Oh, The Memories - My First SAP site

My first experience with SAP (could've been how I spent my summer vacation if it had been in the summer but it wasn't.  It was in the fall).

Once upon a time I was a implementation guy focused on IP storage and DR scripting.  I got a call from the boss sayin', "We have a problem."  So off I go on a three hour drive to a customer site.  They manufactured shoes.  Evidently they'd implmented a couple of scripts to duplicate their Oracle database for backups and to create a sandbox environment.  Their Oracle database ran their supply chain management and order fulfillment SAP applications.  These scripts were failing left right and center:  The backups weren't successful, they couldn't start up the sandbox copy of the database.  They were even having performance issues.  Yeah.  If it could go wrong it did.

So I walk in.  The customer's a wee bit upset.  I spend the next two or three weeks camped in their "relaxation" lounge as I monitor their backups, rewrite the DR scripts, and write procedures for porting their DB and SAP environment to a new server.  I learned tons and tons at this gig.  It was really driven home to me that just 'cause you have a perfect copy of a customer's environment doesn't mean you can actually do anything with it.

On a funny "uh-oh" note:  I also learned to ask if the Sandbox environment is connected to their public network.  See, I was successful in bring their SAP order fulfillment application online in their Sandbox.  (I was successful in getting everything working, FTW).  In fact, it was so successful that when the batch process ran to send orders to the warehouse for processing it ran perfectly on production AND the Sandbox.  Ugh.  There's always something, eh?

So...  lots of years later I have a whole ton of tricks and best practices learned the hard way. 

Care to share?  Tell us about your first experience with SAP.

Rob