Change from domain to local installation

[Duy_Le_-_Islet_]

Hi All,

We want to change the ERP system from domain installation to local installation. The version of ERP system is ERP 6.0 EHP7, database is ASE 15.7.

I would like to ask how can we change the from domain installation to local installation? What steps we will need to do?

Is it done with system rename procedure? It's not clear in the System Rename documentation when I checked the use cases.

In addition, we cloned the server to an isolated environment, will we have to change the IP address of the server in this case?

I would be grateful for any feedback.

Best regards,

Duy

[Duy_Le_-_Islet_]

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Dear Jurgen,

Tried to change this ten times. Technical problems at the site.

Duy

[JL23]

Tell me the tag you want and I change it, I had not yet this issue but saw a post this morning where another user reported the same.

[Duy_Le_-_Islet_]

Hi,

Could you please change the tag to NetWeaver or NetWeaver Application Server?

Best regards,

Duy

[yaniv]

in the meanwhile we are trying to check the root cause of the issue you were experiencing. Sorry for inconvenience and hope we can have it fixed soon.

[Matt_Fraser · Accepted solution]

Hello Duy,

You can change your installation from a domain to local installation either during the System Copy process (which you already used when you cloned your system, so perhaps just repeat the copy?), or you can use the System Rename process, which is part of the same SWPM tool you used for the system copy. Changing the Windows Domain during System Rename is described in the System Rename Guide at https://support.sap.com/sltoolset -> System Provisioning -> Rename Option. It's in chapter 3.6 of the guide for ABAP systems on NetWeaver 7.1 or higher, which would apply to you. See also Note 1619720 (https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0001619720) and the Wiki at https://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/SL/System+Rename.

This is a pretty common question. I've answered it, or one very much like it, before myself: https://archive.sap.com/discussions/thread/3747886. In that discussion we talked about what is needed for creating a cloned system in an isolated environment, whether or not IP addresses have to change, and so forth.

I'm going to add the Software Logistics Toolset tag to this question, as it is related to that topic as well as NetWeaver.

Cheers,
Matt

[Duy_Le_-_Islet_ · Accepted solution]

Hi Matt,

Thank you very much for your detailed explanation. I have checked the System Rename Guide before, but the guide mentioned about the domain change, I thought it applies only to the scenario where we will need to change from domain to another domain or from local installation to a domain installation. Anyway, I think I have tried to run the system rename procedure with SWPM.

The information mentioned in your discussion is very useful. The procedure you described in the discussion is export/import system copy, right? I guess it might be better approach because it probably ensures the integrity of system users and related parameters (like environment variables, maybe?).

However, it does not apply in our case since we cannot put the source system to be down at the moment. In addition, the domain installation of target system is not a feasible solution, since we need to isolate the target system, so no connection to the domain actually (for temporary domain user and group accounts). Also, due to that reason, we cannot perform the direct system copy procedure either since the source system does not have any connection to the target system.

Instead, we recovered the whole virtual machine, then recovered the database backup before trying to run the system rename procedure. Unfortunately, the system does not start after system rename (something related to the connection between SAP and database), so I’m trying to investigated the issue further.

Best regards,

Duy

[Matt_Fraser · Accepted solution]

There is no need to shut down the source system during a system copy if you are using the "backup/restore" method. You just use a database backup made of the source system when you run SWPM to install the target system. The key is that parameters for the target system, including System ID and whether it's a domain or local installation, are set during the install of the target system with SWPM.

I also don't see why you need to have this in an isolated environment. Are you building a test system as a copy of production? If so, I highly recommend you keep it as a domain installation, so that it matches your productive environment as much as possible. The server hostname (and by extension IP address) will naturally be different, and you will need to give the system a different System ID (SID), but that is all handled in SWPM during the target system installation as part of System Copy, and is normal for a cloned test system. I suspect you are creating more work and complexity for yourself than you really need to.

Cheers,
Matt

[Duy_Le_-_Islet_ · Accepted solution]

Hi Matt,

Thank you for your comment. We are doing disaster recovery testing. Because the 'actual' production system cannot be shut down, I tried to use "backup/restore" method. It's true that this is a 'test' system, but due to some constraints (both from technical and customer requirements viewpoints), we cannot have another the domain installation at the moment.

I tried with system rename procedure, but during the procedure, SWPM does not ask for database backup. Firstly, I tried with database backup recovery, then performed the system rename procedure. Still something is missing and the system cannot be started. Do you know if system copy procedure can work in our case?

Best regards,

Duy

[Matt_Fraser · Accepted solution]

A system copy can absolutely work for what you are trying to do. If the target system won't start afterwards, it is because some step somewhere has gone wrong; either you've missed a step or made an error somewhere. Is the target system running the same operating system and database release and patch level? Did you use the right kernel DVD during the copy? Did you check the parameters in your default and instance profiles? Did you confirm that you got all the system passwords correct?

This is why I recommended not changing to a local installation when the original is a domain installation, as it complicates the scenario.

Most likely you are using a Windows user that is incorrect. Your installation user (that is running SWPM) needs to be a member of the Administrators group on the target server.

You also should ensure you use a unique SID for the target system. Don't reuse the same SID as the source system; that is just inviting trouble, unless the target system is on a completely isolated network (and now you're really complicating things unnecessarily if that's the case).

Please provide more information about the error that occurs during startup. What errors occur in the work process traces, or system logs? What do you see in the SWPM log?

[Duy_Le_-_Islet_ · Accepted solution]

Hi Matt,

The target server is in an completely isolated environment, without connection to any other servers or the Internet. The server is a virtual machine copy of the source server, so basically we have the same Operating System and Database release:

• The C:\ drive for the Operating system has been recovered from the virtual machine backup
• The D:\ drive for the SAP system and database have been recovered from the file system backup

The default and instance profile files have been recovered from file backup as well. So it has the exact value as the source system, will we have to change something in the profile files in our case?

The user used to run SWPM is the local Windows user, also a member of Administrators local group on the target virtual machine. All the passwords have been checked to be the same as the source system.

I know it's complicated to change from local installation to domain installation, and also perform the recovery test at the same time, but it's not feasible for us to have another domain installation at the moment. So we have to create an isolated virtual machine for to test the system recovery.

I actually haven't tried the system copy procedure, we used the system rename procedure. I can try the system copy procedure, but I'll need to prepare addition files for this, including downloading the kernel files (regarding this, is it ok if the SAP kernel version being downloaded to use with SWPM system copy have higher version than the current source system's kernel version? We do not have the backup of the files used during the system installation.

Regarding the error, we are trying to investigate the issue with SAP, it's seems to be some issues with database connection to SAP system, I can update the information as we progress.

Best regards,

Duy

[Matt_Fraser · Accepted solution]

In the past there have been known issues with SAP systems running on cloned servers. It might be better to create the VM from scratch (or from whatever template you use for Windows servers), set it up appropriately and install the DBMS on it, then use the SWPM system copy/target server installation process to install the SAP system from scratch. You'll have to adjust the default and instance profiles afterwards, as they'll be installed with default parameters, but otherwise this should result in a working system.

[isaias_freitas]

Hello Duy,

About changing the IP address, that is up to your infrastructure needs.

From the SAP perspective, there would be no problem in changing the IP address as long as the relevant DNS entries (and/or "hosts" files) are updated as well, before starting SAP.

About the procedure to change from domain to local installation, I am not sure, but I believe that you would need to do a system copy.

Best regards,

Isaías