Summary
Qlik Gold Client allows SAP customers to copy subsets of data from Production to their lower SAP systems to have recent and relevant data available for troubleshooting and testing. Usually the source system is easy to determine (typically Production or a recent Production copy) but establishing a proper target for this data can be more challenging.
Qlik recommends two best practices in setting up a target client for Gold Client imports:
Approach #1: New SAP Client
To establish a baseline of SAP configuration and data, the following steps should be completed:
- Export SAP configuration and users from the source with profile SAP_UCSV
- Create a new client or delete an existing client in the target SAP system
- Import SAP_UCSV profile into new target client
- Copy all Master Data from SAP source to target using Gold Client
- Copy a subset of Transactional Data (typically a time slice) from SAP source to target using Gold Client
- Execute Gold Client Number Range Utility to increase the number ranges on target client to a level that is higher than the source to prevent data conflicts
Data can be created manually in the target and/or additional data can be copied from source.
This new client will consume less database space than the source system since only a subset of data has been copied. This could allow for multiple data clients in the target system which can be rebuilt as needed.
More details can be found in How to Build a Target Client Using a Repeatable Process
Approach #2: System Refresh
A full system copy can be used for a Gold Client target as long as the Gold Client Number Range Utility is executed before data is created on the system to prevent data conflicts with data copied by Gold Client. Gold Client can then be used to copy deltas of data to the target client to keep it current with relevant data.
Sometimes Gold Client customers consider using an existing client with data as a Gold Client target. Qlik does not recommend this strategy for several reasons:
- A target client that was created from a Production copy months or years ago will have manually created data which is using the same document numbers as the source. Using Gold Client to copy data to this existing target will likely cause data discrepancies. Depending on the type and amount of data copied along with the age of the target client, these discrepancies could vary from minor to severe. Significant project time could be spent having to analyze these data issues to determine the root cause.
- Gold Client is not creating new data in the target, it only copies the table records as they exist in the source to the target system. Data is inserted or overwritten in the target database based on table key fields.
- Using the Gold Client Number Rage utility on an existing client does not prevent the risk of data inconsistencies since the document numbers of existing data in the target will not change.
Qlik wants all their Gold Client customers to be successful with copying data across their SAP landscapes and following these recommended target client approaches will help ensure this success.
