Differentiation between homogeneous and heterogeneous SAP system copy
SAP system/instance move
Especially in complex environments, SAP system copies regularly represent a critical challenge in terms of time and expertise and thus become a real cost factor in the long run. This is because system copies must be scheduled at an early stage, are complex, time-consuming and resource-intensive, require specific knowledge, tie up important employee capacities due to the large number of manual interventions, and are error-prone.
Creating a consistent storage replica - splitting a clone or creating a snapshot on the disk array. Regardless of the storage size, this process takes only a few seconds.
Challenges reduced!
Database: For some databases (MS SQL Server) there is the possibility to copy the database files and reattach them on the target system. For the following SAP installation you only have to specify that no SAP loads should be used, but that the database is already there!
To shorten the list of activities and to simplify the complete process of a system copy or a system refresh and to save manual activities, you can use "Shortcut for SAP Systems". Several manual activities can be omitted because with "Shortcut for SAP Systems" the system-specific data can be saved before the copy and imported again afterwards - also automated. This reduces the error-proneness that is inevitably caused by manual activities and enormously reduces the time span until the system is available again.
To build a target system that can be used for testing, development and training purposes, there are two different approaches: Users can reinstall an SAP system and import all transports and support packages that have also made it into the production system to date.