ECC 6/MS Windows Server 2008/SQL Server 2008 Upgrade

Question

I am working with a client who wishes to do an ECC upgrade from ECC 5 to ECC 6.  They also wish to upgrade the Op System from Windows Server 2003 to Windows Server 2008; and the database from MS SQL 2005 to MS SQL 2008.
My proposal is to Upgrade ECC, then the Op System then the DB in each environment before moving forward.  We would do the first upgrade in Sandbox to determine timing, issues, etc.  We would create a production support path to be used during the project, then start the upgrades Dev-QA-Prod.
The client has said that this is a risky approach and that SAP recommends a 2 step process, that is, upgrade ECC 6 thru all environments and then go back and do the Op Sys and Db upgrades afterward.
In my mind my approach is less risky as we will ensure each environment is clean and functioning smoothly before moving forward; there is less intrusion to the end user; testing is only accomplished once in each environment.  The actual production build would be split over 2 weekends, app upgrade first then op sys and db.
The assistance I need to understand isu2026.does SAP have a recommendation in this case?  I have not seen anything that says not to do the single step process I am recommending.
Thanks for any support you can provide.

Answer 1

Hi,
If SAP is recomending that is because They recomends not to "mix" upgrades with any other process like Heterogeneous system copies, DB upgrades, etc. In fact this is in the upgrade guides. But I think like some others here has already writen, that you could upgrade and change OS and SQL server in two different steps but in the same process so the downtime will be longer but it will be only one.
Of course this will depend on how long your upgrade downtime will take because usually the upgrade could take 7 hours more or less, post upgrade tasks, export task (R3load), change OS and SQL server if not using different HW, import task and post copy tasks.
What is the maximun downtime your client is ready to tolerate? If you have a whole weekend beginning from friday afternoon and ending Monday morning probably you will have enough time to do all in one weekend but again, it will depend on your tests. Why don´t you talk to your client and tell them if they have new HW already for this project to do a Prod copy in one of those servers as part of the whole project and take the times you will need. Then with that in perspective you could decide what approach is better.
With some upgrades done under my belt to different clients I don´t assure anything until I do a test upgrade including all changes (os or DB) necesary to finish time schedules, then with that in mind then we can redefine the way we will use and we make that clear before the beginning of the project. I always tell them that it is better to do a test like this if they don´t have much available downtime, the project will take longer but for sure the Production downtime will be shorter.