SAP Digital Manufacturing FAQ

SAP Digital Manufacturing is deployed in the public cloud and available as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

To learn more, please review the following page on the SAP Help portal.

The services can have updates upon new releases. If you come across errors when calling the services, you have to re-create the service key and destination.

Customer Identity Provider information is configured in Business Technology Platform (BTP) to establish a linkage for authentication.

SAP BTP supports identity federation, a concept of linking and reusing digital identities of a user base across loosely coupled systems. Identity federation frees applications on SAP BTP from the need to obtain and store the credentials of users to authenticate them. Instead, the application user base is reused from identity providers, which support the administration of digital user identities, authentication, and authorizations in a centralized and decoupled manner. To enable communication between SAP BTP and identity providers, you must cross-configure the communication endpoints of the involved systems, establishing a trust relationship between them.

To learn more, please consult the following page: Configuring Corporate Identity Providers in SAP Cloud Identity Services

Customers can access current license and license usage in the SAP for ME application.

This video describes how to verify license information for specific applications:

How to check SAP DM usage and add licenses in SAP for Me?

• For Data and Log Volume Encryption see HANA Security Guide here.
• For Data Encryption Strategy for Redis on BTP, here.
• For Data Encryption Strategy for Mongo on BTP, here.

For the Business Technology Platform, details about API Endpoints for Cloud Foundry may be found here.

The Administration Guides for SAP Digital Manufacturing have been deprecated. Here is a link for more details.

The DM Operations Guide can be found here.

The DM Security Guide may be found here.

For more information, please consult the HANA Cloud Availability Backup & Recovery L3 Deep Dive or refer to the SAP Digital Manufacturing Help page.

Refer the Service Level Agreement for SAP Cloud Services in the SAP Trust Center.

Please refer to DM Operations Guide for onboarding information.

There are no customer self-service tools available to migrate data between environments. However, if configuration data migration is required, please reach out to the SAP Value Prototyping team via your SAP Sales team. Customer-specific options may be explored.

In the event of an unplanned downtime, we send the customer a communication through the CSNS tool. For more information please refer to the Solution Brief on Customer Success For The Intelligent Enterprise.

Currently, the planned weekly maintenance downtime in contract is maximum 2 hours each week (Saturdays). In reality, this time slot is not always used for system downtime and it is used only on need basis. Additionally, it does not mean complete system downtime, it can be just system degradation.
Majority of the Hotfixes are already delivered to the in Zero Down Time. Since 1905, DM is publishing the hotfix release notes.
Please refer to the SLA SAP Solutions are defined in the SAP cloud service agreement as per the agreed SLA.

The data center list may be found in the Supported Data Centers help page.

SAP Digital Manufacturing is on a quarterly release schedule.

The SAP Cloud Availability Center identifies the Maintenance and Upgrade Windows. Search for SAP Digital Manufacturing at this link.

SAP has launched the Cloud System Notification Subscriptions (CSNS) application, which allows you to add, customize, and manage subscriptions to Cloud Availability Center (CAC) notifications. 

Using this tool, you can remain informed and receive timely updates regarding your SAP cloud services, including but not limited to planned and unplanned downtimes.

You can access Cloud System Notification Subscriptions (CSNS) here.

1. The Service Level Agreement may be found under SAP Trust Center.
2. Under Trust Center, follow Agreements -> Cloud Services Agreements.
3. Under Cloud Services Agreements, follow Cloud Service Description -> Service Level Agreement.

Find documents for Service Level Agreement for SAP Cloud Services and choose one suitable for your language (english).

Customers receive notifications from Cloud System Notification Subscriptions tool. To get them they need to subscribe here.

To receive SAP DMC release deployment/scheduled and unscheduled maintenance notifications and updates, we need some actions from your side:

Access Cloud System Notification Subscriptions (CSNS) here and make yourself familiar with the interface. Check the following source for more information on CSNS: Support Portal

Follow the video instructions found under Cloud System Notification Subscriptions and subscribe to appropriate notifications. 

§ Cloud Product Name is:  SAP Digital Manufacturing

§ Required notification types that should be checked are:

1. Customer Communication

2. Disruption/Degradation

§Initial

§Update

§Resolved

§Intermediate RCA

§Final RCA

3. Maintenance

§Announcement

§Cancelled

§Update

§Completed

Please check the Service Level Agreement for SAP Cloud Services, and make sure you are subscribed to Cloud System Notification Subscriptions to receive the communication send by us.

SAP Release Schedule can be found here.

To learn more, please refer to the following page on Maintenance Windows and Major Upgrade Windows for SAP Cloud Services.

You can access Cloud System Notification Subscriptions (CSNS) here.

Every message reported by customers during the quality testing is evaluated based on the impact on customer and the rest of the user-base. The goal is to resolve the issue before Production is updated. If the issue is evaluated as a showstopper, the decision is made collectively on the Release decision meeting.

You will be informed during the release development via a cloud notification message about the Manual Release Note for the new release. Make sure you are subscribed to the note as updates are posted during the release.

For more information, please have a look at the Routing Integration page.

Currently there is no standard integration to SAP S/4HANA PM Module available. Custom integration via Production Processes, custom plugin might be a solution for certain scenarios.

Follow the product roadmap to stay up to date for future innovations.

All customer data is classified as “confidential” per the SAP Global Information Classification and Handling Standard. For more information, please refer to first section “Cybersecurity as a Top Priority at SAP” (p.3) of the SAP’s Standards, Processes, and Guidelines for Protecting Data and Information as well as to the video introduction to the SAP's Data Security Framework.

Artificial intelligence in manufacturing is essential to stay competitive. AI-Based Visual Inspection for Defect Detection is a relevant feature for most of the manufacturing companies. Besides the increase of productivity in the shop floor it can also ensure product quality. The integration AI-based visual inspection into the production process and into the Production Operator Dashboard in SAP Digital Manufacturing Cloud is essential to benefit from Visual Inspection.

The setup and integration of Visual Inspection can be found here.

For more information about visual inspection, please check here.

To request a new cipher, SAP recommends that customers open an incident on component XX-SER-NET-SHA2, whenever customer is ready to plan and/or start the project with the help of the related SAP teams. This will allow SAP to do a proper resource planning and capacity assignment for transition projects.

• See also: Recommendations for the use of cryptographic mechanisms in the IPsec and IKE protocols (sap.com)

To enable logon from outside SAP premises and SAP networks, we use a two-factor authentication system valid around the world, supported by an RSA SecurID soft token. These allow secure access to internal and external networks, virtual private networks, and wireless LANs, e-mail, Microsoft Windows desktops, Web servers, and other networks. The RSA SecurID soft token remains the property of SAP. It can be used only by the owner of the token generating device, and it must be returned to SAP following the end of employment with the company.

• See also: 70426_GB_43200_enUS.pdf (sap.com) - page 6/35

Requesting the return of data

To request the return of data following decommissioning, the requestor shall initiate a ticket under the SAP Support Portal.

Details may be found under Decommissioning Tenants, Data Return, and Deletion.

Form of Returned DMC Data

· Each .csv data file contains data associated with respectively named database table.

· The .csv files are contained within one or more .zip files.

· Files from the objects store are returned in their original format 

Storage of Returned Data

· Data for Amazon Web Services tenants is stored in within an AWS S3 Bucket.

· Data for Azure tenants is stored within an Azure Container in Blob storage.

· Data storage expires at the contract termination date.

Credentials to access Returned Data

· The credentials to access the data are provided in the login area of your Support ticket (you need to switch to edit mode to access the login data).

Retrieval of Returned Data on AWS

· To access the data use the Amazon Command Line Interface. Please refer to the Amazon documentation for further details.

Retrieval of Returned Data on Azure

· To access the copied files use the Azure Storage Explorer.

· Hint: In the connect dialog of the Azure storage explorer choose the option "Use a shared access signature (SAS) URI".

· The URI you enter there consists of the container uri followed by a ? and then the sas token (see how-a-shared-access-signature-works).

· Please refer to the Azure documentation for further details.

Other Data

Audit log data may be retrieved via public API. Instructions found at the Audit Log API Usage for the Cloud Foundry Environment page.

Please find them in SAP Note 2835975 - Corrections and enhancements for SAP Digital Manufacturing delivered for previous releases - SAP ONE Support Launchpad. 

See the information available in Language Support for SAP Digital Manufacturing in SAP Note 2722461.

Check the information in Browser and Platform Support Matrix for SAP Digital Manufacturing, SAP Note 2722235. 

SAP Digital Manufacturing features may be found in the Feature Scope Description document.  

This diagram may be found under Planning Information of the SAP Digital Manufacturing Integration Guide in the SAP Help Portal.

This information may be found under the Minimum Version Requirements under the SAP Digital Manufacturing SAP Help Portal. 

The supported scenario can be found here. 

This may be found under the SAP Roadmap Explorer for SAP Digital Manufacturing.

The Maintenance and Major Upgrade windows may be found at the following location for SAP Digital Manufacturing.  You may use the search box with SAP Digital Manufacturing to quickly access the specific information.

You may subscribe with an S-User to gain access to the Maintenance and Major Upgrade Windows Change Log.  Subscription to the Change Log document can provide you with email notifications of any changes that are made to these windows.

Yes, the SAP Trust Center offers a dashboard of current activity for SAP Digital Manufacturing.

You may find the list of cloud solution monitors here under Cloud Service Status.

Specifically with respect to incidents and cloud availability, you can find the Cloud Service Status for DM here.

Automated Scaling:

Currently, HANA Cloud supports scaling up but does not allow scaling down. As a result, a fully automated "pay-as-you-go" model with dynamic tier switches (e.g., from a higher to a lower tier) is not yet available. When HANA Cloud introduces this capability, we can consider further developments based on SKU entitlements to adjust HANA Cloud sizing accordingly.

Manual Scaling:

Manual upgrades of HANA Cloud sizing are possible without downtime, up to a maximum of 2 TB, provided that the contract terms and entitlements are in order. These upgrades can currently be managed through a BCP ticket or via direct communication from the customer’s office.

The User must be assigned to the Work Center associated with the Production Operator Dashboard.

While creating/updating Production Operator Dashboards, the Session Timeout may be set.  Help documentation addressing this question.

Updates to the Production Operator Dashboard user interface are performed through the POD Designer.  Many of the updates will occur through changes to the POD Pages.

Yes.  However, the Manage Plants application will define the Process or Discrete terminology used for the Plant.

MDO Tables can be accessed to build queries and dashboards (stories) using the Manage Dashboards application. In addition, they are made available as an Odata service in API hub.  

Please consult SAP Help portal for information on available MDOs, APIs, and on how to create dashboards using MDOs.

The Manage Dashboards application utilizes the visualization capabilities of embedded SAP Analytics Cloud, enabling users to create dashboards and reports. Data stored in MDOs can be accessed via a live connection within these dashboards. For detailed guidance on creating dashboards, refer to the SAP Help documentation: SAP Manage Dashboards.

Additionally, MDO APIs are available to retrieve relevant data for further use in visualization tools.

REO - Resource Orchestration - provides the ability to adjust the plan on the fly during the shift to accommodate the real-world production actuals to ensure coordination of production as things change.

For more information, please access the linked documentation.

Maintenance Orders trigger the status of the machines to scheduled downtime.

The top 3 enhancements for DM Edge are:

1. Ability to run all mission critical processes on DM Edge for all DM supported industries;
2. Simplified extensibility/tooling to enable custom business processes/operator dashboards running on DM Edge;
3. High Availability support on DM Edge.

DM supports multiple options:

1. Self-Managed: customer can use the tool of their choice to install and manage the lifecycle of DM Edge
2. Edge Lifecycle Management (ELM)

The Setup and Operations guide explains this in more detail.

The benefits of using containerized PCo are explained in the application help for machine model and connectivity.  The containerized version runs within the same Kubernetes cluster as other Edge components, including updates via Edge Lifecycle Management and configuration via the cloud.

DM Edge can connect to SAP Plant Connectivity (PCo) containerized and on-premise versions for integration with shop floor machines using the Machine Model and Connectivity app.

DM Edge builds for upgrades/patches via RBSC. Customers have the flexibility to decide exactly when they apply these. This is unlike DM (Cloud) where SAP performs the upgrades/patches at suitable intervals without the customer having control. As a result, DM Edge can be used as a Business Continuity measure during planned/unplanned downtimes of DM (Cloud).

DM Edge high availability options are in plans for 2025.

DM Edge is now generally available (GA) by SAP.  A limited amount of Edge device licenses are included in the license for DMe.  Additional licenses can be purchased if needed. 

Note that additional capabilities are also available for testing as part of DM Edge Beta which requires a Test and Evaluation Agreement.

DM Edge functionality is explained in the Setup and Operations guide and the DMC New Features documentation. Edge-enabled apps and plugins are listed in the Setup and Operations guide.

Data synchronization is explained in the Setup and Operations guide. Event-based synchronization happens in real time if connection is up.

As of 2411 release, we have tested on Azure Stack HCI, running on AKS with Azure Arc managed services. While it can technically run on any CNCF certified K8S (hardware is customer's choice), we have not tested on anything beyond what's mentioned in our help documentation. Refer to standard help guide for supported versions. Customer may choose another K8S and it may/may not work. SAP will provide support on application related issues, but we expect the customer/implementation partner to be responsible for the hardware/software stack chosen for DM Edge. SAP is internally testing on the hardware: https://azurestackhcisolutions.azure.microsoft.com/#/catalog/details/0803f737-c40b-4f7d-9214-95ab1c69ebe9 . Note that this hardware is being used to test multiple edge installations and a customer requirement will differ as the common practice will be to use one Edge on one hardware.

DM Edge integration with S/4 ERP, both cloud and on-premise versions, is currently performed via Cloud Platform Integration (CPI) or directly into DMC cloud, then sent to Edge. Direct integration with DM Edge is being investigated, including inventory integration with Extended Wharehouse Management (EWM) and batch integration with Enterprise resource planning (ERP).

You can find the DM Extensibility FAQ here.

SAP DM for Issue Resolution provides a collaboration platform. It enables you to collaborate with your external suppliers to resolve complaints against them, and within your organization to resolve customer complaints or internally reported defects. Based on standardized methodologies (e.g. 8D) it supports problem-solving processes, using Artificial Intelligence for insight-to-action scenarios.

DMir is on the data center EU-2 NL (Netherlands) by Microsoft Azure, Cloud Foundry. With the merge with DM the availability of QIR on US20 is planned for the future - a timeline can’t be predicted, as of today.

A problem-solving process (PSP) can be triggered from a quality notification out of an SAP backend system or from an issue within QIR or manual. Take a look SAP Help Portal for details.

You use the "Apply" button to store the data on your local system so that it's available only for you. When you use the "Save" button, you actually store the data to the system which makes it available for all the users. You see a draft indicator if you have not saved your data yet. We recommend you to use the "Save" button whenever you enter or change the data.

You can start investigating a problem-solving process without accepting it. If you choose the Start Initial Investigation button, you can change the data from steps D1-D4 only. To use all the steps of a problem-solving process, you must accept it.

You can use the Manage Users for Problem-Solving button to add new users to the team to work on the problem-solving process. In the new screen, enter the name and email addresses of the users you wish to add as team members, and choose Create. The users receive an email to start using the problem-solving process.