Running the refresh of an SAP system
note
The refresh process has been designed to be as efficient as possible but still easy to follow. This means that it usually does not fully match the manual procedures:
- some steps are done in a way which does not correspond with the procedures you would normally use when running the refresh manually. For example RFC destinations are exported from the target SAP system and re-imported later eliminating the need of manually adjusting the passwords. The same is true for a lot of other SAP objects like trusted systems, STMS, SLD.
- some steps are done in a different order compared to the manual procedure. This is mainly due to efficiency reasons, for example the clean up tasks can run in parallel.
During the refresh of a system, two tables are used. In the following example the refresh configuration is called "SE6". As such the following two tables are used:
SAPSystemCopy_Configuration_SE6: this table contains the configuration of the refresh, eg. the source and target systems, type of the SAP system, etc.SAPSystemCopy_Data_SE6: this table contains the data, which is collected during the refresh run. Each refresh starts with a fresh and empty data table.
The process SCP_Prepare , which runs at the very beginning of the refresh process creates a fresh data table for the refresh. Once the table is created, the ID of the SCP_Prepare process is added to the table under the key REFRESH_ID.
In case the data table of the previous refresh is found it is renamed to SAPSystemCopy_Data_<config name>_<REFRESH_ID of the previous refresh>.
Data of the export jobs is stored on the OS level under the directory defined by the configuration parameter "Directory for storing preserved data" (REFRESH_DATA_DIRECTORY) in the directory named after the refresh configuration, i.e. REFRESH_DATA_DIRECTORY/<config name>.
vse6:/opt/redwood/agent/rwscp # ls SE6
control data log profile trans
For each new refresh, the directory of the previous refresh is renamed, if it exists, and a new directory is created.
The "control" directory stores the control files for the data export, while the data directory stores the exported data:
vse6:/opt/redwood/agent/rwscp # ls SE6/data/
ALE.dat CUSTOM_TABLES.dat JOB_GROUPS.dat OPERATION_MODES.dat SCOT.dat STMS_QA.dat
CONTENT_REPOSITORY.dat EXTERNAL_COMMANDS.dat LICENSE.dat PROFILE.dat SPAD.dat STRUST.dat
CONTENT_SERVER.dat FILE.dat LOGON_GROUPS.dat RFC.dat STMS.dat
The "log" directory stores the logs of the data export.
The "profile" directory stores the SAP profiles.
The "trans" directory stores the TMS configuration files.
In the finalization phase of a refresh, the main directory (REFRESH_DATA_DIRECTORY/<config name>) is renamed to REFRESH_DATA_DIRECTORY/<config name>_<REFRESH_ID> and the status of the refresh in the data table is set to "Finished". The data table is not renamed (it will be renamed when the next refresh starts).
In order to save space in the file system, only the data of the last few refreshes (10 by default) is kept. Data tables and export directories of older refreshes are automatically deleted.
Error handling
If the refresh process aborts with an error, it is possible to restart it by using standard product procedures. Please check the product documentation for restarting / resubmitting jobs and chain definitions.
The process definition SCP_Set_Chain_Default_Status_Handlers can be used to set the default status handlers of a chain such that jobs ending in status Canceled, Error, Killed, or Unknown do not cause a failure of the whole chain but rather stop in status Console and request a restart.
See Also
sscpTopic