CU&UC from 4.6C to ECC6 Ehp7.

[former_member238984]

Good morning,

I am planning a CU&UC operation for a customer of mine.

- The source version is 4.6C NON UNICODE.
- The target version is ECC6 Ehp7 UNICODE

I am used to do this kind of project but from version 4.7, which is based on a 6.20 WAS.

The case of this message is specific to the CU&UC from 4.6C wich is quiet different, even if supported of course.

I can read, in the CU&UC guide for 4.6C to 7.40, that I have to create a copy of my production system and upgrade it at version 6.10 minimum.

This is named the "ABAP Preparation system".
This step seems to be necessary to achieve some Unicode conversion preparation steps (UCCHECK, RADNTLANG and customer codepage).

My questions hereunder :

- Is it really mandatory and isn’t there any other way to proceed ? I mean without a temporary upgraded system.
- What about the SPDD and SPAU steps in this temporary system ?

- Does it mean that my develoment team will have to make the SPDD/SPAU in this temproraty system and do it again in my "real upgrade" to ECC6 ?

- Does it mean that the developer team will have to adapt the obects to be unicode compliant two times ?

- What is the process in the project plan exactly for the other systems ? Quality and production...

- ...

Any points about this particular project will be appreciate... It's quiet urgent because the project general conception already started.

Many thanks to all.

Best regards,

Stephan

[former_member238984]

To Markus Doehr and Nils Buerckel if you read me please :

I saw on the following old topic http://scn.sap.com/thread/1226487, that the two of you said that it was not mandatory to use a temporary sandbox system.

In our case it seems very complex to use this temporary ABAP Preparation system… I think it’ a problem for every team in this kind of project…

So, are you sure that we can (it seems logic for me but I need to be sure) :

• Upgrade from SAP 4.6 C NUC to SAP ECC6 EHP7 NUC
• Then, do the Unicode conversion by SPUMG, export/import, SUMG; etc... (with my OS/DB Migration)

If yes, can I find somewhere a note which says it officially perhaps ?

Many thanks if you can help.

Best regards,

Stéphan

[alichtenau]

Hi Stéphan,

for sure you can do this approach and reach your target system state in two steps. Possibly this is not that complex as the CUUC approach starting on release 4.6c.

Is your system a single codepage system? In this case you do not have to be concerned about the supportability of this procedure.

Single Codepage Systems are supported up to basis release 740. If your system differs (MDMP, Blended Codepage) then you have to convert to Unicode first or reconfigure your system to a Single Codepage System (which results in possible data loss).

So you can do a normal system upgrade to EHP7 (Non-Unicode) and start a Single Codepage Conversion afterwards according to the guides attached to SAP note #1051576.

Best regards,
Andreas

[former_member238984]

Hi all,

I've sent an email to "globalization@sap.com" and I had an answer very quickly !

Thank you to Nils for this answer.

So, as I tought, there is no matter to do the CU&UC on the 4.6C system without having this temporary ABAP Preparation System.

This system would just be there not to stop the development system for a long time.

If you can stop your developmenet system as long as you want and adapt UNICODE in the target converted system, no problem.

The good way is just to get a dual maintenance landscape.

So, the CU&UC guide is not clear because all the steps are the same that those for other versions than 4.6C.

The only difference here is to anticipate the Unicode adaptation that you can not do in the source system.

Hope it's clear for all. If not, don't hesitate to ask for details. If I can answer, it would be my pleasure to help.

Best regards,

Stéphan

[alichtenau]

Totally agree with Nils.
Thanks for the detailed explanation Stéphan.

Have a nice week,
Andreas

[nils_buerckel]

Hi Stéphan,

let me explain the origin of the "ABAP preparation system".

When SAP released Unicode on SAP R/3 Enterprise, the standard conversion procedure assumed that the Unicode conversion has to be executed without any additional maintenance process like upgrade or EhP implementation. It was foreseen, that the ABAP enabling (80-90%) would be executed on the Non-Unicode system.

When CU&UC was released with source release 4.6C, SAP still assumed that the majority of the ABAP enabling is done on a Non-Unicode system. This means that customers need to create a system where it is possible to do UCCHECK (and this is exactly the ABAP preparation system).

However technically it is possible even on source releases >= WAS 6.20 to do a Unicode conversion without doing any adaptation in UCCHECK. Of course, the problematic ABAP objects will NOT work right after the conversion - customers need to adapt them on the Unicode system.

Due to this  and the fact that many customers do work with a maintenance landscape in an Upgrade(even without Unicode conversion), in a CU&UC scenario I would highly recommend to use such a maintenance landscape (instead of the ABAP preparation system) ...

Best regards,

Nils

[former_member238984]

Hi Nils,

That was perfectly clear.

But thanks again for this clarification.

Stéphan