Creating an upgrade plan

and strategy for SAP BW

and NetWeaver
Bjarne Berg
MyITgroup
Ltd.
2005 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.

What Well Cover

Why upgrade
End

of support
New support strategy & NetWeaver
New

features and capabilities

Creating an upgrade strategy for the future

Content

Vs. Technical upgrades

Upgrades

with NetWeaver

Planning and Executing the upgrade

The

upgrade plan

The

business case

Staffing,

duration and scope

Questions and Answers

2

Why Upgrade end of support

BW
Version

Release
date

End of mainstream
maintenance

2.0B
2.1C
3.0A
3.0B
3.1C
3.2
3.3
3.5

8/14/00
12/18/00
11/15/01
5/13/02
11/11/02
3/31/03
8/30/03
3/31/04

12/31/2005
12/31/2005
12/31/2005
12/31/2006
12/31/2006
12/31/2006
12/31/2006
3/31/2010

de:
a
r
g
p
for u
n
o
s
a
#1 re
d to!
a
h
I
use
Beca

Many upgrades are driven by end of support for a certain release.

SAP has now created a 5-1-2 maintenance system that consists of:
- mainstream maintenance
- extended maintenance
- customer-specific maintenance

The 5-1-2 maintenance strategy

Going forward, SAP will provide five years of mainstream (standard)
maintenance, with the option to extend their maintenance coverage for a
period of up to three years for small premiums over the standard
maintenance rate.
1. Five years of mainstream maintenance at the standard maintenance fee.
2. One year of extended maintenance at an additional two percent maintenance fee.
3. Two more years of extended maintenance at an additional four percent maintenance
fee per year. After these eight years, customer-specific maintenance begins, providing
a program of support and services uniquely tailored to individual customer
requirements.

The plan covers SAP solutions based on the SAP NetWeaver platform
including mySAP SCM, SRM, PLM, CRM, and industry add-ons.

The Bigger Picture

Stop looking at infrastructure
and technology
Start looking at the big
picture
How are you going to make it all
work together?
And,.. how will you plan your
upgrades to make sure it does
so in the future?
Source: SAP, Lo Apotheker

The Bigger Picture NetWeaver ??

NetWeaver is a set of solution
components that provides a
comprehensive architecture.

Multichannel access
Portal

Collaboration

INFORMATION INTEGRATION
Bus.
Bus.Intelligence
Intelligence

Knowledge
Mgmt
Knowledge
Mgmt

Master Data Management

PROCESS INTEGRATION
Integration
Broker

Bus. Process
Mgmt

APPLICATION PLATFORM
J2EE

LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT

COMPOSITE APPLICATION FRAMEWORK

PEOPLE INTEGRATION

ABAP

DB and OS Abstraction

...

Source: SAP AG

All components of NetWeaver can use the same operating

system release, and the same database release.
All components can be run within a single physical server
if it is a small configuration, thereby reducing the number
of systems and databases to be managed.

The Big-Picture - NetWeaver

The leaders
NetWeaver came from
nowhere to the top-3
position in less than one
year after launch!!!
on NetWeaver and TCO

If SAP is you strategic

choice, it is hard to
ignore NetWeaver.

A SAP survey of 200 customers found

that SAP deployment reduced costs in
three areas: integration through the use
of NetWeaver components,
consolidation of the IT landscape and
the implementation of best practices
using product functionality.

What should I consider first?

NOTE: Most components are mature and well proven

(i.e. BW has been available for over 7 years).

The Bigger Picture

SAP now offers SAP NetWeaver solutions and components in a synchronized release cycle. All components are delivered in a single package.
The exception is Master Data Management, the newest member of NetWeaver. MDM 2.0 is able to use NetWeaver 04 ( it can use XI 3.0), but is still based on WAS 6.20.

NetWeaver use
WAS 6.4 and
therefore share a
common technical
foundation.

The Bigger Picture

BW 3.5 is part of the NetWeaver 04 standard availability
was given in Sept. 2004
Included in NetWeaver-04 is:

BW 3.5
Portal 6.0 Service Pack 3
Exchange Infrastructure 3.0
MI 2.5
Web Application Server 6.4
SAP Composite Application Framework (CAF 1.0) is a tool for
building applications on-top of NetWeaver without using low-level
programming interfaces (APIs). It has been available as an add-on
since Aug.-04. CAF 2.0 will be available with the next release of
NetWeaver mid-year 2005.

10

Why Upgrade Simplified maintenance

Today companies use a variety of systems, hardware, operating
systems, databases to host their many SAP components. NetWeaver
provides a unified infrastructure to reducing Total Cost of Ownership.
NetWeaver is shipped as one product
All components of NetWeaver come as one shipment. It can be installed in one
procedure, and can run together in one system (except MDM 2.0.)

Note

You can upgrade SAP NetWeaver 2004 components individually as long as

the components are installed on separate systems.

You can gradually bring current components to NetWeaver level to make use of
new features of a component or to reach the common IT infrastructure in several
steps.
More details at: SAP NetWeaver Master Guide
& NetWeaver Solution Management Guide.

11

What is New in the Release?

One of the major reasons for upgrading your BW environment
is the availability of new content and features in the next
release. Let us take a look at what is new in version 3.5:

Business Planning and Simulation

Information Broadcaster
Data warehousing and Business Intelligence
Universal Data Integration
Unicode Support
BeX Portfolio in Enterprise Portals

We will now take a quick

look at these features

12

What is New - Business Planning and Simulation

BW version 3.5 and higher has BPS included and you also get
additional functionality
Major new features of BPS in BW 3.5:
1. Plan towards totals (i.e. total revenue)
2. Remove outliers from the plan (unusual data points).
3. Work with incomplete time-series

13

What is New - Information Broadcaster

Users or developers can schedule reports to be delivered to them
through email, portal roles, zip files, or web based reports (browser
& handhelds).

We can trigger the reports to run at:

Certain times

When

data is loaded to the system

Or

we can mail it to the users adhoc when we want to.

Core feature: Push Vs. Pull Strategy

14

What is New?
The Web Application Designer has more features:
The navigational state can be stored in XML format
JavaScript can be used to customize web navigation
Corporate web templates can be reused
New chart designer with cool charts and a development
wizard

15

Universal Data Integration in BW 3.5

FRONT-END:

Custom
Applications

BW
3. Java

1. Universal
Data Connect

2. Java
connecttors

BI Java SDK

Universal Data Connect

SAP Query

SAP

JDBC

ODBO

XML-A

Non-SAP

16

Universal Data Connect

BACK-END:

RELATIONAL DATABASES
1. Over 190 JDBC drivers
for database connectivity

BW 3.5

OLAP
1. BI OLE connector a
Microsoft standard
2. BI XMLA connector
for web based OLAP
sources

2. BI SAP Query connector

for R/3, SAP CRM ad-hoc
connectivity

WAS 6.4

Java 2 Enterprise Edition 6.4

Universal Data Connect

SAP Query

JDBC

RFC, BAPI, API

JDBC Driver

R/3

RDBMS

ODBO
ODBO provider

BW

XML-A
URL/HTTP

3rd Party

17

What is New - Unicode Support

Unicode support for SAP DB, Oracle 9.2, IBM DB2 AS400
UDB, and SQL Server:
BW 3.5 Supports multiple languages through a unicode enabled
server (back-end) and a unicode enabled web front-end

For Microsoft based components the log-on language is

supported

18

What is New BeX Portfolio in the Portal

BW queries can be published to the Portal Content Catalog.
The BeX Portfolio consists of applications that include collaborative information such as:

Technical metadata (run times, descriptions, priority etc)

Subscriptions of a report
Feedback of a report (i.e. comments)
Rating of report (by users)
Report details ( descriptions and use information)
Mailing of a report to others

SAP NetWeaver
People Integration
Multi-Channel Access
Portal

Collaboration

Information Integration
Business
Intelligence

Knowledge
Management

Master Data Management

Process Integration
Integration
Broker

Business Process
Management

LifeC
ycleM
anagem
ent

b
we KM
BW are
:
S ns s
W
t
io
NE licat bjec
p
O
ap

C
om
positeA
pplicationFram
ew
ork

Application Platform
J2EE

ABAP

andOS
OS Abstraction
Abstraction
DBDB
and

.NET

19

WebSphere

What is New BW Content in the Portal

We can publish an
application to the Portal
as:
A Knowledge
management object to a
collaboration room

A Knowledge
management (KM)
object to a KM folder

An iView to the Portal

Role

People Integration
Multi-Channel Access

Source: SAP AG

Better integration of BW content in the portal:

you dont have to upload iView files anymore!!

Portal

Collaboration

Information Integration
Business
Intelligence

Knowledge
Management

Master Data Management

Process Integration
Integration
Broker

Business Process
Management

Life Cycle M anagem ent

An iView to the Portal

Content Directory

SAP NetWeaver

Com posite A pplication Fram ew ork

Application Platform
J2EE

ABAP

andOS
OS Abstraction
Abstraction
DBDBand

.NET

20

WebSphere

BW content in the Collaboration Room

KEY IDEA: Build BW content once
and publish many different ways!!

SAP NetWeaver
People Integration
Portal

Collaboration

Information Integration
Business
Intelligence

Knowledge
Management

Master Data Management

Process Integration
Integration
Broker

Business Process
Management

Life C yc le M ana gem ent

Good reason to upgrade:

better functionality!!!

C om posite A pplication Fram e w ork

Multi-Channel Access

Application Platform
J2EE

ABAP

andOS
OS Abstraction
Abstraction
DBDBand

.NET

21

WebSphere

What Well Cover

Why upgrade
End

of support
New support strategy & NetWeaver
New

features and capabilities

Creating an upgrade strategy for the future

Content

Vs. Technical upgrades

Upgrades with NetWeaver

Planning and Executing the upgrade

The

upgrade plan
The business case
Staffing, duration and scope

Questions and Answers

22

BW Content Upgrades
The new upgrade strategy from SAP is to provide BW technical
releases as part of NetWeaver and BI content add-ons,
You do not need to perform a technical upgrade to update the
business content. I.e. content releases such as the older 3.2, 3.3 and
3.51 contains more business content and can be applied via delta
upgrade.
The content upgrade can occur in as little as 1-2 hours (per system)
and are shipped on supplement CDs.
Any new upgrade should now plan to use content provided in 3.5.3.
FYI: the content delivered in add-on 3.5.1 is the same as the content
in release 3.1c with 3.3. content.

Apply content when you need it, to the technical release you have!!

23

BW Release Upgrades
The Technical upgrades are called BW releases.
This include changes and/or additions to technical capabilities such
as improved ODSs (ver 2.x) and Process Chains (ver 3.x).
The release 3.5 is a technical release with initial 3.5.1 add-on.
3.5 content add-ons
include:
Future upgrade strategies needs to
include both content as well as release
upgrade plans for BW

Warning

Plan a periodic review of

new content before you
build custom solutions

3.5.1
March 2004

3.5.3
Fall
2004
TBD

3.5.2
2nd week
June
2004
of June

24

An Upgrade Strategy
Think bigger than BW..
Tip

Apply content as soon as feasible. Especially if you have on-going

development work. This way you can avoid many work-arounds.
You should seriously consider having all NetWeaver components
on the same upgrade strategy instead of selecting each component
for upgrade. This will help in the shared extractors and also
substantially simplify the upgrade planning and landscape.
Look at SAPs release strategy for each
component you are using and plan ahead,
instead of last-minute must-do projects.

25

What Well Cover

Why upgrade
End

of support
New support strategy & NetWeaver
New

features and capabilities

Creating an upgrade strategy for the future

Content

Vs. Technical upgrades

Upgrades with NetWeaver

Planning and Executing the upgrade

The

upgrade plan
The business case
Staffing, duration and scope

Questions and Answers

26

Upgrade paths
BW
Release
Version
date
2.0B
2.1C
3.0A
3.0B
3.1C
3.2
3.3
3.5

8/14/00
12/18/00
11/15/01
5/13/02
11/11/02
3/31/03
8/30/03
3/31/04

End of mainstream
maintenance
12/31/2005
12/31/2005
12/31/2005
12/31/2006
12/31/2006
12/31/2006
12/31/2006
3/31/2010

Can be upgraded to
2.1C, 3.0B, 3.1C, 3.50/3.51
3.0B, 3.1C, 3.50/3.51
3.0B, 3.1C, 3.50/3.51
3.1C, 3.50/3.51
3.2 and 3.3 must be applied before 3.5
3.3 must be applied before 3.5
3.5

A direct release upgrade from 2.0B, 2.1C and 3.0B to 3.5 is possible.
However an upgrade from 3.1C needs to apply 3.2 and 3.3 content
add-ons before upgrading to 3.5.
Remember the next release of NetWeaver is scheduled for mid-2005.
27

Upgrade Pre-planning
It is important to communicate the goals and timings to the technical
team to help them prioritize their research and activity or hardware setup
Communicate goal of having existing content continue to work to
functional test team, so they do not get hung up in testing new features
before the upgrade is in production
Research changes to BW or the Plug-IN that may affect your existing
live content and use this information to outline a planned upgrade
regression and correction test cycle
The regression test should be similar to a large support pack
implementation
28

Determine your upgrade readiness

SAP GUI New GUI roll out, Patches? (e.g. BW 3.0B/3.1C -> 6.20 BUT
BW 3.5 -> 6.20/6.40)
PC Requirements Need upgrade to take advantage of new features? BW
3.0/3.1c - Same PC requirements but the devil is in the details (see OSS
161993, 66971)
DB/OS Are they supported on the new release? Take the opportunity to
apply patches as needed.
IGS If need rendering of charts and graphs in
BW 3.x Web Applications you need IGS BUT it
now only runs under NT and W2K. (BW 3.5 will
support UNIX until IGS 6.40)

29

Plan the architecture

Considerations
GUI upgrade to 640, or Hardware changes needed
IGS and TREX become part of the 640/BW35 kernel & can be on the
same host box
The old IGS must be in place until after graphic conversion
Live source system connections must be refreshed, but not rebuilt!
Technical approach
Review Install & Upgrade Guides as well as upgrade notes
Plan when each system in landscape is upgraded, or an upgraded
system is copied
Evaluate impact to transport flow dummy
systems may be needed for a smooth transition

30

Key Factors for you environment sizing:

New content -> more users -> more app servers?
IGS -> may require new hardware
Parallel Load = more memory
ODS Layer = more space
Crystal Reports -> new hardware
Archiving -> may reduce need for space
Make sure the new software is
ordered and in hand!

31

Planning Your Upgrade

Example
Production
12 CPU
96GB RAM

Development

4 CPUs
32GB RAM

Solution

AppServer
4 CPUs
32GB RAM

Test
4 CPUs
32GB RAM

This company reallocated their Sun6800 box and plans for gigabit
connectivity to the AppServer.
More memory allows them to take
better advantage of the parallel load of
the BW system as well as to cache
many of the frequently run queries.
The hardware also allows them to have
a system where performance between
the boxes are comparable.

32

Some requirements
If you use SEM, and it resides on same infrastructure with BW you
need SEM 4.0.
Plug-In PI_BASIS 2004.1_640

All officially supported PI_BASIS / PI releases can be used to connect SAP BW

3.5 to a SAP source system (see OSS note 153967)
Extractors are delivered with PI; for up-to-date versions of extractors, it is
recommended to apply the latest PI in the source system

No additional hardware may be needed

Another system can be used as a temporary box needed to support upgrade

May need 5 10% temporary additional disk space for the production stack
Need minimum disk space (approximately 18-20 G) for any new environments
Plan for regression test glitches and production cut-over.

33

Resources
Team Lead

Basis
resource

Technical reviewer
BW Developer

Upgrade Support
External

Regression Testers

A Dedicated team with a technical team lead (100%), a Basis resource

(100%) and a technical reviewer (100% is required).
In addition, a dedicated go-to resource for technical issues is
recommended. This should be an individual that have solid knowledge
about the upgrade and have done his before. SAP resources should be
considered, due to their contact network within the SAP organization.
Regression testing is required on behalf or the user community. This
should be coordinated with the Power Users or existing developers.

34

Sample Timeline - complete landscape for large BW implementation

W1

W2

W3

W4

W5

W6

W7

W8

W9 W10 W11 W12

Project startup and Team training

Preparation for upgrade of Sandbox system
and roll out of SAPGui
Upgrade Sandbox system
Test functionality and decide what to
implement in upgrade (What has the best ROI)
Plan upgrade of production landscape
And roll out of new functionality to users
Upgrade development system
Test and validate upgrade
Implement new functionality
Upgrade Test system
(Copy of production if possible)
Test and validate Test system and user training
& roll out of SAPGui
Upgrade Production system
Test and validate Production system

The duration is driven by:

1. The number of BW systems in your landscape.
2. The new functionality your are rolling out
3. The support technology needed (I.e. app servers, GUI)

The more content

you have the
longer the upgrade
(the more you have
to regression test)

35

Minimum Timeline
Basic events:

Do initial upgrade guide and note research [1-2 days]

Upgrade BW sandbox and do cursory issues check [1-4 days]
Upgrade a copy of BW production have key development leads
regression test all live content (both systems must be connected
to other landscape environments testing extractors too!) [2-5
days (size/copy/hw depending]

At a minimum, the timeline will consist of a test upgrade of:

A copy of the BW Development system (new content glitches)

A copy of the production or production support system (BW
Production dry-run and live content regression testing
36

Timeline (continued)
Once the initial regression test is complete, create any
correctional transports. BW 3x to 35 this should be minimal
depending on active content.[3-5 days?]
Post-fix, have full team in for Upgrade buy-in testing that all
works properly [2-3 workdays]
KEY: now freeze development and release transports, upgrade
development and a test system, incorporating the fix transports
generated from the upgrade regression test. This should be a
clean 2-4 day process.

37

Move into Landscape

At this point you have a temporary BW Dev to test patch, and
perhaps static training, production and production support
systems.
Ideally, youd migrate the upgrade to these as soon as possible,
but this is a stable point. You will have to decide, based on
content, whether copying a test box to training makes sense (can
preserve user master)
For production and production support, youve already done a dry
run just do production and copy back to production support
unless the size makes this impractical [~ >500GB]
Don't
Forget

GUI needs to be 620 or 640, with

BW 3.5 front end patch

38

Impacts to other environments

The BW upgrade adds to the PI and ALE connection, which is backwards
compatible. Source system connections should remain intact, with
minimal adjustment, and a replication vs. restore
Some areas will need to change and are based on your local content, and
customization, but you can continue to use existing methodology until
you decide to change see the notes!
If your end users are web users, they will see no effective changes
There should be no impact to portal or R3 or other BI system connections
all dependent on the Plug-In level
Downstream data feeds should remain unaffected
Data will not have to be reloaded or deltas reinitialized in
more than 95% of cases its there already!

39

7 Key Points to Take Home

Is it cheaper to upgrade to new content or risk reinventing the wheel?
A BW architecture is part of a larger decision support landscape
An upgrade strategy should contain other NetWeaver components
You upgrade strategy must include both release and content upgrades
Your upgrade time is largely a function of scope, your regression test
strategy and the amount of content in your BW
The BW 3.5 upgrade is painless no OS or DB upgrades, only a web
query graphics conversion
Cross reference new features & functionality with your organizations
pain pointsand ensure the upgrade costs do not exceed the business
benefits
40

Resources

The document How to SAP BW 3.5 upgrade preparation and postupgrade checklist v1.10 Nov. '04 is available at www.sdn.sap.com

The document called SAPs Release Strategy For all Major

Shipments from 2005 on available at www.SAP.com

The presentation called "NetWeaver '04 Highlights" - session ID NW201

available from the site www.sapteched.com

41

Your Turn!

How to Contact Me
Bjarne Berg
Director Business Intelligence
Bberg@myitgroup.com

42