Copying of Infostructure Data

Use

You can use this function to copy data from one infostructure to another.

Similar to other standard objects in the SAP system, SAP infostructures cannot be changed without running the risk of a modification. This also includes changes to the partitioning of SAP Infostructures. If, however, a SAP Infostructure contains data that you want to copy, you must delete all that data and rebuild it, in order for the data to be copied to one of your own infostructures. This procedure is possible, but, depending on the amount of data to be copied, can take very long.

A good alternative for your purpose is the function for copying infostructure data.

Prerequisites

The following prerequisites must be fulfilled for you to be able to copy data from one infostructure to another:

The target infostructure already exists. The system only copies the data from source infostructure, not the definitions of the data.
Both infostructures are consistent. This applies to the definition of the infostructures and for their fill status. The copying of infostructure data is not a correction program.
The source infostructure may not have a predefined table in the partition configuration. If the source infostructure lies within your own namespace (such as a customer-specific infostructure), you can remove this table first from the configuration of the source infostructure. After you have copied the data you can enter this table in the configuration of the target infostructure.
The source infostructure contains all the fields of the target infostructure. In addition, all the key fields of the target infostructure must also be key fields of the source infostructure. Note that the target infostructure may have fewer fields than the source infostructure.
The field types of the target infostructure correspond to the field types of the source infostructure. This only applies to the technical field types. The data elements may be different, but not the field length.
The target infostructure should be empty.

Recommendation
To avoid functional changes or problems when using the AS modules, we recommend that you fill the target infostructure on the basis of the same field catalog as that of the standard infostructure that you want to copy.

End of the recommendation.

Features

You can call this function from within the Archive Retrieval Configurator (transaction SARJ) using Start of the navigation path Utilities Next navigation step Copy Data End of the navigation path or by executing the program AS_DATA_MOVE.

To copy the data you need to enter a source and a target infostructure.

Executing this function only takes a few seconds. It may, however, take longer, if the infostructures contain several thousand archive files, for example. The runtime, however, does not depend on the number of entries in the infostructures. After you have executed the program, the source infostructure is empty and inactive. The target infostructure contains the data of the source infostructure and is active if it was active before, or if the source infostructure was active.

The data transfer does not actually take place through copying, but rather through a simple “move” of the tables. The system simply assigns the tables of the source infostructure to the target infostructure by entering the tables of the source infostructure into the current partitioning of the target infostructure and adjusting the status management. For this simple moving of data to take place, however, the above prerequisites must be fulfilled.

Example

You have an active SAP infostructure that already contains a large amount of data. This infostructure does not use partitioning and does not have any predefined tables. You want to copy the data of an SAP infostructure to one of your own infostructures. You proceed as follows:

In the development or Customizing system (the system in which you make the developments and changes that are not permitted in the production system) you create your own infostructure. The new infostructure should look exactly like the infostructure to be copied.
You make the desired changes to the new infostructure, particularly the partitioning configuration , if you need to.
You transport the new infostructure into the production system and leave it as inactive.

Note
Make sure that during the next step no archiving session, delete session or filling of an infostructure takes place for the archiving object in question.

End of the note.
In the production system you copy the data of the SAP infostructure to the new infostructure (see above).

As a result of this procedure the infostructures now have the following characteristics:

The SAP infostructure is	The new infostructure is
inactive.	active.
deleted and without references to any tables.	filled for those archive files for which the SAP infostructure was built.