Old SAP kernel version compatibility issue with newer Solaris

[Former Member]

Hi,

We have an old small 2.2H SAP system ticking along. We've got plans to incorporate it into our main ECC6 system, but are not currently in a position to do so. However, we've started having significant hardware issues as its current old infrastructure is falling apart. So, as an interim solution, we're moving it to newer hardware which had become available.

To get us out of trouble, there's been a straight copy across to a V880 running SunOS 5.8 (which apparently is the earliest Solaris version it can run i.e. due to firmware compatibility). The 2.2H SAP system basically runs fine on the hardware (much faster actually), however, we're initially getting nasty messages that we'd like to avoid if at all possible.

The errors come about after a system bounce. ABAP runtime errors occur every minute saying START_CALL_SICK. Transaction SICK says: "OS release SunOS 5.8 Generic_Virtual sun4u is not supported with this kernel - Severe inconsistencies were detected - Don't use that system without fixing these problems !". The initial user trying to logon will hang, will messages like "Transaction termination SY002 (Inconsistency with data base)" and "error formatting terminal data". And they won't be able to leave the initial screen. However, logging on again seems to correct it, and all subsequent processing seems ok i.e. functional testing is all fine.

The SAP system is R/3 2.2H with a 21N SAP Kernel. Version compatibility on this kernel (from disp+work -V) states it's only compatible up to SunOS 5.5 i.e. the system is now on SunOS 5.8 which is not recognised by the kernel, which appears to be the source of all our errors.

My questions are:

- is anyone aware of a kernel version we could stick on which would be compatible with a 22H SAP system and SunOS 5.8?

- failing that, is there a way to trick the kernel into thinking SunOS 5.8 is ok e.g. a file or something?

- any other ideas?

Regards,

Tony McLaren

[Former Member]

This looked really promising, but we've been unable to get it to work in our enviornment. Tried setting the variable in a number of different ways and places, but uname always returned original settings, and we couldn't make the errors go away. Don't know if this is because we are running a Solaris 8 zone in a Solaris 10 container, or for some other reason. We're currently operating on fallback scenario of a bit more post processing after a bounce, and ignoring SICK errors. Otherwise system running fine. It would be nice for the errors to go away though ...

- Tony

[markus_doehr2]

Maybe you can try:

/thread/5074725

or

http://blogs.sun.com/chrisg/entry/faking_the_release_name

Since you´re running basically on 5.10 it should be possible.

Markus

[markus_doehr2]

What you can try also to "imitate" an older release:

% setenv SYSV3 "SunOS,SunOs,adm environment.

# uname -a
SunOS oldr3ora 5.9 Generic_122300-26 sun4u sparc SUNW,T2000

# export SYSV3="SunOS,SunOS,oldr3ora,5.5.1,Generic_Virtual,sun4u"

# uname -a
SunOS oldr3ora 5.5.1 Generic_Virtual sun4u

Markus

Edited by: Markus Döhr on May 21, 2008 12:52 PM

[markus_doehr2]

We have an old small 2.2H SAP system ticking along. We've got plans to incorporate it into our main ECC6 system, but are not currently in a position to do so. However, we've started having significant hardware issues as its current old infrastructure is falling apart. So, as an interim solution, we're moving it to newer hardware which had become available.

2.2H - that´s LONG ago... I vaguely remember having worked with that release... but long ago! Our UVERS_HIST show it up in 1996...

<...>

The SAP system is R/3 2.2H with a 21N SAP Kernel. Version compatibility on this kernel (from disp+work -V) states it's only compatible up to SunOS 5.5 i.e. the system is now on SunOS 5.8 which is not recognised by the kernel, which appears to be the source of all our errors.

- is anyone aware of a kernel version we could stick on which would be compatible with a 22H SAP system and SunOS 5.8?

Well - I doubt that someone is even able to BUILD a kernel on newer versions, 2.5.1 is LONG gone also...

- failing that, is there a way to trick the kernel into thinking SunOS 5.8 is ok e.g. a file or something?

Not like this but there is a way:

You can set up a Solaris 8 zone in a Solaris 10 container - means, you can install the latest and greatest Solaris 10 and make the Zone thing it runs Solaris 8:

http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/containers/features.jsp

This will enable you to use things like zones and ZFS (clustered, if you want it) and be backward compatible because uname et al will report Solaris 8.

Markus