We are on 4.6C and our QA and Production clients are on the same system.
We create all the roles on the QA client to test. All the users are setup on both clients with the exception of a few.
Before Going Live I want to copy the entire use master records and roles and their assignments to the Production Client.
I want to know if my existing users and roles in Production will be deleted with the client copy of users master and roles?

Yes, they will be deleted.

Please take a look to the diferents profiles you can use in the copy client.
I send you all the options that you have,  for further needs.
Data classes in the copy profiles:

o  Customizing
All profiles, with the exception of SAP_USR/SAP_USER contain Customizing.
Customizing data is generally in tables of the delivery classes C, G, E and S.

o  Client-independent Customizing between two systems
Client-independent Customizing can only be transported via Export/Import. For this, a profile must be created with the corresponding option in the customer name space until Release 3.1I. As of Release 4.0, the following profiles are delivered for this:
SAP_EXBC, SAP_EXPA and SAP_EXPC.
In addition to some special selections, the client-independent customizing tables (delivery classes C, G, E, and S) that are not
contained in the exception list for system tables are copied. For Basis tables (development class starts with 'S'), the existence of
a customizing object is checked in addition (Transaction SOBJ) to make sure that those contain customizing that may be transported and no system settings.
Note:
Client-independent customizing must only be copied to create a new system. Client-independent data and thus all clients in the target system are affected by this and can be destroyed!

o  User master data
User master data is only deleted in the target system if a profile is copied with user master data. Prior to Release 4.5B, however, the user addresses are lost when copying customizing without application data. For transports, this restriction still applies.
Authorization profiles belong to Customizing and therefore, they are always copied with this. Copying users without user profiles would be problematic. Therefore, the copy profile SAP_USR or SAP_USER additionally contains authorization profiles.
A separate source client for the user data can be entered with a local copy or with an export.
In Releases 4.0B to 4.6D the users are copied with each copy including user data. If this is not wanted you must store the user
prior to the copy with profile SAP_USER to another client and retransfer it after the copy.

o  Application data (master & transaction data)
Application data is dependent upon Customizing data. Therefore, the data can only exist consistently together with it. Application data is always deleted in target clients, with the exception of a copy with SAP_USR or SAP_USER.
Application data is generally in tables of delivery class A.

If you want to mix the application data with the Customizing data of another client for test purposes, import the corresponding
Customizing transports in the target client. If you - in extremely exceptional cases - want to reach this goal via the client copy
tools, then refer to Note 19574, which contains additional information. However, SAP expressively notes that no support is
given for any of the problems and inconsistencies occuring with the execution.  As of Release 4.5 a copy of the customizing
without resetting the application data is not possible.
In Releases 4.0B to 4.6D the users are always copied for each copy including application data. Detailed information can be found in the user master data.

o  System variants and user-defined variants
The copy profile SAP_USR or SAP_USER does not contain any variants.
-  Release 3.0:
Variants are only copied if a copy profile ordered by the user contains this option. The profile SAP_ALL, which contains
variants, is only delivered as of Release 3.0F.
-  As from Release 3.1:
All delivered profiles contain variants.
-  As from Release 4.0:
The tool can now handle system variants and user defined variants seperately. If a copy profile does not contain the
option 'With variants', the system variants are nevertheless copied. However, the user defined variants are only copied if
the option to do so was selected. Nevertheless, via a delivery error, all profiles receive the option 'With variants'.
-  As from Release 4.5:
With periodic planning, no variants are copied.
SAP_APPL, SAP_CUST and SAP_UCUS do not contain any more user-defined variants.
-  As from Release 4.6A:
Also SAP_UAPP contains no more user-defined variants.
o  Activity groups
Activity groups are copied togehter with the Customizing.
Only as of Release 4.5 they are also copied with the SAP_USER profile. In a former release, they must be transported, in this
case, with the help of the report 'RHMOVE30'.

Copy profiles delivered by SAP:
As of Release 4.0, SAP only supports these profiles delivered by SAP.
o  SAP_ALL (as of Release 3.0F)
All client-dependent data
o  SAP_USR   (as of 4.0 SAP_USER)
User master data and authorization profiles
o  SAP_CUST
Customizing - application data is deleted
o  SAP_UCUS
Customizing and user data - application data is deleted
o  SAP_APPL
Customizing data and application data ( because of changed user address assignments as of Release 4.0 to 4.6D, including the
user data, which corresponds the profile SAP_ALL without user defined variant)
o  SAP_UAPP
Corresponds to SAP_ALL and is omitted after Release 4.6D.

The following profiles will be delivered additionally as of Release 4.0 (SCC8 only) in order to be able to copy
client-independent Customizing data between two systems:
o  SAP_EXBC
Customizing including client-independent customizing and user data
o  SAP_EXPA
All client-dependent data and client-independent Customizing (as of Release 4.5 without change documents)
o  SAP_EXPC
Customizing including client-independent Customizing
As of Release 4.0, the following profiles are additionally delivered, which contain the user defined variants (see above):
o  SAP_CUSV
corresponds to SAP_CUST with a variant flag
o  SAP_UCSV
corresponds to SAP_UCUS with a variant flag  As of Release 4.5B there is a specific profile to restore a client
o  SAP_RECO
Specific copy profile (for remote copies and transports) which contains change documents, system tables (delivery class 'W' -
e.g. the Central User Administration (CUA)), and local tables (delivery class 'L') in addition to SAP_ALL. The profile may
only be used to restore a client which was accidentally deleted. The number of the source and target client and the system settings (for example, printer, etc.) should correspond.
 

If I have a few users on the Production client and I copy the user master and roles
with the Copy Profiles SAP_USR from QA, Will it overwrite those few users?
Basically what I am asking is : Does a client copy of user master and profiles/roles delete the target user master and profiesl/roles before doing the copy or transport?

Yes, it doesn't delete all of that in the target client before it does the copy. All copies do regardless. Now, what you need to do in order to keep your target "roles and user master date" is that before the main copy,
1- make a dummy client in scc4
2- do a client copy using SAP_USER from your source client to this dummy client
3- start your main client copy
4- do another client copy except this one is from the dummy to the source using SAP_USER

This will get everything you want and your roles/master data is intact.

Client Copy
Client Copy from Production to Quality  Server

SAP Basis Reference Books:
SAP Basis Components, System Administration, Security, ALE and iDoc Books

Back to Basis Menu:
SAP BC (Basis Components) Hints and Tips

Return to :-
SAP ABAP/4 Programming, Basis Administration, Configuration Hints and Tips