2340655 - How to Request Tenant Refresh in SAP Business ByDesign and SAP Cloud for Customer

This document will help to understand the following:

1. Tenant Refresh Process.
2. Different Type of Tenant Refresh Process.
3. How to Request Tenant Refresh.
4. Restrictions of Tenant Refresh activity.

"Image/data in this KBA is from SAP internal systems, sample data, or demo systems. Any resemblance to real data is purely coincidental."

• SAP Business ByDesign
• SAP Cloud for Customer

This process provides flexibility to refresh an existing tenant.

Tenant Refresh can be triggered from Service Control Center.

We provide two different types of Tenant Refresh and those are listed below:

1. Empty Tenant refresh:

• The Empty Tenant refresh process is comprised of the following steps:
1. An existing test tenant will be emptied of all residing data via this method.
2. The URL and tenant ID of the tenant remains the same.

This means that we will delete all the data from the tenant and keep the same tenant URL and tenant ID. Then it will be required to rebuild the test tenant from scratch.

Empty Tenant refresh - Test Tenant: 

• An existing test tenant can be emptied of all residing data via this method. The URL and ID of the tenant remains the same; however, there will not be any data in the tenant.
• Following are the steps to trigger the Empty tenant refresh for the test tenant:
1. Go to Service Control Center Work center.
2. Access the Systems view.
3. Select the system required for the refresh and click "Refresh System".
4. Under Refresh Type select "Empty System refresh" (as shown in the below screenshot).
5. Input the Downtime details and click Ok.
6. Upon successful request, the successful request message will be displayed at the bottom.
   
   

2. Tenant Refresh from Source System:

• The tenant refresh from Source System process is comprised of the following steps:
1. Copy of the source tenant (which requires a downtime of at least 4 hours).
2. Switch of the tenant identities (switch of tenant ID and tenant URL).
3. Invalidation/decommissioning of original test tenant.

This means that we do a full copy of a source tenant (source tenant can be a test OR productive tenant) to the target tenant (target tenant can only be test tenant) and switch the identities (tenant ID and URL) of the test tenant which should refreshed. In the end, the original test tenant will be decommissioned by this process.

• The result of this process is to retain the URL and tenant ID of an existing test tenant and to refresh it with data of a source tenant.
• Supported Scenarios for Tenant Refresh with Source system are Production to Test refresh & Test to Test refresh.

For example, a tenant refresh can be used for integration tests of a SAP Business ByDesign test tenant which is already integrated with an ERP system and testing requires new data from the productive tenant.

• Following are the steps to trigger the Tenant Refresh from Source system:
1. Go to Service Control Center Work center.
2. Access the Systems view.
3. Select the system required for the refresh and click "Refresh System".
4. Under Refresh Type select "Refresh from Source System" (as shown in the below screenshot).
5. Input the all the details and click Ok.
6. Upon successful request, the successful request message will be displayed at the bottom.
   
   

Note that the refreshed tenant will only be available 8-10 hours after the release of the source tenant (end of downtime).

To check the status of the refresh, access the Service Requests view under the Service Control Center work center.

Restrictions

1. When customer-specific solutions (PDI solutions/one-off projects) are in place, this will only work when the versions of existing customer-specific solutions are the same in both source and target system.
2. If open cases exist on the tenant to be refreshed and it is required for the cases to be opened, this process cannot be executed, as the refresh process will close all the open cases in the test tenant.
3. If the first implementation project (go-live) is closed, the recommendation is to ensure that all open change projects are closed in the source tenant. The tenant refresh process requires a clean-up of all change projects as it does not support open change projects.

Upgrades & Restriction for the Tenant Creations

1. During upgrade, it is not advisable to terminate the tenants.
2. If a production tenant is requested during the upgrade or close to it, then the tenant delivery is delayed because we have an upgrade version mismatch, for example the test is upgraded to new or higher version, but the production systems are not. Hence, we have to wait until the production systems are upgraded to the same version.

Important Notes:

1. A minimum downtime of 4 hours is required for the source tenant during a tenant refresh. Note that over and above 4 hours, downtime is subject to the size of the source tenant and will be estimated during request creation.
   Once the copy of source tenant is done, the source tenant is setting LIVE and accessible, then target tenant is setting down for additional ~10 hours to the data be replaced. All refresh process duration is about 14~18 hours. 4 Hours of source (it also depends of the tenant size) + 10~15 hours in target tenant.
2. Tenant Refresh activity can only be performed outside of the contractual maintenance (CMP) window.
3. Initial User Credentials will only be sent in the Empty Tenant Refresh Scenario. If a Refresh of the tenant as a Copy of the Source system is requested, it is advised to use the same Business User ID and passwords as the source system. If the Initial User ID password needs to be reset in the second scenario, a case can be raised to SAP Support with the details.
4. It is recommended that the downtime defined in the refresh to be after the source tenant CMP.
5. Open/Moved to Test change project should be closed in order to proceed with the tenant refresh.
6. All communication arrangements have to be rebuilt for the refreshed tenant.
7. Certificate mapping should be redone on refreshed test tenants. However, the production tenants will have the certificates already copied.
8. Cases from source tenant will not be copied to the refreshed test tenant. Additionally, all open cases from the refreshed test tenant will be confirmed automatically.
9. Tenant Refresh service request is free of cost and it can be requested any number of time based on the business needs.
10. The tenant refresh is generally provided within one business day from start of the scheduled downtime.
11. Tenant refresh process for Demo, reference or partner development tenants are NOT supported.
12. Single-Sign-On (SSO) needs to be reconfigured in the target/refreshed test tenant.
    

    In order to avoid issue with SSO, there are prerequisites before performing the tenant refresh, make sure that there is at least 1 key user in production system (source tenant) who can login with password.
    So the same user login into the target tenant to re-configure the SSO configuration.

    Refer KBA 3300768 - Prerequisites on Tenant Refresh Request from SSO Configured Tenant.

13. After the refresh, same User ID & passwords of source tenant can be used to login to the target/refreshed test tenant (this will only be applicable when the tenant refresh is from a source system).

14. Custom Organize Queries won't be copied to the refreshed tenant after we perform any copy or refresh operation; they will revert to default settings.

Further information:

SAP Business ByDesign Help Document: Refresh System

SAP Cloud for Customer Help Document: Refresh System

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