Upgrade Project Best Practices

[sunny_pahuja2]

Dear All,

We are planning to do an upgrade project in which environment details are below:

Source Stack: R/3 4.7 (Non-unicode), window2k3, oracle 9.2

Target Stack: ECC 6.0 with EHP4 (Unicode), HP-UX IA64, oracle 10.2.0.4

What will be the best approach to upgrade above environment so that downtime can be minimized ?

I am considering below approach:

1) OS migration from window2k3 to HP-UX

2) Combine upgrade and unicode conversion from R/3 4.7 to ECC 6.0

3) ECC 6.0 to ECC 6.0 EHP4

But in above approach downtime required is very large.

Is it possible to do OS migration with unicode conversion ? If yes, Can someone please provide some link as I am not able to find.

Thanks

Sunny

[markus_doehr2 · Accepted solution]

> Source Stack: R/3 4.7 (Non-unicode), window2k3, oracle 9.2

> Target Stack: ECC 6.0 with EHP4 (Unicode), HP-UX IA64, oracle 10.2.0.4

First advise: An OS migration requires a certified migration consultant on-site, if you don't have that consultant, you'll loose support for problems during and after the migration --> SAP will bill you. (see http://service.sap.com/osdbmigration --> FAQ). That is the reason why there are no detailed migration steps available; however, it can be done with the normal system copy guides.

Be aware that HP-UX is a big endian system whereas Windows is little endian; so if you transfer binary data from the SAP system to other systems they must be aware of that fact.

> Is it possible to do OS migration with unicode conversion ? If yes, Can someone please provide some link as I am not able to find.

Definitely!

The export you create is in an OS and database independent format so you can theoretically import in into any OS and DB. So you can do your Unicode migration on the 4.7 system on Windows, export the system (here the conversion is done) and then import it on HP-UX with Oracle 10.2.0.4. The only difference is, that you choose 4102 (BigEndian) codepage for the export instead of 4103.

Since you're the on Unicode then you can do an upgrade from 4.7 directly to ERP 6.0 with EHP4 in one step.

Markus

[sunny_pahuja2 · Accepted solution]

Hi Markus,

Thanks for your reply.

Also, one more thing, is it possible that in system copy source system will be ABAP stack and Target System will be Dual stack.

Thanks

Sunny

[markus_doehr2 · Accepted solution]

> Also, one more thing, is it possible that in system copy source system will be ABAP stack and Target System will be Dual stack.

No - and I HIGHLY recommend no more installing dual stack instances. What is your requirement, why do you want to add a Java stack?

Markus

[sunny_pahuja2 · Accepted solution]

Hi Markus,

> No - and I HIGHLY recommend no more installing dual stack instances. What is your requirement, why do you want to add a >Java stack?

>

I know dual stack instances are no more recommended that's why in business suite 7 does not have dual stack.

And my last question, in my client landscape SAP BW 3.1 and CRM3.0 is there which they don't want to upgrade now. But R/3 we are upgrading to ECC 6.0 EHP4 level. And in EHP4 netweaver component will be on EHP1 level.

Then my question is- Is this scenario is compatible ?

Thanks

Sunny

[markus_doehr2 · Accepted solution]

> And my last question, in my client landscape SAP BW 3.1 and CRM3.0 is there which they don't want to upgrade now. But R/3 we are upgrading to ECC 6.0 EHP4 level. And in EHP4 netweaver component will be on EHP1 level.

Technically you can connect the systems, yes, but since both BW 3.1 and CRM 3.0 are out of support (quite for a long time) you will be on your own if you have problems. "Officially" that combination is not supported (because the software is out of support).

Markus