SAP-Basis Interview questions

The Database Manager, an SAPDB tool, offers monitoring features for administration purposes. There is also a new special monitoring tool, Database Analyzer, delivered with SAPDB Version 7.4 upwards. The Database Analyzer has default configurations for standard use but can also be used by experienced administrators to make more sophisticated analyses.

SAPDB provides state-of-the-art performance and scales well on multi-processor architectures.

You can find all SAPDB documentation in English under Documentation. You can read the documentation online or download it. For a basic overview of the database system architecture, user and security concepts and the available database tools, please consult the documentation The Database System SAPDB.
If you are looking for documentation describing features that are specific to SAP applications such as the Computing Center Management System (CCMS) for database administration.

SAP offers two courses on SAPDB administration, the basic course BC515 (will be renamed ADM515) and workshop WB550 that goes into more technical details.

The SAPDB support models for SAP applications and non-SAP applications are different.
SAP applications: If you use SAPDB in combination with an SAP application, you are entitled to SAP support through your maintenance contract with SAP.
Non-SAP applications: For non-SAP applications, customers have the option of purchasing services and support from SAP (Premium Support) or other organizations. Open source users can also ask for support via the SAPDB Open Source mailing list,which is free of charge.

A Premium Support Contract gives SAPDB users running non-SAP applications access to the SAP service infrastructure for problem reporting and solving, including performance problems. The customer is reQuested to set up a Customer Competence Center (CCC) with a limited number of contact persons. The support fee is 60,000 euros per year per CCC. If you already have an SAPDB maintenance contract for an SAP solution, this fee is reduced.

With SAPDB, SAP provides a professional product that can be downloaded and used as free software for non-SAP applications by anyone. Binaries, source code, tools and programming interfaces are published under the GNU LGPL/GPL (Lesser General Public License/General Public License) , together with information and documentation.

SAPDB supports a couple of standby solutions. Which one you choose depends on your reQuirements.

• SAPDB supports Snapshot and Split Mirror TechniQues (see SAP Note 371247)
• SAPDB supports Cluster solutions, which are implemented by the hardware suppliers. The Microsoft Cluster Server is directly supported by SAPDB (see SAP Notes 319835 and 508979).
• You can build a shadow database with SAPDB versions 7.2.05 upwards. In addition, the Libelle company offers a tool called DBShadow, which will soon be available for SAPDB.
• The support of a Hot Standby Configuration with logshipping via a storage system is planned for version 7.4.4, which is scheduled for the first or second Quarter of 2003.

No, your system will run as smoothly on SAPDB as it does on your current database. You can migrate your system by performing a heterogeneous system copy (that is, exporting the database with the R3Load program, re-installing the SAP system and then re-importing the database). All conversions and adjustments of data are covered by the R3Load program.
Of course, any migration to another database will lead to some additional customizing on secondary keys, etc.

SAP offers a service called OS/DB Migration Check containing, among other things, a migration test, Early Watch sessions, and consulting. The customer checks in a test environment whether the migration results fulfill his expectations in terms of performance and duration, and carries out operative tests with an avarage amount of users. This service is mandatory to get post-migration support. SAP customers can find additional information in SAPNet, alias osdbmigration.

Over the past few years, we have been investing constantly in the development of automatic space management. This means that your SAPDB will actually need up to 40 percent less space than, for example, an Oracle or Informix database. This in turn means less cost and better performance.

SAPDB conforms to standards in every respect and provides all the interfaces that you would expect of an open database system. SAPDB meets official ISO/ansI SQL92Standards (entry Level plus extensions), so that SQL programs created for other database systems can be easily ported to SAPDB, and is compatible with Oracle7. The ODBC driver allows you to use Microsoft Windows-based office tools or reporting tools. Using the JDBC driver, you can easily connect SAPDB as a database engine to Java-based application servers. There is a precompiler for C/C++. Interfaces are available for the script languages Perl, Python and PHP.

We know from experience with 46 installations, 7 of which are productive systems, that small and medium-sized BW installations run smoothly on SAPDB.
Version 8.0, which will be released in the third Quarter of 2003, will also feature architectural improvements especially for BWoperation.

If you take into account all preparations, migration checks, setting up the new environment and testing, the process generally reQuires two weeks, but the migration itself (that is, system downtime) only takes one or two days. Always bear in mind the benefit of switching to a database system that offers the same performance at significantly lower costs, is free of reorganisation tasks and reQuires an outstandingly easy administration.

We are thinking about offering a tighter bracket of processes, but all in all it will remain a heterogeneous migration.

SAPAPO (SAPAdvanced Planner and Optimizer) is shipped with SAPliveCache, a special, object-oriented version of SAPDB.
SAPDB has become an important element of the SAPtechnology stack and will be used as the default database in more and more SAPsolutions.