Workflow Upgrade

[Former Member]

Hi All,

We are upgrading from R/3 4.7 to ECC 6.0.

There are around 25k active workflows.

It is practically impossible to bring all the active workflows to a logical closure

1. I would like to know the best practices to handle the active workflows during upgrade.

2. Can we put the workflows in some inactive state or suspend mode & restart it from that point after upgrade ?

3. If the answer is to bring them to a logical closure or terminate them then, we might have to terminate few workflows. If we terminate a workflow at step 10(out of Step 20), is it possible to restart the workflow from Step 10 or we have to restart from Step 1.

4. If we restart from Step 1, wont there be any business impact wrt the terminated workflow which was already processed till step 10.

Would appreciate for any pointers or answers to above queries.

Thanks,

Best regards,

Prashant

[former_member223537 · Accepted solution]

Hi Shital,

1. So the only option is to bring all active workflows to a logical closure or complete them manually ?

2. When we say manually, do we run the FM to complete each workitem ?

3. Is there any possiblity of mass manual closure ?

4. If we complete manually, post-upgrade will it be restarted from scratch or from the step where it was manully closed ?

Thanks again for your time.

Thanks,

Best regards,

Prashant

[former_member185167 · Accepted solution]

Hello,

>1. So the only option is to bring all active workflows to a logical closure or complete them manually ?

It's not the only option but it is the most sensible one. As I said on another thread, the best way to avoid problem is to go into the upgrade with as few running workflow instances as possible.

>2. When we say manually, do we run the FM to complete each workitem ?

Or you could do it from a transaction, like SWIA

>3. Is there any possiblity of mass manual closure ?

There is, you could write a program to run the relevant FMs.

>4. If we complete manually, post-upgrade will it be restarted from scratch or from the step where it was manully closed ?

If it's been completed then (of course) it won't restart.

I would say there is something very wrong with a workflow environment with so many uncompleted workflows, possibly a design error. You should write a report to analyze the outstanding workflows, split them into different WS numbers, split again into which step(s) they're waiting at. It could be that a large number of them can just be completed without any problem, but you won't know until you look.

regards

Rick Bakker

Hanabi Technology

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Prashant,

I am not sure if there is any way to temporarily deactivate/suspend Active workflows and get them started after Upgrade. I don't think there exists one.

TCode SWIA/ FM SAP_WAPI_SET_WORKITEM_COMPLETED can be used to Mark the Workflows to COMPLETED status "Permanantly" Hence they can not be started again.

The reason for marking Old Workflows to COMPLETED is to minimize the Post Upgrade Impact on workflow in case something breaks.

Additional [Info|http://mailman.mit.edu/pipermail/sap-wug/2007-February/025190.html].

Regards

Shital

[former_member223537]

Hi Rick,

Thanks a ton for all the information.

Thanks,

Best regards,

Prashant

[former_member223537]

Hi Rick,

Thanks a ton. That has brought a lot of clarity.

The only issue here is that it might not be practically possible to bring all the workflows to a logical closure.

So we had been looking at an option of suspending workflows before upgrade & post upgrade start them from the same point. One thread does mention so but it doesnt mention how that can be achieved.

If we are not able to bring all the workflows to a logical closure then what all other options are available ?

It would be great if you can throw some light on it.

Thanks a ton !

Thanks,

Best regards,

Prashant

[former_member185167]

Hello,

I don't think you need to "suspend" the workflows, they generally come to halt themselves if no users are tending to them, which will be the case during the upgrade.

25,000 is too big a number to deal with, as I said you have to start splitting it up by using reports to figure out what you have there. It's very likely that a very large number of them will be workflows that people just didn't get around to completing, or ones that didn't self-complete because they weren't listening out for events. In other words, you can safely set them to completion without any adverse business effects.

Split the 25,000 up by workflow, by steps, by users. I'm sure not much effort will be required to get it down to a manageable amount.

The goal is to have no workflows running before the upgrade. But even if you can't make this happen, there is still a good chance all will be fine. But prevention is better than the cure.

regards

Rick Bakker

Hanabi Technology

[former_member223537]

Hi Shital,

Since we are manually closing a workflow, we are not actually taking the workflow through the entire business process which it is meant for.

We are simply updating the status to COMPLETED.

Wont this have any business impact bcz we are neither restarting them after upgrade ?

Thanks,

Best regards,

Prashant

[Former Member]

Yes Prashant,

Your Understandings are correct. It will just be updating the status to COMPLETED even if the Business Process is notcompleted.

That is the reason I said somebody has to take "Business" Decision whether those things can be COMPLETED.

Regards

Shital

[former_member223537]

Hi Shital,

Thanks for the insight.

Could you please let me know :

1. When you say that we need to bring down the no. of active workflows, do we have the only option of bringing them to a logical closure

2. Could you please elaborate this statement - "Also note that even after Upgrade, Current/Old instances will complete with the Old defination with which they were created " . Not pretty clear of exactly what are the implications.

Thanks a ton for your time.

Thanks,

Best regards,

Prashant

[Former Member]

Hi Prasahant,

Answer to 1st:

Have to make Business Decision for long pending Workflows If particular Workflow type can be completed Manually and mark them as Completed.

Answer to 2nd:

The previous Workitem will execute based on the active version at that time.

e.g. Yesterday a workflow triggered (version 001) and generate the workitem which is still active not completed.

Today you modify and moving then the workflow version 002, but still the previous workitem will execute on the previous version 001.

The new one will pick the current version 002. I have pasted this answer from earlier thread

Regards

Shital

[Former Member]

Hi Prashant,

You have quite Huge number of Active Workflows.

If there any way you can bring the count down may by Completing the Very Old workflows Manually through SWIA.

I am not aware of any transactions by which we can Suspspend/Terminate Bullk of worklflows in one go.

Also note that even after Upgrade, Current/Old instances will complete with the Old defination with which they were created.

Regards

Shital

[former_member223537]

Hi Surjith,

Thanks for the information.

I have gone through the thread & document but that doesnt specify any best practicies wrt active workflows.

I have also gone through the document - Practical Workflows but couldnt find any answer for above queries

Thanks,

Best regards,

Prashant

[surjith_kumar]

Hi,

Refer this [Thread|; and this [Article|https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/103b1a61-294f-2a10-6491-9827479d0bf1].

Regards,

Surjith