Product Information
New Planned Downtime Calculator in SAP Readiness Check Is Now Live
Dear All,
We are very happy to announce the go live of the Planned Downtime Calculator as part of SAP Readiness Check for SAP S/4HANA.
The Planned Downtime Calculator provides an overview of the total planned business downtime duration, which could be expected during the conversion to SAP S/4HANA (within the same data center). The overall planned business downtime duration is split into downtime phases, where the durations can be adjusted based on customer requirements and experiences. The initial duration values presented in the tool are based on customer experiences (empirical figures) and evaluation of the SAP S/4HANA sizing results (estimated figures), which is collected as part of the SAP Readiness Check analysis, by means of the program RC_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA. The estimated durations are derived by either comparing the sizing data with similar systems, based on reference data reported by other customers, or by using rule-of-thumb throughput figures.
Note: It is important to highlight that an initial system conversion in a project (for example, a sandbox conversion) can have a runtime of up to a factor of 10 times longer than the final production conversion. Therefore, the results of the initial conversion could differ from what is presented as estimated values within this application.
Additionally, there are multiple options for executing a conversion to SAP S/4HANA. The displayed runtimes, however, only apply to a standard conversion through Software Update Manager within a single data center. The runtimes will significantly increase if you are moving between facilities, such as to a hyperscaler, at the same time as the conversion. This scenario is also not considered a so-called in-place conversion because the database hardware most commonly will be changed as part of the conversion.
Planned Downtime Calculator Tile on the Dashboard
Possible Scenarios
The following scenarios can be displayed in the Planning Downtime Calculator tile on the SAP S/4HANA dashboard:
References Found, and Results Are Available:
- The SAP S/4HANA sizing results returned a value that is less than 20 TB.
- Statistical matches were found in the reference database.
- A view similar to the graphic presented above will be displayed.
- When accessing the results at a later point in time, a Refresh function is available to recalculate based on the latest set of references.
Rule-Based Results Are Available:
- The SAP S/4HANA sizing results returned a value that is less than 3 TB.
- No statistical matches were found in the reference database.
- Rule-based results are displayed.
- When accessing the results at a later point in time, a Refresh function is available to recalculate based on the latest set of references.
Insufficient Number of Related References:
- The planned business downtime cannot be calculated at this time, as no closely matching customer references were found in the reference database.
- No samples representative of the system were found at the time of the analysis.
- Since the number of references is rapidly growing, a Refresh function is available to check at a later point in time if a calculation is possible.
Expert Analysis Required:
- The SAP S/4HANA sizing results returned a value that is greater than 20 TB.
- The planned business downtime cannot be calculated here as the anticipated system size exceeds 20 TB. Based on this sizing, special considerations are required to calculate the potential planned business downtime for the conversion to SAP S/4HANA.
Missing Sizing Analysis Results:
- No sizing results have been uploaded to the SAP Readiness Check analysis. Therefore, the planned business downtime cannot be calculated.
- Once the SAP S/4HANA sizing results have been uploaded, the planned downtime can be calculated.
Request Cannot Be Processed:
- The planned business downtime cannot be calculated at this time.
- A Refresh function is available to check at a later point in time if a calculation is possible.
A detailed view is available for each scenario by choosing the tile header.
Detailed View
The durations of the individual phases, which are based in part on the collected SAP S/4HANA sizing results, are depicted by the following values:
- Empirical values that are based on a culmination of customer experiences.
- Estimated values that are reference values, measured from similar systems. Alternatively, these values may also be based on a rule-of-thumb throughput estimate. If no values are provided or if you want to adapt the values to your own and/or customer experiences, custom values can be entered manually.
By summing the empirical and estimated values (or if applicable, the custom values), the total planned business downtime is calculated.
Why Does This Help?
The calculated execution times may help you choose the right approach for shortening the business downtime. If you require a significantly shorter business downtime, consider the downtime-optimized conversion option, which was made generally available as of SUM 2.0 SP10. Performing archiving and housekeeping prior to the conversion can also help shortening the system downtime.
For more information, go to the detailed view of the check and see the Next Steps section in the Learn More side panel.
Activating the Planned Downtime Calculator
No additional SAP Notes are required for this check. The only prerequisite is that the SAP S/4HANA sizing results have been processed as a part of the RC_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA execution.
If the status Missing Sizing Analysis Results is displayed in the tile, the SAP S/4HANA sizing results were not part of the initial SAP Readiness Check analysis. You need to run the analysis for HANA Sizing in program RC_COLLECT_ANALYSIS_DATA and upload the ZIP file to the existing SAP Readiness Check analysis results.
If the status Request Cannot Be Processed is displayed in the tile, you can choose Refresh at a later point in time to check if a calculation is possible.
SAP Readiness Check Team
Thanks for this great newsAstrid Tschense .
Trying to understand more about it.
Does the calculator refer to the downtime for only S/4 HANA conversion or it also considers the cases of S/4 HANA conversion along with database move (using DMO)?
The downtime also depends upon multiple factors such as processors (and hence R3 processes), iops of the disks, and network(in case of DMO with system move), how do the references consider for these factors?
Thank you!!
Hi Sumit,
The calculator will consider the ERP DB type. If the HANA DB, the SUM phase will not include the data migration. If the non-HANA, the value will include this part.
Your second question, I will try to find answer later.
Best, Tony
Hi Sumit,
You are correct, there are many factors that influence the duration of individual phases and therefore the overall runtime of the conversion. The downtime duration estimated here is not a prediction, but rather an estimate on what can be expected based on customer reported data. Where we are able to base the estimate on our set of customer submitted references, we provide the median reported duration as the value for the calculation (we also report the longest execution duration for reference). By using the median reported figure, the resulting duration averages out factors such as hardware specifications and network speed.
Please keep in mind, there are various ways to improve the performance of a conversion, from simple parameter setting to hardware investments. As a result, it is important to evaluate the options and plan for multiple conversion cycles and technical conversion iterations as part of your project. One tool to help identify ways to improve the performance is the Technical Downtime Optimization app, which is available on the SAP ONE Support Launchpad or directly via this link: Technical Downtime Optimization - SAP ONE Support Launchpad
Best Regards,
Greg
Thanks Tony and Greg for helping me on my queries.
I would explore both the downtime calculator and the optimization app in the coming assignment to gain more insights.
Nice blog. It's really helpful feature to plan the business downtime.
Is this new feature of RC for the downtime the same as the downtime optimizer (https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/downtimeoptimization) or are these different tools?
Hi Birger,
thank you for raising that question. It is not the same tool.
Let me explain: You normally use the technical downtime optimization app after your first conversion/upgrade test run -The Software Update Manager (SUM) collects runtime statistics in the UPGANA.XML file. You can upload this file to the technical downtime optimization app at the end of your upgrade or conversion run. Then you can see the details of the conversion steps and which step consumed how much time. The tool offers simulation options to see if any downtime optimization measures would help to reduce the downtime.
In the SAP Readiness Check, we offer a Planned Downtime Calculator which provides an overview of the total planned business downtime duration which could be expected during the conversion. So this is an estimate to give you an indication prior to your first test run of the conversion, based on numbers collected during the SAP Readiness Check data collection in your ERP system compared to our reference database.
So the recommended sequence would be to first have a look at the Planned Downtime Calculator in SAP Readiness Check to get an estimate on the expected downtime of your initial conversion.
Then run your initial conversion cycle and upload the UPGANA file to the technical downtime optimization app to identify ways to improve your downtime.
Regards
Astrid