Release 4.6 of the System Administration Made Easy Guidebook continues in the direction of the 4.0 version.

The primary focus is the importance of the on-going nature of system administration. This book is written for an installed system, where all installation tasks have been completed. Installation and related tasks, which are usually performed once, have not been included in this guidebook.

Organization
We have tried to group items and tasks in job role categories, which allows this guidebook to be a better reference book.

Content
Real world practical advice from consultants and customers has been integrated into this book. Because of this perspective, some of the statements in this book are blunt and direct. Some of the examples we have used may seem improbable, but "facts can be, and are, stranger than fiction".

Because system administration is such a large area, it is difficult to reduce the volume to what can be called "Made Easy". Although material in this book has been carefully chosen, it is by no means comprehensive. Certain chapters can be expanded into several books [two examples are the chapters on disaster recovery (chapter 2) and security (chapter 11)].

What Is Not Provided
Although there are chapters on problem solving and basic performance tuning, these chapters are only introductions to the subjects. This guidebook is not meant to be a trouble shooting or performance tuning manual. Installation tasks are not presented. We assume that your SAP consultant has completed these tasks.

Who Is This Guide For?
The target audience for this guidebook is:

A customer or team where:

* The SAP R/3 administrator is ofa small to mid-size company with a small (one to three people) technical team
* Each team member has multiple job responsibilities
* The system administrator has a basic knowledge of the operating system and database

The junior consultant

Senior consultants, experienced system administrators, and database administrators may find portions of this guidebook elementary, but useful.