Technical system copy for the upgrade
Multicloud: the systems involved with different hyperscalers
Advantage of the system copy: Users receive one hundred percent consistent test data. A disadvantage, however, is the high storage space requirement of such a test system, which corresponds to that of the productive system. In addition, an authorization concept for the system copy is required to protect the authentic data it contains. Otherwise, company secrets are at risk, and there is a violation of regulations such as the Federal Data Protection Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
There are various ways to tame this time robber and reduce run times. For example, through parallelization or the automatic generation of secondary indices.
Several advantages at once
To ensure that SAP solutions are nevertheless used optimally, decision-makers are well advised to regularly subject IT landscapes and applications to intensive testing. This helps to avoid potential errors and risks during operation, which can quickly lead to immense costs. But providing test data can also prove to be a challenge. Given the increased use of Big Data, storage space and resulting costs are constantly rising. In addition, testing is complicated by the growing complexity of applications and IT architecture. It can therefore be profitable for companies to invest in professional test data management, which offers decisive advantages.
"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.
"Shortcut for SAP Systems" offers the possibility to backup and restore any tables. Not only those that are considered in the PCA tool (Post Copy Automation) but also self-developed tables. Thanks to the simple and clear interface, backup and restore of self-developed tables can be integrated quickly and easily. The command line interface can also be used to automate the process: for example, a simple line command can be used to perform a complete backup of table contents before the system copy, and a simple line command can also be used to restore these tables after the system copy. This means that the complete backup or restore process can be integrated into any automation software.
Outdated data can affect the validity of change transport tests, which can lead to errors and failures in the production system.
SAP upgrade: Before a very extensive SAP upgrade, you may want to test the run and analyze any errors that occur, especially if the development and test systems are not allowed to be down for too long.