SAP HANA Client - ECC Source System Update

[Former Member]

Hello In-Memory Community

I am putting together plans for HANA revision updates in our ECC--> SLT --> HANA landscape.

Now, an important part of that set up is the HANA Client.

Our ECC system is on AIX with DB2 as the database.

When the client was initially installed ( Revision 33 in our case ), there was a need to "recycle" the application servers that make up the ECC system.

Not a major task, but it does involve the usual round of change management and "downtime" approval.

As I understand it, this "recycle" is caused by the need to modify environment variables for the <SID>ADM user to add the PATH to the runtime directory created for the HANA client during install.

( as described in the HANA Client install guide https://websmp107.sap-ag.de/~sapidb/011000358700000604582011 )

So here's my question.

If this, the application server recycle, is only needed on initial install, what is the view when we update the client to Revision 36 ?

Has anyone had any experience of this update task and if so what advice can you give me ?

Another question in the same vein is around actually installing the new revision compatible client.

The client installation guide just describes the initial install - what about an update ?

Does the "original" client need to be uninstalled ( hdbuninst ) prior to the install of the version compatible with the new HANA revision ?

I'm hoping that I can simply install the new client ( Rev 36 compatible ) over the top of the original client ( Rev 33 ) and not have to recycle the application servers at all, as the correct PATH is already assigned.

Thanks.

Simon.

[lbreddemann · Accepted solution]

Hello Simon,

technically there is no imperative to also upgrade the HDB client - especially if you don't face any of the fixed client bugs. Nevertheless, it's still recommended to upgrade the client software as well.

For the HANA Studio I would definitively always go for the most recent revision as it usually does not only come with bug fixes but also with added features 🙂

Concerning the 'recycle': for the first install it is of course required to restart the application server processes (not the whole server OS though) so that these processes get the new PATH environment variable value.

A second and for the upgrade more important reason to restart the processes is that the client software is used by means of shared code libraries (shared objects on Unix/Linux, dynamic linked libraries DLLs on MS Windows). In order to get the workprocesses pick up the new versions of those libraries, they need the restart.

Hope that answers your questions.

Cheers, Lars

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks for this, Lars.

I suspected that the shared library answer would cover why we need to recycle application servers when introducing a new client revision.

All very useful information for our landscape support strategy going forward, so thank you very much for the feedback, it's appreciated.

Here I am trying to plan Rev 36 and it looks like Rev 37 is imminent ...

Simon.