SAP system clone and copy
The Refresh
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. In that case, it's best to do this on a system copy.
Strategy as of NetWeaver 2007: Prerequisite: in the case of a Unicode conversion, conversion must be performed during export. If the target database can be built with unsorted unloaded data, all packages are automatically unloaded unsorted. R3load ensures that tables that must always be unloaded sorted are unloaded sorted.
Import of delta statuses after SAP system copy / restore
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.
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.
A test environment that is as identical as possible to the production system is suitable for testing patches and release upgrades.