moving a SAP installation (ABAP + JavA) to another drive letter on the same computer

[Former Member]

Hello friends...

I have a situation here, with which I'm having some doubts and would like to know your opinion.

Our SSM is currently on the version 7.0 EhP 1 and it's installed on a virtual Windows machine with the following disk configuration:

C: - the SAP is installed here and there's about 20GB free. Also, increasing the disk space is not an easy task

😧 - this drive has the database and 50GB of free space and it is very easy to increase the disk space if needed.

I was recently given the task to upgrade the SSM to the newest version, but soon noticed the free space on the C: drive wouldn't be enough for the upgrade. Since it is not easy to increase it, I decided I was going to "move" the SAP installation to the 😧 drive.

I tried to do it by simply moving the SAP file structure (c:/usr/sap):

1. stopped SAP and all SAP-related windows services
2. copied the entire \usr\sap structure to the new location (from the C:drive to the 😧 drive on the same server)
3. recreated the SAP shares (sapmnt and saploc)
4. reconfigured the SAP Windows Services and changed every instance of c:\usr\sap found at the registry to d:\usr\sap
5. changed the environment variables of user <SID>ADM and the system variables
6. reviewed the SAP profiles (nothing was changed)
7. restarted the server
8. checked the automatic start of the SAP Windows Services (it was OK)
9. Started SAP

On the ABAP side, everything seems to be OK and all the directories displayed on AL11 are with the correct values.

The Java "side", however, did not start correctly so I checked the file structure, waiting for the old location on the config files and found several of them still referring to the old location.

After contacting SAP Support, I was told this approach was not supported by SAP and that I should do a system copy instead.

So, I reverted everything back to the virtual system backup (which was made just before I started the above procedure).

I already have the necessary tools for the System Copy:

1. System Copy Guide for SAP Systems based on SAP NetWeaver 7.0 including EhP1 ABAP + Java
2. Installation Guide SAP NW7 ABAP-Java including EHP1 on Windows MS SQL Server
3. Required DVDs

What I need to know is:

• Is there any problem on using this method to simply move the file structure from one drive letter to another on the same host?
• Keeping the SID will be a problem (I want to keep the same SID as in the C: installation)?

thanks

Antonio

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

You can always use a junction to move all usr directory structure and solve you space issue.