SAP System Refresh Automation

What is System Refresh?

System refresh in SAP refers to the process of copying data from one SAP system (the source) to another existing SAP system (the target). This operation is typically done to ensure that the target system has the most recent and accurate data from the source system.

The challenge is that a manual SAP system refresh is tedious and time-consuming, often taking 20 hours or several days. With SAP recommending quarterly refreshes, an automated solution would greatly alleviate the burden of performing this task multiple times a year.

IT-Conductor FLUX

$5.5k/year per SAP system landscape

FLUX facilitates the automation of saving and restoring technical configurations as part of every system refresh, ensuring consistency and efficiency.
All functionality is accessible via SAPGUI, eliminating the need for complex OS-level interactions.
FLUX utilizes SAP's native R3Trans import/export capabilities for seamless data handling.
FLUX leverages existing SAP infrastructure to manage background jobs, enhancing efficiency.
Detailed logs for all operations are provided, ensuring transparency and ease of troubleshooting.
Easily integrated with IT Conductor's broader suite of APM and DevOps tools for a comprehensive solution.

SID-Refresh

$5.5k/year per SAP system landscape

SID-Refresh is a Java-based PCA tool for exporting, cleaning, and importing technical and data configurations. Save up to almost half the time it takes to perform this complex administrative task!
Instantly save time, effort, and operational cost by using SID-Refresh™ to perform the three most complex procedures when refreshing your SAP systems–namely the exporting, importing, and cleaning up of technical and data configurations.
Supports a wide variety of applications, hardware platforms, and software architectures. You can visit our documentation page to see the complete list of supported environments.
Logging is a built-in feature of SID-Refresh. Troubleshoot with ease by utilizing the logs that are automatically generated when executing the export, clean, and import process.

E2E Automation

$12k/year per SAP system landscape

Save up to 80% of the time and effort required to perform a system refresh. The 20% margin is attributed to variations in the customer's E2E process.
Enjoy the benefits of having your SAP systems fully integrated with IT-Conductor. With our monitoring and automation framework, you will have more flexibility to run system refreshes regardless of the materials your systems are made of.
Supports various applications, hardware platforms, and software architectures. See IT-Conductor Knowledge Base to learn more about the architecture behind IT-Conductor.
Get notified when a scheduled system refresh starts, ends, or when an error occurs. You can also configure the system to send notifications to your stakeholders when a system refresh starts and ends.
Integrate your SAP systems with IT-Conductor to monitor resource utilization and availability seamlessly, manage alerts and notifications, configure basic dashboards, and set KPIs you want to monitor closely.

SAP system refresh automation is the process of automatically copying data and configurations from a production SAP system to non-production systems (such as QA, DEV, or training environments) using predefined workflows, approvals, and automated execution steps.

Instead of manually exporting, importing, reconfiguring, validating, and repairing systems, automation handles the entire end-to-end refresh process, including post-copy activities, to ensure test and development environments stay aligned with production.

This approach reduces manual effort, eliminates human error, shortens refresh windows, and improves system accuracy and consistency across the SAP landscape.

Manual SAP system refreshes are complex, time-consuming, and error-prone because they require many repetitive technical steps and coordination across teams. Key challenges include:

High manual effort — dozens of tasks from database copy to post-copy automation must be executed by hand
Risk of human error — incorrect sequence, missed steps, or misconfigurations can break QA/DEV systems
Long refresh cycles — refreshes often take days or weeks, delaying testing and projects
Inconsistent results — process quality varies by person, shift, or documentation accuracy
Complex system dependencies — RFCs, logical systems, BDOCs, authorizations, and integrations must be re-aligned
Disruption to business operations — downtime and resource coordination can impact development timelines
Limited visibility & tracking — manual tracking lacks standardized logs, monitoring, and audit trails
Heavy Basis workload — admins often work after hours/weekends to complete refresh tasks

Because of these challenges, many SAP teams struggle to keep non-production systems synchronized, slowing down development, testing, and release cycles.

The system refresh process typically requires around 20 hours of dedicated administrator time to complete per system. With four refresh cycles per year (a common cadence for maintaining realistic test data), system refresh automation can recover up to 80 hours per system annually while minimizing post-refresh defects caused by human error or missed steps.

Even automating just the post-copy phase with IT-Conductor FLUX™ delivers significant savings. Post-copy tasks typically take 8–10 hours per system, and automation can cut that effort by up to 50%, saving roughly 32–40 hours per system per year.

Yes. Automated SAP system refresh workflows can be paused or manually overridden at any time, giving SAP Basis teams full control to step in, troubleshoot, or adjust steps as needed.

Yes. SAP system refresh automation supports cloud-based SAP deployments, including RISE with SAP and SAP systems hosted on Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud. Whether your SAP landscape is on-premises, in the cloud, or hybrid, automation orchestrates database copies, SAP application workflows, and post-copy steps across environments.

This ensures consistent refresh processes and seamless coordination between cloud resources, SAP systems, and infrastructure services — without manual intervention or landscape limitations.

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