# Product Overview

System copy and system refresh are fundamental administrative tasks in SAP landscapes. When you need to change your operating system or your database, or maybe you want to build an entirely new system based on an existing system, you need to perform a system copy. If you want to set up a sandbox system for testing and demo purposes, a system copy is also performed. While system refresh is closely related to system copy, it involves more than just copying one system to another. When you refresh a system, you overwrite an existing target system with the latest data from a source system while maintaining the configuration. 

The challenge now is how system refresh requires several steps, that when performed manually, can be tedious and time-consuming as it requires at least 20 hours to perform. Depending on the complexity of your systems, system refresh can even take up to several days to complete. Given SAP's recommendation to perform a system refresh at least once every quarter, it would be a great relief to have an automated solution in place and remove the burden of having to manually process them four times a year, or probably more.

### Product Description <a href="#productoverview-productdescription" id="productoverview-productdescription"></a>

SID-Refresh™ is a standalone tool developed specifically for Post-Copy Automation (PCA) tasks. It is designed to simplify, automate, and optimize the process of updating the technical data and configuration in SAP systems.

For users seeking an end-to-end solution that encompasses system start/stop, database refresh, and post-PCA steps such as running BDLS, we recommend exploring our fully orchestrated solution – [E2E System Refresh Automation](/user-guide/automation/e2e-system-refresh.md).

![Figure 1: System Refresh Process](/files/qzz8jkakw8dMPFo4U9vu)

{% hint style="info" %}
**Note:** System Refresh is the process of copying one SAP system to another SAP system while retaining the existing configuration settings.
{% endhint %}

### Simplifying the SAP System Refresh with SID-Refresh <a href="#productoverview-simplifyingthesapsystemrefreshwithsid-refresh-tm" id="productoverview-simplifyingthesapsystemrefreshwithsid-refresh-tm"></a>

{% embed url="<https://youtu.be/seKjFOE4xI8>" %}

### Benefits and Value <a href="#productoverview-benefitsandvalue" id="productoverview-benefitsandvalue"></a>

The benefits and values provided by SID-Refresh are the following:

* Additional hardware is not required
* Minimal resources for implementation and operations
* No major changes in the existing landscape
* Easy implementation with minimal process
* Can be deployed on platforms that use different operating systems and databases
* Automated process
* Minimizes downtime
* Increased integrity

Below are the average savings we saw in the field for customers who benefited from pre and post-copy automation per system refresh. Note that the actual database copy is not included because that depends on the size of the customer's system and the platform/technology used.  The manual process varies based on the system's complexity due to the number of jobs, connections, profiles, etc., while SID-Refresh, the automated process, remains consistent each time regardless of system complexity.&#x20;

| Manual                                                      | With SID-Refresh                                             |
| ----------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ |
| 20 hours                                                    | 4 hours                                                      |
| Varied effort and error rate depending on system complexity | More thorough and error-free regardless of system complexity |
| Manual implementation of the checklist                      | 40% automated                                                |

### SAP Supported Environments <a href="#productoverview-sapsupportedenvironments" id="productoverview-sapsupportedenvironments"></a>

The following table lists the SAP environments that are supported by SID-Refresh with other useful information.

| Application        | Version     |
| ------------------ | ----------- |
| SAP NetWeaver ABAP | 7.00 - 7.50 |
| SAP ECC            | 5.0 and 6.0 |
| SAP S/4 HANA       | From 1511   |
| Solution Manager   | From 7.0    |
| SAP BI             | From 7.0    |
| SAP CRM            | From 7.0    |
| SAP EWM            | From 7.0    |
| SAP SCM            | From 7.0    |
| SAP GTS            | From 7.0    |

### SAP Supported Operating Systems <a href="#productoverview-sapsupportedoperatingsystems" id="productoverview-sapsupportedoperatingsystems"></a>

The following table lists the supported operating systems where the **.jar** file can be installed.

| System            | Architecture                                                       |
| ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Linux/Unix        | 64-bit (x86\_64)/SPARC (64-bit), IBM AIX on POWER Systems (64-bit) |
| Microsoft Windows | 64-bit (x86\_64)                                                   |

### Limitations of the Product <a href="#productoverview-limitationsoftheproduct" id="productoverview-limitationsoftheproduct"></a>

SID-Refresh satisfies the majority of the required functionalities when performing system refresh. The following lists the current limitations of the product.

* Refreshing systems between Unicode and non-Unicode.
* Testing for SAP BI, CRM, and SCM scenarios (basis technical configurations would still work, but module-specific technical configurations may not be covered).
* Does not support NetWeaver Java.

![](/files/eBv4jM4MUdcnMWUlKPOD)


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