The challenge:
An SAP system , ECC 6.0 SPS11 running on Windows Server 2003 (!) with SQL 2005
The goal:
Get the system running on Windows 2012 R2 with SQL 2012
The time frame:
One weekend
The path...
Since there is no simple known way to perform such an upgrade, I started with listing relevant elementary rules and proceed from there.
First, there is no certain process to migrate from SQL 2005 directly to SQL 2012, so you need some kind of a "buffer" to accomplish that.
Second, you cannot perform an upgrade on Win2003 since it's not supported anymore and has many security flaws that would certainly break the deal.
In addition, SQL 2012 is supported only from SPS 26 and up.
So, in a nutshell, I want to upgrade from SAP running on SQL 2005 but I cannot do it on the current OS since it's too old and I cannot migrate directly to WinSQL 2012, so we have a chicken-and-an-egg loop here.
So, the right path goes like this:
Windows2003 to Windows2008 to Windows2012
We installed a Windows2008 server with SQL2008 that will run an SAP ECC system.
From Windows2003, we copied the SQL2003 DB data files to Windows2008 and performed an Attach process to the SQL2008. The attach process performs an upgrade of the 2003 DB to 2008 DB automatically.
Now we need to run the Schema4SAP scripts that perform a move from dbo schema to SID schema. The scripts create the new schema and moves the DB to that schema.
Next step is run 70SWPM and perform the following path for NUC systems:
SAP Business Suite 2005 > SAP ERP 6.0 Support Release 3 > Software Life-Cycle Options > System Copy > MS SQL Server > Target System Installation > Central System > Based on AS ABAP > Central System
Next, you perform a post system copy procedure and make sure that maintenance license is valid.
Now we need to upgrade to SPS 26 so we can migrate to WinSQL 2012. We can upgrade to the latest but I prefer getting to Win2012 ASAP (Time frame...).
I used Maintenance Planner to download all the SPs and to generate an XML stack file which tells SPAM the exact levels of the upgrade queue. I created a current XML file of the system and uploaded it to Maintenance Planner as a new system, so I can start from there.
All downloaded files were extracted to EPS/in folder. Used SPAM to sync file list.
I started SPAM under client 000 and pointed it to the XML stack file. The system calculates target SPs automatically based on XML and synced file list.
There are several notes to implement and to extract passwords from.
Once the update procedure starts, It may run for approx. 24 Hrs.
Now we have an ECC 6 SPS 26 running on Windows2008 and SQL2008.
I have detached the DB on 2008, copied the DB files to Windows2012 with SQL2012 and atteched the DB. The attach procedure performs an upgrade from 2008m to 2012.
I ran SWPM again to perform a system copy completion.
VOILA!
