SAP Services

SAP System Copies

Homogeneous & Heterogeneous System Copies

SAP refers to the procedure for cloning an SAP system as either a homogeneous system copy or a heterogeneous system copy. The differences between these two methods are as follows:

Homogeneous SAP system copy

In the case of a homogeneous system copy, the SAP release, the operating system and the database version of the source system and the target system all match.

Heterogeneous SAP system copy

In case of a heterogeneous system copy, one element is different.

Copying or cloning an SAP system is advised in the following situations:

• Configuring an SAP system landscape (for example for development, quality assurance or production system)
• Hardware upgrade setup
• Creation of several SAP test and/or demo systems

SAP system copy

Install a system copy if you want to set up a test, demo or training system. SAP also recommends that you perform a system copy if you want to change your operating system and/or database.