SAP BO 4.1 upgrade to 4.3

[lemarqo]

Is it possible to upgrade BO 4.1 directly to 4.3? Meaning without having to upgrade first to 4.2 and then to 4.3.

That is a concern prior to upgrading 4.1.systems and go with the latest release and SP.

As far as I understand the SAP upgrade path concerning BO there is an option to setup a new BO 4.3 installation and promote the data of the old system to the new 4.3.

Can anyone shed some light on that?

Thanks,

Mark

[denis_konovalov]

As previously said - yes, direct upgrade is possible, provided your OS is compatible with BI 4.3

However, in all scenarios, it is better and safer to install 4.3 on a new system and then move content from old system to it with Promotion management wizard or LCM CLI.

[lemarqo]

Thanks a lot, Denis. That would be my preferred choice as well and that is what I proposed to the client initially but they came back with the answer that is not possible. I may not have the full picture yet as to why...

Does the Promotion Tool works in 4.3 in case of the source is 4.1?

[denis_konovalov]

All current promotion tools will work for 4.1 to 4.3 promotions, as long as you use 4.3 versions of them.

When client says its impossible its because they haven't considered consequences of their decisions.
Do they want to have their prod env down for considerable amount of time ?
Does their current env uses OS that is compatible to 4.3 or are they planning upgrade of that too ?
Does the CMS DB hosting DB they use compatible with 4.3 or are they upgrading that as well ?

In my experience, unless the 4.1 env is very vanilla and never had any issues with installs/upgrades, it never goes smoothly.
Building 4.3 on new servers and then moving content is safest and most consistent and least impactful to daily operations way to do this.

[lemarqo]

Current setup is Windows + MS SQL and it is gonna be a DC migration as well and the new vendor will want to move from windows to Linux. But having looked at the supported platforms and their combinations I don't see anything they currently use in Windows would not be supported on Linux. However the DB is likely either be MySQL or Sybase (I don't have it confirmed).

Do you happen to know if the available promotion tools support moving the content of BO between different DB management systems?

[denis_konovalov]

what version of windows and SQlL server makes all the difference

Db systems are irrelevant when moving content using promotion tools.

I don't see how based on your description in-place upgrade even makes any sense.

They need to move OS's and move DB's. None of that is inplace upgradable.

They need to install 4.3 on linux using whatever DB they want for CMS DB (except SQL Server as its not supported for CMS DB when product is on Linux) and then move content.
They will need to ensure their reporting DB connectivity works on Linux first.

[lemarqo]

I have a little more on that. The primary argument was that that they don't intend to migrate a system which is not supported anymore and not even possible to download the software anymore.... I don't really agree as you have to have options to upgrade your system and move to a release that is in mainstream maintenance.

Plus they have cost constraints although I have no idea how upgrading first the old 4.1 and then move over to another DC with OS/DB migration would ensure less costs than installing a Bo 4.3 and just promote the content (without having to touch the old 4.1 BO system).

I also got an argument that it is not possible to upgrade directly from 4.1 to 4.3 (they have experience upgrading from 4.2 to 4.3 only), however all info I search for and the info I received from you and others leads me to say that it is very feasible.

[denis_konovalov]

weird.
1. They don't intend to migrate old system, but that is exactly what their current plan means.
2. it would cost less to build new systems, then move content than what they are planning now. they do not account for men hours.
3. it is possible to do direct 4.1 to 4.3 but there are so many things that could go wrong and delay readiness, its not even funny to consider it. Just reading list of whats new and changed in 4.3 vs 4.1 should give a pause to anyone planning to go that route.

[lemarqo]

obviously there are pros and cons. Despite the fact that so many things could go wrong would that still be a recommendation to install a new Bo4.3 and move the content of the old 4.1 versus upgrading first the 4.1 to 4.2 and then move the data from 4.2 to 4.3?

[denis_konovalov]

4.2 in the middle is absolutly not needed.

[lemarqo]

I'd like to agree with you however one of the arguments here is still the fact that 4.1 is not supported anymore and they would not want to migrate from a system which is not supported anymore.

[denis_konovalov]

well, what is their choice then ?
because if they want to move to 4.2 first -- that is also "migration from system that is not supported anymore".
And move to 4.2 is essentially same as to 4.3, with similar dangers.
And if they do 4.1 to 4.2 and then 4.2 to 4.3 - they just doubled the possible failure points and time it will take.

[ayman_salem]

yes You can upgrade directly from 4.1 to 4.3, either by upgrading the existing system or by installing a new system with 4.3 and importing the data from the old system. (what I recommend)

[EricFenollosa]

Hi Mark,

You can directly update from any 4.1 version to 4.3.

This page might be useful.

Regards,

Eric

[lemarqo]

Hi Eric,

thanks. that is exactly the page and info I was referring to above. Based on that I don't see why it would not be possible and I don't get it why the client and their "soon to be vendor" say it is not possible.

The chart is fairly clear and based on that any BO 4.x can be upgraded straight to BO 4.3 (using either in-place or side-by-side upgrade method).

Any constraints that should be different in case of the sources would 4.1 vs 4.2?

Thanks a lot,

Mark

[michael_jennings]

Dear All,

is there any KB or Best Practices article with the instruction regarding "How to do the In-Place installation" ?

Any help is appreciated.

Best regards,