PREPARE Module for SAP Platform Upgrade

By Nitesh Jain, Infosys Technologies

Prerequisite:

The OS is AIX 5.3 and DB is Oracle 10g.

Introduction:  

We can use the PREPARE program to prepare our SAP system for the upgrade. The PREPARE program supports by making most of the necessary checks that will be required for SAP System Upgrade automatically.  

The PREPARE program:

      Can be executed while the system is in production operation.

      Checks whether or not the requirements for the upgrade are met and gives you extra information when you are executing the optional modules.

      Imports a number of tools into your database.

      Copies data and programs required for the upgrade into the upgrade directory.

      Can be performed any time prior to the actual upgrade

      Can take virtually as much time as needed

      Can be repeated as often as needed

      Checks requirements to be fulfilled

      Determines software modules to be upgraded, extracting DVDs, including SPs and Add-Ons etc.

      Preparation for modification adjustments

      Preparation for ICNV  

The PREPARE unit is divided into modules and modules are made up of consecutive phases. Both modules and phases are separately repeatable, and must be repeated when errors occur. In case of errors, fix them and repeat the relevant phases or modules, until they are finished completely error-free.

Prerequisites for Starting Prepare

Nomenclature Used  -->

K        : Userid

7       : Keyboard input  

1.       Checking ulimit for the users <sid>adm and ora<sid>

Both the ulimit output should be

time (seconds)        unlimited

file(blocks)         unlimited

data(kbytes)         unlimited

stack(kbytes)        unlimited

memory(kbytes)       unlimited

coredump(blocks)     2097151

nofiles(descriptors) 2000  

2.       Maximum Number of PROCESSES allowed per user should be 4096

3.       Checking Oracle parameters shared_pool_size and shared_pool_reserved_size.

K  ora<sid>

7  sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL> select NAME, VALUE from v$parameter where name='shared_pool_size';

SQL> select NAME, VALUE from v$parameter where name='shared_pool_reserved_size';

Expected Result - Shared Pool Size should be greater than 400MB, and Shared Pool Size Reserved should not be more than 10% of the Shared Pool Size.

4.       Check the Resource Quota of the database user SAPR3 or SAPSR3

K  ora<sid>

7  sqlplus / as sysdba

SQL> select * from dba_sys_privs where grantee = 'SAPR3';  

Expected Result - Resource Quota should be grantee=’SAPR3/SAPSR3’, privilege=’UNLIMITED TABLESPACE’, adm=’YES’ or grantee=’SAPR3/SAPSR3’, privilege=’UNLIMITED TABLESPACE’, adm=’NO’

5.       Disable the operation modes in transaction RZ04

6.       Create the tablespaces required for the Upgrade by following commands -

brspace -function tscreate -tablespace PSAPDIMD -owner SAPR3 -size <size> -autoextend no

brspace -function tscreate -tablespace PSAPDIMI -owner SAPR3 -size <size> -autoextend no

brspace -function tscreate -tablespace PSAPODSD -owner SAPR3 -size <size> -autoextend no

brspace -function tscreate -tablespace PSAPODSI -owner SAPR3 -size <size> -autoextend no

brspace -function tscreate -tablespace PSAPFACTD -owner SAPR3 -size <size> -autoextend no

brspace -function tscreate -tablespace PSAPFACTI -owner SAPR3 -size <size> -autoextend no

brspace -function tscreate -tablespace PSAPDAT700 -owner SAPR3 -data both -size <size> -autoextend no

brspace -function tscreate -tablespace PSAPTEMP -owner SAPR3 -size <size> -autoextend no  

7.       Extract Support Pack and EHP files for SPs (Source and Target system)

8.       Adapt UNIX services entries.

We are going to install a shadow instance with instance number as 66, it will have the SID same as source system

Add below entries to the services file

 sapmsSHD<SID>              3666/tcp

 sapgw66              3366/tcp

 sapdp66              3266/tcp

Comment entries below

 # netware-csp    1366/tcp               # Novell NetWare Comm Service Platform

 # netware-csp    1366/udp               # Novell NetWare Comm Service Platform  

9.       Remove unprocessed updates from source SAP system  

10.   Delete Outstanding “DB Conversion”:

11.   Adapt number of oracle process and sessions

Prepare Execution

1.       Create the UPGRADE directory

The SAP system is upgraded using the upgrade directory, which can be a softlink to another physical

directory. The standard path for the upgrade directory is /usr/sap/put on the host with the central instance, however, you can also give it a different name.  

2.       Starting PREPARE for the first time

We can execute PREPARE with the Upgrade Assistant or in scroll mode. The more convenient way is to

use the Upgrade Assistant. To copy and unpack the Upgrade Assistant from the DVD directory, you

must start PREPARE once directly from the DVD.

3.       Update the SAPup file and place the FIXES in place.

4.       Define JAVA_HOME and set PATH for the current session.

K <sid>adm

7 setenv PATH /usr/java14/jre/bin:$PATH

7 setenv JAVA_HOME /usr/java14

5.       Starting Upgrade Assistance Server. (UAServer)

K <sid>adm

7 java -cp /usr/sap/put/ua/ua.jar UaServer

It will prompt you for a password and confirmation; provide the same and take note of the same. This password is assigned to both the administrator and the observer role  

6.       Starting Upgrade Assistance UI from browser

To start the GUI from a browser, open a internet browser and enter following address

http://<hostname>:4239

On the browser screen, click Start Upgrade Assistant

Say ‘Yes’ for Security Warning.

7.       Upgrade Assistance GUI opens and prompts for Logon Information

8.       Select Menu: Administrator à Start PREPARE

9.       Provide Necessary DVDs to Upgrade Assistant to continue PREPARE

10.   Welcome to SAP Upgrade control program

Check  and Click

Click here to continue....