Overview of the Dual-Stack Split Tool

[BorisZarske]

As you might already have heard, SAP recommends you to move away from dual-stack SAP systems where possible - SAP Business Suite 7i2011 is the last SAP Business Suite release with dual-stack support:

• That is, as of SAP Business Suite 7i2011, it will no longer be possible to upgrade a dual-stack SAP Business Suite system to a higher release.
• Please be aware that also SAP NetWeaver sytems that have SAP Business Suite components deployed might be treated as SAP Business Suite systems in this regard.
• Already as of SAP Business Suite 7, you can no longer install dual-stack SAP Business Suite application systems.
• For more information, see SAP Note 1816819 (SMP login required) and especially the PDF file attached to the SAP Note with tables providing detailed information about supported deployments. Below, you can find an example screenshot from this PDF file (for the latest version, see the SAP Note):
  

The same applies for SAP NetWeaver 7.31: you won't be able to upgrade optional dual-stack SAP NetWeaver systems to SAP NetWeaver 7.4 and as of SAP NetWeaver 7.0 Enhancement Package 1, you can no longer install optional dual-stack SAP NetWeaver application systems - for more information, read the roadmap document SAP NetWeaver Discontinues Dual-Stack. And only in very few cases, dual-stack is still mandatory - such as for SAP Solution Manager and for SAP NetWeaver Process Integration systems.

Now, what can you do with the existing optional dual-stack systems in your landscape? First of all, existing optional dual-stack systems are still supported as an exception in their current releases. And SAP NetWeaver Process Integration as mandatory dual-stack system will stay supported also in higher releases, such as in SAP NetWeaver 7.4 (although, starting with SAP NetWeaver 7.3, there is an additional Java-only offering for main process integration capabilities called Advanced Adapter Engine Extended that covers ~95% of a classical SAP NetWeaver PI dual-stack environment, so that customers are recommended to migrate their SAP NetWeaver PI content to single-stack objects). But if you want to prepare the upgrade or update of optional dual-stack systems or plan to adapt your system setup to the recommendations from SAP, take a look at the dual-stack split procedure provided by SAP as option of software provisioning manager 1.0.

The dual-stack split procedure looks as follows:

1. The separation of the Java stack of a dual-stack source system into a new SAP system with the dual-stack split procedure
   Dual-stack split is based on SAP system copy technology performed with SAPinst – the split procedure supports the copy of the Java stack of a dual-stack system into a new Java-only system. For the technical split, two options are offered:
   • Keep DB option (MCOD), where a new Java system gets installed without additional database – instead, also the new Java system is re-using the existing database via MCOD (Multiple Components in One Database).
   • Move DB option (non-MCOD), where the new Java systems gets installed with an own additional database
2. The execution of post-split activities to adapt the configuration of the systems, such as re-establishing the connectivity between the separated SAP NetWeaver ABAP and Java system - automated for certain use cases
3. Removal of the Java stack from the source system, reducing it to an ABAP-only system

The following figure shows an example of the offering of the dual-stack split procedure with the move DB option:

Please note that the dual-stack split procedure does not touch your ABAP stack in the source system. The only thing changed on the source system during the export that directly belongs to the ABAP stack is one ABAP instance profile parameter (rdisp/j2ee_start = 1 → 0).

With the latest version of dual-stack split, the following scenarios are supported:

• Split of dual-stack SAP Business Suite systems based on SAP NetWeaver 7.0x and 7.3x
• Split of dual-stack SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse 7.0x and 7.3x systems
• Split of optional dual-stack SAP NetWeaver 7.0 and 7.3x systems that run only stack-isolated applications without direct dependencies to applications running on the other stack

All details about current coverage, supported releases and restrictions are listed in SAP Note 1797362 (Dual-Stack Split for Systems Based on SAP NetWeaver - SMP login required).

The procedure is available for many platforms and scenarios already today.  It is provided as option of software provisioning manager 1.0 that is available via Software Logistics Toolset 1.0 - if you are interested in getting more information about Software Logistics Toolset, please see the blog The Delivery Channel for Software Logistics Tools: "Software Logistics Toolset 1.0" from my colleague Boris Rubarth.

If you want to get more information about how to perform the split procedure, take a look at the guide Dual-Stack Split Tool <Release> for ABAP+Java Systems on <Platform> available on SAP Service Marketplace at: http://service.sap.com/sltoolset → Software Logistics Toolset 1.0 → Dual-Stack Split (SMP login required).

You can actively influence the future of the dual-stack split procedure by creating ideas for new features or by voting on existing ideas in the SAP Idea Place for this tool - please use this opportunity to provide your requirements directly to the responsible development team at SAP!