n-1 for SAP Solution Manager (??)

[former_member184695]

Hi Friends,

I was going through a document which overviews New Enhancements with SAP Solution Manager 7.1 SP10 for ITSM, While compared to SP05 there is much more; which has come.

So far, I am under impression that while reccomending a SAP product (New Installation or upgrade) to customer an ideal situation is reccomend a product with SP Level (n-1) e.g. If fresh SolMan 7.1 needed; install SolMan 7.1 SP09 (If SP10 is latest available i.e. to keep up with n-1). Similarly for upgrade if having 7.0 ehp1, upgrade it to SolMan 7.1 SP09 (If SP10 is latest available i.e. to keep up with n-1).

However I felt strongly not for all other SAP Products but for SAP Solution Manager when compared 7.1 SP05 (even SP08) to SP10 this will not work. When it comes to reccomending SolMan 7.1, SP10 directly needed to be reccomended. Below example is one reason encouraging enough the thought process which i have while writing how n-1 is not making sense.

In Change Request Management :

SolMan 7.1 SP10 introduces Enhanced Approval Management & Substitution Feature (and many other things as well) e.g. There will be additional security and authorizations check when an approver is doing approvals, in short only authorized approvers will be able to approve changes, not anyone else.

Now, This is not available in SolMan 7.1 SP05 (By roles and authorizations can be controlled however remains manual task to be done) as the standard delivery as like SP10 mentioned above, Also I did not come across any other documentation which suggests that it is available in Sp08 or SP09.

Thus in my opinion when comes to SolMan 7.1 instead thinking of (n-1) reccomending a latest available SP level for available release is rather appropriate.

Please comment if you think differently or to put some light on the other side i.e. (n-1)

Thanks & Regards,

Rupesh

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Rupesh,

Better go for SP10 it is having lot of new feature in all aspect.

check the below discussion

Also check the http://service.sap.com/rkt-solman

https://websmp202.sap-ag.de/~iron/fm/011000358700000704382013E/012002523100007537072013WRK2?TMP=1389...

SP11 will release on March 2nd week check the link for SAP Support Package Stacks Maintenance Schedule

https://websmp210.sap-ag.de/~form/sapnet?

_FRAME=CONTAINER&_OBJECT=011000358700000294692004

Rg,

Karthik

[raguraman_c]

Hello Rupesh,

My take is go for the latest.

1. Any bugs you may face in Latest will not be disruptive to your productive systems.

2. Latest has loads of functionalities.

3. SDN is there to help you out if you face any issues

Having said all these. Go through the Release information to see if latest will help in your scenario.

Feel Free to revert.

-=-Ragu

[prakhar_saxena]

Hi Rupesh,

this is nothing new but very similar to a case with EhP version for ERP where a customer always thinks should I go for EHP6 OR EHp5 now and later EhP6 etc

Answer is always the suit your need but with stability and thats why N-1 is more preferred

If there is any functionality which customer wants to go for and not available in current release...Upgrade to that level is the only Solution but there will be lot of bugs you might find out and infact delay your implementation as well and in the mean time SP11 will be out with fixing of these bugs

Solution Manager 7.1 doesn't have EhP but have FP in the SPs itself so a bit confusing but the concept is same.

If you are a bit worried and want to be on N-1 and not want SP10 immediately as per N-1

check if customer can wait for new functionality for few months like till SP11 will be launched and then perform upgrade

I hope above helps

Regards

Prakhar

[Former Member]

Hi,

Upgrade solman to Latest release or N-1 release level is purely depends on customer requirement, it vary case to case.

Any new product, at least for two year we used to get sp releases most frequently, whereas the stable products, SP released twice a year. the first case with solution manager, if you want to have all the latest improvements and your clients release strategy fits then you can proceed with SP10.

There are some clients, where they had a clear bench mark as go for N-1 level, you cant break it, stick to n-1. in solman its cases for SP8. check out new in sp8 here Changes and New Features in SAP Solution Manager 7.1 SP08 - SAP Documentation

The best practice always to plan your  upgrade cycle based on maintenance cycle calendar in SMP (above shared by Karthik) align with your upgrade cycles.

Please check.

Thanks

Jansi

[Former Member]

i would create a poll to gather opinion on a topic rather than a question?