Update more efficiently
Before shutting down the target system
Against the background of constantly changing business processes, the SAP production systems that serve as the basis for these processes must also be continuously adapted and further developed. To ensure that these processes run smoothly at all times, adaptations and further developments must be comprehensively tested in a non-production SAP system using current production data. Only then can changes be incorporated into the production system. However, updating the databases of non-production SAP systems for testing, quality assurance and development with new production data is usually a time-consuming and error-prone process that involves lengthy interruptions to the SAP software lifecycle. By automating and accelerating SAP data, the workload of IT administrators can be significantly reduced and interruptions to the SAP software lifecycle can be kept to a minimum. This white paper presents a solution that helps shorten SAP refresh cycles based on UC4 process automation integration with HP infrastructure software. This solution can reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) and the length of the SAP software lifecycle. As a result, business processes can be made more agile, risks can be reduced, and the workload of IT administrators can be reduced. Target audience: SAP technical consultants and IT decision makers who are familiar with commonly used procedures for homogeneous SAP system copies.
Strategy as of NetWeaver 2007: Prerequisite: in the case of a Unicode conversion, conversion must be performed during export. If the target database can be built with unsorted unloaded data, all packages are automatically unloaded unsorted. R3load ensures that tables that must always be unloaded sorted are unloaded sorted.
Possibility of manual intervention in case of delta import
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.
The freeware Scribble Papers is a "note box" in which all kinds of data can be stored. It takes in typed texts as well as graphics and entire documents. The data is then organised in folders and pages.
The need for an SAP system refresh arises from various operational requirements. Development and test teams benefit from up-to-date data, as this enables them to identify errors or performance problems at an early stage. The aspect of a realistic environment also plays a decisive role in training courses, as users can work more effectively with real data. Another important scenario is system upgrades or migrations, where changes must first be checked in a test environment that is as up-to-date as possible before they go live. In all these cases, a system refresh provides a reliable and realistic basis for testing, development and training.
"Shortcut for SAP Systems" can considerably simplify and shorten a number of activities within the scope of a system copy or a system refresh. By using this application in conjunction with the information on system-specific tables from the PCA tool, the system-specific data can be backed up and restored after the system copy / system refresh. As a result, many of the activities mentioned here regarding data backup / restore can be performed much more easily; the creation of screenshots and the subsequent manual restoration of the state documented in this way can then be completely eliminated.
It describes the preparations, the general procedure in the form of a quick guide, the individual steps in detail, typical error situations and the problem-solving procedure.
If this is not the case, the system copy is considered heterogeneous.