It is strongly recommended that at a minimum, a system landscape should consist of three systems, one for each of the following roles: Development, Test, and Production.
The precise activities carried out on each of the systems in the above minimum system landscape configuration are as follows:
- Development System: The development
system is the system on which business objects are initially
created and subsequently changed. When the administrative user is
satisfied that the business objects are configured correctly, they
are transferred and applied to the test system using CTM.
- Test System: The test system is the
system on which business objects are tested before being
transported and applied to the production system. The test system
should contain a representative set of the runtime data from the
production system. This is so that issues related to the
interactions between the business objects and the runtime data set
are discovered and remedied before the business objects are
transported and applied on the production system. Note that to
avoid consistency issues, business objects should not generally be
created or changed on the test system - please refer to
section 5.2.2 - Data Management Policy more
information on policies for creating and changing business
objects. When it has been verified that the business objects are
behaving as expected, they can be transferred and applied to the
production system.
- Production System: The production
system is the live system used by end users. Business objects
should only be transferred and applied on the production system
after passing extensive testing on the test system. Great care
needs to be taken before deciding to create or change a business
object on the production system. Please refer to section
5.2.2 - Data Management Policy for more information on
policies for authoring and changing business objects.