SAP Landscape Copies
This is why companies need professional test data management
Companies with backup systems can use these for a client copy and thus save on the computing power of the productive system. However, the burden of copying falls on the SAN. Because the reliability is limited by the misuse of the backup system and the storage network is additionally burdened, users should keep the runtime of this refresh variant as short as possible.
Basically, a distinction is made between the initial setup and refresh of a non-productive SAP system. In the past, the cost of a refresh, i.e., updating the environment with new data, often corresponded to the cost of the initial setup. This also restricted the availability of the productive system, which is hardly tolerable for companies that operate internationally and in different time zones.
The Refresh
An alternative to this is a refresh using a client copy. The test environment will then be missing audit documents, among other things, but the development objects will remain untouched. The client copy only works from a running SAP system, but it burdens the system with database queries and transfers data more slowly than a system copy. The affected client is not available during the copy process. Since there are no options within the client to select what all should be copied, the runtime is often unacceptable.
There are now a number of tools that simplify refresh activities of non-production SAP systems. The tools are imported into SAP systems via transports and enable the data to be copied to be written in. The more precise the selection, the greater the potential savings in storage space and extraction time compared to client copy. As with the latter, the configuration is retained and ongoing development and test processes remain undisturbed.
There is a useful product for SAP system copy - "Shortcut for SAP Systems".
Even companies that offer the setup of test systems as a service rarely do this for any SAP dataset.
SAP Basis is the foundation of any SAP system. You can find a lot of useful information about it on this page: www.sap-corner.de.
Every SAP system copy then carries the risk of losing the development status achieved and can lead to inconsistencies in programs and customizing, and any damage repair is usually very time-consuming.