Upgrade from 4.7 to ECC 6.0

[Former Member]

Hey guys,

Can you share any thoughts about this upgrade?

What are the possible things that gets affected by this upgrade in ABAP point of view?

Any reference materials about this upgrade would be greatly appreciated.

Just keep the notes coming.

Thanks a lot guys.

Rgds,

Mark

[former_member386202]

Hi,

Upgrade is 'grading up' the version of current software with a higher version of that.

Upgrade, in SAP can be, Kernel upgrade, Database Upgrade, OS Upgrade, SAP Upgrade. ABAP developers play a critical role in the upgrade process. This article will provide an overview of the R/3 Upgrade process from the ABAP developer’s perspective, including new and improved development tools that will make an ABAP developer’s job easier. Also, it will help developer to enter the upgrade process with knowledge of what needs to be done and how you will do it.

The exercise of upgrading an SAP system encourages all of us to become more adept at dealing with system enhancements, SAP standard objects and writing more rigid code. More important, the upgrade experience can help an ABAP developer to gain more comprehensive understanding of the SAP system.

Using this knowledge, developer can craft better development strategies in the future and contribute to building a more robust, efficient and powerful SAP system for the organization.

2. Anatomy of an R/3 Upgrade

An Upgrade and an Implementation, both types of projects require a good deal of planning, are major capital investments and are often driven by high-level business requirements. Where they differ is that an Upgrade Project, unlike a shiny, new Implementation, must accommodate the existing R/3 system and all its custom development activities.

Why Upgrade?

1. Upgrading to Higher Version introduces lots of wonderful new features & enhancements to the current R/3 environment.

2. Non-availability of SAP support to older version.

3. Ease of Integration with Internet Technology and mySAP.com. Wide range of ABAP tools & developments.

4. Upgrade gives a holistic view of the current SAP installation. It is an excellent opportunity to remove obsolete objects; improve, organize, document existing ones; and get rid of unnecessary modifications.

5. Upgrade allows maintaining the integrity of existing custom developments objects and modifications that are required to retain in the post-upgrade environment.

6. Gives improved Graphical User Interface (GUI).

In other words, one can implement new software of target version instead of upgrading the existing version to target version. But the new installation does not have the current custom developments & current data. You need to take extra efforts to bring up your new installed system to the level of the current system; which is not the right method to approach the higher versions.

4. Roadmap of an Upgrade Project

The focal points of the four phases of an Upgrade Project are, -

1. Preparation: Create a project plan for upgrade. Make your current system environment ready for upgrade. The most important activity during this phase is preparing an inventory of custom development objects.

2. Upgrade Development (DEV) system: When upgrade, existing R/3 Repository is overwritten with a new one (i.e. the entire ABAP workbench library of ABAP programs, screens and menus, data dictionary, etc.). A standard R/3 Repository is imported into the system that allows retaining the custom development objects and modifications.

3. Upgrade Quality (QAS) system: This step enables to exercise the process to upgrade the system. Import the changes made in the DEV system and perform the necessary testing in a controlled environment to verify the modifications made.

4. Upgrade Production (PRD) system: “Go live” and Support. Again import all the changes consolidated in the DEV system to the PRD system and monitor some critical processes in the system that relates to the development objects.

Regards,

Prashant

[Former Member]

Hi,

Check the thread :

.

Should be of some help to you.

Regards,

Lalit

[rainer_hbenthal]

Take this opportunity to get rid of all stuff in Z namespace you do not need any more. Get rid of any third party stuff you do not need any more. Reduce modifications to a minimun.

We enconuntered some problems espacially in the dictionary with old tables and old third party stuff. This was not blocking our upgrade but the process was stopped several times and it always took some time to investigate what was happening, takinf the decision to delete this things afterwards.As we upgraded to ECC 6 the only abends we had were those problems in the dictionary resulting in being called in the night that the process stopped because of an conversion error.

Then make a system copy and test the upgrade, making a businiess verification afterwards.