2080730 - Employee Central: HRIS Sync - Troubleshooting Guide

Before opening a Support Incident with SAP Cloud Product Support, please read the below information carefully.

Please ensure that you have performed the following sanity checks on your configuration/data. Most common issues that are reported to SAP Cloud Product Support in relation to HRIS Sync are caused by the following issues:

1. Invalid/Unsupported Sync Mapping Configuration
2. Bad/Corrupt Data brought on by Configuration Changes to Fields that are mapped to EP by HRIS Sync (for example changing a mapped field from STRING to PICKLIST)
3. Daily HRIS Sync job is not scheduled

Therefore we highly recommend that to ensure you have sanity checked and verified that the issue is not related to the above, please follow the guidance of this article first, before opening a Support Incident.

Image/data in this KBA is from SAP internal systems, sample data, or demo systems. Any resemblance to real data is purely coincidental

• Employee Central

Where does it fail in the end-to-end process?

The first step is to identify the impact and where in the end-to-end (overall) process is the issue occurring? It is always best to map out the entire process to ensure you check each piece to identify where the break is occurring. As the HRIS Sync will synchronize data from Employee Central to Basic User Data (UDF), the first check should be to ensure that the data in Employee Central and the data in Basic User Data (Employee Export) are in sync or not.

If the data between Employee Central to Basic User Data is in sync, then most likely the issue is not with the HRIS Sync and is potentially an issue with the destination feature/module. If you are unsure of what the Downstream Impacts might be, please refer to article 2507190 - HRIS Sync: Downstream Impacts

If the data is not in sync, your next task is to check the following:

• How many users are impacted?
• Is the Daily HRIS Sync job scheduled and running successfully?
• Have you recently gone live?
• Are any Basic User Data (UDF) imports occurring on a schedule or regular basis?
• Are there any Integrations (via API) setup to manipulate Basic User Data (UDF)?
• Are the Sync-Mapping Configurations correct?
• Have there been any recent Configuration Change to made to Source (EC) or Destination (EP) fields?

How many users are impacted?

This is actually a very important question. If you are planning to open a Support Incident after working through this Sanity Check guide, please ensure you give examples to Product Support. For the scenario where ALL users are impacted, 3-4 example users will suffice.

• One
• Multiple
• All

Is the Daily HRIS Sync job scheduled and running successfully?

Please refer to the article 2512570 - HRIS Sync: How to create a HRIS Sync job - to cross check and ensure that the Daily HRIS Sync job is scheduled and running correctly.

• Yes
• No

Have you recently gone live?

If you recently went live, then you must have run a Full HRIS Sync recently. Normally once all of the EC data imports have been completed (during the Production Cut-over) it is always a good idea to run the Full HRIS Sync once. You check this by navigating to Provisioning > Manage Scheduled Jobs and checking whether a Full HRIS Sync job was created and then using Monitor Jobs you can see whether it was ever run. Ideally the Full HRIS Sync should have been executed 1 time prior to the Go Live day, to ensure all EC and EP data is in sync. Please refer to the article 2512570 - HRIS Sync: How to create an HRIS Sync job - if you are unsure how to identify whether the job is configured as Daily or Full Sync mode.

• Yes
• No

Are any Basic User Data (UDF) imports occurring on a schedule or regular basis?

HRIS Sync is a one way street. Data is only synchronized from Employee Central to Basic User Data. If Basic User Imports were performed recently, then this could have overwritten the data that Employee Central had synchronized there. If you are not clear on how HRIS Sync works, please refer to article 2080728 - Employee Central: What is HRIS Sync?

• Yes
• No

Are there any Integrations (via API) setup to manipulate Basic User Data (UDF)?

Same as with Basic User Imports, if you have Integrations setup to feed data from a 3rd party system into Basic User Data, there is potential that you are overwriting the data synchronized by HRIS Sync. Please refer to article 2080813 - HRIS Sync: Import & API upsert considerations - Employee Central - for more information

• Yes
• No

Are the Sync-Mapping Configurations correct?

The most common issue with HRIS Sync is bad sync-mapping configuration. If hard-coded sync-mappings are duplicated in the sync-mapping section of the Succession Data Model xml, this can cause other fields in the element not to synchronize. Please refer to the article 2172427 - HRIS Sync - Data Synchronization From EC to EP - Hard Coded Sync Mappings - for more information. If you are unsure of what sync-mappings are configured in your instance, please download the Succession Data Model xml and check the end of the file for the sync-mappings section. If you do not have access to Provisioning but have the Business Configuration UI feature enabled, you will be able to export the sync-mappings via Import and Export data. For more information please refer to article 2510447 - HRIS Sync: How to easily view all HRIS Sync mappings without access to Provisioning or XML

• Yes
• No

Have there been any recent Configuration Change to made to Source (EC) or Destination (EP) fields?

If a Source or Destination field configuration has been changed recently, this could also cause the HRIS Sync job to fail or data not to synchronize. Changing the configuration of a field; for example you change a Source field from a STRING (text) to being a Picklist field -:

• Source Field Config Change: This can result in job failure as the HRIS Sync job (when synchronizing the data) will try to identify the OptionID of the picklist field to derive the label. But if the value in the source record is a STRING (text) value then the sync will fail.
• Destination Field Config Change: This can also result in job failure as the HRIS Sync job (when synchronizing the data) will try to set a STRING value in a field which is defined as Picklist - for Picklist fields, the system will store OptionID and not Label.

Pick list

1. If the EC HRIS field is a pick list but the standard element field isn’t a pick list, the pick list label with company locale will be synced to user directory tables. Picklist label cannot be empty. If import picklist with empty label, the label will be set as 'None'. 
2. If the EC HRIS fields is a pick list and the standard element field is also a pick list, the option id will be synced to standard element field. (option id-->option id)

Please refer to article 2510653 - HRIS Sync: What Value is sent depending on Source / Destination Field Configuration - for more information on what format the data gets synchronized in

• Yes, configuration changes have been made recently - they are: XYZ
• No, configuration changes have not been made recently

Data and Configuration Issues

Data Issues - A lot of common issues are due to sync-mapping configurations that have been changed recently, or, the configuration of a source field has changed recently. This commonly leads to Data issues which could possibly cause the HRIS Sync to fail.

• Has there been a configuration change to Source or Destination fields?
• Have you run a Person and Employment Export Ad Hoc report to verify the data is correct?

Although you can perform data checks in the UI, it is recommended that you leverage the Ad Hoc report "Person and Employment Export" to check a users EC data. In the UI you might not see whether a value is a STRING or PICKLIST value for example. The following article should be reviewed to understand how you can create an Export report, as well as leverage the "Configuration Pill" to check PICKLIST fields to see whether the data is STRING or PICKLIST (optionId) - 2266216 - How to Export Employee Central Data for Import Activities

1. Does the user have valid data in Employee Central? Check via Employee Central UI's that the user has data, and the data set in each field is valid (particularly for Foundation Object and Picklist based fields). Please do refer to article 2465463 - Application Error when changing a Picklist value or when Editing a portlet or importing data (Format error converting NaN) - which is the result of Bad/Invalid Data in Picklist fields
2. Are the fields in Employee Central that should sync to Employee Profile populated with data for that user? Check via Employee Central UI that the user has valid data in the fields in question.​ You can also run an Ad Hoc Person and Employment Export report to check the data (which can give a much clearer picture).
3. Is data sync’ed for other users? The issue may only affect a couple of users, where the issue could be resolved by re-importing the users Employee Central data using the Full Purge import option, instead of needing to run a Full HRIS Sync.
4. Are you able to make a “same day” data change to an employee’s records in Employee Central and see the data sync to Employee Profile immediately? If a sync mapping is configured for a field, the quickest way to check to ensure it is sync’ing to Employee Profile is to make a data change to the related Employee Central field’s data via the UI for the employee in question. If the change is a same day change (Effective Date of the record is on Today or before Today), it will sync once you click Save. You can then verify the data sync’ed to Employee Profile by navigating to Admin Tools > Employee Export and downloading the Basic User Data file. If the data has not sync’ed, skip to step 6
5. Are there other data issues like duplicate records or “dirty data” in the fields being sync’ed for the effected user(s)? If so, run a Person and Employment Export report to see what data is held in the Employee Central fields, and whether there are any duplicate records in the database, which could cause issues.
6. Did an end user import a Basic User Data file recently (which would overwrite the Basic User Data in the system and potentially bring EC and EP data out of sync - best to check whether any Basic User Data imports are also scheduled - possibly the data is coming from another system) -: For this, if you have the right permissions, navigate to Admin Centre > "Monitor Job" and check to see whether any "basicUserInfo_import_<INSTANCEID>_FULL_2017-07-24 03:51:42.065" are listed with recent dates or dates near to or exactly from the time when the Destination (EP) data became incorrect
7. Are the users impacted by the sync not flagged as "IS_EC_SYSTEM_OF_RECORD=1" ? (If they are flagged as "IS_EC_SYSTEM_OF_RECORD=0" then they will not synchronize). Please refer to article 2092931 (also see article 2584658 - HRIS Sync - How to Check if a User is an EC User using the Integration Center)

Sync Mapping Configuration Issues - It is always best practice to check and verify that the field you have enabled for a particular hris-element is valid for that element. Please refer to the "Data Object Tables" handbook under the section "Reference Information" which details what fields are supported, and how the field should be configured. Some of the more common issues encountered are due to trying to re-purpose delivered fields to do something else. Please note - the following is a list of things you should not do when configuring fields

• Do not add a custom sync mapping to your configuration that already exists as a Hard-Coded (pre-delivered) sync mapping
• Do not configure an Object field to use a picklist - for example do not add a picklist to the field "company" in the jobInfo hris-element - this is not supported and not best practice
• Has a sync mapping been changed? If so, have you run a Full HRIS Sync to ensure all current data is correctly synchronized?
• Check the Employee Central to Employee Profile Sync configuration - 2510447 - HRIS Sync: How to easily view all HRIS Sync mappings without access to Provisioning or XML - you can then compare the custom sync-mappings with the hard-coded ones -: 2172427 - HRIS Sync - Data Synchronization From EC to EP - Hard Coded Sync Mappings
• Are multiple EC fields mapped to one EP destination field? The Daily and Full HRIS Sync jobs will always synchronize data in a specific order (not configurable). Please refer to article 2505747 - HRIS Sync - HRIS Sync Job - Order in which Elements are Synchronized

Scheduled Job Issues

1. Has a Daily HRIS Sync job been created for the instance? Please refer to article 2512570 - HRIS Sync: How to create a HRIS Sync job - to check the jobs correctness.
2. Is the Daily HRIS Sync job actually scheduled? Please refer to article 2512570 - HRIS Sync: How to create a HRIS Sync job - refer to the section regarding "View Waiting Jobs"
3. Is the Daily or Full HRIS Sync job failing when run? Usually the cause is Data or Configuration issue (mentioned above). Normally the "Job Owner" of the job will receive an email notification when the job is completed and it will give the status of "Successful", "Failed", "Interrupted". Also, if you check the "Details" of the job, you might see an Exception in the Details. If you are unable to check this job directly, please ask Product Support to do so when opening an incident.

Once the Configuration or Data Issue has been corrected, the last step is to run a "Full HRIS Sync" to ensure the data for all EC users correctly synchronized to EP. Please refer to the article 2512570 - HRIS Sync: How to create a HRIS Sync job - to create the Full HRIS Sync job. For any questions on Full HRIS Sync, please refer to the article 2080065 - What is a Full HRIS Sync? - Employee Central. If you are unable to schedule a Full HRIS Sync job youself, please open a Support Incident with SAP Cloud Product Support, and request one to be run. Ensure you provide the correct Instance ID and the Admin User (with full permission and target = everyone) when opening the incident.

Opening a Support Incident with SAP Cloud Product Support

If you have performed the sanity checks listed in the above sections, and you are still unable to identify the root cause of the Sync failure, please create a Support Incident with SAP Cloud Product Support, and provide the following information (including anything you have discovered during your sanity checks). Please note, depending on whether you are a Partner or a Customer will depend on the information you are able to provide -:

• Attach the Succession Data Model to the incident, or follow this article to export the sync-mappings from BCUI - 2510447 - HRIS Sync: How to easily view all HRIS Sync mappings without access to Provisioning or XML
• Please provide detailed steps to reproduce the issue you are encountering - preferably including screenshots - Please make sure that the screenshot is full screen (meaning to show complete web page view and not a cropped view). Also include (if possible) -:
• Screenshot of the Provisioning > Monitor Job page (filtered by HRIS Sync) showing the failures and Submission times.
• Screenshot of the "Details" for 2-3 of the failed jobs.
• When creating an issue, please answer the following questions (answer whichever is applicable, if a question doesn't apply in a scenario then answer "Not Applicable"):
• Did this issue start occurring recently?
• Was HRIS Sync working before?
• Have you recently gone live?
• How many users are impacted?
• Is the Daily HRIS Sync job scheduled and running successfully?
• Are any Basic User Data (UDF) imports occurring on a schedule or regular basis?
• Are there any Integrations (via API) setup to manipulate Basic User Data (UDF)?
• Are the Sync-Mapping Configurations correct?
• Have there been any recent Configuration Change to made to Source (EC) or Destination (EP) fields?

Design GAP:

2964383 - MDF Field label name Change Doesn't Sync to Employee Profile Header after HRIS Sync (real time or Incremental Sync job)

More information can be found in the Employee Central Master implementation guide

SAP Cloud Product Support - Please refer to the Internal Memo for more information - such as how to retrieve HRIS Sync job logs

Articles referenced:

• 2080728 - Employee Central: What is HRIS Sync?
• 2512570 - HRIS Sync: How to create a HRIS Sync job
• 2505747 - HRIS Sync - HRIS Sync Job - Order in which Elements are Synchronized
• 2172427 - HRIS Sync - Data Synchronization From EC to EP - Hard Coded Sync Mappings
• 2510447 - HRIS Sync: How to easily view all HRIS Sync mappings without access to Provisioning or XML
• 2510653 - HRIS Sync: What Value is sent depending on Source / Destination Field Configuration
• 2266216 - How to Export Employee Central Data for Import Activities
• 2507190 - HRIS Sync: Downstream Impacts
• 2080813 - HRIS Sync: Import & API upsert considerations - Employee Central
• 2465463 - Application Error when changing a Picklist value or when Editing a portlet or importing data (Format error converting NaN)
• 2543741 - HRIS Sync is not syncing data to EP in the locale/language the change was made in 
• 2080146 - Employee Central - Employee Data Import Steps - Creating Users via Imports
• 2092931 - Employee Central: Some users do not Synchronize via HRIS Sync and do not appear in Ad Hoc Reports

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