Deletion of Old Mails from SOST

Purpose:

 

To control the growth & remove the obsolete emails sent from BW system in the form of Job aborts, Job completion or by BW

broadcaster with the workbook attachments.

The table: SOFFCONT1 contains the information related to document contents and the attachment which gradually keeps on growing over a period of time and occupies optimum amount of space in file system.

 

 

Benefit:

Reduction of disk space specially contributed by workbook attachments distributed to users through Broadcaster.

To maintain clean & lean system in periodic automated manner.

 

Solution/Realization:

 

Leaning out mentioned table in SAP BW has to be done by executing the following programs in mentioned sequential manner:

 

1) RSSODFRE                         : The program marks the documents in hidden folders to be deleted

2) RSSO_DELETE_PRIVATE    :  The program marks the documents in private folders to be deleted

3) RSBCS_REORG                  :  The program actually deletes the document

 

 

Note: Individual execution of program RSPCS_REORG will not delete the documents thus it always has to be executed after executing the previous two programs.

 

 

To automate the process create a process chain in following manner:

 

Step 1:  Determine the retention period of the documents based on your agreement with system administrator. (Usually old than 3-6 months)

Step 2:  Create variants for the program with the selections of the dates for which the data is to be deleted like mentioned in following images for respective programs:

 

 

Step 3:  Create a process chain using the standard process type “Program” using the mentioned programs and the created variants in mentioned sequential manner.

 

Step 4: Activate the chain and make a periodic schedule as required.

Step 5: Reorg the table SOFFCONT1 with the help of BASIS team after completion of initial run to reduce the allocated disk space.

 

 

Few Facts:

 

• Initial run of chain will have substantial high runtime based on the number of documents thus plan the initial activity on preferably on weekends
• Schedule the chain once a Quarter/Six month/Yearly based on the decision of retention period considering the experience of previous runtime
• Update/change the date of deletion before the subsequent run or automate date selections using ABAP routine.
• Program provides good range to make precise selections for document deletion like “Created By” , “Age of documents” etc. thus there is a great flexibility while using the programs to narrow down the documents to be deleted.