Start vs Instance profile

[Former Member]

Regarding the blog "What's new in SAP NetWeaver 7.3" point 8 - Start Profile Merged:
As of SAP NetWeaver 7.3, Start Profile has been removed as separate file.
In earlier versions of NetWeaver there were 1 Default profile per SAP system, 1 Start profile per Instance and 1 Instance profile per instance.
Now the Start profile contents are merged with Instance profile. With help of new Instance profile SAP processes are started and at the same time instance specific parameters are read.
This removed total number of profile files. 1 Default profile per SAP System, 1 instance profile per instance.

I'm new at this company and our BW system is on NW 7.31. On the central instance (aka primary app server) there is a start profile and an instance profile. However all the app servers have just an instance profile.

The system was upgraded from 7.00 to 7.02 in the past and then again later from 7.02 to 7.31. When/how should the start profile have been replaced if it really should be as the blog says. In an upgrade, say from 7.02 to 7.31, how does the profile get merged? Are there manual post processing steps or does the Software Update Manager SUM do it automatically and remove the start profile from the directory? Does startsap get changed to point to the instance instead of the start profile too?

Well, thanks everybody, appreciate any advice?
David

Quoted blog: http://scn.sap.com/community/netweaver-administrator/blog/2012/05/22/whats-new-in-sap-netweaver-73--...

[attila_kovacs · Accepted solution]

Dear David,

here is the relevant part of the note No 823941:

As of Release 7.10, start profiles are no longer used in

general.  The start entries are in the instance profile

instead. In this case, you must specify the relevant instance

profile instead of the start profile.  However, the start

profiles may still be active depending on the upgrade history

and upgrade options that were used.

So there is no necessity to merge the profiles. The new release can also handle start profiles.

Best regards,

Attila

[Former Member]

Hello David,

                 Do refer to below note to have better understanding over start and instance profile merge in NW 7.3

Note 1326576 - SAP NetWeaver Systems Containing SAP ERP Software Components

While the instance is started by the sapstart process, and not directly by the start service sapstartsrv. The process is started by the start service, which ideally is started by the sapinit script when the operating system is booted.

Check this link

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw73ehp1/helpdata/en/b3/903925c34a45e28a2861b59c3c5623/content.htm

Hope this help

Thanks

Vaibhav

[Former Member]

Hi everybody,

Thanks for the helpful responses. I still have not been able to find a document that definitively says that from start release X to target release Y this system should have been migrated to the instance profile only. So since SAP appears to support the mixed environment "However, the start profiles may still be active depending on the upgrade history and upgrade options that were used" I'm going to leave this alone for now. Thanks again,

David

[Amitjaiswal]

HI David ,

As per the configuration change after NW 7.10 the start profile can not be use to start the instance and all the start_program and execute command are being copied to instance profile and after the execution roadmap the tool delete the start profile or else rename them (this depend on the version of SUM used here)

So for your system please do check the start_program command should be there in the instance profile .

Now regarding the startsap . The startsap is irrelevant to the profile and depend on DIR_PROFILE parameter .

[americo_goncalvesqualho]

Hi David,

It is possible to use both, the start and instance "unified" and the "old-style profiles".

Depending on the case the upgrade tool will merge of START profile into INSTANCE profile.

We fully support this.

Regards,

Americo.

[Former Member]

It seems like everybody agrees that still having START profiles in 7.31 is still supported, that’s good to hear.

Not to beat a dead horse but I will anyway; I’m also hearing that SUM/SAPINST would merge the profiles depending on source and target release. We did two updates: 7.00 to 7.02 then a year later 7.02 to 7.31. Should one of those have merged them or are we in a standard state?

Thanks,

David

[attila_kovacs]

Dear David,

there was a problem with the upgrade tool, where the CI was not migrated correctly, only the app servers. This is the reason for the current state. I would not touch a running system, as it makes no problem, that you have this mixed setup. If you decide to merge the profiles, than you have to make aware, that the system use the new instance profile instead of the start profile.

Regards,

Attila

[former_member4224]

Hi,

This topic really causes confusion.

The start profiles where removes as from 7.10. But back again in 7.02 and removed as from 730.

The start profile is important to the sapstartsrv process. You should first check what is the profile running with the sapstartsrv process at OS level.

The syntax of the process should be

/path/to/sapstartsrv pf=<profile> -D

If this is already running with the instance profile, the start profile is not in use in your system.

Another way to check if you need or not the start profile is checking if the "Start_Program_XX" entries are defined into the instance profile (take a look at the start profile and make sure if the same entries are defined in the instance profile). If so, you can replace the start profile to use the instance profile in the "pf=" option of sapstartsrv.

It is much simpler do not use the start profile because you do not need to duplicate some parameters.

Regards,

Clebio