SAP DATA Migration and SAP OS / DB migration

[Former Member]

Hi ,

May be stupid question. But I just want to know if SAP DATA migration and SAP Heterogeneous System copy is same thing of diff?

Regards.

Arpit

[FrankDensborn · Accepted solution]

Hi Arpit,

Chaitanya is right, there is a difference between data migration and OS/DB migration (heterogeneous system copy in case of difference in target OS or (OR, not necessarily XOR) DB. We also call the latter DB-migration = database migration, in case the DB is changed and not (just) the OS. And these four letters when you compare data and data'base' migration make a huge difference!

In a data migration, you typically do a legacy data migration meaning the source has different structure and you need to do a mapping. Also, you can address data quality issues with de-duplication and data standardization/normalization. Also, you have to do value mapping, for example if your source system knows 'Germany' as a country but your target system needs 'DE' (ISO-code for Germany that SAP uses).

Example: JD Edwards migration to SAP ECC (different ERP systems)

--> There is a solution for this called Rapid Data Migration:

http://scn.sap.com/community/rapid-deployment/blog/2012/05/11/a-better-way-to-migrate-your-sap-data-...

In a database migration, you don't migrate data records but entire tables (as is). In easy words, you're doing a DB backup and install it on a new DB. You already mentioned it, this is done with the same tools as in a system copy.

Example: Oracle DB to HANA DB (same SAP ERP system)

--> There is a solution for this called Rapid Data Migration:

http://scn.sap.com/community/rapid-deployment/blog/2013/08/30/a-better-way-to-migrate-your-sap-busin...

So with easy words, a data migration scenario is like when you buy a new car while in a DB migration you keep your car but exchange the motor

Most importantly, in a data migration you (can) have different data structure on source and target while in a DB migration all tables are the same with the same content but just on different DBs.

Hope that helps!

Best regards,

FRANK.

[Former Member]

No, it is not.

SAP Data Migration as the name suggests,refers to loading/migrating data into a SAP instance. This may include a data conversion process where you source data from a different system, cleanse it and convert it to meet the needs/requirements of loading it to a SAP instance.

A system copy simply means copying an entire instance to another which includes the underlying config and the existing data (if explicitly selected).

-Chaitanya

[Former Member]

Thanks. That means SAP DATA migration process is diff than that of Sap os/db migration correct?

[Former Member]

Yes. Completely different.

-Chaitanya