Server Refresh - Best Practice

[Former Member]

We are normally a Unix shop, but do have some Windows servers, notably a new installation of SAP Solution Manager, and upcoming Bex Broadcaster and SAP Portal. All of these systems will be on Windows for reasons of cost and available technologies.

We will be refreshing our hardware (on practice) every 3 years.

For a unix environment, this would not pose a problem, since the SAP installations and databases copy easily from system to system.

My question, to my learned peers, is what is the best approach to maintain a Windows installation over hardware generations?

1) Is it simply to re-install the application and environment, then copy the database?

2) Is it to use a 3rd party tool such as PowerConvert?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

The best practice is to perform an Homogeneus system copy

-> New installation of software

-> copy of Database

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks, Fidel.

That's what I thought. -alan

[former_member204746]

install your SAP insntace on VMWARE, then SAP and windows becomes mostly hardware independant.

in other case, it quite easy to install a SAP instance and Oracle with all patches within a few hour

[Former Member]

Thanks for your reply. Yes I have considered a VMWare solution. It may be the best answer, however, I am reluctant to add another layer of complexity to the installation unless absolutely necessary. I invite others to comment as well. -alan

[former_member433984]

Hello Alan,

VMWare might be good for test and small, but not for large productive system.

Check also SAP note 674851.

BR

[Former Member]

Thanks, Yaroslav. Resourcing is allways an issue with VMWare. I would like to keep this thread open longer. Windows has been the OS for many large companies. Hardware refresh (not to mention DRP) happens as a matter of course. My feeling is that the best practice is simply to re-install then copy the database. I am looking for an alternate solution. -alan