Zero Downtime Option for SAP Business Suite

Applying Best Practice for Impact Analysis

This section deals with the best practices for the impact analysis.

Context

The impact analysis called by SUM during the update runs in batch mode and evaluates a single record provided with file ZDIMPANA.ZIP.

However, it can be an advantage to perform the impact analysis with different periods of time. This helps to identify tables that are irrelevant or non-critical for the point in time when the update is scheduled to run in the production system.

Some tables that are set to read-only by the update can only be used for a single business process that is likely to run in the first week of a month. However, if the update is planned for the third week of a month, this table can also be considered as non-critical.

Ideally, you follow this best practice already in the sandbox system, where the first test cycle of the update with ZDO project is performed.

Procedure

  1. As a preparation, execute the export of table statistics with the SUM Toolbox in the production system.
    Make sure that the time period represents the uptime on the bridge subsystem, and run the tool Export data for Impact Analysis in the SUM Toolbox several times.

    For more information, see Exporting Table Statistics to the Productive System.

  2. Execute the tool Impact Analysis with the SUM Toolbox in the sandbox system.

    Make sure that at least phase RUN_IMPACT_ANALYSIS_ZDO is reached.

  3. In the file selection screen of the impact analysis, choose the F4 help to upload the table statistics via SAP GUI.
  4. Export the result list into a spreadsheet.
  5. Perform steps 3 and 4 again for each table statistics file.
  6. Consolidate the results of the impact analysis into a single spreadsheet.
  7. Check whether tables are displayed only once or regularly.
  8. Try to identify false positive results that could have been caused by an import of transports or an irregular process.