2791468 - Instance Refresh Tool for BizX & LMS | Must-know guide & FAQ

• How to enable the Instance Refresh Tool for my Instance;
• Setting Permissions for Instance Refresh Tool;
• Accessing the Instance Refresh Tool;
• Pairing the Instances;
• Creating an Instance Refresh Request;
• Monitoring instance refresh Tool;
• How to handle various refresh status;
• What's new in instance refresh? Check out the SAP Help guide here.

• SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite
• SAP SuccessFactors Learning

How to enable the Instance Refresh Tool for my instance?

Please check the limitations listed below. Should you plan to perform a cross Data Center refresh or if you have reverse proxy configured in your SOURCE or TARGET instance, please proceed with Manual Refresh (Refer to KBA 2277508 - SuccessFactors Cloud Manual Instance Refresh Process & FAQ).

LIMITATIONS:

• The tool does not support cross DC refreshes at this time, for example DC2 to DC4 etc;
• The tool can only support instance BizX tenant schema sizes that are less than 325 GB. To know your schema size, please refer to KBA 3168167 for more details.
• For LMS Refreshes, only LMS tenant schema sizes that are less than 25 GB can be refreshed via IRT. To know if you are eligible for LMS refreshes via IRT, please open a case under "LOD-SF-LMS-IRT" component for support to check. Further details on LMS Refreshes via IRT can be found in this KBA 2835061.
• Similar for Manual Refreshes, during blackout period, refreshes from Higher to Lower Version (Example: SOURCE - b2105 and TARGET - b2011) are not supported.
• The tool only supports refreshes from Monday through Thursday, between 8pm to 8am in the timezone of the Datacenter where these instances are located to avoid any service disruptions.
• Onboarding 2.0 Enabled instances are part of the BizX Refresh and supported via the IRT tool, however where Source instance does not have Onboarding 2.0 enabled and the target instance does have Onboarding 2.0, it will result in overwriting Onboarding on the target to a blank configuration. See 2912722 for further details. Note : For Onboarding 1.0 customers this module is not part of BizX and you will be required to create a support case with Onboarding team for manual Onboaring refresh, the IRT tool does not yet support Onboarding 1.0 refreshes.
• LMS DC12 to DC12 Monsoon is also not a valid refresh for the tool. Manual Refresh request will be required. 
• Refreshes to a Live Productive tenant are blocked using the tool. Proceeding will result to "Validation Failed" status. See 2978845 for further details.
• Starting b2105 release, customers with TIME Clock-In/Clock-Out enabled in either SOURCE and TARGET will be blocked for IRT Refreshes. Submitting a refresh will result to "Validation Failed" from the error logs, it will show Error Codes: "TENANTREFRESH_IN_VALID_MICROSERVICE_FEATURE".
• Starting b2111 release,If the instance refresh request for HXM Suite, or SAP SuccessFactors Learning, or a combination of both HXM Suite and SAP SuccessFactors Learning products fails, then the next refresh will be blocked until the failed application is restored to its original state. 

 

Instance Refresh entitlement:

Every company is entitled to two refreshes per tenant for a calendar year. For example- if a Customer has 5 tenants, including production and non-production, then every year they will be entitled to get 10 refreshes as a part of the standard purchase.
More details in this help guide-> Knowing Your Company's Refresh Entitlement

How to use the Instance Refresh tool?

The following section of our Help guide details how to use the tool, starting from its pre-requisites-> Using the Instance Refresh Tool | SAP Help Portal

The instance refresh tool will not be visible in your instance until the RBP permission have been granted to your refresh admin. 

• Permissions required for the tool-> Configuring Permissions for Instance Refresh | SAP Help Portal 
• Business Process Engine (BPE) should be enabled in Provisioning.

Warning: Ensure the username/user id you are using to schedule the refresh has less than twenty (20) characters

If you still do not find the Manage Instance Refresh permissions, please contact SAP Cloud Support by raising a ticket. 

For more details on the Instance Refresh Tool please refer to the SAP help Document - Instance Refresh Guide.

Considerations Pre-Refresh:

• Please refer to the Instance Refresh Tool Admin Guide - "Things to Know Before Refreshing the Target Instance" section for all considerations you will need to check prior to submitting a refresh using the tool;
• As of b2205, As a pre-validation check, we've integrated the Check Tool with the Instance Refresh Tool. As a pre-validation check, we've integrated the Check Tool with the Instance Refresh Tool. We recommend that you run the checks using Check Tool, before you submit an instance refresh request. Please refer to Check Tool Integration with Instance Refresh Tool
• While scheduling a Refresh from a Source to a Target, make sure the Target instance does not have any other refresh scheduled(as Source) at a date after this current refresh schedule. Doing so will overwrite the refresh request scheduled from the Target.
  Example-> Let's say a refresh request is being submitted from A -> B for a future date. Another refresh request is submitted from B -> C, which is scheduled to be executed after the scheduled date of the A -> B refresh. In that case, with the completion of the A -> B refresh, the refresh schedule for B -> C will get wiped off.
  
  In this case, wait for the refresh already scheduled from the Target to be executed first, and then schedule another refresh to that target.
  
  
• In addition to the notes on the guide, below are some important updates that you will need to be aware of prior refresh;
   
• Time Clock IN and Clock OUT
  Starting b2105 release, customers with Time Clock IN and Clock OUT will be blocked for IRT refreshes. Please check notes under "LIMITATION" section of this KBA for further details. Should you require a refresh to be done, please proceed with Manual Refresh KBA: 2277508 - SuccessFactors Cloud Manual Instance Refresh Process & FAQ for now.
  
  
• Career Explorer
  The tool will automatically revert the feature (enable/disable) as originally set in the TARGET instance pre-refresh.
  
  
• Onboarding 2.0
  Onboarding 2.0 is now part of BizX Refresh. However, if Source does not have this enabled, this is not supported. Please refer to KBA 2912722 for further details.
  
  
• Recruiting Marketing (RMK)
  RMK is not included in BizX Refresh. See 2883870 - RMK Instance Refresh Request - Recruiting Marketing for further details;
  
  
• Workforce Analytics (WFA) 
  Is not copied as part of the BizX refresh refer too 2341764 - Workforce Analytics (WFA) Refresh - FAQ KBA for further details.
  

  Canvas (Advanced Reporting data source) refresh is now part of the BizX refresh however Canvas Reports are not included in the refresh. Canvas reports are not copied into the Target instance. Please read the following KBA 2315083 for more details and well as this reference blog on Advanced reporting.

  Note: This KBA 2673792 provides instructions on how to export and import Canvas Reports from one instance to another.

• People Analytics Report Story
  From 2011 Release, Instance refresh process will be supported with SAP SuccessFactors People Analytics so customers can carry their usual instance refresh activity on their SAP SuccessFactors People Analytics enabled instances. It is important to Export the report stories from the target instance prior to the Instance refresh. Further details on KBA 2315083.
  
  For support: To confirm if customer has Embedded Edition of People Analytics on the instance, you can check this in Provisioning > Company Settings > SAP Analytics Cloud Application URL.

• Attachments
  Starting b2005, attachments will not be copied for BizX Refreshes. For more details, please refer to KBA 2900061 - Attachments are empty post BizX Refresh.

• OpenText
  If you are usingusing OpenText as your Document Storage in the Target instance, please refer to KBA 2926317 - How to reestablish OpenText Integration in Target instance post-refresh?

• Email Masking
  Only Employee Profile Emails and Recruiting emails are masked as part of the refresh. This is applicable if you have populated the "Mask Recruiting Candidates Email Address" and "Mask Employee Profile Email Address" fields during the submission of the request.
  
  Note: If you have Employee central enabled in SOURCE, please reach out to your administrator to perform a manual import to mask employee central emails post refresh. Not performing this step will result for masked emails in the User Data file to be overwritten by live emails as soon as HRIS sync is triggered.

• Picklists
  Picklists are covered by the instance refresh. In case one of your instances has already undergone Picklist Migration and the other one has not, please be aware of the potential outcomes of each scenario below:
  
  - If SOURCE picklists are already migrated to MDF and TARGET picklists are still on legacy model
  Result: the instance refresh will be equivalent to migrating TARGET picklists. Both instances will then have only MDF Picklists and Picklist Management will not be available in neither instances anymore.
  
  - If TARGET picklists are already migrated to MDF and SOURCE picklists are still on legacy model
  Result: the instance refresh will revert picklist migration. You should either wait for SOURCE to be migrated or request TARGET to be migrated again after the refresh takes place. Please refer to KBA 2793223 for additional details on migration schedule.
  
  For instructions on how to check if your instance is already migrated, please check the Picklists guide.
  
  
• Career Site
  Career Site integration with IAS - if your target instance has this configured, please take a backup of the setting in Target > Admin Center > Career Site Identity Provider (IDP) configuration. This is not included on the settings automatically reverted for BizX refreshes using IRT, hence you have to revert this manually in target post refresh.
  
  
• Single Sign On (SSO)
  If the source instance has (Single Sign-on) SSO setup and target has Non-SSO setup, make sure that a Non-SSO admin account is maintained in the source instance, before refreshing your target instance. This admin account allows you to access the target instance after refresh.
  
  If you are using IAS in the target instance, please refer to the "considerations post refresh" section of this KBA as there are post activities needed to be carried out by the admin user.
  
  
• Employee Central - Timesheet integration (Kronos or Workforce)
  Restoration of the URLs under Provisioning > Company Settings > Enable Employee Central V2 timesheets link URL is currently not supported in IRT refreshes. If you have this configured in the TARGET instance, please engage your partner to save a backup of this setting in the target instance, or please save the URL displayed while accessing Time and Attendance page in the TARGET instance, and open a case with support - "LOD-SF-PLT" to reconfigure this back in Provisioning backend.
  
  
• Integration Center Jobs
  Integration center jobs are currently not restored in the target instance as part of manual and IRT refreshes. Should you require these jobs to be reverted in the target post refresh, please save a backup of these jobs and revert post refresh.
  
  
• Intelligent Services Center 
  ISC Flows containing custom connectors are not automatically restored post IRT Refresh. 
  
  
• OAuth Configurations
  When refresh is performed via the tool, then the OAuth2 Client Configuration and other security related artifacts like X.509 certificates, key pairs WILL NOT be copied from source to target. 
  
  
• Custom login Page
  If you have custom login page configure in the target, you will need to copy and backup the configuration, and restore it after the refresh is completed. This is because currently the backup and restore is not happening in IRT for Custom Login Page Settings.
  
  
• Business Process Engine (BPE)
  Business Process Engine (BPE) should be enabled in Source & Target instance Provisioning -> Company Settings page
  
  
• Payroll
  For Payroll enabled instances, 
• “Enable Payroll Control Center” should be enabled in Provisioning -> Company Settings page 

• It is also necessary to verify that permissions have been set for the objects of PayrollSystemAssignment.
  Payroll System Assignment permission is in RBP category Payroll Integration Permission: Manage Permission Roles->Payroll Integration Permission-> Make sure that the MDF objects PayrollSystemAssignment are permitted.

• Jobs
  The list below contains the job types and how they are handled during automated refreshes. For any jobs not listed below, please open a separate case with the respective module team owner of the job if you wish those to be reinstated post refresh.
  
  As an administrator, we highly advise that you check the Job Scheduler Manager tool from Admin Center for you to see which FTP jobs you currently have in the target instance pre-refresh. Please refer to KBA 2906009 on how to use this tool.
  

  How COPY Works? - These are either background jobs that runs as is, or were previously scheduled explicitly as per customer’s request and does not have any impact on any of the other integrated systems. Post refresh, there are no required changes for the jobs listed below.

  How RESTORE Works? - These jobs have an impact on integrated systems e.g. FTP jobs. The listed jobs below are restored in the target instance post refresh according to its original configuration.
  
  Notes: 

  • Only “SUBMITTED” and recurring jobs listed below will be “RESTORED” in the target instance post refresh. Should you require any inactive/not submitted jobs to be reinstated in the instance, this will need to be manually backed up and re-configured in the target post refresh. Please use “scheduled job manager tool” to view the complete list of jobs.
    
    
  • As the data on the refreshed instance will have changed the job owner for the mentioned scheduled jobs may need to be updated if the job owner no longer exists in the target post refresh.
    
    
  • Any jobs not listed below will not be restored nor copied. 
    
    

    Job Type	Action Type
    PurgeExpiredReportsJobType	COPY
    RegisterMissingAnalyticsArtifactsInActionSearchJobType	RESTORE
    AdhocReportExportJobType	RESTORE
    MigrateCareerPathV2ToJDM2RolesJobType	COPY
    AutoMatchForSupervisedProgramJobType	COPY
    GeoLearningActivityLoadJobType	COPY
    MentorUnavailabilityNotificationJobType	COPY
    UpdateCDPMentoringSACLabelJobType	COPY
    DevelopmentTemplateConversionJobType	COPY
    CatalogImportJobType	RESTORE
    LACmpMappingExportJobType	RESTORE
    LACmpMappingImportJobType	RESTORE
    MassEditImportJobType	RESTORE
    MentoringProgramJamGroupInviteJobType	COPY
    MentoringProgramLaunchJamActivityJobType	COPY
    MigrateDevGoalDataForAdhocReportBuilderJobType	COPY
    SendSignupEmailJobType	COPY
    TGMDevGoalImportFTPJobType	RESTORE
    UserReLMapImportJobType	RESTORE
    InstanceRefreshAuditTablesJobType	COPY
    UnifiedSuiteReportingConfigJobType	RESTORE
    InvokeSPCAPIToRefreshSACTenantDetailsJobType	RESTORE
    DeleteAllUserPhotoJobType	RESTORE
    BatchExportPhotoJobType	RESTORE
    DeleteDuplicateBackgroundDataJobType	COPY
    LiveProfileExportJobType	RESTORE
    LiveProfileImportJobType	RESTORE
    BatchUploadPhotoJobType	RESTORE
    JobServerRegularDataPurgeJobType	COPY
    IRAsyncPredictJobType	RESTORE
    JobInfoImportFollowUpProcessingJobType	COPY
    DeltaUserExportJobType	RESTORE
    UserExportJobType	RESTORE
    UserImportJobType	RESTORE
    SaveReportConfigChangesJobType	RESTORE
    IRPredictionReportJobType	RESTORE
    PurgeDynamicLoggerGlobalJobType	COPY
    NotificationPurgeJobType	COPY
    RDFReportExportJobType	RESTORE
    MigrateReportTilePreferencesJobType	RESTORE
    PicklistExportJobType	RESTORE
    PicklistImportJobType	RESTORE
    SnapShotLnrJobType	COPY
    SyncPIIDataJobType	COPY
    HrisPCGSumsSyncJobType	COPY
    ECAlertsAndNotificationsJobType	COPY
    WFAutoApprovalJobType	COPY
    WFAutoEscalationJobType	COPY
    WorkflowActionReminderJobType	COPY
    PayScalePayIncreaseJobType	COPY
    DeltaLiveProfileExportJobType	RESTORE
    PositionManagementRegularCleanUpJobType	COPY
    PositionManagementRegularCleanUpSchedulerJobType	COPY
    BizXDailyRulesProcessingBatchJobType	COPY
    CustomerInstanceDataExportJobType	RESTORE
    BulkUserImportJobType	RESTORE
    DeltaUserImportJobType	RESTORE
    HrisSyncJobType	COPY
    BIZXReportExportJobType	RESTORE
    MDFImportFTPJob	RESTORE
    MDFExportJob	COPY
    SchedulerServiceHelperTest	RESTORE
    SyncWfaAndBizxInstanceJob	RESTORE

    RefreshRBPRulesJob

    COPY

    
    
    
    

Note: The RBP Refresh Rules is a legacy job for updating RBP, it is only used by a small number of customers. The majority of customers are using the Realtime refresh framework for updating RBP which is copied and restored with the refresh - see KBA 2766870

Considerations Post Refresh:

• As part of the post refresh activity, select scheduled FTP jobs will get restored Automatically in the Target Instance e.g. Username, Filename, Password. Please refer to the list of jobs above.
• PGP keys are restored as part of refreshes thru IRT.
• The job owner will also get restored post refresh which means if the job owner no longer exists in the Newly refreshed instance the job will fail with "Invalid job owner";
• After a system instance refresh, information such job requisitions history or applicant history is lost, this is expected behavior see KBA for further details 2834508 - Job requisition history and applicant history lost after instance refresh - Recruiting Management.
• If the TARGET instance is integrated with IAS (SAP Cloud Identity Authentication Service), please refer to KBA 2954491 for the refresh impact on IAS integration, and required actions.
• Process is irreversible. Requests for roll back after successful refresh are no longer accepted as restoring data through reverts in already successful refreshed tenants can cause loss of data and broken functionality. It’s a risky proposal that can cause more inconvenience to customers, hence we do not recommend doing that.

Instance Refresh Tool Statuses:

For the full list of status for Instance refresh tool and required actions (if any) for each status, please refer to the Admin Guide.

[Provisioning Opt-In Feature] Data Anonymization

You can now mask personally identifiable fields for the following modules -  Recruiting Management, Employee Central and User Management when performing refreshes using Instance Refresh Tool. See KBA for addittional details 2827300 - [Provisioning Opt-In Feature] Instance Refresh Tool | Data Anonymization feature.

Frequently asked questions (FAQs):

Question: What if the refresh status fails or is showing a reverted status?
Answer: If the status of your refresh is showing Failed or Reverted please Please contact SAP Cloud Support with the error log file. To download the log file, click the ellipses button under the Action column for the corresponding refresh request and then click "Download Log". For more details on status of your refresh please review SAP help Link here. If your refresh is urgent also download the attached refresh form to proceed with manual refresh while the RCA is been complete by engineering on the failed or reverted status of the refresh.

Question: What if the refresh completes with warnings?
Answer: If the status of your refresh shows completed with warning you can still log in to the updated target instance and continue with other scheduled activities and testing. There may be some actions from SAP Cloud Support or customer side. See full list of warning messages and actions on KBA 2812823 - Refresh Status Information - Completed with warning - Full List

Question: You receive the following error: "The application encountered an unknown error". How do i fix the error?
Answer: If you encounter an unknown error when pairing the tool KBA 2789795 - "Instance Refresh / Instance Sync Tool: The Application Encountered an Unknown Error" to resolve the error.

Question: You receive the following error: "Unable to fetch existing requests. Please contact SAP Cloud to run Company Schema Upgrade Job and Company Data Migrate Job from Provisioning, and then refresh the metadata cache. To refresh cache, go to "Admin Center" > "OData API Metadata Refresh And Export" and then click "Refresh".". How do i fix the error?
Answer: If you encounter an this error it is due to missing Role based permission - follow steps in KBA 2819650 - Unable to fetch existing request - Instance Refresh Tool

Question: I receive the Error codes : TENANTREFRESH_MAX_SCHEMA_SIZE_EXCEEDED , Validation failed. Or "The refresh cannot be submitted because the data volume of the source instance is too large for the automated refresh process. Please contact SAP Cloud Support to trigger a refresh with the operations team." How should i proceed?

Answer: If you encounter this error code please submit a Support ticket with LOD-SF-PLT-REF and complete attached refresh form to proceed with the manual refresh. See KBA: 2277508 - SuccessFactors Cloud Manual Instance Refresh Process & FAQ

Question: If you schedule a refresh a month ahead, can it be canceled UP To the start of the refresh procedure?

Answer: Yes. it can be canceled before the start of refresh.

Question: Can we make certain sensitive data field scrambled?
Answer: Kindly refer the earlier section Data Anonymization for further details.

Question: Is this tool handling also the Provisioning post-refresh configurations and integrations re-establishment?
Answer: Yes all existing integration are reverted automatically via the refresh tool this includes SSO, LMS, ONB, RMK and WFA.

Question: When can we refresh our instance?
Answer: The refresh can be scheduled within the tool on weekdays from Monday to Thursday. (Friday-Sunday is not available due to patches and maintenance) The refresh will be scheduled during non-working hours.

Question: Onboarding module is included on the Refresh?
Answer: No, Please submit an incident to the module onboarding to request this type of refresh.

Question: Is LMS available in the Refresh tool?
Answer: Yes, please review KBA 2835061 for further details.
For any other LMS refresh, please open an incident with LOD-SF-LMS and refer to KBA 2165346 - Learning Management System Refresh Process.

Question: Schedule dates will need to take into consideration local time or DC time?
Answer: The date shown in the tool when you submit a request will be converted and shown according to the browser time zone. The tool will schedule the refresh at 8 PM (Data Center time) or 2 AM (Data Center time) based on the DBpool availability with the Data Center.

Question: Is the refresh scheduled time also shown in the interface besides the selected Refresh scheduled date? So we can see for how late the refresh is scheduled. Especially if there is a down-time of the target instance.
Answer: Yes, the scheduled date will be shown in the Overview page in the tool.

Question:  Can we cancel the refresh?
Answer: Once a refresh is in progress, it can't be canceled.

Question: Can we do e-mail masking?
Answer: The Recruiting Candidate e-mail Addresses and the Employee Profile e-mail Addresses can be masked. If you have Employee Central enabled in SOURCE, please refer to "Considerations Pre-Refresh" section, point #4.

Question: In the validation failed status was the refresh actually done? was it useful? in what kind of scenario system shows this kind of status?
Answer: The refresh is not done, if it is in 'Validation Failed' status. This status might pop up, if the desired space is not available in the system, or if Instance Refresh was disabled in the target instance for some reason.

Question: Are Custom Themes copied from the Source to the Target instance after a refresh?
Answer: Yes. Custom Themes are copied as part of the refresh.

Question: Are Custom Navigation links copied from the Source to the Target instance after a refresh?
Answer: Yes. Custom Navigation links are copied as part of the refresh.

Question: Is it possible to use the Instance Refresh tool for cross-data center instances?
Answer: The tool currently does not allow to select a different Data Center for the target environment.

Question: Are tiles (including custom tiles) copied from SOURCE to TARGET?
Answer:  Yes. If you have custom tiles in the TARGET which you need to revert back post refresh, please ensure to save the tile settings pre-refresh.

Question: Is company logo copied from Source to Target?
Answer:  The logo image is not copied, but the internal company logo Reference URL is copied from source to target. When source and target are in same data centers, this can lead to the Source logo being displayed in target post refresh.

Question: Will the candidates (in RCM) be able to log in to the destination Career Site and not the SF system post-refresh? Will the agency users be able to log in to the agency portal in the destination post-refresh?
Answer:  The passwords are copied during the refresh and should work on the refreshed instance, even if the URLs are different. This is true for both candidate profiles and agency users.

Question: Qualtrics Integration is not available in Target instance, even though I have upgraded it in Source and Target instance before refresh.
Answer: It is an expected behavior (see KBA 3230588). It is also expected that Qualtrics is automatically disabled in the target instance to prevent your system from immediately starting up Qualtrics surveys before you're ready for them to begin. See Enabling Qualtrics After an Instance Refresh.

POST-REFRESH ISSUES

Investigation of "post-refresh" issues is possible within up to 30 days after the refresh completion. Any data or configuration issues identified in the target post this period should be addressed via standard support process by raising individual ticket to corresponding module teams.

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Restoring data through reverts in already successful refreshed tenants can cause loss of data and broken functionality. It’s a risky proposal. This will cause more inconvenience to customers and hence we do not recommend doing that. , KBA , LOD-SF-PLT-IRT , Instance Refresh Tool , LOD-SF-PLT-REF , Instance Refresh , Problem

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