SAP Enhancement Package Installer (SAPehpi) is the standard tool to implement ”SAP enhancement packages”. It performs the main installation activities and installs SAP enhancement packages for SAP Business Suite applications (including EHP4 or EHP5 for SAP ERP, EHP1 for SAP CRM, EHP1 for SAP SRM, EHP1 for SAP SCM) and SAP enhancement packages for the technology platform SAP NetWeaver 7.0 (and above). SAP Enhancement Package Installer uses SAP’s proven technology of the “system switch procedure” to minimize the downtime and the risks during the installation process.
Since end of October 2010 a new version of SAP Enhancement Package Installer is general available for customers via SAP Service Marketplace for enhancement package installations in SAP systems based on SAP NetWeaver 7.0x.
The new version of SAPehpi contains new features and improvements regarding
- Manageability and usability such as observer mode, alerting functionality and GUI reconnect
- Stability and robustness such as consistency check of stack xml file in an earlier phase
- Possibility to apply pure Support Package Stacks for ABAP and Dual-Stack systems. A downtime minimized and risk mitigation approach to apply a large number of SAP Support Packages.
Besides that we achieved a significant reduction of the runtime and downtime
- Runtime reduction: Through an improved system cloning procedure, health check functionality and parallelization of several time consuming processes (e.g. update statistics or shadow import)
- Downtime reduction: Through improved After Import Methods and the parallelization of the external table conversion.
Advantages and capabilities of the new tool version
The SAP Enhancement Package Installer tool version for the Innovations 2010 of the SAP Business Suite applications helps to implement SAP enhancement packages in a smoother way. Many improvements were done to increase the tool performance and its usability. Beside that the overall manageability and automation level of the enhancement installation process got enhanced. Explicitly to mention here are the following new features of SAP Enhancement Package Installer:
- Improved system cloning procedure: The system cloning is now accomplished faster and with less free space needed. The parallelization of the system cloning was completely revised to improve performance and can now be easily controlled. If possible, only client 000 is copied to the shadow table. This option significantly reduces the amount of data to be copied and thus the runtime of the cloning and additional space requirements on the database.
- Observer mode: To enable additional authorized people to have read-only access to the installer the new role “Observer” – besides the role “Administrator” – is available. If necessary the “Observer” can take over the control to proceed with the installation procedure.
- Alerting functionality: Enable authorized people to get informed via SMS or e-mail as soon as user action is required by the tool, e.g. if a new dialog screen or an error message appears the administrators need to be informed via altering mechanism.
- GUI Reconnect: The user interface (UI) of the SAPehpi automatically reconnects to the “SL controller” without the need to restart the “SL controller”. This is necessary if the connection between the SAPehpi UI and “SL controller” was broken.
- Automatic deployment of newer SPAM version: The Solution Manager Maintenance Optimizer (MOPZ) allows the download of the newest SPAM version (SAP’s Support Package Manager). If there is a new spam version available in the download area SAPehpi will automatically deploy this newer SPAM version.
- Add-On Handling: The Solution Manager Maintenance Optimizer (MOPZ) supports the installation, maintenance and upgrade of SAP Add-On product versions (short: Add-On PV) based on SAP NetWeaver 7.0 EHP2 and newer as target product version: Maintenance Optimizer recognizes which Add-On PVs are installed on the source system and offers a list of Add-On PVs which are installable on the target system. The chosen Add-On PVs are part of the calculated MOPZ stack XML-file and included in the download files. If there are Add-On PVs in the XML-file included and the corresponding software archives available in the download area SAPehpi will automatically deploy these Add-On PVs without additional manual work in SAPehpi.
- Consistency check of MOPZ stack xml-file in an early SAPehpi phase: The consistency check of the MOPZ stack xml-file is now done in an earlier phase, i.e. during the roadmap step “Extraction”.
Implementing SAP enhancement packages with SAP Enhancement Package Installer
The following use cases of enhancement package installations are supported by the new version of the SAP Enhancement Package Installer (version 7.00):
- Installation of SAP enhancement package 1 or 2 for SAP NetWeaver 7.0
- Installation of SAP enhancement package 4 or 5 for SAP ERP 6.0
- Installation of SAP enhancement package 1 for SAP CRM 7.0
- Installation of SAP enhancement package 1 for SAP SRM 7.0
- Installation of SAP enhancement package 1 for SAP SCM 7.0
Remarks:
- With the release of the new SAPehpi version 7.00 for Innovations 2010 of the SAP Business Suite also customers will benefit from many increased capabilities of the tool when implementing SAP enhancement package 4 for SAP ERP 6.0 and SAP enhancement package 1 or 2 for SAP NetWeaver 7.0.
- For enhancement package installations on SAP NetWeaver Process Integration 7.1 or SAP NetWeaver Mobile 7.1 the tool version 7.10 of SAP Enhancement Package Installer has to be used instead. The tool version 7.10 is older than the current tool version 7.00 of SAP Enhancement Package installer 7.00.
Implementing Support Packages with SAP Enhancement Package Installer
The current version of SAP Enhancement Package Installer supports the installation of pure SAP support package stacks for ABAP-only and now as a new option for dual stack systems based on SAP NetWeaver 7.0. Using the SAPehpi for SP stack implementation provides a downtime minimized and risk mitigation approach to apply a large number of SAP Support Packages.
Quick facts about support package installations using SAPehpi:
- You can use your system in productive mode until the point where the SAP Enhancement Package Installer switches between your original repository and your shadow repository. That means a long uptime processing plus significantly shorter downtime.
- You have the possibility to reset the installation procedure at any point in time before this repository switch take place.
- The "point of no return" of the installation procedure via SAPehpi is reached significantly later than via transaction SPAM/SAINT.
- Dual stack systems have a synchronized installation procedure with SAPehpi compared to the separate and sequential installation with SPAM/JSPM.
Remarks:
- With the current SAPehpi version the support package installation for the following SAP NetWeaver 7.0x based dual stack systems got introduced: Process Integration (PI) based on SAP NetWeaver 7.0 , Process Integration (PI) based on SAP NetWeaver 7.0 EHP1 and SAP Solution Manager 7.0 EHP 1. Further products based on SAP NetWeaver 7.0x can be enabled on request.
- In case of applying pure support packages to Java-only systems use JSPM tool.
- SAPehpi would not make any difference in the installation procedure compared to JSPM for pure Java systems.
How to get the new version of SAP enhancement package installer?
The new executable is available in the SAP Service Marketplace on the SAP Software Download Center following the path (login to https://service.sap.com/swdc required): "Support Packages and Patches" - "Browse our Download Catalog" - "Additional Components" - "Upgrade Tools" - "SAP EHP INSTALLER" - "SAP EHP INSTALLER 7.00". Or using the following link you will directly access this side: SAP EHP INSTALLER 7.00 (login to SAP Service Marketplace also required).
Additional information
- You can find the tool documentation in the SAP enhancement package installer (SAPehpi) guides.
- Further information about the new version can be found in the central note for enhancement package installations on SAP systems that are based on SAP NetWeaver 7.0: SAP note 1302772.
- General information about the SAP enhancement package installer is available at SDN and published The specified item was not found..
