Challenges reduced!
Critical factor: Availability
In this context, generated jobs adapt to changes, even if, for example, a DB change, a release change or other changes have taken place. Nevertheless, once created copy jobs can be reused, which minimizes the maintenance effort and a certain susceptibility to errors. This is also the case when switching from one Any DB to another or when moving from an Any DB to Hana.
If the data stocks become obsolete, they can be updated by another system copy. From a technical point of view, such a refresh corresponds to the initial setup, including the associated costs as well as the load on the productive systems and manual rework. In addition, a refresh also interrupts all processes on the target system. If it is a development system, all newer development objects must be saved and transported back in after the copy. The version history is lost in the process.
The Refresh
This means that the time required to create an SAP system copy - be it for providing a system copy for training purposes, be it for testing purposes or whatever - is drastically minimized. Instead of several days, only hours are required for system copying.
The solution does not use software agents. The use of standard protocols for the interaction of tool (client/server) and source system and tool with target system has proven itself, exclusively for the purpose of system copy creation. Whereby the use of a single point of management and control has also proven its worth.
"Shortcut for SAP Systems" provides an automated solution for many of the tasks involved in copying SAP systems by enabling the backup and restore of any table.
Some useful tips about SAP basis can be found on www.sap-corner.de.
Of course, the target system must be prepared before the actual copy can be performed: Setting up the server, installing the operating system and database software, downloading and copying the installation media.
Backup / Restore: If the source system must not fail, eg to copy the database files, one can create an online backup of the database, copy the backup files to the new server and perform a restore before performing the SAP installation over the existing database.