SAP has provided us with an enormous amount
of product- and component-specific documentation. Much of it is quite
good. Even in the best of cases, though, to install an end-to-end mySAP
solution you will still require product documentation (or very deep
experience) relevant to your entire SAP Solution Stack. I find this to
be especially true at the OS level—even the best SAP Basis consultants
will run into a brick wall the first time they try installing a mySAP
component on an operating system with which they are unfamiliar. With a
background primarily in Windows-based SAP installations, I speak from
experience, as I remember well my first installations on Red Hat Linux,
SuSe Linux, Tru64, and HP-UX.
There is less of an implementation
challenge at the database layer, surprisingly. SAP has integrated the
mySAP/database installation process quite well, leaving little to be
deduced during the actual installation. That explains why my first
Oracle, DB2, Informix, and SAPDB installations for SAP were much less
traumatic than the Linux one.
In all cases, though, to successfully prepare
yourself for an SAP installation means doing your homework. There is a
lot of documentation to read; doing otherwise means there will only be
even more to read, though, as you try
to dig your way out of a failed install. In the pages that follow, I
will share with you all of the background reading, preparation, and
planning you need to do, to get through the installation process quickly
and accurately.
Do Your Homework
I cannot tell you the number of otherwise
intelligent SAP consultants I run into who still feel compelled to learn
“the hard way” and try installing an SAP product without the benefit of
doing their homework. If one thing is true of an SAP installation, it’s
that it is fraught with potential pitfalls and late hours. In the best
case, an “easy” end-to-end manual installation still takes a full 24–32
hours, or three to four business days. This can easily stretch to more
than a week, and even longer, though, if too many incorrect assumptions
are made or shortcuts are taken. Consider the following points:
Not
all installation processes are the same, or even similar. In some
cases, you might be asked to install the database layer first, for
example, whereas in other cases you might need to start by installing
the SAP Central Instance. It all depends on the component, the operating
system upon which you are installing it, the specific RDBMS being
implemented, and whether the system is a Unicode or non-Unicode version
(see the Note that follows this list).
Preparation and planning differs between different releases and products, and is also OS- and database-specific.
Prerequisites
will differ as well. With each new release of a mySAP.com component
come not only new OS and database minimum requirements, for example, but
also minimum releases related to other mySAP solutions, enabling
technologies, and so on.
Post-installation tasks are not only critical, but differ between releases, too. This underscores the importance of fully completing
an installation such that it may actually be useful to the functional
configurators and ABAP/Java developers who need to get to work
themselves. Leaving a new mySAP installation without setting up the
transport system, or tying it into another required system, for example,
is akin to wasting time—the end result is simply not useful to anyone.
Thus, doing your homework equates to reading the
various installation guides and product documentation relevant to your
mySAP solution. I cover these resources in detail next. If you are not
fond of reading, I suggest that you find someone to do it for you, or
maybe find another line of work.
Note
Unicode refers
to the encoding system for characters used in a computer. Unicode
unifies all characters of all character sets (languages) into a single
encoding scheme. Thus, all letters, numbers, and other characters in a
Unicode system are uniquely represented by the computer; each maintains
its own unique numeric representation. Doing otherwise requires
transforming between different encoding schemes running on different
computers, and therefore represents a potential risk in terms of data
loss or corruption. In SAP, non-Unicode systems use characters that are
represented in binary with only one byte, whereas Unicode systems
represent characters in binary with two or four bytes. See SAP Note
79991 or http://service.sap.com/unicode for details.
SAP Master Guides
For complex mySAP offerings like SRM and CRM,
SAP publishes a “Master Guide,” which provides general information
related to architecting and installing these multiple-component
solutions. Because of this, SAP describes these documents as “Central
Overview Documents.” And they are some of my favorites, especially when I
am tasked with installing a solution with which I have had little or no
previous experience. For example, the CRM Master Guide for 3.1A
includes the following valuable information:
Getting Started,
which includes prerequisites, information on tools and topics relevant
across the solution, a history of changes to the mySAP offering,
relevant SAP Notes, and so on.
A CRM Software Component Matrix,
of which I am a big fan. SAP’s software and technical matrices help you
identify the specific versions of products and other technology layers
that interoperate well with the mySAP product (CRM in this case). The
SAP-required CDs necessary to install the mySAP solution are also noted
in this section.
Technical Information,
covering individual components such as E-Selling, Field Sales,
Interaction Center, Customer Service and Support, Field Service and
Dispatch, Marketing Management, and so on.
Detailed set of Appendices, which address complementary products and also point you in the right direction to obtain more detailed documentation.
I have found the master guides to be more than
simply valuable—they help me to build a rapid knowledge foundation in a
solution. That is, they provide the high-level overview information
necessary to understand how a solution or product fits into the mySAP
“big-picture” scheme of things. But at the same time, these guides are
“deep” enough to keep me from having to waste a lot of time surfing the
Net when time is at a premium. Thus, I enthusiastically recommend them
as a precursor to the more detailed information that is only found in
SAP’s product-specific Installation Guides, discussed next.
SAP InstGuides—Traditional Installation Guides
For each mySAP component or technology solution, SAP AG publishes a standard installation guide, referred to as an InstGuide, and makes these guides available over the Web at http://service.sap.com/instguides
or via CD-ROM-based media. Master guides are also made available
through this same URL, as are other guides, installation documentation,
customer letters for new-product introductions, and more.
Generally speaking, InstGuides come in two varieties:
Detailed New Installation Guides. These
installation guides are specific for each OS, database, mySAP component,
and release. For example, you can download an installation guide for
installing SAP Business Information Warehouse 3.1A on Windows 2000
Server, for SQL Server 2000.
Upgrade
Guides. These are specific to a certain set of releases of an SAP
product and database. Common guides include those that walk you through
an upgrade from R/3 4.5x to 4.6x, or 4.6x to Web AS 6x, for instance,
leveraging an Oracle database platform.
Installation guides are built around best
practices for installing mySAP.com components. And they are detailed!
Really detailed, in fact, to the point where nearly all of the
pre-installation, installation, and post-installation tasks necessary to
make a mySAP.com component ready for developers are included in a
single document. Anything not explicitly explained in the InstGuide
usually references a link to the SAP Service Marketplace, or points to a
specific location within an online help resource.
Addressing Pre-Installation Tasks
Perhaps fully a quarter to a third of an SAP InstGuide is dedicated to the tasks and activities that must be performed before the SAPinst tool is ever actually executed. Pre-installation tasks cover:
Pre-reading,
including the need to look through other documentation published by SAP
or in some cases other vendors, SAP Notes that need to be reviewed, and
more.
Installation Planning,
including minimum or recommended specific hardware and software
requirements that support the particular mySAP component to be loaded,
and considerations related to the database (like physical disk layout),
SAP directory layout, use of the Multiple Components One Database (MCOD)
approach to installation, and more.
Installation Preparations,
such as checking your file system, validating network/domain
infrastructure, optimizing the OS (reducing the size of the file cache
in Windows environments, for example), checking/modifying the kernel
(UNIX only), creating OS users and addressing user rights/permissions,
sizing swap space or pagefile, selecting an SAP System ID (SID) and host
name, copying specific installation CDs to disk, installing a Java
Development Kit (JDK) to support SAPinst, and more.
After pre-installation tasks are performed, you
are finally ready to run SAPinst and install your SAP system.
Post-Installation Tasks
Just like pre-installation tasks,
post-installation tasks are plentiful and take up a lot of space in each
InstGuide, too. After a mySAP component instance is installed, you still
have much to do prior to turning the new system over to developers and
programmers. The InstGuide is useful in this respect, covering
post-installation tasks such as obtaining and applying the software
license, setting up single sign-on, installing and configuring the
transport management system, setting up printers, planning for
background jobs, applying support packages, and more. And each InstGuide
also includes a number of handy how-to’s, such as how to start and stop
the SAP system, how to log in to the system, and how to install online
documentation and additional language support. It also details how to
perform a client copy, and even addresses some basic operational tasks,
like performing a backup.
Custom Checklists and Recipes
As I have mentioned a number of times elsewhere,
custom installation checklists, or “recipes,” prove invaluable to a
Technical Support Organization throughout the life of an SAP system. A
good recipe will cover the solution-specific characteristics unique to
your particular installation, and therefore provide value far beyond
that provided simply by InstGuides and Master Guides.
A good recipe also promotes my goal of creating
repeatable processes, which ultimately saves time when you have little
to spare, as in the aftermath of a disaster. And recipes prove
themselves valuable in supporting day-to-day activities as well, for
example, when you need to restore the production environment in your
technical sandbox to re-create a problem or troubleshoot an issue.
In the past, I have created end-to-end custom
installation checklists that detail hardware, OS, Database and mySAP
component specifics. Rather than re-creating the wheel, however, I used
an umbrella approach to documentation, and called the resulting
Microsoft Word document a “Delta Guide” (because it brought together the
processes discussed in multiple other documents, but only detailed what
was missing in these other documents—the deltas—to pull off an
end-to-end installation).
A Delta Guide is my own version of a master
guide, and may include embedded attachments, though I prefer to
reference documents published elsewhere (like a URL on a Web site hosted
by SAP, Microsoft, Oracle, HP, and so on). The Delta Guide therefore
brings everything together in one place, one master document. The core
of the Delta Guide is a Microsoft Word document. It’s the master
umbrella, if you will. I provide a short overview of the purpose of the
document and illustrate the flow or sequence of events, and then into
this document I embed or link to objects like those that follow:
A “big picture” document, like SAP’s
Master Guide for the particular solution, or a custom-developed guide
for a complex mySAP environment. I embed these PDF or Word documents
directly into the Delta Guide. Note that a Web link works well, too, but
you risk the Web site owner updating or removing the document. To
mitigate this risk, I suggest housing the documents on your company’s
Web site—the site used by the SAP TSO to support Disaster Recovery often
makes the most sense all the way around.
A
hardware configuration document, detailing the server
configuration—server model, number and type of processors, memory
configuration, details regarding the I/O busses and what resided in
each, and so on. In the case of HP/Compaq ProLiant servers, for example,
I might simply embed a “survey.txt” file (which includes all of this
data and more, easily created via the HP Survey software utility) into
the Delta Guide.
A disk subsystem
configuration document, detailing the layout of drives, type of drives,
RAID levels employed, type and number of disk controller(s), controller
configuration settings, cache settings, and so on. Usually it’s possible
to “dump” a disk subsystem’s hardware settings into an output file or
log. I embed this output file into the Delta Guide, edited to reflect
any high-level data that might also prove useful.
Operating
system installation details, including version and patch levels of the
OS, logical disk layout, network configuration details (IP addresses,
DNS/DHCP settings, and more), system-wide settings, and so on. Most
often, I build a 20–30 page document of screen shots and similar images,
and embed this into the Master Guide.
Database
configuration document, which captures the size and layout of data,
log, and executable files, database block, cache, buffer, and other
settings, and more. Like the OS details, this is often best captured
through screen shots.
mySAP Component
InstGuide, which walks you through a product installation from an SAP
perspective end-to-end. I like to download these PDF documents and embed
them into the Delta Guide, along with any supporting technical
documents that might be referenced by the InstGuide (like SAP Notes).
Other
documents that help document the solution, like anything related to a
specific solution component or integration vehicle. In the past, I have
included details relevant to an SAP ITS installation, EBP details
related to installing and configuring Requisite BugsEye and eMerge, and
so on.
Smart Implementations and the SAP Configuration Assistant
I believe that one of the biggest things to come out of SAP AG that addresses technical implementations is the idea of a Smart Implementation.
Smart Implementations support unattended installation and basic
configuration of your mySAP technical solution—not the application
customizing that takes so many months or even longer to complete, but
the technical installation and customizing that often takes many days per component otherwise.
Smart Implementations can facilitate both
planning and installing an end-to-end mySAP technical infrastructure,
handling the installation of your unique mySAP components and even
configuring and integrating these components into your larger existing
SAP system landscape. And Smart Implementations aid you in managing all
of this infrastructure as well.
The power of Smart Implementations lies in the following:
Connectivity to the Internet gives Smart
Implementations access to the information it needs to ensure that your
SAP components are mutually compatible, noting different configuration
requirements and platform dependencies.
The Configuration Assistant,
an Internet-enabled tool, facilitates gathering the information
necessary to later install and configure your SAP system landscape; your
system landscape’s technical infrastructure is set up according to the
specifications outlined by the Configuration Assistant.
A
single implementation tool, the System Landscape Implementation
Manager, rather than multiple tools and approaches, is used to install
all applicable mySAP solutions. The actual installation process is
performed with the SAP System Landscape Implementation Manager, which
supports many current and all forthcoming mySAP components and
platforms. And this tool also supports installing multiple components in
a one-step process, as illustrated in Figure 1.
By leveraging the Configuration Assistant’s output file and the latest
InstGuides, Master Guides, and other tools, SAPinst can automatically
perform complex mySAP-specific and cross-component scenario installation
processes, ultimately making for a smooth and repeatable technical
implementation.
Each mySAP component
is automatically configured with “default” values based on experience
gained through SAP’s many successful implementations. Unless you
override them, each installed system is set up using default values
proven over time to be reliable and stable.
It is the SAP Configuration Assistant
specifically that enables you to save days of research, installation,
and configuration effort. With the Configuration Assistant, you can
easily begin planning the design of your specific SAP system landscape
and then capture all of this data in an XML-based configuration file.
This configuration file feeds the next phase of your Smart
Implementation, where each of your identified mySAP components is
installed and configured automatically—saving a lot of time later on
down the road, too, as common configuration problems are avoided
altogether.
The SAP Configuration Assistant is very easy to
use, but very powerful as well. Its graphical user interface makes this
system landscape planning tool perfect for designing and configuring an
SAP system landscape unique to your needs. At a high level, you simply
select the applications and components to be installed (limited to
Workplace and BBP/CRM), define how these products are distributed across
different hosts, and as necessary integrate additional components into
the system landscape, as shown in Figure 2. The specific steps are as follows:
- Define each component, host, and/or scenario to be installed.
- Specify the database and OS combinations upon which each system will be installed.
- Provide
parameters relevant to each component, such as the SID to be used by
the system, languages to be installed, port numbers over which to
communicate, and so on (standard installation questions that do not lend
themselves to “default” values).
- Drag and drop software on to your hosts, thus distributing the software.
- Define
integration requirements to back-end systems, which may also include
the development of specialized installation scripts for systems outside
the realm of mySAP solutions.
- Define any front-end
settings, such as the name and characteristics of logon groups, how load
balancing will be employed, and so on.
The Configuration Assistant is easily installed
and executed on any Windows-based computer—I run it on my laptop, in
fact. This makes it simple for me to architect, plan for, and discuss
what a potential SAP system landscape might look like for one of my
customers, and allow me to prepare a conceptual design on an airplane,
or change it later from my hotel room, without actually being connected
to a physical installation. Alongside my custom SAP sizing tools and
lessons-learned from several hundred implementations, it has proven
itself in the past to be one of the most valuable “customer-facing”
tools I carry.
Using SAPinst for Unattended Installations
The System Landscape Implementation Manager is
truly amazing, enabling an integrated and even unattended approach to
planning, installing, and configuring each component. If you consider
the technical challenges inherent to installing a single product, much
less a suite of SAP products—the communication interfaces,
intercomponent protocols and network settings, technical configuration
of SAP itself, security settings, user accounts requirements, and so
on—you will begin to understand the significance of this tool. It’s
huge!
The System Landscape Implementation Manager
supports two different operation modes—Smart and Manual. Recommended for
standard installations, “smart” mode executes a comprehensive set of
configuration steps during the installation process in a cookie-cutter,
repeatable manner. As a result, the Smart Implementation itself reflects
a high-quality, repeatable implementation, and the time required to
plan, install, and configure your SAP system landscape is reduced simply
because many error-prone installation and configuration data-entry
tasks are avoided. This is accomplished by using the previously
discussed InstGuides and the Configuration Assistant’s XML-based output
file, as illustrated in Figure 3.
In “manual” mode, on the other hand,
you are granted greater flexibility in making changes to installation
and configuration settings, but have to sacrifice speed and probably
repeatability of your install because most of this flexibility requires
manual entries. And because of this, manual mode does not support an
unattended installation or configuration of your SAP components, either.
