SAP GO LIVE CHECK PROCEDURE

The SAP Going Live Check consists of three service sessions – Analysis, Optimization and Verification:

• Analysis session: Lasts one day and is scheduled eight weeks before your start of production  -Should start   immediately
• Optimization session: Last two days and is scheduled four weeks before your start of production 
• Verification session: Lasts one day and is scheduled four weeks after start of production               -Should start on Golive date    

Prerequisites

1.To fully benefit from the service, SAP strongly recommends an implemented SAP Solution Manager.

2.SAP strongly recommends running SAP EarlyWatch Alert. This service runs automatically in your SAP Solution Manager and continuously measures system performance to identify system bottlenecks early on.

3.A remote connection to SAP and an installed SAProuter are required.
You should have the following data available:

• Detailed data about hardware
• The number of users for each application
• The expected data volume
• The interfaces within the entire system

Service Preparation

• ST-PI 003C released for all platforms
  The new version ST-PI 003C (Solution Tools Plug-In) has been released for all platforms.

Technical Preparation Steps

These steps apply for the SAP Solution Manager system and for all systems that will receive the service.

A detailed description of the preparatory steps is summarized in SAP Note 91488. Please find a short overview of SAP Note  91488 below:

1. Technical requirements (SAP Note 144864)

n  A working network connection

n  Set up of the RFC destination "SAPOSS"

n  Data collectors must be running

n  Hardware and software data are maintained

n  Profile parameters are set

2. Run RTCCTOOL (SAP Note 69455) and implement all listed recommendations

RTCCTOOL is a service tool that supports you in the technical preparation of the system. RTCCTOOL checks the availability of the tools required for SAP service sessions.

RTCCTOOL is contained in add-on ST-A/PI.

3. Execute transaction SDCC and activate the Automatic Session Manager (ASM)

The Service Data Control Center (SDCC) is a service tool that provides an overview of the planned service sessions. It carries out the data transfer between your SAP System and SAP.

Transaction SDCC is available as follows:

n  Basis Release 6.10 and higher: via Basis Support Packages

4. Activate SAP EarlyWatch Alert (SAP Note 207223)

Activate SAP EarlyWatch Alert for all SAP systems in productive operation even if the systems are connected to the SAP Solution Manager.

1.The Analysis Session –One day

The Analysis session checks the major system components of your SAP solution to verify system availability and consistency. To do this, the following are analyzed:

• Hardware sizing
• Server configuration
• CPU capacity
• Memory capacity
• Shared memory and swap spaces
• File authorization
• Network connection
• Database configuration
• Missing database indexes
• Required free space
• Data backup and archiving procedure
• Hard disk distribution with regard to optimization of access times
• SAP configuration
• Comparison of hardware configuration and SAP memory requirements
• Distribution of SAP processes
• Background jobs required by SAP
• SAP system environment

Prerequisites : detailed data about hardware, the number of users for each application, the expected data volume and the interfaces within the entire system.

When the session is scheduled, SAP sends you a questionnaire which asks for this information. The questionnaire should be returned to SAP approximately three weeks prior to the Analysis session.

Upon receiving the report, you will also receive a second questionnaire that should be returned to SAP two weeks before the Optimization Session.

2.The Optimization Session- Last 2 days

The Optimization Session checks typical business processes and the transactions involved in those processes for possible improvement in performance and through put. For these transactions, the following analyses are performed:

• Statistical records analysis
• SQL trace analysis if the transactions have critical runtimes
• Technical optimization of the transactions

 For this session to begin, a second questionnaire has to be completed. This questionnaire accompanies the report from the Analysis session should be returned to SAP approximately two weeks prior to the Optimization session.

 The result: report that confirms whether customizing has been effectively performed and indicates transaction response times..

3.The Verification Session –1 day

The Verification Session is a routine check of the system to verify the assumptions from the Analysis Session. It checks your system behavior approximately four weeks after the start of production. By this point, your production system will contain representative data from daily operations, and users can provide feedback on their experience with the production systemIt looks at the following:

• Implementation of the SAP recommendations listed in the report from previous GoingLive sessions
• Free space development
• Missing database indexes
• Hard disk access times
• Wait situations in the database
• Cause for "full-table scan" operations in the database
• CPU capacity
• Memory capacity
• Size of swap spaces
• Network connection
• Hard disk access times
• Changes to the server configuration
• SAP configuration
• Efficiency of SAP buffers
• Average response times for each SAP task type
• Workload distribution in SAP task types
• Transaction profile for typical business processes
• SAP memory requirements and hardware configuration
• Hit lists with regard to response times and the number of database accesses
• SAP system logs to identify serious errors