Zero Downtime Option of SUM (ZDO) is “available on request”

With the new downtime-minimized upgrade procedure “Zero Downtime Option of SUM (ZDO)”, you can expect a downtime reduced to only one restart. Additionally, the ZDO procedure decreases the cool down duration.

After one year of performing ZDO upgrades in several customer pilot projects we are making the next step: With SUM 1.0 SP16 or higher, we are shipping ZDO of SUM on request (“available on request”).

How does “available on request work”?

The ZDO procedure is validated and in principle available with the latest SUM version. However, we still want to be in close contact with our customers to get feedback and also to see further improvements.

You can find the all the relevant information in SAP Note 2163060 “Prerequisites and Restrictions of Zero Downtime Option of SUM”. This SAP Note contains all prerequisites regarding start release, target release, minimum and DB release in order to verify whether ZDO is usable for your upgrade project or not.

This slide explains the high-level ZDO focus (status: January 2018):

Maybe you don’t use the enabled database or your product is not officially available for request, such as SAP Banking Services 9.0. In this case, you can still think about going with a pilot (project basis). With the pilot release you have a service and the SAP consultants / CoE support you to get the upgrade successfully done and that you are well prepared also for the next updates with ZDO. For further questions, please get in contact with your service contact or with me.

However, the most common products and databases are already “available on request”.

And after you have read SAP Note 2163060 “Prerequisites and Restrictions of Zero Downtime Option of SUM” and verified that your product, release, and DB is enabled for ZDO, you just start the quick procedure to get ZDO incl. support from SAP development.

Additional service support either from SAP Consulting or Premium Engagement is highly recommended for knowledge transfer, cookbook optimization, and support for productive upgrade.

Request to use Zero Downtime Option of SUM

For this, please follow the process described in SAP Note 2163060.

Conference call for final clarification

After first contact via the registration ticket, a conference call is helpful to share further details about the ZDO procedure or to answer your open questions.

Finally, you will get access to another SAP Note including all information about how to activate ZDO. It also contains the ZDO guide.

If you want to get additional support from SAP to speed up the learning curve or improve the cookbook steps, we will involve our experienced colleagues from SAP Consulting or Premium Engagement.

Preparation of ZDO Upgrade / Update / Customer Release

You can use ZDO of SUM for the following activities:

• Update / Upgrade (SP, EHP) of SAP
• Combined Upgrade / Update of SAP with customer transport requests
• Customer release only

In all cases you start with a sandbox test (copy of production system) to ramp up your knowledge, get first key indicator of the upcoming maintenance activity and finally analyse that ZDO does not harm your business.

When you start your project, you might still need support from SAP in case of issues. For related ZDO issues you can use the existing request message or create a new one and inform us. Because of “available on request” you get a special support.

After pre-clarified milestones, e.g. after Sandbox test, upgrade of quality system and production upgrade we will have a call. In this call we clarify open issues and also get feedback from you.

This overall way of cooperation has been proven with several other procedures and functions of SUM. And also for ZDO we think it is the logical next step and a win-win for you our customers and for the development department as well.

Do you want a deeper insight?

If you want to get further information about how ZDO works in detail and would like to be one of the pilot project participants in the next months, feel free to get in touch with me: Jens Fieger (Product Manager Downtime Minimization of Cloud & Lifecycle Management).

Additional information

• TechEd 2017 recording: S4H212 – Discover How to Leverage Zero Downtime for Your Upcoming Upgrade Project
• SAP Note 2163060 – Prerequisites and Restrictions of Zero Downtime Option of SUM
• SAP Note 2402270 – Export of Table Statistics for SUM Impact Analysis
• SAP Note 2471883 – SUM Impact Analysis for ZDO
• Blog post: Impact Analysis as part of Software Update Manager 2.0