Technical Articles
SUM news without Advent Calendar
Editorial
From time to time, we provide a dedicated blog post on latest news for Software Update Manager (SUM). This time, they do not list up to 24 aspects, so we don’t offer an Advent Calendar 😊 But we list them all on December 1st already, so you can utilize them instantly (like to decorate your Advent crone of knowledge, or whatever fits to your cultural habit).
Sources of information
You want to learn about the news even after Advent? Then consider the following:
- The landing page of the Software Logistics Toolset (/sltoolset) always links to a dedicated page “News with SL Toolset 1.0 SPS xx” which provides the overview on which tool comes with which new feature
- The SUM guides hold a section “New features” with relevant information
- You already know that SUM is offered in versions 1.0 and 2.0. In addition, you should know that the description of these versions (which previously was listed in a separated blog post) is now listed on the respective SAP Support Portal page on SUM, on top, right after the list of SAP Notes on SUM. Keep an eye on that list from time to time, as it will be adapted if required …
Software Logistics Toolset 1.0 SPS 33 comes with SUM 1.0 SP 27 and SUM 2.0 SP 12. Let’s see what news they have in their basket:
SUM 2.0 SP 12: Zero Downtime Option for SAP S/4HANA is Now Generally Available
Some time back, we’ve released the downtime-optimized approach Zero Downtime Option (ZDO) for SAP S/4HANA for pilot customers only. With SAP TechEd 2021, we proudly announced the general availability of ZDO for SAP S/4HANA 2020 or higher.
Along with this announcement, two more very exciting news on ZDO were shared in this year’s SAP TechEd session DT111:
- ZDO for SAP S/4HANA now also supports to jump over releases when performing release upgrades. Example: In future, SAP S/4HANA 2020 can be upgraded to the second or third next higher release.
- Two brand new learning offerings are now available in SAP Learning Hub:
Further details can be found in the SAP Community blog post Zero Downtime Option for SAP S/4HANA is Now Generally Available as well as on the separate SAP Support Portal page.
SUM 2.0 SP 12: New scenario (standalone option) to check cluster tables
Inconsistent cluster tables in your system can break the SUM process and force you to reset the run. Now you can check this earlier, with a separate option in the list of scenarios without a stack configuration file. You can decide to check all cluster tables or specify a file containing dedicated cluster table names. This check is similar to the SAP_BASIS report SDBI_CLUSTER_CHECK. It is performed by the R3load executable in discard mode and uses the same technology as the benchmarking tool.
SUM 2.0 SP 12: Option to execute SDMI jobs in downtime
You know that Silent Data Migration is the concept of executing some parts of the data conversion after the conversion (or upgrade) to the target release is finished. With that, the overall downtime, for which the data conversion has relevant contributions, is reduced. We got the feedback that in some cases, customers do care less for downtime but want to avoid background processes changing their data after go-live.
With SUM 2.0 SP 12 for a conversion or an upgrade to SAP S/4HANA 2021 or higher, SUM offers a dialog to execute those Silent Data Migration Jobs during the downtime. The jobs are then started by SUM, and the tool waits until they are finished.
SUM 2.0 SP 12: UI option to search in all log files
The log section of the SUM UI now offers a new feature to search for strings in all log files. Using the respective button opens a popup, search results can be used to directly open the hit in the log file.
SUM 2.0: “DMO with system move” simplified
The first dialog for “DMO with system move” explaining the transfer (phase HOSTCHANGE_MOVE_SOT) was adapted. It now explicitly explains how to use the parallel mode even if the delivered script is not used (or can’t be used).
In case you want to reset the “DMO with system move” run on the target landscape, this is now working out-of-the-box with the SUM UI RESET feature. No need to have a backup of the SUM folder in the target landscape any longer.
SUM 2.0 SP 12 & SUM 1.0 SP 27: Using SAP Host Agent 52 sets HTTPS as default
The SUMSTART confighostagent script (which registers SUM for SAP Host Agent) now eases the usage of HTTPS: it sets HTTPS as default, so the URL to start SUM uses port 1129. If you do not configure certificates, SAP Host Agent uses self-signed certificates. The browser will raise a warning for such self-signed certificates, and you may confirm that warning to proceed.
SUM 1.0 SP 27: works with start releases on SAP BASIS 7.00 and higher
Old start releases that are out of extended maintenance since March 2013 are not supported with SUM 1.0 SP 27 and higher. Instead, SUM 1.0 SP 26 is available on request for start releases on SAP BASIS 4.6 C, 6.20, 6.40. Request have to be send with an incident on component BC-UPG-TLS-TLA.
SUM10HDBSP27 also to be used for any Oracle-based system
You need the archive with HDB in the name whenever an SAP HANA or an Oracle database is part of your scenario: either your system is running on Oracle or SAP HANA database, or you intend to migrate your system to SAP HANA database (using DMO of SUM). Reason is that Oracle and SAP HANA clients require EXT kernel.
With best wishes for the year-end season,
Boris Rubarth, Product Management Software Logistics