ST02 issue and solution.

You may need to analyse the root cause of the swaps.... Couple of things you may check

1. Expensive SQL statements : Check if there are any SQL statements causing high
load......If yes, then check with developers to optimize the same.

2. Reports running : Check if there are any reports which are causing the swaps.....The
SQL statements might be from these reports....If yes, Then optimize the statements with
the help of developers...

3. Check if the memory itself is low......If yes,Consider upgrading the same..

4. Have you taken restart of SAP instance and checked ?

When a buffer has not sufficient free-space or free directories, it has to swap objects out
of the buffer in order to load a new object on request. The column Swap shows how
many objects have been swapped out since system start-up.

Along with the useful suggestions provided by Raghu, I would do the following analysis
to optimize the swaps by keeping in mind that "the performance optimization is an on
going process".

1. Analyze the Hit Ratio and Swap Counts of each memory components in ST02. Prepare
and Excel Sheet and note down the memory components which are required special
attention for the performance of the system
e.g. If your PXA buffer is having more than 95% hit ration, but its showing more than
20000 swaps per day then you need to re-size it to reduce the swaps

2. Analyze the concurrent & active User Access to the SAP System and the workload.

3. Compare the existing Memory parameter and other dependent parameter settings (with
respect to SAP system(s), Database and OS) with the recommendation suggested by SAP
official Documents (Inst Guide, SAP Notes, etc..).

3. By keeping in mind the available RAM and SWAP Space, step-by-step, Increase the
space value of affected Memory components by 10% to 20% of Existing settings.

4. If the System is configured with more work processes of same types and the all are not
used at all even during peak workload (of month or of week or of year), then decrease the
counts of work processes to reduce the memory usage so that we can optimize other
required memory parameters with more space.

5. If the System is having not enough resources to provide better performance due to
resource bottlenecks, then One will prefer:
- to upgrade the H/W on existing SAP System host
- to install additional Application Server(s) (on other system with highly equipped H/W
resources), to take the advantage of Log-on Load Balancing.

Please refer these SAP Notes:

Note 750205 - High memory usage with AIX5.2/5.3 and Oracle9.2
Note 425207 - SAP memory management, current parameter ranges
Note 830576 - Parameter recommendations for Oracle 10g,
Note 146289 - Parameter Recommendations for 64-Bit SAP Kernel

That is an amazing number of buffer swaps. How long has this instance been up (the
header in ST02 will show you this)? Have you recently run a mass load generation
(SGEN) - that can cause hunderds of thousands of swaps in just a few hours? If these
numbers are a result of normal activity, then it looks like some buffers are severely
underconfigured. It is possible to advie you on improved settings but for that I will need:
(a) current parameter settings, (b) RAM of your server, (c) database on same server /
other SAP systems on same server?, (d) an idea of the activity level (typical no. of
concurrent users, no. of dialog steps/workday).