New Application server on existing Non-Unicode CI

[Former Member]

Hello all,

We upgraded our BW 3.5 system to BW 7 ehp 1 late last year; due to the need for increased capacity we want to add an application server. The BW 7 system is Non-Unicode (NUC), and in SAPINST GUI I do not see any options for a NUC installation. I found a Note stating this fact, "all new installations will be Unicode by default".

So my question is, what are my options here? A UC conversion project is not an option at this time. We have a couple of projects that require no BW down time for the next 2 months. However, at the completion of those two projects is when the extra capacity is needed; so I don't have a window to conduct the conversion.

Thanks in advance,

Jose

[markus_doehr2 · Accepted solution]

> "all new installations will be Unicode by default".

>

> So my question is, what are my options here? A UC conversion project is not an option at this time.

Since the start of BW 7.0 all installations are Unicode-only and all upgrades have to do a Unicode conversion. The reason is the fact, that BW 7.0 makes heavy use of Java which is not supported with non-Unicode backend systems:

Note 975768 - Deprecation of Java features with non-Unicode Backend

Note 838402 - Problems within non-Unicode system landscapes

So before installing new unsupported system landscapes I can just highly recommend (not to say 'urge' you) to convert your current BW system to Unicode. With a good preparation this can be done on a weekend - or less.

Markus

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the Info Markus, you make a valid point.

After we upgraded to BW 7 (ABAP) we installed BI Java seperately and then integrated the two. I read over the upgrade guide for BW 7 again, and found the section "Upgrading or Installing Dialog Instaces"; probably skipped over it the first time since it wasn't required at the time. The documentation basically refers me to the Installation Guide, where it mentions how to accomplish my exact scenario.

I'm going to try this first, as an interim until I can go through the Unicide Conversion. Our BW ABAP system has a +3.5 TB database, and I don't want to risk having the system unavailable while these two projects are going on.

Thanks again.

Jose

[markus_doehr2 · Accepted solution]

> I'm going to try this first, as an interim until I can go through the Unicide Conversion. Our BW ABAP system has a +3.5 TB database, and I don't want to risk having the system unavailable while these two projects are going on.

You can install a Unicode application server and exchange the kernel to a Non-Unicode one during the installation. You can also copy the kernel of a Non-Unicode DVD to disk and copy over the LABEL.ASC from a Unicode Kernel DVD to 'fake' the kernel. So you can at least do the installation. But I still won't start any new projects before the UC migration is not done.

Markus