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Operating System and Networking: where to start for SAP Basis?

Former Member
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Hello,

I want to start building a base for SAP Basis. I have been told that I should have good hands-on on OS, Networking and Databases. But these topics are so vast. I have started taking courses on Databases( on Lynda.com and Coursera.com). But I have no clue what to learn in OS and Networking. I'll appreciate if you can tell me where and how to start building OS, networking and database skills for SAP Basis.

Thanks a lot.

Best Regards,

Yusuf

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Matt_Fraser
Active Contributor
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718

Hi Mohammad,

SAP Basis is a great career path, but before you can be good at Basis, you need to be expert with server operating systems and database management.  Being good with the ins and outs of Windows PCs is a good start at understanding operating systems, but despite the similar user interface and similar naming, Windows Servers are a different beast.  There's much more to handling them well.  The same will be true for Linux servers vs Linux desktops, etc.  Most Basis administrators could probably double as network administrators, and many likely came from a network or database administration background.  All good Basis administrators should absolutely be able to double as database administrators.  OS, network admin, and DBA skills are a minimum starting point, and then you must learn to manage the SAP application on top of that.

So, if this is the path you want to follow, you first must choose an OS/DB platform to specialize in.  While the majority of Basis skills will translate across platforms, nevertheless you also need to be expert in the underlying platform, and it's not reasonable, at least in the beginning, to be expert in all of them.  You are best off picking one OS and one DBMS and learning all you can about those.

Tom has mentioned HANA (and its underlying OS, Linux) as a good direction, as that is the future direction SAP is heading toward.  That's true.  However, other considerations may be:  which OS/DB platform are most customers using today; and, which OS/DB platform are most new implementations happening on?  I don't know what the latest customer surveys may say about this, and HANA has probably skewed the new implementation angle somewhat, but that doesn't mean that most new customers are automatically choosing HANA.  Fifteen years ago, you would have found that most existing customers were on Unix/Oracle, but most new customers were choosing Windows/SQL Server.  So, it may pay to dig for some current surveys.

That decision may also be influenced by what kind of Basis job you want.  Do you want to work as a Basis administrator for an SAP customer company, running their systems?  In that case, the current installed base of customers is what will most interest you, in order to widen your job prospects.  Do you want to be a Basis consultant?  In that case, what new implementations are being frequently chosen will be of most interest (and this is where HANA is likely to be a stronger contender).

As an example, if you were to pick Windows and SQL Server (because you are already familiar with Windows as a desktop operating system, and because Windows/SQL is my own area of expertise so I can speak better to it), I would recommend that you seek out training to the level recommended for obtaining MCSA/MCSE and MCDBA certifications.  I'm not saying you need those certifications, but the types of skillsets and knowledge that lead to them are the types of skillsets, knowledge, and experience you should be seeking.  You may even want to first find some work as a network administrator/engineer and/or DBA, then follow up with Basis after a couple years.

Regards,

Matt

10 REPLIES 10

Colleen
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
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718

Hi Yusuf

Understanding general IT technical principals would be a good start....

  • For networks: OSI model, ports and protocols, general connectivity
  • For Databases: general concepts about tables, indexes, etc and you could look at Oracle if you had an option
  • For OS: learn your different operating systems with Unix and Ms

Also get the principals behind backup and recoveries, security, highly available systems, general infrastructure architecture.

If Basis your area of interest Google jobs in Basis and see what skills sets and products they mention. Search and read up on the different administrations

At some point, you will more than likely need to enroll in Basis training unless you are offered a trainee position or join a company as a IT support person for a SAP system

Regards

Colleen

Former Member
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718

Hey Colleen,

Thank you very much for sharing the fine information. I like your suggestion of reading the skill sets required by different companies.

Can you explain this point "Searching and reading up on the different administrations", I didn't get what you mean by different administrations. Are you talking about Institutes or something like that.

Best Regards,

Yusuf

Colleen
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
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718

sorry I meant.. read up on the job descriptions of a Basis Adminisrator to see what skills they ask for. Then you can focus a bit more on areas to learn for general knowledge

Former Member
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718

oh, ok.

Thank You

Former Member
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718

Hi Mohammad,

Look into this blog. You will get a basic idea and knowledge how to start your career in Basis.

Regards

Sudhir Sadhu

Former Member
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718

Hey Thank you Sudhir. I liked that article.

TomCenens
Active Contributor
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718

Hi Yusuf

Can you give some more information to what you are doing right now? In what timeframe do you want to transition to  SAP Basis or is it out of pure interest / adding additional skills?

You want to check out www.openhpi.de and open.sap.com for In-memory data management / HANA related course material. This is clearly the direction SAP is taking. While it's good to learn about traditional databases as well, unless you are already into SAP Basis, I would suggest to put more focus on SAP HANA for the database part.

OS wise, that would automatically result into Linux by the way (at the time being) so check out Linux administration as well. Documentation

For HANA administration, http://help.sap.com is a good source as well since you can find plenty of PDF material there on HANA administration, as well as blogs on SCN, as well as blogs on saphana.com

In the end, "doing stuff" will take you beyond just theoritical knowledge. There are options there to have a 30 day free trial on cloud infrastructure (pay attention to detail - like do you need to pay for cloud infrastructure running cost - can be around 4,5 $ per running hour depending on what is deployed).

Learning hub could also be of interest - solution where most SAP course content is available -price = yearly subscription model, you can find the offer on http://training.sap.com.

Best regards

Tom

Former Member
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718

Hey Tom,


Thank you very much for the fine information.

I'm a fresh graduate. I completed bachelors in Electronics and Telecommunications. As I completed I had to decide a career path. So I did bit of research as to which field I should make my career in.(as far as I can, because its impossible to comprehend the practical things going around in industry until I go there) So based on talking to different people and googling, SAP system administration appeals and interests me.

OS: As far as operating system is concerned I keep learning new things everyday by troubleshooting my PC and helping friends to fix their problems. So I have a little bit of exposure to Windows. I can assemble a desktop, do basic operations in command prompt, install and repair everything in windows(softwares,drivers,etc.),configure internet connection, router,printer,etc. And I love doing all that. I'm watching videos on Windows Server administration and as you suggested will go for Linux after completing that.


Database: I have little exposure to database. I am learning it these days. Watching videos on Lynda.com and coursera.com. I want to buy good books on different RDBMS. I have learned to write a query in SQL and going deep into it. I plan to learn oracle and HANA as you said.

Networking: Neither Do I know much about Networking. I had a subject called "Computer Communication Networks" in college in which I studied the basics of Networking like OSI layers, different protocol and protocol stacks,LAN,Switching networks,etc. I'm not sure about what to learn in networking specific to SAP Basis.

I complete agree with you on this "In the end, "doing stuff" will take you beyond just theoritical knowledge". I just want to acquire the theory which is essential, important and required in SAP Basis. So that as I launch I should not be hold back due to theory. I am reading  SAPTEC and ADM100 pdfs as of now.

The training material I need as of now must be of Beginner level. I will try HANA but I'm afraid it will go bouncer to me. I will check out the Cloud part too.

Thanks a lot Tom.

Best Regards,

Yusuf

Matt_Fraser
Active Contributor
0 Kudos
719

Hi Mohammad,

SAP Basis is a great career path, but before you can be good at Basis, you need to be expert with server operating systems and database management.  Being good with the ins and outs of Windows PCs is a good start at understanding operating systems, but despite the similar user interface and similar naming, Windows Servers are a different beast.  There's much more to handling them well.  The same will be true for Linux servers vs Linux desktops, etc.  Most Basis administrators could probably double as network administrators, and many likely came from a network or database administration background.  All good Basis administrators should absolutely be able to double as database administrators.  OS, network admin, and DBA skills are a minimum starting point, and then you must learn to manage the SAP application on top of that.

So, if this is the path you want to follow, you first must choose an OS/DB platform to specialize in.  While the majority of Basis skills will translate across platforms, nevertheless you also need to be expert in the underlying platform, and it's not reasonable, at least in the beginning, to be expert in all of them.  You are best off picking one OS and one DBMS and learning all you can about those.

Tom has mentioned HANA (and its underlying OS, Linux) as a good direction, as that is the future direction SAP is heading toward.  That's true.  However, other considerations may be:  which OS/DB platform are most customers using today; and, which OS/DB platform are most new implementations happening on?  I don't know what the latest customer surveys may say about this, and HANA has probably skewed the new implementation angle somewhat, but that doesn't mean that most new customers are automatically choosing HANA.  Fifteen years ago, you would have found that most existing customers were on Unix/Oracle, but most new customers were choosing Windows/SQL Server.  So, it may pay to dig for some current surveys.

That decision may also be influenced by what kind of Basis job you want.  Do you want to work as a Basis administrator for an SAP customer company, running their systems?  In that case, the current installed base of customers is what will most interest you, in order to widen your job prospects.  Do you want to be a Basis consultant?  In that case, what new implementations are being frequently chosen will be of most interest (and this is where HANA is likely to be a stronger contender).

As an example, if you were to pick Windows and SQL Server (because you are already familiar with Windows as a desktop operating system, and because Windows/SQL is my own area of expertise so I can speak better to it), I would recommend that you seek out training to the level recommended for obtaining MCSA/MCSE and MCDBA certifications.  I'm not saying you need those certifications, but the types of skillsets and knowledge that lead to them are the types of skillsets, knowledge, and experience you should be seeking.  You may even want to first find some work as a network administrator/engineer and/or DBA, then follow up with Basis after a couple years.

Regards,

Matt

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718

Wow Matt! You addressed my points amazingly well. Thank you very much for your time