SAP Security: Profiles in SAP

SAP profiles are operating system files that contain instance setup information. SAP Systems can consist of one or more instances. Individual setup parameters can be customized to the requirements of each instance.
Start Profiles
When you start an SAP instance on a host, the start profile defines which SAP services are started (message server, dialog, gateway or enqueue process. for example). The startsap program is responsible for starting these service processes, and it uses a start profile to begin the startup process.
The processes that can be started include:

• Application server

• Message server

• SNA Gateway

• System log send demon

• System log receive demon

Default Profiles
If you want to assign the same parameter value for all application servers (such as the name of the database host, or the host on which the message server is running), enter it in the default profile.
You cannot choose a name for the default profile. It is always called DEFAULT.PFL . Default profiles are also called system profiles.
Instance Profiles

nstance profiles provide an application server with additional configuration parameters to complement the settings values from the default profile. Typically, these parameter settings adapt the instance according to the desired resources. They also define the available instance resources (main memory, shared memory, roll memory and so on), and how to allocate memory to the SAP application buffers.

You can choose any name for an instance profile. The SAP naming convention is as follows: _ or __ .

To start application servers on several computers using identical parameter settings, you can use a single instance profile. It is generally not necessary for each application server to have its own instance profile. Instance profiles are also called system profiles.