We implemented the project in a defined timeframe of eight months. Moving to a high water conservation area forced edel music to outsource their previous in house SAP R/3 operation. We also implemented protection against critical situations that guarantees system availability even if the entire computer centre fails. We also used the platform migration to carry out a euro conversion at the same time.

The three milestones
The entire project was implemented in three stages:

1) Transferring the AS/400 servers to our computer centre,
2) The transitional operation of SAP R/3 on AS/400 servers with a DB2 database,
3) Platform migration to UNIX (HP) with Oracle, and at the same time the euro conversion.

Stage 1 began with assessing the current situation and developing a detailed plan. We made inventories of and validated the systems and applications. The server environment was moved in August/September 2001 and once the network infrastructure was in place we had successfully completed the first stage of the project. We subsequently operated the test, consolidation and production system on AS/400 in the transitional operation phase.

To ensure operation in critical situations, it was necessary to switch from the IBM AS/400 servers to the critical situation system environment (HP L-Class). The operating system is now UNIX and the database is supplied by Oracle. At the same time we also build a euro test environment.

Three problems, three solutions
Once the go ahead was obtained to go live, unforeseen performance problems arose. Our solution: hardware upgrade, Oracle upgrade and Unix upgrade.

The hardware migration caused a codepage change (OS/400 on HP UNIX). This meant that the protocols of table changes (table DBTABLOG), which generated prior to the migration, were unable to be read. SAP was able to deliver a solution to this problem.

A query disrupted performance during normal operation. We solved this problem using an organisational and programming solution.

After going live, SAP R/3 now runs in an environment that is protected against critical situations. Specified service levels are also defined which have set operating times and support timeframes regarding availability, maximum downtime, response times, hard drive space, customer care centre availability etc. We carry out critical situation tests annually.

The edel music service package
INFO AG provides edel with comprehensive infrastructure, performance, configuration and change management systems as well as system monitoring tools. Additional services include SAP R/3 basic services, job and interface monitoring, archive and ITS server operation, telecommunications (WAN services) and user support (infrastructure management).