Sybase ASE Understanding EBF

[william-paul_philibert]

Bonjour Community,

  I am DBA not so new to Sybase but new to maintaining the software.  I currently having an issue that should be fix by applying an EBF, the problem is, since I am looking at these EBFs I am having the worse headhache ever ... !

I am running Sybase ASE 15.7 Cluster Edition, Build 3556 (EBF 22865 Cluster Edition SP111 )

How am I suppose to understand EBF when I get this :

Patch level? What is it?

EBF number higher when the date is older?

EBF SP number is lower when the date is more recent?

Example :

EBF 22234: 15.7 SP121 - 64 Bit  (Last changed : 09.04.2014)

EBF 22832: 15.7 SP63 - 64 Bit (Last changed : 11.07.2014)

This is really confusing, should I install EBF based on the SP level or based on the date.

The bug I have requires SP121 and higher, will EBF 22779: 15.7 SP122 - 64 Bit (06.05.2014) include the fix I need or will EBF 22832: 15.7 SP63 - 64 Bit, which is much more recent, be the one I need?

I have been looking around to find a well built document that would explain what is the SP level, Patch level, ESD (now, what is an ESD?) but to no avail.

Could you please, help me understand all of this?

Best Regards,

William

[william-paul_philibert]

I thank you verry much for those complete and crystal clear answers, that will really help me and I am sure, many other who were also struggling to understand the patch and upgrade mechanism.

Best regards to you both!

[bart_van_kuijk]

Hi William

Mark beat me to it, but maybe this will help add something.

Bit of background :

The last ASE release that used the traditional Sybase versioning system was ASE 15.7 ESD 4.2. This codeline then continued under the new SAP versioning system and further patches on this codeline are using SPXX numbering (SP50, SP60, SP63 etc.).
Essentially SP50 can be seen as ESD5, SP60 as ESD6, SP63 as ESD6.3 etc. The purpose of SPXX was to allow customers who were on 15.7 ESDs already to remain on that code line for the time being.

Around the same time ESDs changed to SPs, SAP released ASE 15.7 SP100. This is a new codeline, with significant new features compared to the SPXX codeline. A lot of confusion could have been avoided if the major ASE had changed, for example to ASE 15.8 SP100. But that is hindsight now ....

What it means for you :

As you are on SP111, any releases in the SPXX line are not relevant to you and you should ignore SP63 and any further SPXX releases. For the SPXXX codeline, stating that your fix is in from SP121, you should go for the latest on your codeline : SP122 or SP130, which I believe is now visible for public download (or if not, will be very soon).

Kind regards

Bart van Kuijk
SAP AGS Product Support