VSaaS 2020 Upgrade Schedule and Release Notes Update

[Sany-Said]

Hi Everyone,

Quick reminder that your 2020 VSaaS release will be updating in your Preview environments tonight as per the official communications you should have received.  As discussed during the last LSIG meeting, we have updated the VSaaS release schedule for this year.  Please note in our effort to reduce the need for unscheduled patches, we have added an additional planed patch to our schedule to ensure the most up-to-date release is applied to the Production environment upgrade.  Please also note the Production upgrade date is now December 4, 2020.

 

Consolidated release notes for VSaaS customers and ReadMe notes for the 1H2020 release can always be found on the main Learning Release Information page below (click View All):

https://help.sap.com/viewer/product/SAP_SUCCESSFACTORS_RELEASE_INFORMATION/2005/en-US

Here is a direct link to the release details document for your reference:

https://help.sap.com/doc/ec2666160e154a63bbc7954084afb8d6/2005/en-US/vSaaS_Release_Details_en-US.pdf

[LMS1]

Hi Sany,

Thanks for the information but the direct link is not working for me. It is showing "We're sorry, but this content is not accessible".

Also it is not showing on the main Learning Release Information page.

Thanks & Regards

Rahul

[Maria_Consiglia]

Hello @sany said 

Thank you for the information. We've tried to access the link you've suggested:

https://help.sap.com/doc/ec2666160e154a63bbc7954084afb8d6/2005/en-US/vSaaS_Release_Details_en-US.pdf

But we've received the following message:

"We're sorry, but this content is not accessible."

Is this the right link or are we trying the wrong one?

Is it also possible to know when and where the test case for the Vsaas Learning are going to be share?

Thank you in advance,

Kind regards,

Maria Farella

[Sany-Said]

Hi Everyone,

The User Assistance team has updated the permissions needed to see the document so it should be more accessible now.  Thank you for the feedback.

[Jan-Piaczynski]

Hi @sany said 

Is it possible to get more information about the content of 1H2020p16 and 1H2020p26 patches, planned to be released later this year? Unfortunately I couldn't find more information on what changes/fixes are behind those and it would be beneficial to know from validation planning standpoint.

Thanks!

Regards,

Jan

[Sany-Said]

@Jan-Piaczynski , this information will be provided closer to the patch dates as the defect fixes that will be targeted are not pre-determined, but based on what is reported and prioritized. 

[Cathy_Twarog]

Can you please confirm the Production Upgrade date of December 4th?  December 4th is a Friday, whereas all other dates are on a Saturday. 

Thank you.

[Sany-Said]

@Cathy_Twarog, the exact timing of the upgrade will be provided based on your data center, but yes, based on the collective request of the user group, this upgrade will occur Friday night-Saturday morning to allow you to perform any additional configuration deltas you need before the majority of users get back into the application after the weekend.

[Cathy_Twarog]

@sany said, thank you!

Cathy

[KhalidDesh]

@sany said , I hope you and your family well and healthy. Long time. Thank you and really appreciate for getting this at the beginning of the upgrade. Cheers.

[Dhruv]

This is awesome, Sany. Greatly appreciate it.
Is there a way you can also publish a direct link to MS Excel Release notes too?

[trevor_alcorn]

Hi @sany said : 

Is it possible to please publish an MS Excel version of the release notes delta between b1808 and b2005 for vSaaS?  The PDF version of the vSaaS release notes for b2005 are excellent and quite informative.  With that said, my team at CSL Behring uses the MS Excel version to categorize which features we are adopting, and incorporate that info into our internal requirements documentation.

The "What's New Viewer" at the SAP Help Portal is great to work with, but unfortunately the selection range for the Latest Revision (see attached screenshot) is quite limited. With the "What's New Viewer" tool, I cannot view all of the delta release information between b1808 and b2005 for me to put together this spreadsheet myself.  As such, if you could please post the MS Excel version of the delta release notes which were used to compile the PDF version of the vSaaS release notes, it would be much appreciated.  Thanks!

Best Regards,

Trevor Alcorn

[PaulT]

Hi Trever, 
You should see an option to download the content as CSV or PDF File. 

This should be just under the "availability" filter 

Paul 

[trevor_alcorn]

Hi @Paul Tormey , 

       The issue with the "What's New Viewer" for me is not that I've had trouble with downloading the information in CSV, it is that the "What's New Viewer" does not have the consolidated release information for vSaaS customers available to select.  For example, I cannot select releases going back to b1808 within the "What's New Viewer".  As such, I am not able to get all of the necessary information that I need within the CSV.

      If you would be able to provide a link to a CSV document with consolidated release information for vSaaS customers, or if there is a link that can be provided for a VSaaS version of the "What's New Viewer", that would be much appreciated.  Thanks!

Trevor

[MJurkoic]

Hi @trevor_alcorn ,

I don't know if it would be helpful for you but I've attached a copy of the last Summary .xlsx from Q4 2019. It has release information going back well past b1808 (Q3 2018). 

[trevor_alcorn]

Hi @MattJurkoic ,

      This is exactly what I was looking for!  Thanks for providing me with the spreadsheet!

      I was able to take your spreadsheet, and build upon it with the H1 2020 (b2005) Release Notes available on the "What's New Viewer".  I downloaded all of the features listed in the "What's New Viewer" for b2005, and added these features to another tab in the attached spreadsheet ("H1 2020 Enhancements (b2005)").

      From there, I took all of the features from builds Q4 2018 thru b2005, where the Solution was listed as "Learning", and was therefore able to create a consolidated vSaaS Learning release notes list for b2005.  This consolidated Learning release information is listed on the tab "b2005 vSaaS Consolidated Feat.".  

      It should be noted that some of the columns do not have information listed in the "b2005 vSaaS Consolidated Feat." tab.  That is because the "Whats New Viewer" has different columns vs. the column configuration for features lists for the other previous builds.

@Dhruv :  I'm copying you since you were looking for a consolidated MS Excel Spreadsheet features listed for this b2005 Learning vSaaS release.

@Paul Tormey and @sany said : I'm copying you in order to close the loop.  I have what I need in order to start working through what features we would like to utilize and put into our internal requirements documentation at CSL.

Thanks,

Trevor Alcorn

[Dhruv]

Trevor and Matt - You guys are a Rockstar.  I don't mean to discount your efforts by asking the below question. Given its a validated system, I need to ensure that its formally blessed by the SAP/SF, hope you understand where I am coming from. I will use it to initiate our validation efforts until a formal version is released by the SAP/SF.

Sany - Can you kindly confirm when a formal version be made available like prior years? It has a great impact (positive) on the overall validation efforts - consolidated MS Excel release notes.

[BeckyL]

Thank you Trevor!

[Maria_Consiglia]

Hello @sany said 

We are a validated Learning Customer and we have many users who access through main native login to LMS.

In the blog concerning the IAS, aka (https://community.successfactors.com/t5/Platform-Resources-Blog/Migration-to-SAP-Cloud-Identity-Auth...), we've seen that now (last update 06/08/2020) the IAS supported External Learning users.

Although, we've read the following sentences in the KBA (https://apps.support.sap.com/sap/support/knowledge/public/en/2771543😞

could you please confirm that validated customers are included in this process (native login users moved to IAS)?

It will not be possible to adopt all the authentication changes for VSaaS in the b2005 release since it will require very sensitive code changes, so they will need to wait until the next upgrade or any further specific direction around this.  It applies to them of course, just on a separate timeline. Until then, validated customers can continue to leverage native login because it’s not until they’ve moved to a later codebase that it will be taken away.

According to this KBA, it seems that the Validated Learning Users could not use the IAS with b2005 release. So, my questions are:

- when the Validated Learning user will be able to use the IAS as authentication service for their native learning user? Will be there another patch prior the production release?

- in the meantime (I mean, after the b2005 production release), will be able to native learning user to login to learning as before?

Kind regards,

Maria Consiglia Farella

[Sany-Said]

@Maria Consiglia The native login of users to IAS will not be possible on the 2005 release, so VSaaS customers will be able to adopt this change in the 2021 upgrade release as per the blog.  The KBA language that you referenced above is correct that VSaaS customers will be able to utilize IAS in the 2021 release for native login directly to the LMS.

[Maria_Consiglia]

Hello @sany said 

Thank you for your reply. So, does it mean that Vsaas Learning users can continue to access through site or main native user login till the 2021 upgrade release?

Kind regards,

Maria Consiglia Farella

[BijuG]

Hi when the terminology changes will make effective in Validated LMS production environment ?  in Development environment it is already effective

Best Regards

Biju George 

+91 8805533445

[RM_C]

Hello @sany said ,

Thank you for your information always!

I would like to know about that 21 entries on What's New Viewer > Solution: Learning.

Are we able to test about all 21 entries since the first update on May 21st on Sandbox?

Or should we wait for the third update on Oct 21st to test all entries?

Sandbox was updated and will be updated as follows:

1. May 21st

2. August 6th

3. October 21st

I would like to be clear whether we are now able to test about all 21 entries on sandbox in order to schedule the CSV for VLMS b2005.

Regards,

Reiko

[EugeniaPedko]

Hi, @sany said! 

Please help me understand what we must validate now?

The client has a sandbox environment according to the plan, we have validation for this fall.

According to the information from the blog 2017 (https://blogs.sap.com/2017/08/17/successfactors-validated-lms-vlms/), I found that the sandbox is not validated and the next tenant Stage is validated. Is it so?

or do we validate the sandbox according to this note (https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2883614) and make a request for the following environments like Stage?
Or need to do sign off our Sandbox tenant and then according to the VSaaS 2020 Upgrade Schedule and Release Notes Update, we validate a Preview in 31 October 2020?

Do you have any information about how do sign off Sandbox? 

Thanks for any information. 

[Sany-Said]

All VSaaS environments are now able to be validated since we started providing IQ reports on all VSaaS tenants in 2016.  It is up to the each customer to implement the validation controls their process requires on the various environments they have, but at a minimum my experience has been that this is done on Preview and Production. Validating Sandbox and Pre-Prod/Training tenants is discretionary. 

[EugeniaPedko]

Thank you.
We have already done the request of the next tenants making and will validate Preview. 

[Ryan_Williams]

Thanks Sany.  It looks like the Prod release is scheduled for the 4th of December and that is on a Friday.  Generally outages are done over the weekend to allow for our validation testing and doesn't take down the system during weekdays which are generally high volume days.  Can you provide more specifics as to when the system will be down as far as dates and times?  Is there a way to ensure this can occur over the weekend to allow time for validation without taking down the system during the week?  Thanks.

[Sany-Said]

Hi Ryan, 

The refresh will occur Friday night into Saturday morning DC time (usually starts around 11pm that evening).  The official communication coming soon should carry the exact time for your specific environments.

[LMS1]

Hi Sany,

Kindly please let me know where we can find 1H2020p17 to 1H2020p26 release notes details. It has already upgraded in our sandbox environment on 21st Oct 2020.

Thanks & Regards

Rahul

[MJurkoic]

Hi Rahul,

Try this link:  https://help.sap.com/viewer/DRAFT/6cf8d380ad434bb9b3223038fd8d5cb6/2005/en-US

[MJurkoic]

Hi Rahul.

Try this link:  https://help.sap.com/viewer/DRAFT/6cf8d380ad434bb9b3223038fd8d5cb6/2005/en-US

[LMS1]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the update but I don't have access this link. I think it is draft version. Can you please provide me the downloaded file.

Thanks & Regards

Rahul

[PiotrPioro]

Hi Rahul,

all patch notes are already available here:

https://help.sap.com/viewer/6cf8d380ad434bb9b3223038fd8d5cb6/2005/en-US

Br,

Piotr

[LMS1]

Hi Piotr,

Thanks for the info but is it VSaaS learning details?

Thanks & regards

Rahul

[PiotrPioro]

hi Rahul,

according to SAP release schedule for vLMS 1H2020p26 will arrive in PROD on December 4th and all patch notes b2005p18, b2005p20, b2005p22, b2005p24, b2005p26 belong to the 1H2020p26 and we are testing it before it will be pushed into PROD.

Br,

Piotr

P.S. are you aware when the next release will available in 2021? was already an official schedule communicated to the validated customers? 

[Sany-Said]

Hi Everyone,

As announced we are patching to 2005p30 this weekend in sandbox and preview due to the UI issues many of you have raised. This will be cumulative with 2005p28 as well.  This means on Dec. 4 we will be upgrading to 2005p30, not 2005p26.  Please make note of this update!

Sany

[Dhruv]

Thanks for the update, Sany. Is there a release notes for the patch?

[Sany-Said]

Hi @Dhruv  @Rahul,

The patch notes link is consistent for every release and will get updated with the latest information. The link is also provided as part of your official notifications from SuccessFactors regarding the patch applications. Please remember patches are cumulative:

https://help.sap.com/viewer/6cf8d380ad434bb9b3223038fd8d5cb6/2005/en-US 

[MaryKatherineJ]

@sany said, We just received a communication saying that there would be an additional planned patch installed in our validated Sandbox and Stage environments this coming weekend of November 27 - 28.  I don't see anything new in the What's New viewer later than the UI issue fix in Patch 30 that is dated November 6. My environment shows that it has already received Patch 30.

Can you provide a link (or a list) that describes the changes being made to the system?  Is this the patch that will remove the Flash admin UI?  If yes, what other changes are being made?  Will the deprecated features finally be removed (like Organization Groups)?

Thanks for your help!

Mary Katherine

[Shivkumar_Lund]

The CAC states the following but it would be nice to have the patch dates and details, well in advance...

We are pleased to announce the database upgrade activity in-line with the release deployment to the Production environment. To facilitate your preparation for this SuccessFactors database maintenance, the below information provides details associated with your database’s upgrade

Shiv