Question about Note 2133079 SAP EHP/Upgrades on NW 7.02-based systems

[Former Member]

Good morning - We run our SAP systems on Oracle database, currently 11.2.0.4.

We are looking at upgrading to Oracle 12.1.0.2. I was reviewing Note 2133079  - Oracle Database 12c: Integration in SAP environment.

In the section labeled

"SAP Upgrade and Enhancement Package Update certification status with Oracle 12.1", it lists the following limitation:

If you use a NetWeaver 7.X based SAP product with Oracle version 12.1 you can only upgrade or update to  a SAP target release that is based on

NetWeaver 7.40 or higher. In other words, with Oracle version 12.1 SAP upgrades or Enhancement package Updates  are only supported to SAP

target release that run on NetWeaver 7.40 or higher. This will be a permanent requirement.

Does this mean that if we have a NW 7.02-based system, such as SAP GRC 10.0 or SAP Solution Manager 7.1, and we upgrade the database to Oracle12.1.0.2, we would no longer be able to use Software Update Manager(SUM) to apply support packages for the current release? This would

mean we have no choice but to upgrade GRC to 10.1 (which is NW 7.40-based), and for Solution Manager wait until possibly Solution Manager

7.2 (if that is still the next planned version)? This is what the note seems to imply.

Any clarification you guys could make on this?  We can't be the only ones in this boat!!

--NICK

[stefan_koehler · Accepted solution]

Hi Nick,

> Does this mean that if we have a NW 7.02-based system, such as SAP GRC 10.0 or SAP Solution Manager 7.1, and we upgrade the database to Oracle 12.1.0.2, we would no longer be able to use Software Update Manager(SUM) to apply support packages for the current release?

I think SAPnote #2133079 should a little bit more specific here, but you are talking about SPS updates and not SAP upgrades. SAP also differs this in this SAPnote.

SAPnote #2133079

The SAP Upgrade and Enhancement Package Update of SAP NetWeaver 7.X based systems with Oracle version 12.1 is supported by SAP from May 18th, 2015 on. Important technical details are provided in SAP notes 2039312 (SUM 1.0 SP13) and 2115547 (SUM 1.0 SP14).

Limitations:

If you use a NetWeaver 7.X based SAP product with Oracle version 12.1 you can only upgrade to a SAP target release that is based on NetWeaver 7.40 or higher.  In other words, with Oracle version 12.1 SAP upgrades are only supported to SAP target release that run on NetWeaver 7.40 or higher. This will be a permanent requirement.

So as you can see the restriction applies only to SAP upgrades (e.g. 7.0 to 7.4) and not to SPS updates (SPS 16 to SPS 19 or whatever).

Regards

Stefan

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hey Stefan,

Yeah, the way that reads, when I really read it, does make sense.  So like you and note say, as long as we're not doing an upgrade, when can use SUM to do SPS all we want on 7.x with Oracle 12.

Thanks

NICK

[former_member195979 · Accepted solution]

Nick,

I opened a customer incident with SAP to clarify this and was told a SPS would not be possible after upgrading to Oracle 12 without upgrading to NetWeaver 7.4. From my incident with SAP:

So the answer for:

Does this restriction from note 2133079 mean that Support Package Stacks cannot be applied to a 7.31 system that is on Oracle 12.1.

Is yes, and this will not change. You will need to upgrade to 7.40 as no SP will be successfully implemented in 7.3 or lower.

This definitely creates problems for systems like solution manager that do not support 7.4 yet.

John Heintzberger

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hey John,

Thanks for that clarification.  That's exactly what SAP told us when we opened an incident.

Yep, our worst fears have been realized.  This is really putting us in a bind.  I'm very surprised more people haven't commented on this.  The note is very sneaky and it is easy to miss.

I wish I knew if we could "technically" apply the SPS in case it's just a bluff to force our hand to go to NW7.40.  Yeah, Solman and GRC are our big problems.  We might just have to not upgrade those until we can get to a better place patch-wise.

Thanks again for your comments;

NICK

[former_member625450]

Hi Jagan,

i rewrote the text in note 2133079 to make it hopefully clearer. The issue is limited to Java and Dual stack systems only. In addtion only specific upgrades are affected. SPs and EHP updates are no problem. Here is the new wording:

"If Oracle 12c is used there exists a limitation for Upgrades of older versions of SAP NetWeaver Java or Dual Stack based SAP systems. Java and Dual Stack upgrades from NetWeaver versions 7.0x to 7.3x are not supported with Oracle version 12c. You need to upgrade those systems (NW 7.0x & NW 7.3x based ) at least to a NetWeaver version 7.40.

Pure SP or EHP updates for SAP systems based on those older NetWeaver releases are supported.

For pure SAP NetWeaver ABAP stack based systems no upgrade limitations apply."

Best regards,

Christian

[former_member257915]

Hi Christian,

Thanks for updating the note, all of my questions are clarified now.

Appreciate your support.

Regards,

Jagan

[former_member625450]

Hi Jagan, SPS updates do not use the shadow procedure therefore they generally are not critical. EHP updates usually do not use or require the shadow procedure as well. Here it depends on the concrete EHP upgrade step you plan. The shadow process helps to reduce downtime. If this is not the primary goal the EHP upgrade can usually also be done without shadow. In this case Oracle 12c is no problem. Best regards, Christian

[former_member257915]

Hi Christine,

Thanks for quick response.

For SPS and EHP upgrades using SUM, only shadow instance will not be created if we choose "Single System" option. But for "Standard and Advanced" options, shadow system will be created both in SPS and EHP upgrade, is my understanding is wrong?.

We can not use "Single system only" option due to large data base size.

Does this limitation apply to SPS and EHP upgrades of AS Java only systems?

Regards,

Jagan

[former_member625450]

Dear John, All,

the information you got from the SAP Primary support is wrong. With Oracle 12c you can do SP Stack updates and even Enhancement Package Updates. Only For classical SAP Upgrades the target release must be NW 7.40 based or higher. I removed the EHP update limitation in note 2133079 a few days ago.

I will contact the support colleague who provided the wrong answer to set this straight.

Best regards,

Christian Graf, Development Manager Oracle Platform, SAP AG

[stefan_koehler]

Lessons learned: Trust the SCN guys and not SAP support

[former_member257915]

Hi Christian,

I know this is old post, but would like to check with you since i could not able to find any other threads for the same issue.

Most of our SAP products are currently on below NW 7.40/Oracle11g, We are planning for Oracle 12 C upgrade and note#2133079 is ambiguous.Looks like we can not perform SPS and EHP updates using SUM if we are oracle 12c and SAP version is below NW 7.40, since shadow instance will be created for these updates as well.

Can you please clarify if my understanding is right?,  Does SAP released any bug fix to over come this limitation?

Appreciate your support.

Regards,

Jagan

[Former Member]

Hello Nick , really interesting question , but i can't see in this note something related to patch installation , there only mentioned update EHP release or Upgrade from one level to another.

Will wait answer from SAP employee , if any will answer.