By: Lukman Susanto,
Manoj Michael and Pari Purna Somavarapu
This paper will complete the documentation throughout SAP R/3
installation which we had performed. We will describe all the hardware
requirement of SAP R/3 installation, steps involved during installation and how
to avoid / fix problem occurred during installation.
The aim of this project is to install SAP R/3 into our local server.
That is to install, configure, making sure the system is working properly and
finally observe how the R/3 system works. All the recommended configuration of
computers and software has been provided and our main concern is only the
installation. We are working in Wintel platform, specifically Windows NT Server
and IBM Compatible computer system. As the database, we are using Microsoft SQL
Server 7.0.
This report will provide detail chronology of installation including the
entire hardware and software requirement as well as any errors occurred during
installation and troubleshooting to rectify the problems.
Some of the problems we have encountered are minor problems; however we
were confronted with a couple of critical problems which may cause total system
failures. In order to fix them we needed to consult with our Lecturer (Tas).
Here is the required / recommended specification to install SAP R/3
system.
CPU : Intel Pentium III – 500Mhz
RAM : 256MB (minimum) or 512MB
(recommended)
HDD : 30GB
NIC : Intel compatible Ethernet card
CDROM : required for CD installation
Here is the required software to install SAP R/3 system.
Windows NT Server 4.0
Windows NT Service Pack 6.0
Internet Explorer 5
Microsoft SQL Server 7.0
SAP R/3 Kernel CD
-
Active
Directory Service Interface (ADSI)
-
Dynamic
Link Libraries (DLLs)
-
Microsoft
Management Console (MMC)
SAP R/3 System
-
Export CDs
(3 CDs)
-
Report
Data CD
-
SAP GUI
Once the computer has been turned on, we need to press ESC key to setup
the bios to change the boot sequence setting to boot from CDROM first. We will
then need to exit bios and restart the computer. In the mean time, we inserted
NT installation CD into CDROM.
During POST boot process, the system will display all
the system configuration including installed IDE drives (Hard disk and
CDROM) and RAM size.
Windows NT 4 will detect the system configuration and confirm that no
other mass storage device installed in the system. Licensing message pop up
require confirmation about the licence agreement. After we read all the licence
agreement, we need to press F8 to agree and to continue the installation process.
Since the hard drive has been used before for another installation, the
NT installation CD gave us a warning stating that another existing NT system
found and presented with two options: upgrade or install a fresh installation
copy. Because we want to install the system completely new, we have chosen to
use fresh installation by pressing N. Installation CD showed us a message that
computer contains some hardware and software installed and gave us options to
make some changes if needed. However, as we did not need to change anything, we
accept the entire default configuration by pressing OK button.
As the previously installed operating system exists, system message
shows existing partitions and free spaces available for creating new partition.
Because we are installing a new system, we removed E drive by clicking Delete
key on keyboard and confirm by clicking L button. And then we continue to
delete the rest of the partition including D and C drives. This can be done
through the same steps as we did to delete the E drive.
After all the partitions removed, we created a new partition by pressing
C button. The size of the first partition we created is 3000MB by filling the
amount in the size field and the system changed the size to 2996MB. We were
questioned with File System choices and for security reason, we will use NTFS.
NTFS is a better File System compared with FAT as it featured with all folder
and file security system so that each file or folder may be assigned the
security level to enable defined user access.
We have chosen to install the system in the default installation
directory which is C:\WINNT. After we confirm this installation folder, the
system will start to examine the hard drive, confirming the availability of
spaces which required for the whole NT system pre-installation as well as
detecting any defect which may affect the smoothness of the pre-installation.
After the whole copying process, in order to continue the pre-installation,
system must be rebooted.
As the first phase of Windows installation finished, we need to change
the boot sequence back from CDROM as the first to C Drive as the first. System
prompted the Windows NT administrator password which we had inputted as “saptas”.
Because of the initial File System was FAT the Windows NT system changed
to NTFS during the finalising phase of NT pre-installation.
Windows NT GUI installation shows up. The system prompted to enter Name
which we entered as “Group 10” and Organisation as “Victoria University of
Technology”. We filled the licensing information as “Per server” with 10
concurrent connection. We named the server as “Group 10” and the server type as
“Stand-alone” server. As the default during this exercises, we inputted “saptas” as password. Emergency Repair Disk may be created
during the installation to recover in the case of system failure, but as the
nature of the installation, we had chosen not to create one.
We had selected all the default components, and the final NT system
installation started. All the required network services included in the
available NIC system has been selected to provide network communication
features to our server. As we do not need to use web server feature, we had
selected not to install IIS (Internet Information Services).
System will search for available network card and found the card which
is 3Com Etherlink III ISA / PCMCIA Adapter and
finding the correct driver available in the installation CD. We had selected
the following protocols: TCP/IP, NW/Link and IPX/SPX compatible transport and
all the network services are installed by default.
The following network details are configured:
After all above network details inputted, we clicked Apply button to
confirm. Network binding uses the default.
Domain Name we used TECH2000 as the domain name running through the
network by the domain controller. We needed to create domain account in the
Domain Controller: username grp10 and password: saptas
as the default.
We had a problem when connecting our server to the Domain Controller
because the network card which we are using (ISA not PCI) has not initially
been recognised by the operating system. We finally solved this problem after
the complete NT installation finished.
NT is a great operating system, however as it has been around for
sometimes, many bugs or weakness have been observed and fixed by Microsoft.
These fixes normally built and released over a period of times. Microsoft has
released 6 major fixes or well known as NT service packs. Some releases of
these service packs are supported by some other minor patches, that is why there are different variants of each individual
service pact, for example: Service Pack 3a, 3b, 6 and 6a. Service pack is
essential for NT installation to ensure the fixes for any security issues and
compatibility of new developed hardware.
That is why the
first thing that we did after NT installation is installing the latest NT4
service pack 6 from CDROM. After the installation of service pack completed we
need to restart of the computer to let the fixes take place.
The next thing that we did was installing Internet Explorer 5 from CDROM
(ie5setup.exe). As we only required to install the
major components of IE, we had chosen “typical setup”. Again, we need to
restart the server and letting the system updating its Internet Explorer
components.
The next step we did was installing Active Directory Service Interfaces (ADSI) and Microsoft Management Console (MMC). The purpose of ADSI is to enable systems administrators and developers to easily query for and manipulate directory service objects (Microsoft Press) whereas MMC will be used to provide a common host environment for snap-ins, provided by Microsoft and third party software vendors. Snap-ins provide the actual management behavior; MMC itself does not provide any management functionality. The MMC environment provides for seamless integration between snap-ins (Microsoft Press). ADSI was installed from ads.exe file and MMC from immc.exe file.
In this phase, the whole set of NT installation was completed. As the
underlined sequences, we were supposed to start installing database but in the
mean time we have to setup the dlls required for R/3
installation and optimise the system to accept R/3 applications.
The first thing that we need to do to prepare our server was installing system updates to ensure SAP R/3 working correctly the following: msvcrt.dll, mswsock.dll, rnr20.dll, wsz_32.dll, wsock32.dll, pdh.dll, psapi.dll, mfc42.dll, mfc42u.dll, regsvr32.exe, librfc32.dll and sapmmc.dll. After installing all these system libraries, the server need to be restarted to take the affect.
As R/3 installation require a huge amount of memory (at least 4 times bigger than the actual physical memory) we need to adjust the memory paging size. In order to do that we have to follow the step: Control Panel – System Tab – System Property – Virtual Memory. We changed the initial size from 512 to 2048 and the maximum size from 512 to 2048. This “4 times rules” clearly stated in SAP R/3 installation manual as the recommended minimum size. Again, the server need to be restarted to let the memory system being adjusted.
We need to reduce size of NT File Cache to maximize the system performance by going trough: Control Panel – Network – Services Tab – Network Services – Server – Properties – Server Dialog Box – Optimization – max throughput for network application – OK (now cache reduced). And again, the computer has to be restarted. We will then need to assign the Alias by editing the hosts file under “\WINNT\system32\drive\etc\”.
Comment “127.0.0.1” by adding a “#” before it.
And insert “192.74.153.4 GROUP 10 SAPTRANSHOST” below.
Restart computer to let the changes take place.
One of the most important step during R/3 System installation is preparing the right partitions for each individual component including the database which is in our case Microsoft SQL Server and then R/3 data files and finally for Transaction logs.
Based on the manual and the standard recommended sizes, we were creating:
In order to create additional partition in NT4 environment, we need to follow below steps:
Business today demands a different kind of database solution. Performance, scalability, and reliability are essential, and time to market is critical. Beyond these core enterprise qualities, Microsoft SQL Server provides agility to our data management and analysis, allowing our organization to adapt quickly and gracefully to derive competitive advantage in a fast-changing environment (Microsoft Press).
As one of the best low – medium size database system, Microsoft SQL Server well proven its ability and capacity in handling various complex tasks within its scope. That is the most important reason why we had chosen Microsoft SQL Server as our database backbone.
To install the SQL Server we followed the following steps:
Install Components:
After we finished with our installation we need to check the installation logs to ensure the installation has been flawlessly performed. To perform the installation check, we need to open our error log (F:\MSSQL7DB\Errorlog) to see SQL Server Installed normally.
Before we perform R/3 installation, we need to create user in our Domain Controller in order to be able to integrate our SAP R/3 server with the Domain server. Domain user name that we had created was:
Once the domain user account created, we logged in using above account.
The next step that we need to perform was making sure that the Temporary variables were set. To do that we had to go through: Start – Settings – Control Panel – System – Environment Tab. Make sure the Temp is assigned to C:\Temp.
Because SAP R/3 installation requires concurrent access to more than one installation CD at a time, we need to copy at least one CD to the hard drive. We had to create a new partition 2GB and named H drive and we copied Export CD 2 into it.
The first actual step of R/3 installation was installing SAP Kernel. SAP Kernel is the essential component of R/3 system.
For installing SAP kernel we have loaded kernel CD . From there we have followed the path My computer - NT - Common - R/3 Setup and then fill in:
Now installing INSTGUI.
There was an error with group identification after installation . System prompted to logoff. Then select yes. So we have changed from GROUP10 to group10.
Installing an Instance now . For this we have followed the menu path:
Programs - SAP R3 set up for CGI - SAP R3 setup Central & Database instance.
SAP SID : CG1
Then the identifier has automatically changed to 00 ( Zero, Zero).
We have to Enter / Confirm R3 instance number.
R3 is about to start the installation.
In the next session when we came we have noticed that some of the RAM has been lost and our supervisor has asked us to change the paging size. We have lost 128 Mb of RAM. Then we have reset the paging from 2048 MB to 1536 MB. As we have installed System files and Database files on to different drives , we had to remove every thing from both the drives. Both Database files and system files have been installed on to one drive . We Reinstalled MS-SQL server on to E drive and both program files and data files have been installed on to the same E drive as well. With our experience we have noted that system files and data files are not to be loaded on to different drives.
SAP Database will be on F drive.
We need to remember to start SQL Server.
We have installed Kernel again and kernel files are to be installed on C drive. We need to confirm the path to
The system will prompt to enter or confirm the drive which we have done for SAP Database which we have given F.
Parallel process
will be 2 which is a default. Do not change the parallel process no .
After we left the system during “self-installation”, we came back to change the
CD to CD 3 and found that there was some error and stop at 96% phase. This was
happen because of “adm2002” as our domain super user account has no right to
all the local drives. We solved this problem by adding “adm2002” into the
administrator list to all our drives. The other problem is our Microsoft SQL
would not run. This has been a major headache for us but luckily our lecturer Tas has help us a lot during troubleshooting time and
bringing us more understanding on how the system actually works.
We wiped the whole R/3 system installation off including all the instances we created and uninstall Microsoft SQL Server as well. We had gone through Microsoft SQL Server again in a lightning fast process as we had only one week left.
Because of the time pressures, we then copy all the export CDs into drive H to smooth our installation process. After those repeat process we recreate a complete new SAP installation with new SAP user which is g10adm and saptas as the password. Some of the adjustment and re-correction had to be performed as the previous installation left us with a pile of junk in registry. We had to delete some variables exist in our R/3 installation batch R3S file.
Again, we left our system gone through “self installation” phases which happening overnight. When we came back on the next day, we found our fortune back. The installation has been completed except with the Report Load CD. Once the Report Load CD installed, we completed the whole R/3 installation.
In order to be able to perform test and check to our newly fresh installed R/3 system, we have to install SAP GUI. The SAP GUI installation is pretty straight forward and pain free so we finished it few minutes only. However, when we run our SAP GUI, we found that our R/3 server did not run. When we tried to run the service through MMC we found that the MMC caused the problem. Again because of our Lecturer’s (Tas) help, we learnt how to start our R/3 service and R/3 engine manually through command prompt. The actual SAP service program is located in F:\usr\sap\G10\sys\exe\run\ - this is where all the SAP Kernel and program has been loaded. And the command to execute the SAP service is:
startsap R3 G10 grp10 START_DVEBMSGS00_grp10
By going through this experience we learnt that MMC is only interface which enable us to run complex program easily, however, if the MMC failed that doesn’t mean the end of the world. We can always start our program manually with a little bit of extra work of course.
After we successfully run our SAP R/3 server we were starting to observe and perform some administrative tasks such as create client, create user account, creating profiles and more.
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