If your system is still running with an ASCII code page, you may want to convert it to a Unicode code page in order to take advantage of internationalization or to prepare an upgrade to SAP NetWeaver 7.5. For SAP installations on IBM i that are running in a single code-page with Latin-1 character set, we have provided the so-called In-place Unicode Code Page Conversion (In-place CPC) through the SAP Software Provisioning Manager (SWPM or installer) in 2015. It reduces the conversion time significantly by skipping all transparent tables, because transparent tables in an IBM i ASCII database already contain valid Unicode data for Latin-1 character sets. The support of the In-place CPC based on the SWPM was announced and explained through the following two blog entries:
https://blogs.sap.com/2015/10/30/sap-on-ibm-i-update-week-44-in-place-code-page-conversion-on-ibm-i-...
https://blogs.sap.com/2015/06/09/in-place-code-page-conversion-on-ibm-i-available-for-sap-release-73...
Since then, the SWPM has undergone many changes. For example, new security features were introduced, the SWPM is using now its own export/import tools for SAP systems based on NetWeaver 7.40, and the SAP installation Graphical User Interface (SAPinst GUI) was replaced by the Software Logistic User Interface (SL UI), which is running in a browser. It required time to adjust the In-place CPC to all these changes, so we suggested in SAP Note 800791 to use the old SWPM 1.0 SP18 for an In-place CPC.
With Software Provisioning Manager 1.0 SP22 PL05 or higher, you can use again the most current installation software for the In-place CPC. There is no need any more to use older SWPM versions. In the guide “Code Page Conversion ASCII to Unicode on IBM i Systems” version 2.4, which is attached to SAP Note 800791 as the needed files InplaceCPC70xSLT10SP22andhigher.zip and InplaceCPC7XXSLT10SP22andhigher.zip, you will find a detailed description about how to start and run the latest SWPM for your Unicode conversion. Note that the descriptions and files for older installer versions are still included in the SAP Note (as the attached old files InplaceCPC7XX.zip and InplaceCPC70x.zip).
