Maintenance Optimizer = Unnecessary Overhead

[Former Member]

Who in the world came up with an idea to make it mandatory to use Maintenance Optimizer for SAP patches? There's no real value in this tool except additional bureaucracy. We still have to download support packages & import them manually. So where's the benefit?

First, we are now forced to spend a week to patch Solution Manager to the required level (although we could safely ignore it until now - we don't use Solution Manager). And then the support package with the Maintenance Optimizer included appears to be buggy and counterintuitive to configure (including the latest one - Level 11)

Maintenance Optimizer is making our life more difficult, not easier. It was clear and simple to download the support packages one-by-one - only what we need. So why to take out a working, trusted and efficient mechanism?

Just expressing my serious disappointment. Make the Maintenance Optimizer optional, not mandatory - hope someone from SAP will read it.

[Former Member]

Hi Marek,

you're right, the maintenance optimizer (at least in this state) is overhead and has no benefit for the customer. Also, I don't like the download manager, because it downloads all packages to the same folder, so when I've downloaded a lot of packages I've to find out again by name what each file contains. At the moment I use the maintenance optimizer just to confirm the files in the download basket, I don't go through the whole process (so I only have to use one "open" maintenance transaction and I can use it every time). I think the step that SAP made was way too fast, I've never heard of that tool before the announcement that it will be necessary soon. It's too complicated, buggy and useless in this state...I don't think that SAP showed this to any customer before, sometimes it seems they lose reality.

Regards,

Pascal

[Former Member]

Hi All,

Please have a look at this link.

http://www.asug.com/portals/0/video/SolMgr_Maintenance_Optimizer_Accordant/content/index.htm

Regards,

SS

[markus_doehr2]

Nice video

But get back to reality: If you have a single system where you use that, it´s nifty and nice, especially when you´re very new to SAP products and you never dealt with patches before. But as a long term customer (10+ years) we KNOW what we need, we know where to get it it´s additional work, additional maintenance, additional unintuitive setup etc.

It starts with SMSY getting overwritten each time you download data from SLD and goes further with the inability to download support packages for systems you´re upgrading to and thus are not yet in SMSY and finishes not with downloading business partners from external system becoming duplicated if they exist in more than one system.

I opened many OSS calls in the past and they are, at least partially, addressed but until this product will be really good and productive for daily use, you will need to wait for another year or more (in my opinion).

And for your information: I was told that also SAP internally people need to use MO to download SPs, it´s not just the customers, maybe that is also one reason why message processing in certain components takes so long...

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Markus

[estoddard]

Hello All:

Just to give an update, soon the Maintenance Optimizer will 1) no longer need the Download Manager at all, and 2) be able to deploy patches to the satellite systems in the same manner as transports. This function is being released in stages - the first in SP09. I agree that, in the current form, you don't realize the full benefit, but as the remaining functions are available it will greatly simplify patch deployment. You can also use it to track and control who is downloading patches and track the approval process using Change Request messages.

[markus_doehr2]

Interesting, thank you for the update.

Though I call something like that "vaporware", one shouldn't tell customers all those nice benefits as of NOW in the powerpoint presentations if they are not yet exisiting and are still in early stage of development and will be delivered at "some point" in "some support package"...

I really wonder what technical nightmare setup will be necessary to deploy Java support packages via JSPM initiated through a Solution Manager GUI login...

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Markus

[Former Member]

Hi Evan,

thanks for the infos. I believe that this tools will be a benefit in the future, but to make it required for customers to use it's definitely too early.

Regards,

Pascal

[Former Member]

I totally agree, it'll be just one more step in the chain of what can fail. You can do nice marketing presentations, but don't show the technical background...Solman calls JSPM, JSPM calls SDM, and everything nicely integrated into NWDI and CTS+ with Change management?

Regards,

Pascal

[Former Member]

Hello Markus,

You had mentioned about the inability of Maintenance Optimizer to download support packages for systems you are upgrading to and are not yet in SMSY.

We will be upgrading from SCM 4.1 to SCM 5.0 SR2, and I was going to download the latest Support Package Stacks to include in the upgrade process, but noticed that I am only allowed to select 4.1 as the product version in Maintanence Optimizer. That is our existing SCM release, but I need the patches for SCM 5.0.

Is there a workaround for this? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Cheryl Hellestad

[markus_doehr2]

Go manually to http://service.sap.com/patches and select all you need there and put them in your download basket.

Next start the MO and use the 4.0 system and step forward until you reach "confirm" - you will see all support packages your previously selected and you can confirm. After that you can cancel the maintenance task alltogether and download either directly from your download basked or use the Download Manager.

You need the MO task JUST for confirming them, to select them and put them in your Download basked, nothing is necessary.

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Markus

[Former Member]

Thanks, Markus! I will give that a try!

Kind regards,

Cheryl Hellestad

[Former Member]

Hello Markus,

Your instructions worked for downloading patches for a new release that isn't set up in SMSY. Many thanks!

Cheryl

[markus_doehr2]

Great to hear it worked

BTW: I use the SolMan like this all the time, I don't create those maintenance tasks, I step forward until "confirm" and then cancel the whole process.

The other possibility is to create the system manually in SMSY, if your support package level is high enough, you will get the components and you can "jump" straight to the wanted patches. However, after the upgrade is finished you need to delete the system again if you fetch your component versions from the SLD.

Strange, isn't it?

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Markus

[Former Member]

I have to agree. Solution Manager is absolutely hopeless. SAP can't even configure it themselves. We got someone in from SAP and he couldn't work out how to configure it, so he dialled in to SAP's own system, which is not configured correctly!

I'm trying to find any documentation on configuring the Maintenance Optimizer for SM 3.2...

[markus_doehr2]

Hi Marek (and all others),

I've said and communicated that in the past also - here, in the OSS, to the sales reps (they even didn't know it's mandatory as of 2nd of April), to the "complaint management", on official SAP events, in the DSAG et al - no luck whatsoever, everybody is totally convinced, that THIS tool, which is even more complex than everything we have in our company, is THE solution for EVERY problem. The main problem is in my eyes, that the SolMan is the biggest problem itself. The IDEA is not generally bad, but the implementation is unfinished, overly complex, non-intuitive and lacks a consistent setup and "view". In my eyes it's just a conglomerate of transactions put together in "some form" without a real thread.

Criticism and customer input IS being heard here and things became "easier" already but the fact, that customers are URGED to implement SolMan, no matter if they have already another ticket system, monitoring infrastructure, implementation tools, project management etc. is the wrong way, it's pure pretentiousness. And even if you don't use anything of those nice features, it's WAY too bloated to just download SPs.

And you still don't need SolMan to download - you can still select them one-by-one without everything, you just have to download from the download basket instead of direct clicking on a link in the browser, that's the only change so far and I'm VERY happy with that.

Don't expect some official person from SAP stating on this here, that decision was made at management level @ SAP and I'm sure that SAP internally there are many people thinking the same way but via customers the strategy must be consistently communicated and thus nobody from SAP here will say anything against it, even if they think likewise.

I still have hopes, that, after Agassi is gone and Plattner is back (well, at least a bit), winds will change again back to business, back to quality and back to less intrusive and less presumptuous customer interaction.

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Markus