Non unicode - unicode instance problem

[ruben_romo3]

Hi experts,

I installed a new SAP ECC 6 Unicode and I have an ECC 6 non-unicode system. Now I want to update my
new system DB taking the DB from the old system but I got some problems because of the data type. Is it possible to do this?

The way I want to do it is using a backup-restore, in fact the restore process finished ok but my SAP instance does not start.

By the way this is my plattform:

New installed system                Old system        

  SAP ECC 6 Unicode              SAP ECC 6 Non-Unicode

  MSQL 2008                            MSQL 2005

  Windows 2008 server            Windows 2003 server

I’ve read some post and notes but anything seems to work for me.

Any idea or suggestion will be appreciated,

Ruben

[sunny_pahuja2 · Accepted solution]

You cannot do backup/restore from non-unicode system to unicode. You have to perform Unicode Migration using Export/Import method.

Thanks

Sunny

[former_member188883]

Hi Ruben,

Normal backup restore mechanism will not work here due to different database codepage.

As suggested above refer the unicode conversion guide for your SAP release.

Perform pre-unicode conversion checks, perform db export and import it into target system

Doing export/import you can avoid the steps for OS and DB upgrade.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Deepak Kori

[ruben_romo3]

I want to thank all of you guys, Sunny, Graham, Susan, Benjamin and Deepak, all your answers were helpful and finally we decided to go for export/import method.

Thanks again for your time and quick response,

Ruben

[Reagan]

Hello

All new installations are done in unicode.

As you have an existing system which is a non-unicode system you cannot copy the existing system to the new system because of the unicode condition.

But if you want to switch the existing system to the new SAP system you have two options.

1 - Restore the database of the existing one to the new SAP system. Then like Susan mentioned you need to replace all the unicode kernel files with the non-unicode ones on the target system.

2 - If you want to keep the new SAP system as a unicode one and with the copy of the existing system then you need to perform unicode conversion.

Also I see that there is a change in the database version.

MSQL 2005 (existing) MSQL 2008 (new)

You might need to perform an upgrade of the database after the restore (just guessing as I dont know how MSSQL works)

Regards

RB

[Former Member]

You can make it work, if you have an ABAP only system, but you will have to convert your new system to non-unicode first:

1. Determine the current kernel version of your (Unicode) kernel:  Open the SAP MMC console on the server, right-click on your system and select "Version info".
2. Download the non-unicode kernel of the same version with the same or higher patch level.
3. Your system's Unicode kernel is stored in <drive>\usr\sap\<SID>\SYS\exe\uc\<hardwareKey>.  Create folder <drive>\usr\sap\<SID>\SYS\exe\nuc\<hardwareKey> and unpack the kernel archives from step 2 to this folder.
4. Shut down your system including all services, then copy the non-unicode kernel from step 3 to all <drive>\usr\sap\<SID>\<Instance>\exe folders of your system.  (In a test system, there is typically just one.)  Make sure to replace the entire folder content, so there are no Unicode binaries left.
5. Edit all start profiles of your system and replace the uc folder from step 3 with the nuc folder.  (If you forget this, then sapcpe will copy the Unicode kernel right back.)  Double check all other profiles, to make sure they don't contain the uc folder, just in case!
6. Restart all services.  Your instances should now come up.

If you still get errors, please attach the log files.

[Former Member]

Hi Ruben

Try this note as a start point:

https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/548016

My gut feeling is that you need an export/import of the db rather than backup / restore.  It's the storage of the data that changes, not merely the kernel, and it's the export that does the conversion for you.

Regards,

Graham

[sunny_pahuja2]

It is not only the export that do the conversion there lot of other steps as well that are required for unicode conversion. Please refer to unicode conversion guide.

Thanks

Sunny