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I need to be an Unicorn! -Going Basis-

SimoneMilesi
Active Contributor
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Hello all!

I recently changed company and I moved to a new place where, until my arrival, technical issues on SAP where managed by consultants, from development to SAP Hosting and system administration.

Lately the users are complaining about performances and the answer we got from the company hosting SAP are just uhmmm, so the Big Heads got the shining idea to take SAP inhouse on company servers since "Simone is a tecnichan! He'll solve the problems of the world".

This despite my efforts to explain that being a developer with a strong and solid background and knowing some tricks (check performances, indexes usage, bottlenecks and so on) not transform me into the best candidate to manage a whole SAP system, this idea is growing stronger and bigger.

So, to avoid to be struck by thunder without covering my... head, I'm starting looking for some documentantion/help/guide/suggestion/miracle to face this new challenge.


To be clear: it's not the job scaring me, it's being put into a job i do not have the tools to manage.


My first attemp has been the Learning Hub where I identified the courses i think i will need Curriculum | SAP System Administration - SAP ERP (component SAP ECC) as conditio sine qua non (SAPTEC -ADM100 -ADM110).


What else I need? Which suggestion can you give me (apart "RUN AWAY!" )?

We are at the moment on 7.31 with ASE DB: we should change and upgrade in the meantime? to what?

Thanks all for the patience and all the help you can give me

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

SimoneMilesi
Active Contributor
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Thanks for all the hints.

Right now i'm starting to follow these guides

from : it seems he read my mind since the thread appears few minutes after mine

I keep the thread open so if someone got any other idea or suggestion, well, better!

hofmann
Active Contributor
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The best idea is to do, fail, improve, repeat.

Your employer should be aware that while it is easy to have a working SAP system, it`s very, very hard to have a nicely working SAP system. Performance is slow? There are millions of possibilities (my preferred one: ABAP developers do not know how to code. 99,999% hit rate), but there are DB parameters, a lot of NW profile parameters, DIA, work processes, landscape, network, sizing, etc etc etc.

It takes years to learn this kind of stuff. Just ask Juan, he is in this business for years and for sure still learns every single day something new.

Good new is: the chances are good that the previous Basis team / guy was just a normal Basis guy. In that case fixing the system is easy. Once I saw at a big client that everyone was working with the central instance only. No wonder the system was sloooooow 🙂

Answers (5)

Answers (5)

Matt_Fraser
Active Contributor
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Simone,

So, as you are bringing the system and the administration in-house from a hosted situation, do you already have a DBA on staff to help with that aspect of things? may proclaim to be "always a DBA" and not any kind of Basis expert, but often the reality is that a good Basis admin has to also be at least somewhat of a DBA. So, with that in mind, beyond the "pure" Basis classes and books that have been mentioned, you might consider finding something on the database platform.

Are you going to migrate to something else as you bring it in-house? DB/OS migration is another area of specialty for some, so you might still consider using a consultant to help with that, especially as it's presumably a one-time or at least rare thing to do, therefore not necessarily critical for your own skillset and experience (but you will get good at homogeneous system copies ).

Finally, if you're now going to be the new Basis admin, who is going to replace you as the ABAP developer? Surely your employer doesn't think it a good idea for one person to do both at the same time, do they? If they do harbor such fanciful illusions, you might point out the benefits of separation of duties, i.e. do they really want the same person to write the code, release the transport request, import the transport to production, and monitor all the logs once it gets there?

On second thought, maybe you do want to keep it that way. Think of the embezzlement possibilities.

--Matt

SimoneMilesi
Active Contributor
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Matt Fraser wrote:

Finally, if you're now going to be the new Basis admin, who is going to replace you as the ABAP developer? Surely your employer doesn't think it a good idea for one person to do both at the same time, do they?

Ehmmmmm... next question?

Yes, they, in my opinion, are missing how complex is to manage a SAP system.

I got a meeting tomorrow with them where i try again to explain the issues and the suggestions/hints i gathered thank you all.

It's a real challenge that tickles my ego to be honest but i have to be sure about what i'm doing and how i'm doing it, since, even chaos is my second name, i like things done with brain and well.

Colleen
Advisor
Advisor
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if you are having to explain pointing out a % of unplanned system time in relation to impacts to their profits/sales might help. Many managers usually listen when they can see the number and have a chance to prevent the 'please explain' to other executives.

Good luck

former_member185239
Active Contributor
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Hi Simone,

I think you need  me badly .

"Welcome to the world of Basis"


With Regards

Ashutosh Chaturvedi

Reagan
Advisor
Advisor
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I would recommend ADM315 and E2E100 courses from SAP. If you don't want to attend the classes then the best option is to buy the book "SAP Performance Optimization Guide" from SAP Press. In addition to that there are tools like Wily Introscope which will get you the details about system performance, CPU utilization and things like that. Buying the above mentioned book can be helpful. If there are products like APO, BW in addition to ERP used then there are administration guides available from SAP. Finally, if things are not clear or unresolved then raise a thread here

Matt_Fraser
Active Contributor
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, could you drop me a DM when you have a moment?

Jelena
Active Contributor
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Oh man, soon there will be no ABAPers left...

I can relate to that - our management doesn't always seem to understand the difference between ABAP and Basis ("what do you mean you don't know how to install Adobe server?!"). And, of course, as soon as you reveal some knowledge you get proclaimed an expert and it becomes just a baseline expectation. So far I've managed to stay out off Basis as much as possible (fortunately, another victim was found ), so kudos to you for not running away!

Surely our , and can provide some more guidance in this matter.

Good luck!

JimSpath
Active Contributor
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Contrary to my public image, I have never written a line of ABAP in my life, nor have I been a member of any team called Basis.  Once a DBA, always a DBA.

JPReyes
Active Contributor
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Contrary to my public image, I have never written a line of ABAP in my life

Ha, neither do I... I just limit myself to criticise other peoeple's code...

Jelena
Active Contributor
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Jim Spath wrote:

Once a DBA, always a DBA.

OK, thanks for an update ([erasing Jim's name from The People to Reach for Help in Case My Pretend Basis Goes Terribly Wrong list]). I feel like a kid who just found he's been adopted, sigh...

SimoneMilesi
Active Contributor
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Do not cry

ABAP&New toys like Fiori keep attracting me and i do not think i leave them

Just, everyone likes to have an unicorn (in italian IT world, unicorns are those mythical figures able to do everything ) so, who am I to broke my boss' dreams?

JPReyes
Active Contributor
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Hi Simone,

     Welcome to the dark side, I think the most interesting/useful of those courses once you have done ADM100 is ADM315 (SAPTEC is very basic, if you have never seen an SAP system you might as well do it, but if you have handled SAP as an end-user I wouldn't particularly bother with it). Installation and patching you can find a lot of documentation online, get yourself a Sandbox and build it, break it, rebuild it, upgrade it, change kernels, etc.... the best way to learn is to get hands on experience....

ADM315 give you a lot more information regarding performance and tuning which is harder to understand and hence its a better choice in my opinion.

You might enjoy reading gives you and overview of whats coming your way

Best of Luck

Juan

SimoneMilesi
Active Contributor
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Uh! Dark side has always cookies!

Thanks for your reply Juan and I already read both your blogs and once I started to read

Also you need to know all about the different systems ECC, BI, PI, SRM, CRM, EP, Content Repositories, Middleware, Java Engines, Web Dispatchers, SAP Routers, you name it… 

I almost fainted!


Then I finish to read it and I sigh in relief


Ok, I found tons of documentation online: where?! Could you give a couple of addresses?

And about courses: am I aiming the right one?  ADM315 is in the list but due the courses cost i got the budget for 3 of them this year.

But if you say that 11 years as developer/solution architect can supply  SAPTEC, i'll trade it for ADM315.

A little add to explain a bit better my issue:

I feel like a kid thrown in Candyland: he gots tons of ideas but really do not know where to start 😕