How to know the error returned by recurring rate?

[former_member701729]

Hi SAP CC Experts,

Good day! We are currently testing recurring charges in SAP CC through SOAP UI. This is to manually create the recurring BITs. If there are errors, we can easily determined it as the error returned in SOAP UI.

My question is, is there a way to see those recurring rate error if we're not using the SOAP UI? For example we're waiting at the end of day to see recurring BIT but no BIT has been generated because there's error occur.

Thank you in advance.

[francois_thimon · Accepted solution]

Hi Stephen,

You're welcome.
Our generic recommendation is to refrain from using "No access" operators in recurring and one-shot events, basically because they prevent the subsequent ratings for the concerned subscriber, without letting you deal with the issue.

Still, the rater does generate several detailed traces each time the logic hits a "No access" (some of them only when the PATH or DEBUG trace level is enabled). These traces show the error message and the list of properties that you have defined in the operator, so it should be fairly easy to find the root cause (but it can get complicated when you have large volumes of subscribers being processed simultaneously, especially with the logs from all the other schedulers running at the same time).

Regarding the charged item files: they do contain exception messages when it's possible, but Convergent Charging doesn't generate any charged item for "No access" and "Free". So, for these two operators, you'll have to rely on something else.

Feel free to let me know if you need further details.

Best regards.

François
SAP Convergent Charging Support

[former_member701729 · Accepted solution]

Thank you Francois, just to ask, do you know where the PATH or DEBUG trace level can be enabled and where to see those detailed traces when enabled? Do you have some documentation of it so we can check it further?

[francois_thimon · Accepted solution]

Hi Stephen,

The log settings are controlled through regular system parameters. As with all other parameters, the easiest way to change them is through admin+.
Here is the corresponding detailed procedure, with examples:
https://help.sap.com/viewer/4c9aeffd94de48f8ba0253b7e1e6e50f/5.0.6/en-US/78aa35dea7c84af086c61f982ad...

In the present case, the "PATH" severity is sufficient, while "DEBUG" would be way too verbose. Furthermore, when you use "DEBUG", you must first choose only the domains you need, otherwise, you'll start getting debug traces for all topics (network, database, etc.), and it'll be illegible.
It's recommended to enable the detailed traces only while troubleshooting issues, and to disable them then.

After that, the generated traces are in the rater's work/log folder:

/usr/sap/<SID>/CCR<xx>/work/log/rater#n_LDF2.*.trc

Best regards.

François
SAP Convergent Charging Support

[former_member1954 · Accepted solution]

Hi Francois,

I understand that errors can be found in logs( like "no access" errors ) or charged item files (with CI errors) on a CC server. I have tried Admin+ tool, but it is not sufficient. The direct access to server dirs and files is needed.

Is there any SAP standard solution to expose those errors outside CC server? For example to send email to a support team.

Or maybe have you seen an interesting custom solutions, which you can share with us?

best regards

Rafal

[francois_thimon · Accepted solution]

Hi Rafal,

In case you have no direct access to the directories on the server, you'll probably be interested in resorting to the Cockpit application called "Analyze item files" (I briefly mentioned it in a previous message here).
At some point, the name was changed to "Monitor item files", but it's still the same thing.

It lets you browse the information about the files and their status (their metadata), and you can also export the data to spreadsheet files.
Since all this takes place in a web interface, it's much more user-friendly and doesn't have to be strictly reserved to system administrators only.

Anyway, here's the link to this application's guide, in the Cockpit documentation for CC 5.0 SP 6:
https://help.sap.com/viewer/c7120011d1c244168dc1f945a06f1350/5.0.6/en-US/cb8abe334cf84b5d8d644d4d72e...

NB: if you want to use a more recent version of CC, please pay attention to the fact that the structure of the documentation has changed, so you may not find this section in the menus.

Best regards.

François
SAP Convergent Charging Support

[Krishna_SAP1 · Accepted solution]

Hello Francios,

Can you help figure out how to push the recurring charges from CC to CI. do we need to schedule a job or something? I created a subscription contract which is active and replicated in CC and CI.

Any links or docs would help.

Thanks,

Krishna

[francois_thimon · Accepted solution]

Hi Krishna,

I'm not completely sure of your situation.
By design, CC automatically launches the "activation" process every day at midnight sharp (thanks to the "activation scheduler").
The activation process's only purpose is to compute all recurring fees for the latest period (so for the last day, by default).
So, normally, unless you have disabled the scheduler (or unless your pricing logic/configuration contains an error), all your recurring fees are supposed to be automatically computed each night, and the bulkloader must then send the corresponding BIT's to CI after a short while.

If you're facing issues with this, can you please create a different question, or even open a support ticket for your customer?
There are numerous points to check (pricing logic, rater configuration, bulkloader configuration, JCo configuration, etc.), so a ticket is better, because it lets you safely send us your data.

Best regards.

François
SAP Convergent Charging Support

[francois_thimon]

Hi Stephen,

Indeed, since the activations are all performed by a scheduled process, you can't get the response for each of them.
If charged items are generated by the rater but rejected by the bulkloader or CI, you can still find them in the charged item files (the ones created by the rater and processed by the bulkloader). They contain exception messages, and the data that was supposed to be sent to CI.

Besides this, you should check the traces and logs of the bulkloader and the rater for exception messages.

If you need to troubleshoot a particular rating logic, you may also temporarily use notifications/user alerts, in some cases. It's not a standard approach but it could help you get debug information in a remote system.

Also, if you're using Cockpit, there's a "Monitor data files" application which tells you if files are still stuck in the CC system, etc. This can be helpful too.

Feel free to ask for more advice, or to open a BCP ticket if you need further assistance for a customer project.

Best regards.

François
SAP Convergent Charging Support

[former_member701729]

Thanks a lot Francois, this is very helpful to us. In addition, if the error we encountered is about logical error or error coming from CC (example we have no access error in CC's charge), can we find it as well in charged item files, logs? If not, do we have other ways to check it?

Thanks in advance.