Well, for the small business person, the task of installing SAP can be quite daunting. Take me for example, when I first tried to install SAP it took me a couple months. Here’s why:
1. I had to learn how to use virtual server
2. I didn’t have CD/DVD’s of the SAP software, so I had to download everything
3. I didn’t have an appropriate operating system.
4. I didn’t have the first clue about settings for the SAP installation
5. Woefully deficient hardware
So, those 4 minor points, made things go a little slower. Luckily, SAP has provided some Netweaver trial systems that I could use while I figuring this all out. Well, Step 1 I talked a lot about yesterday, so I won’t go into too much detail. Just remember, VirtualBox is far better than Virtual Server (in my humble opinion). Step 2… This was just time consuming. Downloading SAP 1 file at a time from service.sap.com was quite an ordeal. Then to make things worse, I would often encounter an error half way through my installation because one of my downloads was corrupt.
The next thing I quickly found is that SAP can’t run on the standard windows software. So I had to go get a license for Windows Server. Initially, I chose 2003 (32 bit) because it was affordable, and for running a 4.7 SR2 system, it worked. Not a huge deal, but it did require me to start my whole virtual system over again, since I originally installed it with Windows XP (I’m sure many of you are laughing at me right now wondering how the hell did this guy ever make it this far). Like I mentioned in earlier posts, I learn really wall the HARD way.
Next, my hardware is way underpowered. I was running off my laptop (I still am today, but I’ve since bought a much better laptop). So I only had 4GB of memory to run my laptop and my entire SAP system. Needless to say, an installation would run for 5 days, if it didn’t encounter an error forcing me to start over. It could be painful, including waking up in the middle of the night, just see if things had failed, so I could start the install again with slightly different settings.
Eventually, it did all happen and my 4.7 system has been happily running ever since… well, I did learn some valuable lessons about backing up… but I’ll save that for a another time.
Thanks for reading,
Mike
As always, thanks for reading and don't forget to check out our SAP Service Management Products at my other company JaveLLin Solutions,Mike