E2E System Refresh Automation

End-to-End (E2E) System Refresh Automation with IT-Conductor simplifies the process of performing SAP system refresh including the database refresh and Post-Copy Automation (PCA). Most SAP customers need to refresh their Quality or Test system on a regular basis to enhance the quality assurance process for the project team. However, this is a complex and long process that typically has to be adapted to each customer’s environment and project needs. Thus, many customers struggle to achieve successful and regular system refreshes.

IT-Conductor’s E2E System Refresh Automation reduces time and effort by up to 80% while minimizing manual processes, errors, and dependency on technical personnel.

Product Description

E2E System Refresh Automation is an Automation-as-a-Service solution created to automate the entire system refresh process from preparation and checks to the actual database refresh, followed by PCA to restore the quality system’s technical configuration.

Benefits

• Time-reduced in performing SAP system refreshes

• Minimize dependency on scarce SAP technical resources as the process is digitized into intelligent workflows

• Get notified when a scheduled system refresh starts, ends, or when an error occurs

• Flexibility to run system refresh, regardless of your system environment components

• Auditable traces of when and how the system refresh was automated

• Affordable Automation-as-a-Service solution which is supported remotely 24x

Approach

The different stages for System Refresh are the following:

• Provisioning - Infrastructure and system provisioning via ITC automation (if non-existent)

• Assessment - Discovery and distillation of resources

• Architecture - Design and development stage

• Deployment - Implementation of design

System Refresh Workflow

Figure 1: System Refresh Workflow

Architecture for System Refresh Automation

Figure 2: SAP Landscape for SID-Refresh

IT-Conductor System Refresh Automation Workflow

Below is an overview of the implementation, which will be configured and tested by the IT-Conductor team in collaboration with the customer’s technical SME (Subject Matter Experts).

The first step is to initialize the process definition with the pre-defined setup for the source and target system in IT-Conductor.

Figure 3: System Refresh Process Definition

There are one or more subprocesses that need to be executed as shown in the images below.

Figure 4: Source Preparation Subprocess

Figure 5: Target Preparation Subprocess

For the "Source Prep" or source preparation step, the process will first take a Backup from the Source Tenant Database. Once completed the process triggers the "Target Prep" or the target preparation step, stopping the SAP Application from the target system and exporting the configuration of our target system. For this example, we are using the QAS System.

Once the export is completed, the next step "DB Restore" starts by copying the backup root key (from the filesystem) from the source to the target system, then the process STOP Database Tenant from the target and restores the database.

Figure 6: DB Restore Subprocess

The process will automatically start the next step once the previous steps are completed and turned GREEN. For the "Post Copy" step, the process will first Import back the QA Configuration and Start the SAP APP from the target system.

Figure 7: Post Copy Subprocess

Post-Processing Tasks

After the end-to-end system refresh process is completed. There are some remaining tasks that need to be executed as well.

BDLS

The next step is to convert logical system (LOGSYS) names (BDLS). This conversion usually takes a long time for large-size database tables. As part of IT-Conductor automation, we have included this step to be executed post-system refresh.

1. Navigate to Tenant Name → Process Definitions.

Figure 8: Tenant View

2. Select the process definition for BDLS to open.

Figure 9: BDLS Process Definition

3. Once the process is started, the program RBDLSMAP is executed as a background job. After it is completed, the activity will turn to GREEN.

Figure 10: RBDLSMAP Program Execution Completed

4. You can review the execution log when the job is finished.

Figure 11: RBDLSMAP Execution Log

You can also verify directly in SAP for the job log entries.

Figure 12: Job Log Entries in SAP

The status of the RBDLSMAP job should be "Finished".

Figure 13: Job Preview View

Suspend Jobs (BTCTRNS1)

The next step before performing the client copy is to suspend jobs. The BTCTRNS1 activity is created in IT-Conductor as shown below.

Figure 14a: BTCTRNS1 Activity Details (General)

1. Select the SAP tab and enter the Program Name as BTCTRNS1 without any variant.

Figure 14b: BTCTRNS1 Activity Details (SAP)

Client Copy

Once all jobs are suspended, the next step is to perform the client copy.

Figure 15a: Client Copy Activity Details (General)

1. Select the SAP tab and enter the Program Name as "STC_TM_PROCESSOR" and the Variant Name as "&0000000000001".

Figure 15b: Client Copy Prrogram Activity Details (SAP)

Note: To perform client copies from 000 to 250, we need to add credentials for client 200 in IT-Conductor. We already added DDIC-200 credentials in the account section.

Figure 16: User Accounts in IT-Conductor

Release Jobs (BTCTRNS2)

After the system copy is performed, you need to release the jobs that were suspended earlier.

1. Modify the activity to run the program BTCTRNS2 in our process definition.

Figure 17a: BTCTRNS2 Activity Details (General)

Figure 17b: BTCTRNS2 Activity Details (SAP)

Once all steps are completed, they will change color to green.

System Refresh/Copy Dashboard

A customized dashboard can be deployed to provide an overview of the existing configurations, process definitions, and systems or instances that have undergone system copy. It also includes the following administrative tools:

• Process Instances

• Graphical Process Composer

• Manage Schedules

• Run/Instantiate Process Definition

• Restart Activity

• Activity Log

• Process Flowchart

• Delete Object

Figure 18: System Refresh/Copy Dashboard