Solution Manager 7.1 upgrade vs. fresh install

[paul_gloede]

Hello,

We are trying to decide if we should upgrade our current Solution Manager 7.0 Ehp 1 system to Solution Manager 7.1 or perform a fresh install.  Our current system is simply generating EWA reports for us on each system in our landscape.  We are not using Solution Manager for anything else.  We have attempted Central Monitoring as the Solution Manager as our CEN, but have not completed the configuration.  We recently upgraded our BW system to 7.3 and updated the kernel to all of our systems to 7.20EXT.  We have learned that CCMS functions differently with this latest kernel update.

I feel a fresh start in Solution Manager 7.1 is looking very appealing even if it includes performing the entire solman_setup/configuration.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks.

Paul Gloede

[Former Member]

Just fed up with solman, it's a nightmare at each new version.

The 7.1 is far the worst... LMDB + SMSY + SLD... and the great PPMS terminology
It is just insane!

You people @ SAP, you should sometime think that your customers cannot all afford having a dedicated team for managing solman... just in order to be able to perform an upgrade or apply SP.

At least you should provide some decent documentation

I'm just so happy with your very clear error messages such as:

The product instance that is assigned to the product system does not match the installed software components. Either the product instance is not assigned correctly or the installed software components are not conform to the SAP PPMS entries.

This is for a simple BI system, and I already spent (lost) a week reading all your absurd documentation!

Disgusting!

[Miguel_Ariño]

Some brief comments...

SP05 and later don't use SMSY (it is there but it does not provide data for the other solman apps).

The PPMS terminology makes references to three levels of objects:

   - product version

    - product instance

     - software component

The top level comprises elements of the levels below.

The error message you mention means that the product instance defined does not correspond to the software components installed in your system.  That is, product instance A encompasses software components X, Y, Z, but X, Y, Z are not installed in your system... hence the error message. The second part of the error message is... well, not too good. It is there for the 1% of cases that the other part does not cover, and could be better phrased.

Whereas the names could have been chosen better, I find it quite a logical attempt to bring unity and order to the modelling of a very large product portfolio, and I am sorry you find it 'disgusting'. Perhaps better explanations of PPMS (more documentation... is it a good idea?) are in order.

Best regards,

Miguel Ariño

[Former Member]

Hello Miguel Ariño,

Thank you very much for your kind answer.

My message was a little bit too rude, but I've been loosing so much time with solution manager for things I was able to perform faster before...

I understand Solman + Lmdb + Mopz are useful for complex configurations but when you are just upgrading a basic ECC or BW system is too much like a waste of time to me.

By the way on the system I'm trying to create a maintenance session for, I'm trapped by what could be a configuration mismatch.

This is a NW 70 BI system with BI content version 7.03 . Looking inside LMDB I've just found that this configuration seems to be impossible because BI_CONT 7.03 should run on top of NW 7.01.

My customer is willing to upgrade this system to 7.31, how could I get ride of that problem ?

The funny thing is that if I create an maintenance session for upgrading to only version 7.3 I do not get any error and I can go through the whole process and get my stack file.

I'm opening an OSS message for that point, but sometimes you get faster and more accurate answers from SCN.

Best regards

[Miguel_Ariño]

Hello Philippe,

There is no mismatch.

Netweaver 7.0 product instance Business Intelligence has got BI_CONT 7.03 as a possible alternative software component.

I look this up directly in the PPMS with an internal PPMS browser.

Best regards,

Miguel Ariño

[former_member205096]

Hello all,

Before you upgrade from v7.01 to v7.1, you need to assess your environment to see how many features you're actually using.  We use MOPZ & Earlywatch.  I did an analysis of my business & technical need and found that it is not worth upgrading to v7.1; instead I did 2 new installations of SolMan 7.1 and reimplement MOPZ & Earlywatch.

The installation of SolMan v7.1 was quite straightforward; however, implementing SPS4 was like HELL!  I was finally able to resolve problems after spending 2-3 weeks fixing errors. Then I waited for SolMan v7.1 SR1 SPS5 for my Production SolMan. SPS5 was much better than SPS4; however, hell started again when I ran SOLMAN_SETUP.

After about a month later, SOLMAN_SETUP is still not working. I have never seen so many RED in my life. I downloaded an SAP setup manual and found that the screenshot pictures also had lots of RED, which tells me that even SAP cannot resolve their own problems.

If you think SOLMAN_SETUP is difficult, upgrading from v7.01 to v7.1 will be even worse! I did it by myself because I don't have the fund to hire consultants.  Not sure what your business requirements are, but if you don't have to upgrade, I would suggest not moving to v7.1.

Dave

[paul_gloede]

Thanks for your insights everyone!  We are now more comfortable with going the fresh install route over the upgrade.

Paul

[prakhar_saxena]

Hi Paul

We have upgraded almost 7 -----Solman 7.1 upgrade from 7.0 and mainly the incident management and change request management functionalities are badly impacted or worst affected.

Reason technically their CRM interface is changed to Workcenter interface completely and this will impact all its users.

this means you need to train all the users again with this new change and thus a BIG change.

But,If you haven't configured any other functionalities or majorly above it doesn't matter if u install a new or upgrade.

Choice is urs..so choose as per your convenience.

My advice will be take into account the no of business users impact first.

Hope it helps.

Regards

Prakhar

[Miguel_Ariño]

Solution Manager 7 EHP1 also has a Work Center interface, so you can start working on the user's training before the upgrade.

Otherwise, functionally there are no big changes in Service Desk of Solution Manager 7.1

[Former Member]

I was in the very same situation. We've had Solution Manager for years, used just for generating installation keys and downloading support packs. I've played with a lot of the other functionality, but never very successfully, and I've left a bit of a mess behind now!

I've taken the opportunity of 7.1 to start again, throw away the mess I've created and go for a clean start. It sounds to me like the same approach would work better for you too, than trying to upgrade an existing but messy 7.0 system.

Steve.

[Former Member]

Hi,

If your solman 7.0 is only used for downloading patches, and ewa  then better or I could say best to switch fresh installation using latest Solmna 7.1 SR1 dvd which delivers your system up to date sp level 04 in single act.

but other way if you using Solman 7.0 for Charm and Service desk, SAP TAO , test workbench, customized monitoring, BpMon then you had to take risk to upgrade your 7.0 to 7.1 latest patch level, and also run the solman_setup again and all the post upgrade activity for charm, service desk config.

there are other things also you need to consider like deactivate some active set ups before you run  upgrade to 7.1 and you have to follow regular activity of upgrades like patching kernal, patching spam , saint .

All mentioned clearly in the upgrade guides under service.sap.com > software downloads > inst and upgrade guides > sap components > solution manager > release 7.1 > Upgrade.

But either or the way final out put you can enjoy all the functionlity with 7.1

Looking for some more ppl to share their view on this!!

Thanks

Jansi

[nicholas_chang]

Hi,

The effort of upgrading a solman is far more than installing a new solution manager 7.1. You need to perform solman_setup even after upgraded to solman 7.1 as well. For your scenarios, i would advise you to go for new installation, execute solman_setup and extra minor effort  is re-configured your product instance, logical component and solution for your EWA.

FYI, solman 7.1 has a very cool monitoring function compare to conventional ccms, which call technical monitoring. Perhaps you can study on this feature more.

Hope it helps,

Cheers,

Nicholas Chang