In this blog series you will find quotes, backgrounds, suggested further readings and other information related to my latest book SAP HANA 2.0, An Introduction published by SAP Press. In this blog we cover updates, upgrades, and migration scenarios. Are you ready? Last Update: November 19: added SAP Note 2372809. |
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The Road Ahead
Clear Path to Plan
In a recent blog post, SAP HANA product management announced some minor changes to the end-of-maintenance schedule for SAP HANA. Basically, one month was added for the SAP HANA 1.0 SPS 12 release and two for SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 04 aligning both to end of June 2021. Time of writing, that's 9 months ahead: time to start planning the update or migrate to SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 05:
For the official communication, see SAP Notes
- 2378962 - SAP HANA 2.0 Revision and Maintenance Strategy
- 2021789 - SAP HANA 1.0 Revision and Maintenance Strategy
In these notes you also find the links to SAP Release Strategy and the SAP HANA Revision Strategy documents.
| The good news is that the SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 05 release, just like SAP HANA 1.0 SPS 12 in the past, is supported for 5 years until end of June 2025. |
A Strong Foundation
We already addressed the new features and highlights of the SPS 05 release in a previous blog but to summarise (leaving out the updates to the SAP HANA 2.0 cockpit administration tool), we can say that SPS 05 mainly provides enhancements to existing features. Capabilities introduced earlier are now marked ready for production like the local secure store (LSS) for master and encryption root keys with key store management (KMS) integration. Another example is the availability of the built-in data tiering feature native storage extensions (NSE) on multiple host systems (scale out).
Of course, when we zoom in we find interesting functionality added to features like SAP HANA Spatial and SAP HANA Graph. However, for the latest and greatest we can now also consider SAP HANA Cloud, database-as-a-service, which has been architected to complement SAP HANA platform on-premises and not to replace it: a single gateway to all your data.
In other words, SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 05 is not Pandora's box. No major new or re-architecturing as in the past with tenant databases and SAP HANA XS Advanced. Most functionality has already matured over one or more Support Package Packs and multiple revisions: a strong foundation for continued innovation.
Big Steps and Small Steps
Updates and Upgrades
In the spirit of CI/CD (continuous integration/continuous delivery, for those that have not take DevOps 101 yet), SAP HANA revisions are released at regular intervals; as often as every 5-6 weeks in the early days of the appliance although the pace has slowed down considerably since. Revisions contain security updates and corrections (bug fixes in the vocabulary of the developer) but no new functionality. When you are running SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 05 (revision 50, that is) and you install revision 51 this is considered as an update.
New features are introduced with support package stacks (SPS). To enjoy the new capabilities, you will need to upgrade, for example from SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 04 to the latest SPS 05 release. Technically, this is the same as an update as we are going from one revision to the next but as we now activate new functionality a bit more planning and testing comes into play. As a rule, you can update and upgrade your database from any revision but like with most rules there are some exceptions. Before performing an upgrade make sure to find our whether your system is the rule or the exception.
- 1948334 - SAP HANA Database Update Paths for SAP HANA Maintenance Revisions
- 2115815 - FAQ: SAP HANA Database Patches and Upgrades
Migrations
Besides updates and upgrades we also have migrations of course, which could be a little bit more complicated depending on where we are coming from and where we want to go. In some cases, we need to migrate as part of the upgrade. This concerns SAP HANA systems running on IBM Power Systems Big Endian distributions, for example, or when we switch from the SAP HANA XS classic model to advanced.
Migration is also on the agenda when we decide to change the database layer to SAP HANA, move the application stack to SAP S/4HANA, or want to say goodbye to the data center and move to the cloud. For database and application migrations, SAP has launched programs like the Database Migration Factory and S/4HANA Movement. SAP's cloud provider partners, the 'hyperscalers" have given cloud migration some thought as well. More on this below.
Plan Your Upgrade
To-Do List
When we upgrade from SAP HANA 1.0 to SAP HANA 2.0 we are looking at a major version change and this requires careful consideration and planning. Here are some of the required and optional steps.
Required
- Test, test, test
- Upgrade to latest CPU generation (recommended)
- Update the operating system
- Convert to tenant databases
- Verify backups support persistency changes
- Verify revision update path
Optional
- Migrate to SAP HANA XS Advanced
- Transition to SAP HANA Cockpit 2.0 or update SAP Solution Manager
- Install the EPM-MDS plugin
Even when the business applications remain as-is we need to thoroughly test the effect of the upgrade. SAP HANA 2.0 introduces many architectural changes which could impact performance or introduce side-effects. For the details and additional references (KBAs and Notes), see
- 2679360 - Central Note for Behavioral Changes in SAP HANA
- 2222219 - SAP HANA Errors and different Results due to Design Changes
The to do list comes from SAP Notes
- 2372809 - Mandatory Preparation Steps for Upgrading a SAP HANA 1 System to SAP HANA 2
- 2469025 - How-To: Upgrading to SAP HANA 2.0
- 2732756 - SAP HANA Platform Update and Migration from 1.0 to 2.0
See also the SAP HANA Master Guide
Hardware Upgrade
IBM Power Systems supports both the Big Endian (BE) and Little Endian (LE) architectures but a strategic decision was made by IBM and Red Hat / SUSE Linux to continue with LE only in the future. As a consequence, should you be running SAP HANA 1.0 on IBM Power Systems BE you need to migrate to LE.
Running the latest software version on older hardware rarely works out very well and SAP HANA is no exception. When you are running SAP HANA on Intel architecture you need to upgrade to at least Haswell, released in 2013 to succeed Ivy Bridge. After Haswell, Intel released Broadwell, Skylake, and Cascade Lake, which may perform even better.
Operating System Update
SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 05 requires the latest SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating systems releases. The optimised "for SAP Applications" editions of the OS are highly recommended.
- RHEL 8.1 (7.7) for SAP Applications / SAP HANA
- SLES 15 SP1 (12 SP5) for SAP Applications
For the recommended settings and additional information, see
- 2777782 - SAP HANA DB: Recommended OS Settings for RHEL 8
- 2684254 - SAP HANA DB: Recommended OS settings for SLES 15 / SLES for SAP Applications 1
- 2235581 - SAP HANA: Supported Operating Systems
Tenant Databases (fka MDC)
In the original SAP HANA architecture each system (SID) hosted a single database. SPS 09 (2014) introduced the multitenant database container (MDC) architecture with each system hosting a system database and one or more tenant databases. Another 3 years laters with SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 01 (2017), this architecture was promoted to the default and only supported one.
When upgrading from SAP HANA 1.0 you will need to make a system conversion. This is a simple operation using the HDBLCM database lifecycle management tool. However, operating procedures will need to be updated as well to include system database backups, firewall reconfiguration for additional port ranges, etc.
Besides the changes introduced with tenant databases (the term MDC is no longer used), there are also other changes in the metadata persistence layer and the column store persistence format which may invalidate older backups. Here as well: test, test, test.
XS Advanced
We have already covered the XS Advanced / Cloud Foundry topic in much detail elsewhere in a blog, no need to repeat ourselves here, but in short with SAP HANA 1.0 SPS 11 (2015) a new architecture was added for the built-in application development and runtime environment SAP HANA extended application services, SAP HANA XS in short. Although this new architecture had nothing in common with the initial version, the decision was made to keep the same name and tag the architectures as "model": XS advanced (XSA) and XS classic (XSC) model.
- Cloud Foundry and SAP
- Developing Applications in a Multicloud Environment
- 2596466 - FAQ: SAP HANA XS advanced
For SAP HANA 2.0, XSA is the default framework for application development while XSC and the associated SAP HANA Repository and SAP HANA Studio IDE have been marked as deprecated. Deprecated means that the software is no longer included in the next major release, which is the case for SAP HANA Cloud. Deprecated does not mean it is no longer supported. It is perfectly fine to continue using SAP HANA XS classic apps and the SAP HANA studio with SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 05 until at least end of June 2025.
For this reason, XSA is an optional upgrade consideration: It is up to you. However, should you want to continue working with your XS classic apps after 2025, you should at some point think about XS app migration. The good news is that there is a well-documented Migration Guide and a Migration Assistant to automate most of the migration.
- 2396214 - Transition to SAP HANA Extended Services Advanced and SAP HANA Cockpit
- SAP HANA XS Advanced Migration Guide
- SAP HANA Graphical Modeling View Migration
SAP HANA Cockpit 2.0
As SAP HANA Cockpit supports both SAP HANA 1.0 and 2.0 releases we can be short about this topic as most enterprises have already implemented this tool to administrate their SAP HANA database landscapes. SAP HANA cockpit is also the tool used (as-a-service) for SAP HANA Cloud resulting in a close to zero learning curve for hybrid and multicloud administration.
- SAP HANA Cockpit 2.0 Installation and Update – by the SAP HANA Academy
- SAP HANA Cloud Administration: What’s New (and Changed)
In case you prefer to use SAP Solution Manager, some updates and configuration changes are required.
You could, if you wanted, continue to use the SAP HANA Studio Administration perspective for system administration except that for all functionality introduced after SAP HANA 1.0 SPS 12 (2016) you would need to use the SQL Console as there is no corresponding user interface available to administrate user groups, native storage extensions, certificates, SAML and JWT providers, etc., etc. (the list is long).
EPM-MDS and InA
The InformationAccess or InA service was conceived back in the days to enable web client access to SAP HANA models for analytic clients over HTTP/S. It leverages the XS classic architecture and is no longer included with SAP HANA 2.0 by default. To enable this functionality you need to install the plugin for EPM-MDS (Enterprise Performance Management - Multidimensional Services).
Installing the plugin is easy. Making it work can be a little less obvious in particular when reverse proxy, CORS, and SameSite updates are involved but there are video tutorial series that explain exactly what needs to be done.
Migrations
Should the upgrade inspire you for more ambitious projects, here are some pointers with additional information.
Database Migration
As soon as SAP NetWeaver Application Server (AS) ABAP was powered by SAP HANA, tools became available to facilitate database migration from anyDB to SAP HANA, specifically the Database Migration Option (DMO) of the Software Update Manager (SUM), part of the Software Logistics toolset.
- Database Migration Option (DMO) of SUM – Introduction by boris.rubarth
Database Migration Factory
More recent and broader in scope, SAP also launched the Database Migration Factory program. This includes not only custom and ISV applications running on anyDB but also Sybase and SAP business applications. The service offering includes the Advanced SQL Migration tool.
- SAP Database Migration Factory
- Set your databases free! — with SAP Advanced SQL Migration by javier_martin
Application Migration: Move to S/4HANA | Cloud
In case the focus is on migrating your vintage SAP ERP or SAP Business Suite system to latest-and-greatest, state-of-the-art SAP S/4HANA or SAP S/4HANA Cloud, you can join the S/4HANA movement.
Move to SAP HANA Cloud
In case you are considering to say goodbye to your data center, at least for running SAP HANA on-premises, you could migrate to SAP HANA Cloud, database-as-a-service. This also applies if you are running SAP HANA inside a virtual machine (VM) in the data center of a public cloud provider and even, and this may come as a surprise, in case you were an early adopter of the SAP HANA Service. For some scenarios, a migration service and tooling is (becoming) available. For more information about migrations to SAP HANA Cloud, see
https://youtu.be/6YIENPf8SiM
Lift-Shift-and-Tinker
Should you consider to go all the way into cloud computing and want some advice about migration patterns, the 6Rs, and whether to lift-and-shift or lift-tinker-and-shift, here is some guidance from our cloud provider partners.
- Microsoft Cloud Operating Model & SAP on Azure Migration Scenarios by
chthe - Migrating SAP HANA to AWS: Patterns for AWS Migrations
- SAP on Google Cloud: Migration strategies
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Over the years, for the SAP HANA Academy, SAP’s Partner Innovation Lab, and à titre personnel, I have written a little over 300 posts here for the SAP Community. Some articles only reached a few readers. Others attracted quite a few more. For your reading pleasure and convenience, here is a curated list of posts which somehow managed to pass the 10k-view mile stone and, as sign of current interest, still tickle the counters each month. |
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