46C EBCDIC to UNICODE upgrade and conversion

[Former Member]

Can the UNICODE conversion processed be used directly on a 46C EBCDIC source system? Or is a conversion to 46C ASCII required before a UNICODE conversion?

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hallo,

It is mandatory to convert from EBCDIC to ASCII at 4.6C before you Upgrade toa higher release, even when you plan to go to Unicode eventually. There is no direct conversion from EBCDIC to Unicode, as there is no EBCDIC platform on any of the releases which offer the Unicode codepage.

Regards,

Sally Power

For SAP on IBM i Dev. Support

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thank you Sally.

Is it possible to do a full export of the EBCDIC database and import that into an installed UNICODE system? Would this theoretically reduce the down time versus a conversion-upgrade-conversion process? My target release is ECC 6.0 and I am trying to determine the best method for upgrading to this release.

[volker_gldenpfennig · Accepted solution]

Hello Will,

as Sally already explained, this is unfortunately not possible ;-((

SAP does not support Unicode with 4.6C ;-(

Therefore, only EBCDIC and ASCII are the options.

As of 4.7 Unicode & ASCII are available.

=> the project could look as follows:

- On 4.6 you need to go from EBCDIC to ASCII - 12 - 24h conversion time

- Upgrade to ERP 6.0 EHP4 ASCII - total Runtime about 40-65h - downtime of that: 10-24h

- Unicode Conversion Latin1 - 6-14h conversion time

=> You see, that the total runtime in one step is pretty long - e.g. for X-mas ...

Otherwise, it is typical, that the ASCII CPC is done in one step and later on Upgrade & Unicode in one further step.

For more details, we should talk together, but at least your project is pretty big ...

Regards

Volker Gueldenpfennig, consolut international ag

http://www.consolut.net - http://www.4soi.de - http://www.easymarketplace.de

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Will,

As Volker pointed out what you suggest is not possible. The exported files will be in ASCII format and would need conversion before they could be loeded into a Unicode database. The only supported path from SAP's perspective is:

4.6C EBCDIC -> 4.6C ASCII and then upgrade with either immediate or subsequent Unicode conversion.

Regards,

Sally Power

For SAP on IBM i Dev. Support

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I agreed with volker & sally...

First 4.6C EBCDIC to 4.6C ASCII is mandatory ..Because SAP supporting codepage conversion only 4.6C or 4.6D.

Than you can take Combined unicode and upgrade with ERP 6.0 EHP4.

Downtime as mentioned by Volker reply.. DB Size will increase approximately 40 to 60% after Unicode conversion + Upgrade

Thanks

Jibin

[Former Member]

Thank you. This information will help me with my planning.