run Java programs on it. The SAP NetWeaver Portal 7.0 application for instance, runs on NW AS Java. Alternatively, SAP NW AS can also be installed as a dual-stack system, where both ABAP and Java programs can be run. For example, SAP PI 7.1 (Process Integration) runs on a dual stack that includes both AS ABAP and AS Java platforms.

Figure 1 : A SAP dual-stack system

To ensure that potential performance aberrations with the ABAP/Java systems are captured and resolved before users complain, eG Enterprise provides two dedicated monitoring models – one for each of the installation modes of the SAP NW AS. While the SAP ABAP Instance monitoring model focuses on the problems and performance of SAP NW AS ABAP system, the SAP WAS monitoring model focuses on the health and issues related to the SAP NW AS Java system.

This chapter elaborately discusses the SAP NW AS ABAP system and the SAP ABAP Instance monitoring model that corresponds to it.