SAP system refresh for PI-AEX - huh?

[shaun_wimpory2]

Hi community,

We are about to commence a refresh of our core landscape (ERP, BW, ..etc..) from production to our non-production environments (sandpit, FST, QA), a process we are very familiar with for our core ABAP products. This will be the first time we are performing a refresh with PI-AEX (SAP NW Java 7.5) as part of our landscape.

I'm aware that we can perform a standard homogeneous system copy for NW JAVA (syscopy), however I don't know if you would actually copy a PI-AEX system for the purposes of a test system refresh, given the PI-AEX environment does not hold any transaction or master data.

For everyone's benefit, this is my definition of a syscopy vs refresh -

System Copy = a copy of a source system to a target system with a different SID (eg when establishing a new SID in your landscape to help minimize the initial manual build/configuration of the new SID)

System Refresh = copy of a source system to target system with a different SID, retaining the target systems original technical configuration (eg RFCs, trust stores, SSLcerts, users, security policies, ALE config, BGRFC config, webservice config/definitions, batch jobs, archive config, BW source system config, CCMS config, CTS/TMS config, DB13 schedules, ECATT config, logical file definitions, LDAP config, logon groups, opmodes, printer definitions, IMG project definitions, SAPconnect config, SDCCN history, etc, etc, etc)

So my question is this. When performing a landscape system refresh from production to non-production (eg Prod to QA) has anyone performed this also with their PI-AEX instance?

If you have, why? What was the benefit of "refreshing" PI-AEX? Was it really a refresh, or a system copy?

Cheers

Shaun

[shaun_wimpory2 · Accepted solution]

I have had it confirmed by 3 leading PI/PO experts that you do not refresh your non-prod PI/PO JAVA systems as part of a SAP landscape refresh process. Refresh the ABAP systems, but do not refresh the JAVA PI-AEX system.

So in the scenario I mentioned earlier -

PRD: ERP / BW / PI-AEX

QA: ERP / BW / PI-AEX

You would only perform the QA system refresh activities for ERP and BW, and leave PI-AEX as is.

Cheers

Shaun

[MarioDeFelipe]

Hi Shaun, normally PI is not refreshed, its much simpler to transport the scenario from DEV to QA in case you have serious doubts that the scenarios are messed

PI does not hold transactional data, ECC does and BW also although its analytical, so from my honest opinion, I always challenge the decision to refresh PI but in case its done I would do a refresh from Production to QA, and then you need to register again the systems on SLD (same as you do when you refresh your ECC and BW).

The most important part to consider a PI migration, I strongly recommend using SWPM 1.0 to do a system copy, it will hold your ABAP and Java data, do it offline.

Important notes;

• 1117249 - Incomplete Registration of PI components in SLD
• SAP NetWeaver Process Integration Troubleshooting Guide PDF
• 1292803 - Configuration Wizard: PI SLD Self Registration
• 1738258 - System Copy for Systems Based on SAP NetWeaver - Using Software Provisioning Manager 1.0

[MarioDeFelipe]

Hi Shaun, based on your observation, for you, a system refresh is a system copy but with a pre-steps, you do on the source to hold the data

on XI, there I don't know about a procedure to do so if you want to refresh PI-AEX is because your system will be messed up, if not, give it a think.

After the refresh, you will need to register again against SLD, fix the SLD, recreate JCO destinations, probably fix the UME in case the PI has an abap ume and so on, if you are familiar with such activities, go ahead, but there is no "export at table level" as you do in abap to save the ESR and ID, in fact, that's the only reason for you to do the refresh.

[shaun_wimpory2]

Thanks Mario,

I didn't quite follow your answer sorry, so let me clarify -

Say we have the following landscape -

PRD: ERP / BW / PI-AEX

QA: ERP / BW / PI-AEX

Typically if refreshing the ERP QA system with a production copy, we would also refresh the BW QA system at the same-time. We would restore both databases (ERP and BW) to the same common point-in-time to guarantee message/transaction consistency.

Now if we throw PI-AEX into the mix, do we/should we refresh our PI-AEX QA system at the same time when refreshing ERP and BW QA??

If so, why, and whats the ideal process for this, and what do we need to consider?

If not, why not? (more for my understanding)

Cheers

Shaun