SAP SYSTEM COPY - in a nutshell
Job logic instead of customizing
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.
SAP environments can quickly become time-consuming. For example, when it comes to creating system copies of a production environment on the test and quality assurance (QA) system. Because of the time required, some QA systems turn out to be outdated and thus even ticking time bombs. A software tool from Libelle now makes it easier to update QA systems in SAP architectures on System i as well.
Food for thought for another productive system: until when must the system be identical, keyword: transaction log
Until now, there has been no functional tool for System i to automate and optimize this task. The enormous resource requirements that arise during a refresh of the SAP QA system really cry out for an optimizing software tool. System Copy from Libelle (LSC) reduces the effort required for these work steps. Although a one-time effort is still required, the system landscape is examined so well that the system copy and any subsequent ones are performed literally at the push of a button. The work that is automated by LSC is in the preparation and post-processing of the files as well as the actual system copy.
Quasi tick boxes instead of time-consuming handling of programming lines, so that the use is also possible for less experienced experts who have never or only few SAP system copies created. And this after little system training.
With "Shortcut for SAP Systems" any tables can be saved and restored. This is especially useful in the context of an SAP system copy - quite a few tables are system-specific and must exist unchanged in the system after a system copy.Shortcut for SAP Systems uses R3trans - a utility from SAP that is essentially used in the Transport Management System (TMS) environment. With "Shortcut for SAP Systems" it is now also available outside the TMS and enables completely new and diverse application possibilities. Among others in the environment of a system copy. R3trans works database independent. I.e. even in the case of a system refresh from an SAP system with an Oracle DB to a system with HANA, the backup and restore process works!
Incremental Migration (IMIG): - OS- and DB- independent - for homogeneous and heterogeneous system copies - for Unicode conversions - for ABAP systems as of 4.0B.
And if the SAPHana database is running on the source system, it will also be used on the target system.