Kernel Update

[Former Member]

Hi

As per the process of kernel upgrade we need to backup old kernel files in any file system. The following are the steps I got to update the kernel,

1. Take a backup of your old kernel.

2. Stop the server

3. uncar the SAP file using sapcar in the kernel directory

4. start the server

My questions are

1. Where are the kernel files for which I can take backup?

2. What is the kernel directory & where it is located?

3. Is any other steps I need to take before updating the kernel?

Regards,

Rajesh

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

A quick way to tell is run AL11 and look for the DIR_EXE_ROOT directory. This should point to a directory similar to this: F:\usr\sap\DEV\SYS\exe.

When updating the kernel on windows systems, first stop the SAP instance and then stop the SAP related programs running as Windows Services (saposcol being one). Then copy out the files from the directory above to a separate directory.

One thing to be careful of is the difference between the unicode and non-unicode systems.

Hope this helps.

Thanks,

Joe Haynes

Denver, CO US

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Joe,

Thanks for reply,

We are using non-unicode system.

Is there any other steps I need to follow before upgrade?

and how I restore the system if updation is failed? I mean Just recopy the exe directory or by means of any other mode.

Regards,

Rajesh.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Yes. If you upgrade the kernel (note that this will include both the base kernel programs and the database related programs) and the system fails to start up, then stop all SAP processes and copy back the old kernel files (I would recommended removing the kernel programs that failed to start before copying these back).

Thanks,

- Joe

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Joe,

Thanks for replay.

We have plan to update both the base kernel program & the database kernel program.

Also, if system fails to start up, I will copy the entire files of exe folder to the new file, but I am not understand the kernel program.

How I remove the kernel programs?

Thanks & Regards,

Rajesh

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Rajesh,

As said before, installation of the new kernel is only coping the new files into

the "kernel" directory. The kernel is a group of "exe" and "dll" files that sap uses for different purposes.

When you update the kernel, what you really do is just updating the files by coping the new one to the directory. That's all.

You don't need to remove your kernel for getting back to the old version, all you need is copy the backu files to and overwrite the new kernel you installed.

I hope it cleared it up.

Best regards,

Dimitry Haritonov

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks to all

[Former Member]

1. Where are the kernel files for which I can take backup?

You can take backup the entire ../exe directory

2. What is the kernel directory & where it is located?

/sapmnt/<sid>/exe ; if its unix

3. Is any other steps I need to take before updating the kernel?

What version of SAP you are using ?

Thanks

Pricne Jose

[Former Member]

We are using ECC 5.0 & OS is Windows server 2003.

Regards,

Rajesh