Tips and Tools for Debugging PTP Replication to Employee Central Payroll

[colefennel]

Blog Written By: Cole Fennel, www.colefennel.com

 

As of release 1605, point to point (PTP) replication is the preferred method of replicating employee data from Employee Central (EC) to Employee Central Payroll (ECP).

Whether you are implementing Point to Point replication for the first time at your company, or in charge of taking over a working (in production) replication, it's important to know where to look when something isn't performing as expected. Without a dedicated middleware tool such as Dell Boomi or SAP Cloud Platform, Integration Services, customers sometimes wonder what their monitoring and debugging options are with Point to Point replication to Employee Central Payroll.

Below I'll talk about five tools that will be useful in monitoring and debugging your employee data replication, starting with the most important, the Data Replication Monitor.

 

1. Data Replication Monitor (in EC)

This should be the main source of monitoring PTP employee data replication in production scenarios. When an individual employee is being replicated from EC to ECP, if the replication fails while processing that employee's data, the error will be written back to EC so that it can be viewed in the Data Replication Monitor.

• Location: Found in Employee Central's Admin Center


• Key Users: This tool can be used by business users and technical users alike. Errors reported here are often master data issues which can be identified and fixed by business users.

To show all outstanding errors for your ECP system

• Only select Replication Status = Failed


• Under Replication Time, select All Until Now.


• Select the Replication Target System which corresponds to your ECP system

Once the issue is fixed, the employee's status will be rereplicated back to the Data Replication Monitor, so they will no longer return with a "Failed" status in the Data Replication Monitor.

To view or rereplicate an individual employee

• Click "Status per Employee" near the top


• Enter in the Employee's Name


• If you want to try to rereplicate that employee, select them and click "Send". They will be picked up by the replication program whenever the next replication report is triggered in ECP.

 

2. SFAPI Audit Log (in EC)

This is a monitoring tool which can be useful to see the exact XML payload which was sent by Employee Central to Employee Central Payroll.

• Location: Found in Employee Central's Admin Center


• Key Users: Used by Business Users to identify the master data being sent to the payroll system. Used by Technical Users to understand the incoming data which is being processed by the PTP report (HRSFEC_PTP_EE_REPL).

To see an individual's full employee data sent from EC to ECP

• In ECP, run the replication report (HRSFEC_PTP_EE_REPL) for that given employee by putting their Person ID in the Person ID External field.


• In EC, go to SFAPI Audit Log


• Select the latest CompoundEmployee API Query, which should correspond to the replication you triggered


• View the "Response Payload" to see the full employee data which was sent to ECP.

 

3. SLG1 (in ECP)

After running the PTP Employee Replication Report (HRSFEC_PTP_EE_REPL), the application logs can be viewed in ECP. Errors reported in this log are the same as will be sent to the Data Replication Monitor in EC, however the logs found here typically have more details. When solving a technical replication error - it is often quicker to look here than in the Data Replication Monitor in Employee Central.

• Location: In ECP, go to transaction SLG1


• Key Users: Technical Users

To see only employee related PTP errors (instead of the entire application log)

• On the selection screen in the Object field, enter HRSFEC


• On the selection screen in the Subobject field, enter EMPLOYEE

To increase or decrease the log level of PTP replication

• Log level can be adjusted to show more detailed messages


• Set the log level in table T77S0, Group SFEC, Sem. abbr LGLVE


• Default level is 1, but can be temporarily increased to 2 or 3 if needed

 

4. SMICM (in ECP)

When setting up the initial connection from Employee Central Payroll to Employee Central, connection errors can be debugged using SMICM. This is not as useful after the connections are setup - however can be critical in diagnosing connection issues during initial implementation.

• Location: In ECP, go to transaction SMICM


• Key Users: BASIS

To view PTP connection errors

• Go to transaction SMICM


• In the Menu Bar, click Goto -> Trace Level -> Set. Set the file trace level to 2.


• Run the PTP replication report via transaction HRSFEC_PTP_EE_REPL


• Return to transaction SMICM


• In the Menu Bar, click Goto -> Trace File -> Display End


• Look through the file for attempted connections to SuccessFactors. Errors should be highlighted similar to the screenshot above.


• Be sure to reset the file trace level to its initial value (usually 1) once finished

 

5. ABAP Debugger (in ECP)

Any article on debugging wouldn't be complete without mentioning the most useful tool... the ABAP Debugger. When trying to solve a complex technical issue, putting a breakpoint in the code may be the only way to figure out what is really going on. Especially when customizations are needed that involve customer BADIs and overrides, the ABAP debugger is an invaluable resource.

• Location: In ECP, set a breakpoint in the replication report and then execute PTP replication


• Key Users: ABAP Developers

If diagnosing a BADI or customer specific development

• Place a breakpoint directly in the BADI


• Implemented BADIs can be found via SPRO -> Personnel Management -> Integration Settings for SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll -> Extensibility -> Business Add-Ins for Point-to-Point Replication

If trying to debug the standard SAP-written PTP replication report

• RP_HRSFEC_PTP_EE_REPLICATION sends the outgoing API call to Employee Central


• CL_HRSFEC_EE_MDR_BNDL_PROC handles the incoming API response and saves the data into the infotype framework.

 

I hope this gives you and your business some useful tools for monitoring and debugging PTP replication. Let me know if there are any other tools you have found useful in monitoring and solving your Point to Point replication issues.