On-Premise Software
2.1. Release and Maintenance Strategy for On-Premise Software
With the successful conclusion of the SAP Ramp-Up program, the unrestricted shipment phase of an SAP release begins on the general availability (GA) date (see Figure 9). During the unrestricted shipment phase, the release is available to all customers.
The most recent release in the unrestricted shipment phase is declared the default release.
When ordering an SAP software product, customers receive the default release unless a different release in mainstream maintenance is explicitly specified.
During the maintenance period of a release, support releases may be offered that contain all previously available support packages in order to facilitate and expedite implementation and upgrade projects.
figure 9: Shipment Phases
Number of customers
Restricted ship ment
phase (ramp-up) Unrestricted shipment phase
Time General
availability Release-to- date
customer Beta date
shipment
2.1. Release and Maintenance Strategy for
On-Premise Software
2.1.3. MAInTEnAnCE STRATEgY RuLES
figure 10: nine-Year Maintenance Cycle for an SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform Release family
Major
SAP BusinessObjects BI platform release x.0 Minor
SAP BusinessObjects BI platform release x.1 Minor
SAP BusinessObjects BI platform release x.2 SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence (BI)
platform release family
End of mainstream maintenance of last release of a family Start of restricted shipment
(release-to-customer date) of the first release of a family
End of priority-one support of last release of a family
≥2 years SAP SCM, and SAP SRM)
At least seven years of mainstream maintenance are provided for core application releases.49
SAP NetWeaver technology platform Maintenance dates for SAP NetWeaver releases are aligned with the maintenance dates for the core application releases.50
Enhancement packages Maintenance dates for enhancement packages follow the underlying release.
SAP BusinessObjects BI platform release family
The following maintenance durations apply for every release family of the SAP BusinessObjects BI platform:
• Seven years of mainstream maintenance
• Two years of priority-one support
Mainstream maintenance begins with the release-to-customer date for the major release and covers any subsequent minor releases in the release family that might be shipped (see Figure 10).
Each release in a release family has a mainstream maintenance period of at least two years after the start of restricted shipment for that release.
As soon as a new release enters unrestricted shipment, the previous release is maintained for at least one more year.
At the end of the seven years of mainstream maintenance, priority-one support begins for the last shipped release within a release family. The last release closes the nine-year maintenance cycle for this release family.
48. SAP PLM is part of, and shipped with, SAP ERP or corresponding enhancement packages and follows the maintenance durations of the relevant SAP ERP software releases and enhancement packages.
49. For core application releases shipped between 2004 and November 2008, maintenance phases have the following durations: five years of mainstream maintenance, one year of extended maintenance at an additional 2% fee, and two years of extended maintenance at an additional 4% fee.
50. Note for SAP NetWeaver 7.0: Mainstream maintenance for ABAP components will be extended through December 2020 and for Java components (also including dual stacks) until December 2017. Details and restrictions of the maintenance extension in regard to Java
components of SAP NetWeaver 7.0 and its enhancement packages as well as application releases based on or containing these components are described in SAP Note 1648480 (https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1648480; Logon requires user name and password;
new users can register at www.service.sap.com/request-user).
2.1. Release and Maintenance Strategy for
On-Premise Software
Type of Application Maintenance Strategy Rules Add-on software products (based on,
for example, core applications, SAP NetWeaver; or an SAP BusinessObjects BI platform release)
Maintenance dates for add-on software product versions are aligned with the maintenance dates for the release they are based on.
For some add-on software products, several subsequent releases are planned to be provided for the same underlying release. In this case, the maintenance period of the release sequence covers the entire maintenance period of the underlying release (see example in Figure 11), specifically:
• Maintenance dates for the last release of the sequence are aligned with the maintenance dates for the underlying release.
• All other releases within the sequence may have shorter mainstream maintenance than the underlying release (but at least two years) and do not offer extended maintenance or priority-one support.
Other stand-alone software products (including stand-alone software products from Sybase)
Other stand-alone software product versions offer at least two years of main-stream maintenance.
Content shipments A specific release may be supported by one or more content shipments from SAP.
Maintenance dates for those content shipments are aligned with the maintenance dates of the supported SAP software release.
A content shipment may deliver a sequence of releases supporting a specific SAP release. When it does, the maintenance period for the release sequence covers the entire maintenance period of the release that the content shipment supports and the following rules apply:
• Maintenance end dates for the last release in the sequence are aligned with the maintenance end dates of the supported SAP software release.
• All other releases within the sequence may have shorter maintenance periods, and there is no extended maintenance or priority-one support.
• All releases within a sequence have maintenance durations of at least one year.
figure 11: Sample Release Sequence with Maintenance Durations for an Add-On Release if Extended Maintenance Is Offered for the underlying Release
Sample release sequence of a specific add-on application based on SAP NetWeaver
SAP NetWeaver main release
Mainstream maintenance Extended maintenance Customer-specific maintenance
1.1 1.2 1.3
Aligned ends of mainstream maintenance
Aligned ends of extended maintenance Time
≥ 2 years
≥ 1 year
2.1. Release and Maintenance Strategy for
On-Premise Software
51. Note that the overall mainstream maintenance period is valid for all minor releases within a major release. Discontinuation of maintenance for the preceding release only refers to the fact that no corrections or new functionalities will be delivered anymore in the preceding release. Standard support is offered throughout the whole mainstream maintenance period.
52. Discontinuation of maintenance for the preceding release only refers to the fact that no corrections or new functionalities will be delivered anymore in the preceding software release. Standard support offerings remain unchanged.
Type of Application Maintenance Strategy Rules SAP Business One stand-alone and
add-on software products We provide at least five years of mainstream maintenance for SAP Business One and related add-on software products.
With regard to the SAP Business One release family, the five-year mainstream maintenance period begins with the general availability date of the major release (for example, 8.8) and covers any subsequent minor releases (for example, 8.81 and 8.82) of the release family in question (see Figure 12). The following conditions apply:
• As soon as a new release within an SAP Business One release family has passed the general availability date, the maintenance of the preceding release is discontinued.51
• Extended maintenance is not offered for SAP Business One releases and applications.
As of the software release 2.3, the maintenance duration per remote support platform release will be limited to at least one year, starting with the general availability date. As soon as a new remote support platform for an SAP Business One release has passed the general availability date, the maintenance of the preceding release is discontinued.52
SAP HANA software products SAP HANA appliance software products are in mainstream maintenance as long as the application releases that are built on SAP HANA are in mainstream maintenance, extended maintenance, or priority-one support.
Downward-compatible software
components Downward-compatible software component versions can be replaced by a higher version in the course of the life of the software product version they are built into.
Therefore, such software component versions are usually not maintained for the entire maintenance period of the software product version they are built into.
Examples:
• SAP kernel; see SAP Note 787302
• SAP GUI; see SAP Note 147519
figure 12: five-Year Maintenance Cycle for an SAP Business One Release family
End of mainstream maintenance of last release of a family Start of unrestricted shipment (default
release date) of the first release of a family
Mainstream maintenance GA General availability
SAP Business One release family
Major
SAP Business One release x.0 Minor
SAP Business One release x.1 Minor
SAP Business One release x.2
At least 5 years GA
GA
GA
2.1. Release and Maintenance Strategy for
On-Premise Software
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54. Including service packs for SAP BusinessObjects BI releases.
2.1.4. MAInTEnAnCE STRATEgY ExCEPTIOnS In exceptional cases, specific software releases can be exempted from the SAP maintenance strategy. For exceptions to the maintenance strategy, mainstream maintenance is defined individually and there is no extended mainte-nance or priority-one support. The exceptions list is available on SAP Service Marketplace at www.service.sap.com/maintenance53 under Maintenance Strategy Exceptions to Mainte-nance Strategy Rules, and may be amended from time to time without notice. Note that these exceptions never apply to core application releases and their enhancement packages or to the main releases of SAP NetWeaver and releases of the SAP NetWeaver Composition Environment offering.
SAP cannot support third-party software after the suppliers’ support has expired. In such cases, customers may have to upgrade to more recent releases of the respective third-party software, provided those releases are supported by the release of the SAP software in question.
2.1.5. MAInTEnAnCE PHASES
There are four distinct maintenance phases:
mainstream maintenance, priority-one support, extended maintenance, and customer-specific maintenance.
Mainstream Maintenance
Mainstream maintenance is offered for all SAP software releases. Mainstream maintenance begins with the restricted shipment phase and continues throughout the unrestricted shipment phase. We usually provide corrections for the entire mainstream maintenance period, such as:
• SAP Notes – Instructions on how to remove known errors from SAP software; includes a description of the symptoms and the cause of the error, as well as the SAP release in which the error occurs and support package level in which the error is corrected.
• Support packages54 – Bundle of software corrections available for all SAP software development environments (for example, ABAP® and Java programming languages).
Support packages may include legal changes.
• Support package stacks – Sets of support packages and patches for the respective software release that must be used in the given combination. Support package stacks should be seen as an entity in themselves; customers must heed the minimum requirements and dependencies between individual components and apply the support packages and patches specified in the support package stack together.
Maintenance shipments for SAP Business One releases include patches, which deliver correc-tions, and “hot fixes," which are urgent single corrections.
2.1. Release and Maintenance Strategy for
On-Premise Software
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56. Logon requires user name and password; new users can register at www.service.sap.com/request-user.
For releases for which we provide enhancement packages, technology updates will be provided for the latest three enhancement packages and support packages will be provided at least for the last enhancement package that is in the unrestricted shipment phase.
We strongly recommend regular application of support package stacks at least once a year.
If enhancement packages are offered for a soft-ware product, we recommend that customers apply the most recent support package stacks regularly, including the latest enhancement package in the unrestricted shipment phase (see Figure 13). The advantage is that you get the most recent corrections and legal changes within one project and are furthermore enabled to activate new functionality flexibly.
SAP security notes contain expert advice from SAP regarding important action items and patches to improve the security of SAP customer systems. Security patches are made available each month on “SAP Security Patch Day.”
For details and the SAP Security Patch Day schedule, see SAP Service Marketplace at www.service.sap.com/securitynotes55 ➝ SAP Security Patch Day.
Additional information, a list of supported releases, and the current support package stacks are available in the support package stacks section of SAP Service Marketplace at
www.service.sap.com/sp-stacks.56 Priority-One Support
After the end of mainstream maintenance for releases that are not based on SAP NetWeaver, we offer priority-one support for selected releases of the former Business Objects portfolio. During priority-one support, the scope of support is limited to the handling of priority-one messages only – for example, there will be no message handling for messages with medium priority. Priority-one support is an optional offering giving our customers more flexibility in deciding on the right time for an upgrade. Priority-one support does not require an additional payment or a specific maintenance addendum. Depending on the type of the cus-tomer’s support contract, the switch to priority-one support will occur during the renewal period or the customer will receive priority-one support by default if continuing to run a release during its priority-one support period.
Enhancement package x+2 Enhancement package x+1
Enhancement package x Time
GA GA
GA
figure 13: Recommended update Path for Enhancement Packages
Mainstream maintenance General availability (GA)
Recommended update path
2.1. Release and Maintenance Strategy for
On-Premise Software
Extended Maintenance
Extended maintenance is offered for selected SAP releases. The scope of support for the extended maintenance period is usually similar to the scope of support provided during main-stream maintenance. We publish information on the availability and scope of extended mainte-nance in advance. Extended maintemainte-nance can be ordered by completing an easy-to-use form in the maintenance section of SAP Service Marketplace at www.service.sap.com/maintenance.57
Customer-Specific Maintenance
Customer-specific maintenance is offered for all SAP releases except for SAP Business One and some releases from the former Business Objects portfolio. Software deployed at the customer’s site can enter into the customer-specific mainte-nance phase in one of three ways:
• The customer’s extended maintenance contract term ends.
• The mainstream maintenance period ends, and extended maintenance is not offered.
• The mainstream maintenance period ends, and extended maintenance is offered, but the customer does not choose to take advantage of the offer.
A release enters into customer-specific mainte-nance automatically. There is no need to apply for an additional contract. During this phase, cus-tomers receive support services similar to those offered in the mainstream maintenance phase,
with some restrictions. For example, we do not deliver new support packages or updates to cover legal changes, and technology updates are limited. Problem resolution is customer specific, which means customers are charged for solving problems not yet known to SAP. For more infor-mation, see SAP Note 1648480 or the mainte-nance section on SAP Service Marketplace at www.service.sap.com/maintenance.58
2.1.6. uPgRADE
We provide upgrade paths for SAP releases and the corresponding content releases and access to upgrade procedures to the current release.
Usually customers can upgrade directly from one release to any other subsequent SAP release as long as the releases are in the mainstream maintenance phase. Depending on technological constraints, an upgrade to a release that is several releases removed from a customer’s current release may have to be performed in more than one step.
To facilitate smooth upgrades, we provide a sufficient overlap of two successive releases to make sure that the time in which customers can upgrade from one release to the next is at least one year for SAP software releases.59 For content releases, the overlap is at least six months. This is so that you have a sufficient window of opportunity to upgrade from one release to the next.
57. Logon requires user name and password; new users can register at www.service.sap.com/request-user.
58. Logon requires user name and password; new users can register at www.service.sap.com/request-user.
59. An exception applies to SAP Business One releases. Details can be found in section 2.1.3. “Maintenance Strategy Rules.”
2.1. Release and Maintenance Strategy for
On-Premise Software
2.1.7. InTEgRATIOn
Our release strategy supports integration between SAP software releases. Integration is the prerequisite for stable cross-application functionality and offers maximum flexibility for continuous improvement.
The first release of an SAP software product can be integrated with a defined set of releases of other SAP software products. A follow-up release usually supports at least the same set as its predecessor as long as the releases within this set are in mainstream maintenance, extended maintenance, or priority-one support:
• Functionality supporting the customer’s current business scenarios will be available after an upgrade of an SAP software product. Details and exceptions are indicated within the master guides available from SAP Service Marketplace, the migration guide, or the release notes.
• To take full advantage of new or enhanced functionality that extends support for the customer’s business scenarios and broadens their scope, customers may be required to upgrade more than one SAP software product within their application landscape. Typically, customers need to upgrade only the SAP software products that deliver the new or enhanced functionality.
In terms of compatibility, the following rules apply for content shipments from SAP:
• An upgrade of an SAP release usually requires an upgrade of the corresponding content shipments.
• After an upgrade of the underlying SAP
NetWeaver or SAP Solution Manager software product, all functionality supporting customers’
business scenarios that was available and sup-ported by a specific content release will still be running – and previously activated objects or custom objects will continue to work as before.
2.1.8. PRODuCT AvAILABILITY MATRIx
Through the product availability matrix on SAP Service Marketplace, we regularly publish the following information about SAP releases:
• Release type (standard release, early adoption release, pilot release, standard-related custom development project release, or custom devel-opment project release)
• Availability
• Maintenance durations
• Upgrade paths
• Platform availability, including database platforms and operating systems
For more information, see the product
availability matrix on SAP Service Marketplace at www.service.sap.com/pam.60
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