Before shutting down the target system
Planning Guide for the Connector for SAP Landscape Management
By using the automation solution, errors that typically occur with manual process steps - just like additional costs due to repetition - can be avoided. To date, the IT team has created 88 SAP system copies. "If we had wanted to do this with SAP board resources, we would not have been able to pay for it as a medium-sized company," Rudi Scharf knows.
Companies with backup systems can use these for a client copy and thus save on the computing power of the productive system. However, the burden of copying falls on the SAN. Because the reliability is limited by the misuse of the backup system and the storage network is additionally burdened, users should keep the runtime of this refresh variant as short as possible.
SAP Landscape Copies
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.
One of the most common methods of creating an SAP system copy is to use SAP's own tool "BR*Tools". This tool provides the ability to create a backup of the database, which can then be used to restore the system. It can also be used to export certain data from the database and import it into another system.
SAP system copy can be done easier and faster with "Shortcut for SAP Systems".
"The creation of SAP system copies used to represent an enormous effort," says Martin Schulz from SAP Basis Administration.
"If we had wanted to do this with SAP board resources, we would not have been able to pay for it as a medium-sized company," Rudi Scharf knows.