SAP Focused Run configuration and security monitoring overview

This blog will give an overview of the Configuration and Security monitoring function of SAP Focused Run.

Questions that will be answered in this blog are:

  • How does the Configuration and Security monitoring function of SAP Focused Run work?
  • How can I quickly check my security baseline against all my systems?
  • How can I quickly check the status of application of the security OSS notes?
  • How can I quickly determine configuration changes done in my systems?

Configuration and security monitoring goal

The goal of configuration monitoring is to compare system settings for security versus the baseline defined in Focused Run. Deviations from the baseline can be reported.

The security and configuration validation can be used for:

  • Validation of ABAP security parameters
  • Validation of JAVA security parameters
  • Validation of HANA security parameters
  • Security OSS notes
  • Diverse topics like client opening and SAP_ALL assignments
  • Age of system components
  • Many more

The technical explanation is perfectly explained on the SAP Focused Run expert portal.

Configuration and security monitoring policy

To view the policies for configuration monitoring click on the Fiori tile for Policy Management:

You now reach the policy maintenance overview screen:

By selecting a policy, you can display the XML definition of the policy:

In a later blog we will explain fine tuning these XML definitions.

Running a policy

With the Fiori tile Configuration monitoring analytics you can run the policy against your systems:

After opening the tile you have to set the scope of systems. Then you reach the initial screen:

Now use the Select button to select the policy you want to run. The system will run the policy against the systems selected in the scope and show you the results:

This is the overview across the systems. By clicking on a row you can zoom into that specific system:

Security baseline validation

The example above is a simple single check. You can define your own XML with your security baseline settings. The running is identical as the example above.

What you can do now as well is go to the Checks tab to see which item has the most compliance issues across all the systems:

By clicking the Systems/Checks tab you can list out all items across all systems:

Remark: the default only shows 4 columns. You have to switch to multiple columns.

For the exact setup of this function, read this blog.

Security OSS notes

On the SAP github XML files can be downloaded for security note validation. You upload the XML as a policy in the Policy Administration. You now can run this policy against your systems to follow up on the status of the security OSS notes:

The XML file delivered by SAP checks the base version of the ABAP stack. So not all notes are relevant for all releases. If a note is not relevant the items is blank. If it is green, the note has been applied. If it is red, the note is not applied.

For the exact setup of monitoring security notes, read this blog.

SAP solution manager has a similar function called System Recommendations. The setup is more complex and follow up is far more cumbersome than with Focused Run. The only advantage of SAP solution manager System Recommendations is that the security notes content gets updated automatically. With SAP Focused Run you will need to monthly download the latest XML file on the security patch day.

Determining configuration changes

Go to the Configuration and Security Analytics FIORI tile:

On the left side choose the tool to display configuration changes:

In the next screen you can see the changes per system:

In the details you can see what has been changed and when.

Search for specific configuration changes

You can also search for specific configuration changes. Open the find tool and select the change store (in this example RFC destinations):

Now you get the detailed list of changes:

The easiest overview is the table view. This allows also for Excel download.

Remark: the time frame default 1 week. If you need search different period, change the time frame selection.

Monitoring based on configuration

The configuration and validation rules can also be used to trigger monitoring.

OSS note 3197989 – How to use Configuration and Security Analytics in System Monitoring Alerting – SAP Focused RUN contains a PDF document explaining in detail the steps to perform.

Age of system components

From the text below or from the github site of Focused Run you can download this policy:

COMPONENT like '%' and VERSION like '%' and SP_REL_DATE != '' and <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--
Exclude software components for which SP_REL_DATE is empty
Version: 002
Date:    July 16 2021
-->
<targetsystem xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" desc="Age of component level" id="AGE_COMP" multisql="Yes" version="0000" xsi:schemaLocation="csa_policy.xsd">
  <!-- Basic -->
  <configstore name="COMP_LEVEL">
    <checkitem desc="Age of Component Level - ABAP" id="ABAP.AGE_COMP.01" not_found="ignore" system_attributes="SYSTEM_TYPE:ABAP">
      <compliant>
      COMPONENT like '%' and VERSION like '%' and SP_REL_DATE != '' and (add_days(current_date,-730)) &lt; (CASE WHEN SP_REL_DATE like_regexpr '^\d{8,8}$' THEN SP_REL_DATE WHEN SP_REL_DATE = 'NEWER' THEN CURRENT_DATE ELSE '00000000' END)
      </compliant>
      <noncompliant>
      COMPONENT like '%' and VERSION like '%' and SP_REL_DATE != '' and not (add_days(current_date,-730)) &lt; (CASE WHEN SP_REL_DATE like_regexpr '^\d{8,8}$' THEN SP_REL_DATE WHEN SP_REL_DATE = 'NEWER' THEN CURRENT_DATE ELSE '00000000' END)
      </noncompliant>
    </checkitem>
    <checkitem desc="Age of Component Level - JAVA" id="JAVA.AGE_COMP.01" not_found="ignore" system_attributes="SYSTEM_TYPE:JAVA">
      <compliant>
      COMPONENT like '%' and VERSION like '%' and SP_REL_DATE != ''and (add_days(current_date,-730)) &lt; (CASE WHEN SP_REL_DATE like_regexpr '^\d{8,8}$' THEN SP_REL_DATE WHEN SP_REL_DATE = 'NEWER' THEN CURRENT_DATE ELSE '00000000' END)
      </compliant>
      <noncompliant>
      COMPONENT like '%' and VERSION like '%' and SP_REL_DATE != '' and not (add_days(current_date,-730)) &lt; (CASE WHEN SP_REL_DATE like_regexpr '^\d{8,8}$' THEN SP_REL_DATE WHEN SP_REL_DATE = 'NEWER' THEN CURRENT_DATE ELSE '00000000' END)
      </noncompliant>
    </checkitem>
  </configstore>
</targetsystem>

Use this to set up a new policy called AGE_COMP:

By default the rule is taking 730 days. You can adjust the value as per your needs.

Now you can run the query to get an easy overview across the systems:

Don’t be afraid if you have high number in the beginning; most of the cases this is due to HR components being outdated.

<< This blog was originally posted on SAP Focused Run Guru by Frank Umans. Repost done with permission. >>

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