Profiles

SAP systems can consist of one or more application server instances and an ASCS/SCS instance. The SAP system and its instances are configured by profile files. You differentiate between the kernel default, the default profile, and instance profiles. The kernel default refers to the values of the profile parameters directly from the source code. These values are overridden by the default profile or the instance profiles. The default profile contains manual changes that are valid system-wide. Using the instance profiles you can specify profile parameter values specificially for one instance.

What value a profile parameter is allowed to have is specified in its metadata. Profile parameter values can contain variables or consist of arithmetical formulas too.

The possibilities of profile maintenance are wide-ranging and are explained in detail in "Profile Maintenance".