Installation Steps
Before
starting SAP system it is highly recommended that you must download and
read sap installation guide from SAP Marketplace.
1. Size your SAP
system. Sizing is
the process of deciding on the size of the system in terms of computing power,
physical space needed, network infrastructure, and so forth. Size is a function
of the number of users and which R/3 business modules they will work on, how
large the database will be, and what the processing power or availability
required to meet the system demands is.
Sizing SAP systems is based on a unit known
as the SAP Application Benchmark Performance Standard (SAPS). 100 SAPSs
are equivalent to 2000 order line items processed in an hour (SD module) or
6000 dialog steps with 2000 postings in an hour (FI module).
To calculate the network bandwidth,
customers have to know the number of sites and the number of users per site and
per module. SAP hardware and technology partners can help in this process. A
formula based on benchmark is available for an approximate sizing:
Where
C = required line
capacity measured in bits/sec
N = number of users
L = line utilization
(0 < L < 1). Values of line utilization higher than 50% are not
recommended.
Tthinktime = think
time between two dialog steps (average = 30 sec)
Tresponse = response
time (average = 1 sec)
2.
Decide on the installation type. This step answers the question, how
will we implement the SAP R/3 client/server approach?
3.
Check the installation requirements. R/3 will only install if certain
minimum requirements are met.
4.
Install and configure the hardware, base software, and network. Once we get our
computer server, we have to get it up and running. You will at least need to
install the server operating system, the additional required base software, and
configure your network.
5.
Installation preparations: adapt systems to SAP requirements. UNIX
systems will require adapting some kernel parameters, swapping space, and
sometimes installing additional software. Windows NT requires the installation
of products such as the Microsoft Management Console (MMC), and adjustments in
NT cache, paging space, NT domain, and other parameters.
6.
Design the layout of file systems and set them up. Depending upon your
system sizing and available resources, you have to design the best way to
implement the required file systems.
7.
Installation tool. SWPM is
used to install sap software.
The order of the following two points
differs between UNIX and Windows NT systems. On UNIX systems, install the R/3
instances first and then the database system; in Windows NT, first install the
database software and then the R/3 instances.
8.
Install the SAP R/3 central instance. The R/3 central instance is the first
piece of SAP software that the installation utility creates and configures. It
automatically creates the SAP directory structure and a set of services (work
processes) of all available types: dialog, background, update, spool, enqueue,
message server, and gateway server.
9.
Install the database system. This is the process of installing the underlying
R/3 database program and creating the run-time and directory structure of the
database according to user inputs.
10.
Build and load the database. Once the database engine is installed from the
previous step, the installation utility
creates the database structure, and allows you to insert the SAP default
database data into the system. At this point, you could decide to import the
data from another system (customer system).
11.
Import ABAP program loads. At this point your SAP system is installed and
almost ready for use. This installation step loads ABAP pregenerated programs,
so that the system will not have to precompiled and generate them when they are
first called. This is important for performance reasons.
