SAP GUI Installation Server (SAPSetup)

[martimmendes]

Hi guys,

    I need to implement this server to:

1. Uninstall old SAP GUI.
2. Install newer version of SAP GUI.
3. Update all workstations SAP GUI.

So the question is simple, How much time will you estimate to Install & Configure the Server? This includes, configuring the package to install/uninstall and do some tests with some workstations.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Best Regards.

[martimmendes · Accepted solution]

Hi Matt and Daniel,

    Your 6 step guide its pretty damn awesome Matt, i found it yesterday. What i was missing was the deployment time, i have never installed SAP GUI Installation Server, so i guess it will take a lot of my time. So, if i could separate activities in 5 phases, lets say:

a) Install SAP GUI Installation Server.

b) Create Package for uninstalling old SAP GUI.

c) Create Package for Installing new SAP GUI.

d) Scripting & Deploy uninstalling old SAP GUI.

e) Scripting & Deploy new SAP GUI installation & update.

How much time will you think i should assign to each of them? Customer has only around 100 workstations with SAP GUI.

Thanks for the tips Daniel!.

Sorry to ask so much questions

Best regards,

[Matt_Fraser · Accepted solution]

Thanks for the kind words!

For your steps b and d, uninstalling old SAPGUIs, I don't know that you need a specific package and script for it, although that is one approach. It depends in part on how old the current SAPGUIs you're upgrading are, and whether the current installations are "clean" enough to warrant upgrading in place, or whether you'd prefer to wipe them out and start fresh with a controlled environment. In my shop we had a little bit of both, with the majority of users running on SAPGUI 6.40 (yes, I know), a smaller group with SAPGUI 7.10, and a very small handful on SAPGUI 7.20.

The 7.10 and 7.20 GUIs required special handling, as they had been somewhat customized installs, whereas the 6.40 GUIs were pretty much all uniform. All of them would upgrade to 7.30 without any significant issue, but because the 7.10 and 7.20 GUIs had additional components under a different package name that we no longer used, those old components would continue to hang out there. So, I decided the best course was to upgrade the 6.40s in place, but ask the 7.10s and 7.20s to uninstall completely first and then do a fresh install of 7.30.

To achieve that uninstall, I wrote a VBscript that first ran the uninstaller for 7.10 and higher GUIs, then ran the uninstaller for 6.40 and older GUIs, then systematically removed the registry keys and folders left behind by the uninstallers. For Win7 clients, the script did require users to have local administrator rights, and so packaging it instead as a special 'uninstall' package in your Installation Server could be one way to get around that issue, if that is an issue for your customer.

For your time estimates, in b and c, do you include designing the package event scripts as part of "creating the package?" Fine-tuning those scripts is the most time-consuming part of the whole exercise. Creating the base package is very quick.

So, very seat of the pants, I'd guess something like:

a) 10 minutes

b) Depends on complexity of existing environment; if you need to deal with many variables, this could be a day or so

c) Package itself: 5 minutes. Scripts for package: a day or so (but you can save time by adapting the ones in my blog series)

d) & e) This can be one step. 100 GUIs? You could just about manually handle this in 1-2 days. I would, however, email everyone a link to an installer script and let them self-upgrade. Again, I wrote a VBscript to do things like check for OS type, to stop any running SAPGUI or SAP Logon processes, and then launch the installer with the appropriate switches. So, 1-2 days to tune the scripts, then after that it depends on how quickly the users respond to the request to run the upgrade (it runs in just a minute or two for them).

I guess the hard part for estimating this, for me, is that I'm not coming at it from a consulting angle, so I'm not making commitments to a customer for how many billable hours will be involved. I'm an embedded resource here, as the system administrator, which is not to say my time isn't valuable, but no one is going to dispute an invoice about it. So, I had the luxury of taking the time I needed to get it all right, but I also had the inconvenience of production support and other projects at the same time, so it wasn't a linear process.

Regards,

Matt

[martimmendes]

Hi Matt,

Thank you very much for the insight, it was really helpful.

Best regards.

Martim.

[Matt_Fraser]

You're welcome!

[Former Member]

Hi Martim,

Matt made some good recommendations.   You can run NwUpdateInstServer.exe to apply newer release of SAP front end components.  This exe will bring up a Wizard to guide you through the process.  Depending on how many desktops you need to update and if Automated Desktop  Update feature was previously deployed will determine your deployment time.  You will find a file called wkstaupdater.cfg on each work station.

Your network guys will want you to throttle your deployment.  Updating 20,000 PC's in mass could bring down some networks..   It's best to use something like SMS and deploy to unique subnets.  I have used a wrapper to incorporate some user informational pop-ups to keep help desk calls down.

cheers,

Dan Mead

[Matt_Fraser]

Hi Martim,

If you are familiar with setting up SAPGUI Installation Servers, not much time. However, if you're doing it for the first time, you will need to plan on some time for troubleshooting your scripts and getting them just right, and also for pushing out the install. With basically just the manuals to guide me, and also with a wide variety of starting scenarios to plan for, I spent quite a lot of time on this -- easily a couple months (with other production support tasks as well). However, I think I can save you quite a bit of that, as I detailed exactly what I did in a series of documents, the first of which you can find at .

Hopefully you'll find that helpful.

Best regards,

Matt