The export and import runtime of very large tables can become a bottleneck during a heterogeneous system copy. The contents of a single table can be exported and imported with multiple R3load processes in parallel. This technique is called “Table Splitting“. This approach is used for very large tables to speed up the export and import runtime.
To be able to export a single table with multiple parallel R3load processes, each process requires a specific WHERE file that specifies a distinct range of records in the source table. This set of records will be exported into a dedicated package file by a R3load process. You can create the WHERE files manually or with the available tools R3ta and where_splitter within SAPInst.
In this example i do the table splitting using the available tool within SAPInst on SAP Solution Manager 7 Ehp1. Below are the step to do table splitting.
1. Identify the tables you want to split and create a file containing your tables and number of split. The content of the file should be as follow:
<tablename1>%<number of split> <tablename2>%<number of split>
Example:
2. Call SAPinst, and choose System Copy -> <DB> -> Source System Export -> Central System -> Table Splitting Preparation.
3. On the next screen
SAPSID = Your SAP SID to be exported
File with Tables to Be split = the file you created in step 1
Export Directory = the directory you want to put the split packages
Number of Parallel R3ta Runs = parallel process during tables split
4. Now you are shown the input summary. Just continue to next process.
5. The splitting process is running.
You can check from sapinst log that the process is calculating the splitting.
6. Make sure the process is finished successfully.
You verify that the split packages are created under Export Directory.
You then use these files, using Migration Monitor to do SAP Database Export. Put/merge the files under folder DATA that is used during Database Export. Please read this article: “SAP Database Export Using R3load Procedure and Migration Monitor” for details.