Maintaining SAP Systems

The individual types of changes to the repository and the tools provided for making them are described in detail in the following sections of this lesson. This lesson does not cover changes to the runtime environment.

SAP provides the Change and Transport System (CTS) for software logistics (the propagation of changes from the development system to a test system and then to a production system). You can use it to transport both ABAP and non-ABAP applications.

ABAP CTS checks and controls changes to customizing and to repository data made using SAP Reference Implementation Guide (IMG) or the ABAP Workbench. It records changes in transport requests and transports them to subsequent systems after they are released. These transports are logged so that it is easy to trace which changes were imported to which SAP systems. The main building blocks of the CTS are the Transport Organizer (transaction SE09) and the Transport Management System (transaction STMS).

SAP NetWeaver Development Infrastructure (NWDI) and other non-ABAP development environments (for developing SAP Enterprise Portal content or – with the some restrictions – for transports on SAP Business Technology Platform, for example) can be integrated with the CTS.

Log on to an SAP S/4HANA Server system and start transaction STMS, and then take the screenshot.

In addition to the Change and Transport System, the SAP Solution Manager system offers Change Request Management, which enables central change tracking, supporting customers in making their system landscapes consistent and transparent.

This process makes it possible for you to manage your projects end-to-end in the SAP Solution Manager system: from change management and project planning to resource management and cost control, including the physical transport of changes from the development environment into the production environment.

There are many different reasons for SAP Notes. SAP Notes can provide information of any kind for customers and partners of SAP. However, they often also contain solutions for known problems with an SAP system. SAP Security Notes contain SAP recommendations for strengthening the security of SAP systems.

Always read an SAP Note carefully before you implement it. The SAP Note can contain prerequisites, interactions, and references to pre-processing and post-processing activities, such as making changes to a table, that you must consider when you implement it. By implementing an SAP Note, you can remove the error it refers to.

Implementing an SAP Note manually leads to high costs and is susceptible to errors, because necessary preparations may be overlooked or the person implementing the SAP Note may not realize that the SAP Note is not valid for their release.

SAP Note Assistant (transaction SNOTE) is a tool from SAP that enables the automatic implementation of SAP Notes. Automatic implementation of corrections contributes to enhanced quality, because it reduces errors due to manual implementation.

Whereas error corrections using SAP Notes are only available for ABAP-based software components and only affect individual programs or development objects, Support Packages always contain a large quantity of error corrections for a specific software component (at a specific release level). SAP Support Packages are available both for ABAP- and Java-based software components.

The increasing variety of components in a product version makes it necessary to improve the transparency of Support Packages and patches that are implemented and to set clear guidelines regarding recommended or allowed combinations. For this purpose, a SAP Support Package Stack is usually put together for most product versions every three to six months. These stacks contain the current best combination of SAP Support Package versions for the individual software components. This reduces the theoretical range of SAP Support Package combinations to those combinations that are useful in practice. SAP Support Package Stacks represent combinations of SAP Support Packages stipulated by SAP for the respective product version, and SAP recommends that you regularly import these into the SAP systems you are responsible for maintenance.

The tools used to import the SAP Support Packages depend on the type of SAP Support Package involved: SAP Support Packages for AS ABAP-based software components, for example, can be imported using the Support Package Manager (transaction SPAM). SAP Support Packages for AS Java-based software components are imported using the Software Update Manager (SUM).

Enter transaction SPAM in an AS ABAP-based SAP system and take the left screen shot

Get the latest Software Update Manager tool from SAP Support Portal at http://support.sap.com/sltoolset and copy it on operating system level of your SAP system.

Extract this file using SAPCAR. Then execute SUMSTART confighostagent <SID>, which configures the SAP Host Agent.

Open a browser and call http://﹤host name﹥:1128/lmsl/sumabap/﹤SID﹥/slui/ .

SAP Support Packages are available on the SAP Support Portal.

A release change of an SAP system (without changing the product) is – depending on the start and the target release – sometimes called SAP Enhancement Package installation and sometimes SAP system upgrade. The newer release changes are SAP system upgrades, always.

An upgrade is the change from an older software version to a newer version within the same product (such as SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA). This involves replacing all the repository objects supplied by SAP (programs, table definitions, and so on) and the runtime environment.

There are many different reasons to upgrade SAP systems, but they can be divided roughly into three areas. This is why we also differentiate between three different upgrade procedures:

• Technical upgrades focus solely on the required future compatibility of the existing SAP application. They upgrade the software to the latest version and the new functionalities that come with the new version are neither activated nor implemented.

• Functional upgrades involve limited functional enhancements and reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO), in which SAP modifications are returned to the standard version, for example.

• Strategic upgrades also include intra-enterprise structural change and implementing new strategic business processes as part of an SAP upgrade's project scope.

Depending on the type of upgrade, the associated upgrade project also has varying degrees of scope. SAP offers you tailored upgrade services, tools, and content that offer effective support for the major challenges involved in deciding on an upgrade and during the planning and execution of an upgrade project.

Once you have decided to implement SAP S/4HANA, your exact path to SAP S/4HANA depends on various factors. One of these factors is your current system landscape: For example, you might already be using SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA, you might be a new SAP customer, or you could already have a complex, organically grown SAP landscape that you want to simplify and transform. These three scenarios are shown in the figure "Migration to SAP S/4HANA".

• In the new implementation scenario (also known as "greenfield approach"), you are installing a new SAP S/4HANA system and migrating the data that you previously managed in a non-SAP solution.

• In the system conversion scenario (also known as brownfield approach), you already use SAP Business Suite on SAP HANA or on a different database and you are converting your existing SAP System to an SAP S/4HANA system.

• Finally, in the selective data transfer scenario (formerly known as landscape transformation), the requirements are more complex. You may want to use SAP S/4HANA server as your central financials system, for example, or move other selected applications to SAP S/4HANA. Or you might want to simplify your system landscape by consolidating different business systems in a new SAP S/4HANA server system.

For more information on these approaches, see the blog Options for your SAP S/4HANA Transition (https://community.sap.com/t5/enterprise-resource-planning-blogs-by-sap/options-for-your-sap-s-4hana-transition/ba-p/13464510)