9.67.1.2 SAP CC Online Agent Configuration

You open the SAP CC Online agent configuration dialog from a workflow configuration: you can right-click the agent icon and select Configuration..., or double-click the agent icon.

Connection Tab

The Connection tab contains configuration data that is required to connect to a remote server.

SAP CC Online agent configuration dialog - Connection tab

SettingDescription
Hosts

In this section, add IP address/hostname and external charging port of at least one SAP Convergent Charging Core server Dispatcher Instance.

The SAP CC Online agent will try to connect to the listed hosts until a connection is successfully established with one of them.

Note!

When Hosts is set to Default or Per Workflow in Workflow Properties, you can specify multiple hosts in the workflow table. Each host must be separated by a semi-colon. For example: host1:2000;host2:2000.


Note!

If you upgrade, or import a configuration, from a version previous to  7.2, the Host and Port settings are no longer included in the workflow table for your workflow. Instead, you must manually configure the Hosts setting in the Workflow Table tab in the Workflow Properties dialog.

Enable Authentication

Select this check box to enable charging API authentication.

Note!

Charging API Authentication is only available for SAP CC version 4.1 SP2 and later.

User NameSAP CC user id
PasswordThe password for the SAP CC user
TimeoutThe timeout (in milliseconds) to apply for each charging request. This value corresponds to the maximum time that SAP CC can take to execute one charging request.
Enable Secured ConnectionSelect to use TLS encrypted communication with Hosts.
Keystore Path

The path to the keystore on an Execution Container host. The path must be the same for all hosts.

Note!

The keystore format to be used by this particular agent is PKCS12 only.

Keystore PasswordThe password of the keystore.

Advanced SettingsTab

The Advanced Settings tab contains configurations related to charging request behavior. 

SAP CC Online agent configuration dialog - Advanced tab

SettingDescription
Transaction Set to Return

This parameter controls the content of the charging answer. 

  • Select No Transaction if no details shall be returned in the charging answer. Only the status (success or failure) and the price will be returned.
  • Select Master Transaction if the details of the price computation shall be returned in the charging answer. It includes user defined notification that may be raised by 
  • the price plan. This applies only to the master transaction.
  • Select All Transactions if the details of the price computation shall be returned in the charging answer. It includes user defined notifications that may be raised by 
  • the price plan. This applies only to the master and dependents transactions.
  • Select All Transaction and Recurring if the details of the price computation shall be returned in the charging answer. It includes user defined notifications that may be raised by the price plan. This applies master transactions and dependents, but also one-shot- and recurring transactions, which may be triggered by the usage event.
Transaction Set to Return in Session CleanupThis parameter controls the content of the charging answer in the case a session cleanup occurred during a charging request. The same value as for Transaction Set to Return applies here.
Session Time To Live

Defines the default session 'time to live' (in seconds) for the session charging request. This is the time period during which a session is considered active if no updates occurred.

Default Session Resolution

This parameter controls the default session termination to apply when a session has reached its 'time to live'. The session (in fact, the last reservation) could be either: 

  • Cancelled - Cancel
  • Confirmed - Confirm
Listen For Reservation Renewal Events

Select to listen for Reservation Renewal Events from SAP Convergent Charging. 

Listener Identifier

Identifies the listener that the client binds to in order to receive Reservation Renewal Events. The Listener Identifier registered by an agent must be in the range of 1 to 127. If several agents use the same Listener Identifier the first agent to register will receive the events. If the first agent to register the Listener Identifier becomes unavailable, the second agent to register will receive the events.

Listen For Spending Status ReportsSelect to listen for Spending Status Reports from SAP Convergent Charging. 
Listener IdentifierIdentifies the listener that the client binds to in order to receive Spending Status Reports. The Listener Identifier registered by an agent must be in the range of 1 to 127. If several agents use the same Listener Identifier the first agent to register will receive the events. If the first agent to register the Listener Identifier becomes unavailable, the second agent to register will receive the events.
Default Monitoring Listener IdentifierThis is the default ID that will be used for the monitoring session.
Default Monitoring Session TTLThis is the default Time To Live value (in seconds) that will be used.
Enable Debug EventsSelect this check box to enable debug mode. Useful for testing purposes.
Convert Bigdecimal Response to String

Select this check box to allow conversion of the BigDecimal data type from the SAP Convergent Charging response into string. By default, the check box is empty.

Note!

In terms of backwards compatibility, enabling this option prevents any compatibility issues with workflows that support the configurations from before the BigDecimal data type was introduced in version 8.0.5.0.

Flow Control Tab

The Flow Control tab contains configurations required to control the request flow with Convergent Charging Core Server.

  • Cancelled - Cancel
  • Confirmed - Confirm

SAP CC Online agent configuration dialog - Flow Control tab

SettingDescription
Enable Flow ControlThis parameter determines if the flow controller is activated or not on the SAP CC Stateful Service Client.
Queue Size

This parameter controls the maximum number of waiting requests to be executed by the SAP Convergent Charging core server. This is mandatory to make sure that the core server is not flooded with too many requests. Requests that cannot fit in the queue wait until the size reaches the Re-accept Request Threshold parameter explained below.

The value of this parameter depends on:

The total number of incoming requests that can be handled by the available SAP CC  Dispatchers (refer to the description of the SAP CC STATEFUL_SERVICE_QUEUE_SIZE parameter)

The number of SAP CC Stateful Service Clients connected within the different workflows. 

Note!

Take into account that additional SAP CC Stateful Service Clients may exist in the overall landscape.

Example - Setting the queue size

Consider the following scenario:

  • A SAP CC landscape can handle 30000 requests using 3 Dispatchers, each configured with a queue size set to 10000.
  • 5 connected SAP CC Stateful Service Clients

The maximum queue size for all the flow controllers should be set to a value that is lower than 30000 requests (e.g. 25000), and thus, the Queue Size for each SAP CC agent can be set to 5000 requests. In addition, the Re-accept Request Threshold value can be set to 4995.

Re-accept Request ThresholdThis parameter defines the threshold of the queue below which waiting requests are processed again. This parameter is only relevant when some requests are waiting because the queue has reached its size.
Enable Average Latency Controller

This parameter determines if the average latency controller is activated or not on the client. Once activated, it will impact the Re-accept Request Threshold in order to try to fit with the expected latency.

It is recommended that you do not enable this parameter.

Expected Average Latency

Add the expected average latency to this field after Enable Average Latency Controller has been selected.

Note!

It is strongly recommended to activate flow control in a production system. The SAP CC Online agent relies on the Asynchronous CC client and if
no control is enabled, the agent will send as many requests as possible to the SAP Convergent Charging core server, which could lead to two unexpected
behaviors:

  • Increased latency of charging requests.
  • An unstable server that will not be able to answer the requests.

Monitoring Event Tab

The Monitoring Event tab contains configurations for sending an event related to latency, for example, number of successfully processed UDRs, erroneous UDRs, and so on. 

The monitoring information is sent through a CC Monitoring Event. For further information about how to setup the CC Monitoring Event, see 4. Event Notifications. It is recommended that you do not enable these monitoring features in a production landscape.


SAP CC Online Agent Configuration - Monitoring Event Tab

SettingDescription
Enable Global EventSelect to send a CC Monitoring Event when the Workflow is stopped.
Enable Spot EventSelect to send a CC Monitoring Event with a configured frequency, see Spot Frequency below.
Spot FrequencyConfigure the frequency (in seconds) for how often a CC Monitoring Event shall be sent. Default frequency is every second (1).