General Information

Multiple SAP Solution Manager Service Desks can exchange messages between each other. A special use case is the message exchange between the Solution Manager Service Desk of a Value Added Reseller (VAR) and the Solution Manager Service Desk of a VAR customer. To make this happen the below configuration has to be done in the VAR Solution Manager.

Minimum Requirements
VAR: SAP Solution Manager ST 400 SP19, (SP18: without the automatic forwarding functionality) VAR Customer: SAP Solution Manager ST400 SP15 We have ST400 SP28 SAPKITL438 in our Solution Manager (SME) system. SAP Note 1379076 to be implemented Corrections delivered in support package SAPKITL431 AND SAPKITL432. So there is no need to implement the above note.

Activities in VAR Solution Manager

a. Create Connection
To connect two SAP Solution Manager Systems, a classic ABAP RFC connection is recommended.

i. Create RFC user to login from external Service Desk

This user is required in the VAR customer Service Desk system to open the call to the VAR Solution Manager Service Desk (send message). It will be stored in the RFC connection from the VAR customer Solution Manager to the VAR Solution Manager.

1. Define user name. 2. Select user type System.

Important: You have to create a system user in both systems, in VAR Service Desk and in the VAR customer Service Desk as well, for logon in an interactive target system.

ii. Assign Roles to the RFC User

You should assign the following roles to the RFC user in the SAP Solution Manager of the VAR: SAP_SUPPDESK_ADMIN SAP_SUPPDESK_INTERFACE SAP_SUPPDESK_PROCESS

Important: For more information on Service Desk roles, please refer to SAP Note 834534.

iii. Maintain AISUSER Table

Go to transaction AISUSER and assign an S-User and customer number to the RFC user. This is necessary for forwarding Very High messages outside business hours to SAP.

Important: The S-User should have authorization to create customer messages and send customer messages to SAP.

iv. Create Business Partner for the RFC User

Create a business partner (type: Person) for the RFC user: Go to transaction BP. Create a new business partner of type Person and maintain all necessary data in the Address tab. Select the BP role Employee Select the Identification tab and go to the Employee Data group box. Enter the RFC user ID in the User Name field.

v. Create RFC Destination

You should create a RFC connection from VAR Service Desk to the VAR customer Service Desk.

Select Create for a new connection of type 3:

Enter necessary data (RFC destination has to be upper case):

Save settings and test the connection.

b. Configure Interface to Solution Manager Service Desk

The IMG activity Configure Interface to Solution Manager Service Desk configures the interface between the VAR Service Desk and the VAR customer Service Desk. Choose Add. Enter a name and specify the RFC connection for the external service desk system. Choose Service Provider Customer as type of the external Service Desk. Choose System User BP as method to get the reporter. This recommended option enables the system to use the business partner of the RFC user as the reporter. Save settings.

Select the external service desk interface row and activate the interface as shown in the picture below.

Save settings.

Important: The interface has to be configured in both systems.

c. Create Value Mapping

As a part of the configuration you should also specify how the data (such as message priority, text types, category, etc.) from the VAR Service Desk is mapped onto the data from the VAR customer Service Desk (and vice versa).

The following picture provides an overview of the mapping process between the VAR Service Desk and the VAR customer Service Desk.

Important: Incoming and outgoing Value Mapping should be created in both systems. Important: For SAP Solution Manager ST 400 SP21 and lower you should implement SAP Note 1408329. This note ensures that value mapping is not defined for attributes which should not be synchronized.

There are two types of Value Mapping: Explicit Value Mapping: You define a target value for each source value of a particular attribute The settings are stored in the tables Value Mapping (1) and Value Mapping (2). They can be accessed via the IMG activity Define Value Mapping for Service Desk Interface.

Alternative Value Mapping: all values of an attribute will be either mapped to a specified value (Example 1) or forwarded identically (Example 2).

Example 1:

Example 2:

The Settings are stored in the tables Alternative Value Mapping (1) and Alternative Value Mapping (2). The tables can be accessed via the IMG activity Define Value Mapping for Service Desk Interface. Important: Alternative Value Mapping is only considered if there is no explicit value mapping defined for the particular attribute. Value Mapping can be generated either automatically or manually. These options are described in the next sections of this guide. The Value Added Reseller should compare the customizing settings of his Service Desk with the settings of the customers Service Desk in order to specify the value mapping. Important: It is recommended to create the refined value mapping in the VAR Service Desk. In the VAR Customer Service Desk it will be sufficient to generate the alternative value mapping

i. Create Value Mapping Automatically

Via the IMG activity Configure Interface to Solution Manager Service Desk you can generate alternative value mapping between the VAR Service Desk and the VAR customer Service Desk automatically. To do so, please select the service desk interface row, for which the default value mapping should be generated, and select the Generate push button as shown in the picture below. There are two options available: Overwrite Old Values: overwrites existing mapping Do Not Overwrite Old Values: does not overwrite existing mapping, only missing mapping values are generated.

Save settings. The automatically generated values are written in the tables Alternative Value Mapping (1) and Alternative Value Mapping (2).

ii. Create Value Mapping Manually

The IMG activity Define Value Mapping for Service Desk Interface provides four activities to create value mapping manually:

The activities Alternative Value Mapping (1) and Alternative Value Mapping (2) enable you to make the following settings: All values will be forwarded identically. For example, message priority of incoming messages is mapped 1:1 as shown in the picture below:

 All values will be mapped to one value. For example, the category of all incoming customer messages will be set to space:

Save settings. Further, you can refine your settings in the activities Value Mapping (1) and Value Mapping (2). You can define a target value for each source value (Explicit Value Mapping). These settings override the data mapping from activities Alternative Value Mapping (1) and Alternative Value Mapping (2). Recommendation for VAR use case: The text type SU99 of incoming VAR customer messages should be mapped 1:1. All other text types should be mapped to the text type Additional Information (SU30). Incoming text type SU99 can be mapped 1:1 in table Value Mapping (2):

Mapping incoming text types to SU30 in table Alternative Value Mapping (2):

d. Define Extended Interface Mapping

The IMG step Define Extended Interface Mapping for Service Desk Customizing enables you to publish your modifications in the interface mapping and is only relevant, if you have modified the SAP CRM Service Desk Customizing and do not use the standard SAP objects. For example, you can change the default business partner function (SLFN0002) for the reporter to SLFN0008, as shown in the picture below:

e. Set Text Filter

Via the IMG activity Set Text Filter, you can define which text types are not to be transferred to the VAR customer Service Desk. Choose New Entries. Select the External Service Desk ID using the input help. Enter the text type that you do not want to be transferred (according to the text profile for the transaction types that you use for the SAP Solution Manager Service Desk). Save your entries.

f. Set up Automatic Forwarding of Messages to VAR Customer Service Desk

In this step you will add an action that enables the automatic forwarding of messages to the customer Service Desk in case of automatic message exchange with SAP. Go to transaction SPPFCADM. Select the application CRMD_ORDER and select the Define Action Profile and Actions push button:

Select your Service Desk action profile and create a new action with the following settings:

It is recommended to set the Sort Order for Display to value, which comes after the sort order of basic actions, such as AI_SDK_STANDARD_UPDATE_DNO. Further, this value should be before the sort order of actions that depend on Z_EXT_AUTOFORWARDING.

Choose a Method Call as Permitted Processing Type of Action and select the AUTO_FORWARD_ICT_TO_THIRD method as shown in the picture below:

Save your entries. Go back to the initial screen of SPPFCADM and select the push button Condition Configuration Select your Service Desk action profile and add the newly created auto forwarding action as shown in the picture below:

Go to the Schedule Condition tab and select ICT_AUTO_FW_COND as schedule condition.

g. Schedule a Background Job for Resending of Failed Actions

If a message is sent from VAR Service Desk to the VAR customer Service Desk, the sending action can fail, because the message is locked in the customer system. This report repeats failed automatic external service desk calls that can be caused, for example, by locked messages in the VAR customer Service Desk. The report ICT_RETRY_FAILED_ACTIONS (available for SP 19+) repeat the sending procedure. It is recommended to schedule this report as a background job executed every 15 min.