There are two types of SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (SAP BPC)—classic and embedded. In classic SAP BPC, master and transactional data must be loaded into the SAP BPC system. Source data can be loaded either from SAP Business Warehouse (BW) or from other external systems. Unlike the classic version, the embedded version uses the SAP Business Warehouse (BW) system directly, so you don’t need to add another layer of data loads for project implementations. SAP BPC software provides planning, budgeting, financial forecasting, and consolidation tools to help you keep up with the fast pace of business. It helps you make better decisions based on what-if analyses and scenario planning, uses collaboration tools to improve accountability and planning accuracy, shrinks cycle times, closes the books faster, and aligns your plans with strategic goals. This is a standalone upgrade done in the sandbox followed by upgrades in the development, quality, and production systems. The first step is to ensure that the target environment is supported. You can do this by going to the Product Availability Matrix (PAM) here: https://service.sap.com/PAM. PAM bundles technical and release-planning information for SAP software products for quick reference. PAM provides:

• A central access point for all SAP software product versions
• Direct links to guides and further information

Download the Software Update Manager (SUM) Tool

SAP’s upgrade tool, SUM, can be downloaded from this website: https://support.sap.com/sltoolset. Once it’s been downloaded, extract the software with SAPCAR; for example, SAPCAR_xvf SUM10SP14_6-20006543.SAR. (SAPCAR is an executable program provided by SAP that is used to extract the software.) Once the software is extracted, you can start SUM using the /STARTUP command. The GUI for SUM is https://<hostname –where –SUM-executed>:4239/. Once SUM is started (Figure 1), you need to create a password. Enter the user ID (Role and Name), enter a password in two fields (Password and Verify password), and click the OK button. This action opens the initial SUM screen in which you click the Next button (Figure 2).

In the screen that opens (Figure 3), select the first radio-button option (Stack configuration file (XML)) and use the Browse… button to find and enter the stack directory where the XML file is located. The XML stack file is downloaded when the software is selected. (The XML stack file contains the list of software that is used for the upgrade and the file is received when the software is selected for an upgrade.) Then click the Next button.

In the screen that opens (Figure 4), enter the keyword from SAP Note 2084104—in this case, 1757987. Then click the Next button. The keyword differs depending on the different software components. The system now displays a screen that shows that the first phase, Initialization, is complete (Figure 5). Click the Next button to move to the next phase, the Extraction phase. Figure 6 In the Extraction phase screen that opens (Figure 7), select the ABAP tab and then the Import SPAM version 60 radio button. (SPAM, for Support Package Manager, contains updates and improvements to the Support Package Manager.) Click the Continue button to open the screen in Figure 8 in which you can select the operating system (OS) type—in this case, Linux. Then click the Continue button to open the next screen (Figure 9). In Figure 9 enter the password for the OS user (bwpadm, in this example), and click the Continue button. In the screen that opens (Figure 10) select the Ignore the inconsistency radio button. If there are any inconsistencies, they can be fixed later, so for this upgrade, you can skip this step. Then click the Continue button. The screen that opens (Figure 11) displays a list of Manual Actions that need to be done. Select one of the options on the left and double-click it. Review the list that opens on the right to see what is showing up. Click the Close button. Any errors will appear on the right. Repeat this action for each of the options in the Information folder on the left. Once you’ve checked all the manual steps, the Software Update Manager screen opens (Figure 12) and shows that the Extraction phase is completed successfully. Click the Next button to select settings for the Configuration phase in the next screen (Figure 13). Under Main Configuration, you select the Advanced (downtime minimization capabilities, higher complexity, high resource assignment) radio button. Selecting the advanced features gives you more options from which to choose. Select the Yes check boxes for Keep archiving on during the whole procedure and Switch expert mode on, respectively. Then click the Continue button to open the screen shown in Figure 14. In the Configuration phase, you configure several processes and other performance-relevant parameters, select target Support Packages and add-on components, and set the shadow instance parameters, as shown in Figure 14. (The following five figures are all the same screen, with  different portions shown as you scroll down.) Under the Parameters for procedure section in Figure 14, select the Usage of near-Zero Downtime Maintenance Technology (nZDM) check box. When choosing this option, you need to enter the maximum number of processes (dialog and batch) during the update, the maximum number of SQL commands, and the number of R3TRANS processes. Then click the Continue button and the screen in Figure 15 opens. The screen in Figure 15 displays the number of R3trans and R3load processes that are need during uptime and downtime. R3trans is used by the upgrade tool to import support packages and R3LOAD loads the contents of the dump files into the database. Figure 15Figure 16 Scroll down and select the Generate ABAP loads on shadow system during uptime radio button (Figure 17). Scroll down and enter 0 in the SGEN PROCESSES field, select the Do not consider ICNV at all radio button, and click the Continue button (Figure 18). (Note: The reason 0 is entered in the SGEN PROCESSES field is that you don’t want the SGEN processes to do anything at this point—instead, you execute transaction code SGEN after the upgrade.) The screen in Figure 19 opens. Don’t make any entries in this screen—just click the Continue button. When the required information has been gathered, the screen in Figure 20 lists information for ABAP software components, such as the Support Packages, release numbers, start levels, and minimum and maximum levels. You can scroll down in this screen to see a complete list of the components. Once you’re reviewed the list, click the Continue button to open the screen in Figure 21. In Figure 21 you again just click the Continue button. The SPDD and SPAU transport requests need to be updated from the quality system onward, and transports are not required for the development system. You also have an option to import the SPDD and SPAU transport requests after the upgrade. This action opens the screen in Figure 22 in which you update the ABAP shadow instance number; in this case, change it to 04, and click the Continue button. You can use anything from 04 to 99. Some systems may already have used the instance numbers from 00 to 03 and that’s the reason I use 04 here. This action automatically creates shadow instance number 04 during the upgrade. This action opens the final configuration screen that shows the list of the phases that have been successfully updated (Figure 23). Review the list and click the Next button. This action opens a screen that shows the output of the results from the Configuration phase (Figure 24). Check to see if there are any errors. To check the results of the Configuration phase, go to the Information folder on the left and select each option, one by one, under the folder. Once an option is selected, the screen on the right of Figure 25 expands with a success or error message. After you check all the options in the Information folder, it’s time to check the Manual Actions. Select Manual Actions on the left (Figure 26), but this time, when the screen expands on the right, you see an error message. Correct any errors that are listed and then click the Close button. This action opens the screen in Figure 27 showing that the Configuration phase has been completed successfully.  

Checks Phase

  Click the Next button in Figure 27 and the screen in Figure 28 opens with the next phase of the configuration, the Checks phase.

In the Checks phase, the SUM tool does the following:

• It calculates the space for the shadow system
• It performs system health checks (such as Nametab and transport system)
• It checks database and table-space sizes

Click the Next button in Figure 28 and the screen in Figure 29 opens in which you can review the Phase List. Click the Next button to update the SUM tool and correct any errors.  

The Preprocessing Phase

 

When you click the Next button in Figure 29, the screen in Figure 30 opens with the next phase, the Preprocessing phase. In this phase, the pre-downtime step, the SUM tool needs to complete all the preprocessing tasks.

During the Preprocessing phase, the SUM tool does the following:

• It checks for locked objects
• It locks the ABAP workbench
• It runs the shadow system for preparation of the new release. This is done internally during the upgrade.

Select the Lock now radio button and click the Continue button. This action opens the screen in Figure 31 that shows that the development environment should be locked and that, when it’s locked, no SAP transports can be transported into the system or applied to that system. (Note: Execute transaction code BTCTRNS1 to ensure that the batch jobs are in the scheduled status.) Select the Check status again radio button and click the Continue button. The screen in Figure 32 opens and shows that Preprocessing phase is completed successfully.  

The Execution (Downtime) and Postprocessing Phases

  When you click the Continue button in Figure 32, the screen in Figure 33 opens. Click the Next button to complete the Execution phase (downtime processing) and do a complete backup of the system. Figure 34 shows that downtime processing step of the Execution phase is successfully done. Click the Continue button. Click the Continue button to complete the final roadmap step and the screen in Figure 35 opens showing that the Execution phase is successfully completed. Click the Next button. Once you click the Next button in Figure 35 you start the next step, the Postprocessing phase (Figure 36). During the Postprocessing phase, the SUM tool does the following:

• Updates all the log files (output log files)
• Executes transaction code SPAU to make adjustments on the development server and then move the transports to quality and production when the respective systems are upgraded
• Unlocks the transport functionality

Click the Continue button in Figure 36 and the screen in Figure 37 opens. It shows a message saying that your procedure has completed successfully. Select the Continue radio button and then click the Continue button. The screen in Figure 38 opens and provides an update on the background jobs’ statuses. It tells you that you must revise all background jobs and make sure that they are up-to-date for the new release. It also says to execute transaction code BTCTRNS2 to run the report to reschedule the system’s periodic batch jobs. Review the details on this screen and click the Continue button (not shown). The screen in Figure 39 opens and shows that transaction code BTCTRNS2 has been successfully executed (e.g., the periodic batch jobs have been successfully scheduled to run). Click the Next button.  

The Finalization Phase

  After you click the Next button in Figure 39, the system displays a screen that shows that the Postprocessing phase is completed (Figure 40). Select the Continue radio button and then the Continue button (not shown) to start the Finalization phase and to automatically stop the SUM tool upgrade. During this last step, the SUM tool checks to make sure all the steps are properly completed and then opens a screen with the final results (not shown).