System Refresh:

System refresh is nothing but copying an SAP system to another.Let us say the
system from which copy is being done is called as source system and system in
which data to be copied as target system.

System refresh activity comprises of following 3 phases

1. Pre refresh activity
2. Refresh activity (Database restoration)
3. Post refresh activity
Pre-refresh Activity:
Before performing system refresh, following steps need to performed.
1) Export of user master and authorizations from all SAP clients on
the target system (SCC8)
2)Please take snapshots of following t-codes
Client settings (SCC4)
Logon groups (SMLG)
Processing groups (RZ12)
AL11, SE03 and SM61
Printer details (SPAD)
Operation modes (RZ03, RZ04 and SM63)
RFCs (SM59)
Partner profiles (WE20) and ports (WE21)
Logical systems (BD54)
Services that are active (SICF)

3) Using SE01 transaction, create transport request for backing up of AL11, SE03,
SMLG(Logon Groups), RZ12(Processing Groups),SM59(RFC’s), SM69, SPAD, SM61, RZ03.

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1) Export of user master and authorizations from all SAP clients on the
target system (SCC8)

This step is required because once the source system data is

replaced in the target system, the user and authorization details of
target system will be overwritten by source system user master. So,
in case we need to retain target system user master, we have to take
backup of the same using SCC8 tcode.

 SCC8 transaction can be used for export of user master and

authorization profiles in SAP system.
 Log in to the target system and go to SCC8 tcode.
 SAP_USER profile to be used to export user master and
authorizations in SAP system.

So, please select profile as SAP_USER and input the correct

target system and target client in which user master needs to be
imported later.

After that click on “Schedule as Background Job” push button.

It will result in below screen. 
Select the 

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1) Source client which you would like to export

2) Select background server (optional). If it is not selected, load balancing

will happen and client export can happen on any available background
server. 

3) Please tick "immediately" checkbox (as shown below)

4) Please tick "No Printer Dialog" checkbox (as shown below)

and execute
It will result in below screen asking confirmation to continue.

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Please click continue pushbutton to start the export of User Masters.  

We should follow above process and export users from all clients that are available in
SCC4. User master export may not be required for clients 001 and 066 (as these are
standard clients). 

Please make note of which Export contains which client’s user data so that you can import
them later again (as part of post refresh steps)
2)Please take snapshots of following t-codes

1.Client settings (SCC4)

2. Logon groups (SMLG)

3.Processing groups (RZ12)
4.AL11, SE03 and SM61
5.Printer details (SPAD)
6.Operation modes (RZ03, RZ04 and SM63)
7.RFCs (SM59)
8.Partner profiles (WE20) and ports (WE21)
9.Logical systems (BD54)
10.Services that are active (SICF)

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3) Using SE01 transaction, create transport request for backing up of AL11,
SE03, SMLG(Logon Groups), RZ12(Processing Groups),SM59(RFC’s), SM69,
SPAD, SM61, RZ03.
SE01 transaction is used to create transport request in SAP.

As part of pre-refresh steps, we need to take backup of target system’s

 Printer settings (SPAD)

 Processing groups (RZ12)
 Logon groups(SMLG)
 Logical systems (BD54)
 Operation mode settings(RZ03/RZ04)
 RFCs related information(SM59)
 AL11(sap directories)
 SE03 (transport organizer tool settings)
 Batch processing relation information (SM61)
 Customer entries information (SM69)
 Archive related settings (OAC0)

If we have backed them up in a transport request, it is easy for us to import them later in
the target system. If we haven’t backed them up, we may have to manually create all these
entries which will be a tedious and time consuming task. So, we have to backup all these
entries.
In the backend, all the above configurations will be stored in specific tables. If we can
identify and include those tables in a transport request and export, then we can import it
back whenever these settings are required during post refresh.

 We need to create a transport request of type “Transport of Copies” to serve this purpose
To create the same, Go to SAP transaction SE01 à Create Request à select Transport of
Copies

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Click on Green Check Mark in the above screen.
This will prompt you to create a transport request as seen below

Please provide Short Description for the transport request (in the above screen) and input
the appropriate client in Target. Other fields will get populated automatically.
This will create a transport request as shown below. 

Double Click the transport number and add the tables information (highlighted in yellow in
the below paragraph) in the respective columns of the transport request. After that, these
configurations can be imported in post refresh stage.

          AL11  – User Directory Entries are contained in the following tables

          R3TR TABU USER_DIR                    Keys   *

          SE03 – System Change Options are contained in the following tables

          R3TR TABU TRNSPACEL     Keys   *

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          R3TR TABU DLV_SYSTC      Keys  *

          SMLG/RZ12 – Logon Groups and Processing Groups are contained in the   

          following table.

          R3TR TABU RZLLITAB         Keys   *

         SM59 Connections – RFC connections are contained in the following tables

          R3TR TABU RFCATTRIB      Keys  *

          R3TR TABU RFCDES           Keys  *
          R3TR TABU RFCDOC          Keys  *

          SALE – Logical Systems are contained in the following tables

          R3TR TABU TBDLS          Keys   *

          R3TR TABU TBDLST        Keys    *

          SM69 – Export Customer Entries contained in the following table

          R3TR TABU SXPGCOSTAB  Keys   Y* & Z*

          Oca0 – Archive Settings

          R3TR TABU CREP_HTTP     Keys   *

          SPAD – Printer Settings

          R3TR TABU TSPSV               Keys   *

          SM61 – Batch Processing    

          R3TR TABU TSRVGRP          Keys   *

          R3TR TABU TSRVLST           Keys   *

          RZ03/RZ04 – Operation Modes  & RZ20 settings

          R3TR TABU TPFBA               Keys   *

          R3TR TABU TPFHT               Keys   *
          R3TR TABU TPFID               Keys   *

           
Include all the above tables details in the transport request and save.   

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NOTE:  Please make sure to release this transport before the refresh starts.  Otherwise the
cofile and datafile will not generated and you will not be able to import this transport later.
If we can’t import request, then we may have to create/maintain all these configurations
manually which will be tedious and complex task.

Refresh Activity(data restoration):

1)Please stop the target sap system and handover to database team

2)Database team will restore the data from source system to target system and validate

3)Once everything is fine, database team will handover system to SAP Basis team

Post-Refresh Activities:
1) Disable batch processing (by setting batch work processes as 0 at Os
level)
2)  Start sap system and login with sap* user
3) Install sap license(how to apply license mention in below)
4)  Prevent batch job from running by setting all jobs from released to
scheduled (using SM37)(mentioned in below)
5) Delete/recreate TMS for target system using SE06
6) Configure SAP transport system (using STMS)
7) Import user master for all clients (which was done as part of pre-refresh
steps
8)  Import transports related to AL11, SE03, SMLG, RZ12, SM59, SALE and
SM69  
9)  backup (which was done as part of pre-refresh steps)
10)  Execute BDLS transaction
11)  Remove entries from few listed tables using SE14
transaction(mentioned in below)
12)  Delete old SAP profiles and import new profiles using RZ10
transaction(mentined in below)
13) Perform spool consistency check using SP12 transaction
14) Delete old update records using SM13 transaction.
15)  Delete/Reorganize transaction RFC’s using SM58 transaction
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16) Delete batch job logs by executing RSBTCDEL report using SE38
transaction
17) Delete Old spool requests by executing RSPO0041 report using SE38
transaction
18)  Create/modify necessary partner profiles using WE20 transaction
19)  Modify necessary ports using WE21 transaction
20)  Perform mail configuration using SCOT transaction
21)  Delete old mail related entries using SOST transaction
22)  Execute SGEN transaction or run RSGENINVLAS report (no variant is
required) using
SE38 transaction
23)  Make necessary services active through SICF transaction.

Applying sap license

In SAP environment, there will be a requirement to install a license to a new
installed SAP system or to a system refreshed from another system. This is the
primary step in the post refresh activities of an SAP system.

SAP license key can be requested from Service Market Place from the following
link :

http://service.sap.com/licensekey

Please download license key for a SAP system and store in your local desktop.

Once the license files are downloaded from market place, login into 000 client
using SAP* user into  ABAP stack of an SAP system on which you would like to
apply license.

SLICENSE is the transaction code for applying license in SAP system.

Execute transaction SLICENSE, which results in a screen similar to below

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To  list  old licenses existing in the system, click on “Old Licenses” tab in the above
screen. It lists all the old licenses.

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select each license and delete license by navigating as shown in above screen

Repeat this step until all old licenses are deleted.

To install new license click on install button  shown in the below screen.

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It opens screen as shown below. Please navigate to the location where license file that
was downloaded from market place was kept in your desktop and select the file and click
open to input the license file.

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It then displays message as below after successful installation of license key.

How to prevent SAP background jobs from

running?
If the background job in SAP is in released state, it will run at the mentioned time or when
respective event occurs (as per the job definition). If for any reason, you would like to hold
the job(s) from execution, you can do the same using SM37 transaction.

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 In real time scenarios, you may need to hold few jobs from execution like

 After system refresh, you may have to hold jobs from execution in target system
because the target system consists of source system jobs and they shouldn’t run. So, it is
suggested to hold all the jobs from execution and release only required jobs and basis
standard jobs(housekeeping jobs)
 Sometimes, there might be duplicate schedule of same job and you want to hold the
duplicate job to prevent multiple executions

In these cases, to hold the jobs to prevent from execution, we need to set the status of
those jobs from “Released” to “Scheduled”. To do the same, we have login to SAP system
and go to transaction SM37 which will result in below screen.

In the above screen, select the job status as “Released” and keep all other options as
shown above and execute. This will list down all the released status jobs.

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From the list, select tick those jobs that you would like to prevent from execution and
change the status from “Released to Scheduled” as shown below.

Then all the selected jobs status will be set as “Scheduled” and those jobs won’t
get executed till you release them again.

What is the use of database utility in

SAP?
The database utility is the interface between the ABAP Dictionary and the relational
database underlying the R/3 System. This tools allows you to edit database objects derived
from objects of the ABAP dictionary.

Using database utility, we can create, delete and adjust to changes to database objects
definition in the ABAP dictionary.

SE14 transaction is used for invoking database utility.

As part of post system refresh activities, we need to remove entries from specific tables
(mentioned below), activate and adjust the database.

Table List

ALCONSEG            -          Alert: Context/segment assignment

ALSYSTEMS           -          CCMS Central System Management: Remote Managed Systems

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DBSNP                 -          Database snapshots 

MONI                   -          Monitor table MONI    

OSMON                -          Operating system monitoring data

PAHI                   -           History of system, DB and SAP parameter

SDBAD                -           Detail Table for DBA Logs

SDBAH                -           Header Table for DBA Logs

SDBAP                -           DBA Planning Table

SDBAR                -           DBA Resource Table

TPFET                 -           Table of profile parameters

TPFHT                 -           Profile header, administration data for profiles in DB      

TLOCK                 -           Change and Transport System: Lock Table

SWNCMONI          -           SAP Workload NW Collector: Data Clusters       

SAPWLSERV         -           SAP Workload: Table of active servers

SWNCMONIINDEX -           SAP Workload NW Collector: Data Cluster Index Table

Process for removing entries, activating and adjusting the database is mentioned below.

Go to transaction SE14. It will result in below screen.

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Please provide table name in the object name text box and select “Tables” radio
button and click on edit as shown above. It will result in below screen.

In the above screen, make sure Processing type is selected as “Direct” and select “Delete
data” radio button and click on “Activate and adjust database” button (as shown above).

The above message will appear at the bottom of the screen indicating success of the
transaction.

In the above example, I have documented the process to be followed for deleting entries of
ALCONSEG table. However, as part of post system refresh activities, this process to be
carried out for each of the above mentioned tables.

NOTE:Yes, we need to delete these entries of target system because these tables
contain details like monitoring information etc of source system. As we no longer
need them, we will delete.

One rule, never touch any source system entries as part of system refresh. Always,
we delete/modify target system details.

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