Critical factor: Availability
Update more efficiently
Such system copies, with their enormous manual effort and SAP checklists that are often hundreds of items long, must be performed before every refresh. Usually, three to four days have to be planned for this, during which the QA system - which in two-tier SAP environments is also the development system - is not available for the actual work. The delay is actually only caused by the meticulous matching of trivial things, such as directory names. Because such SAP system copies have to be created for each SAP application on the QA system and can thus quickly require dozens of system copies, they tie up a lot of resources and staff.
SAP production system copies are created for a variety of reasons, including: - Generating a new non-production system for short- or long-term use - Updating an existing non-production system An SAP system copy is called homogeneous if the source and target operating and database systems are identical. If this is not the case, the system copy is considered heterogeneous. Heterogeneous system copies or platform migrations are not supported by the HP StorageWorks System Copy software for SAP and are therefore not discussed further in this document. In addition, this document deals exclusively with system copies for non-production target systems. Overview of a homogeneous system copy Figure 1 shows copies of an SAP production system that are created for non-production systems. Some copies are short-term (ad hoc) in nature, while others are intended for long-term use. Note that when a long-term system is created from a system copy, a system copy may be needed for updates later in the system's life cycle. This adds the latest transactional data from the original production system. Given their particular importance, this document focuses on scenarios with system copies created for updates. Figure 1: Overview of scenarios with homogeneous SAP system copies Scenario with system copies for updates In order to meet constantly changing business requirements, a production system must be continuously developed and adapted after the initial installation. To do this, you need development, consolidation, and quality assurance (QA) systems that can provide the production system with the appropriate updates as SAP transports.
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Typically, the "homogeneous SAP system copy" process involves a large number of manual activities. A certain skill level is required for this, which leads to the fact that usually the employees of the SAP Basis department or external service providers realize the system copy. Depending on the structure and size of the systems, this process can take anywhere from hours to several days. In addition to making the target systems unavailable to operations and project teams, system and landscape copies also block SAP Basis administrators. Other challenges include the varying duration and quality (completeness) of the results depending on the processor, time dependency on the employees performing the work, etc.
"The creation of SAP system copies used to represent an enormous effort," says Martin Schulz from SAP Basis Administration. Almost 4,000 employees worldwide access our SAP systems directly. If the SAP systems are down, then nothing works in many departments - and that certainly happened in the past. Although the actual copying process is completed in just a few hours, the manual post-processing - which includes, for example, adjusting parameters, users and rights, profiles, system settings and interfaces - can take up to a week. This keeps the entire seven-person SAP Basis team busy.
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Homogeneous system copy: In this type of copy, the operating system and database on the target system are the same as on the source system.
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Rework, a transaction checklist: SU01 Adjust DDIC PW, SM66 Check server instance distribution, SE38 BTCTRNS1 (schedule all jobs out), SM38 Suspend jobs, SICK SAP Consistency check, SM28 Installation rework, SE06 Installastion check, SLICENSE License check, RZ10 Delete profiles, create and import OS level, RZ04, SM63 Create operation modes (optional), SMLG Delete SAP logon groups, SE14 Delete table contents: from system specific tables (emails, monitoring), SE38 RSBTCDEL (delete background jobs), SE16N Match table entries (optional), RZ12 Maintain server groups, SM61 Job server groups, create servers, SM59 Delete RFC connections, , SCC4 / SE03 Edit system: Assign system type, create and name SALE logical system, SCC4 client setting, rename to current SYSNAME, convert BDLS original system, generate SGEN ABAP Load, set up SA36 standard jobs, regenerate STRUST certificates, set/adjust SE61 logon screen, DB02 database connection, maintain PW.