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Did you stumble across the fact that after installing Enhancement Package 6 for SAP ERP 6.0
(from which you know that it is based on Enhancement Package 3 for SAP NetWeaver 7.0)
the system/status information of your SAP ERP - ECC server shows components with version 7.31?
Let us have a short review on how this happened



SAP R/3 was easy

The application and the basis components all were in one system, installed together, and they all had the same version
like the product: product version SAP R/3 4.6 used software component version SAP BASIS 4.6 as well as software
component versions SAP HR 4.6 and SAP APPL 4.6, see figure 1.
Only a part of all software components are shown in this and the following figures.



Nowadays it is more complex

A product like SAP ERP (successor of SAP R/3) is based on a SAP NetWeaver version, for example SAP ERP 6.0 is
based on SAP NetWeaver 7.0. And both the application as well as SAP NetWeaver use enhancement packages, like
Enhancement Package 04 for SAP ERP 6.0 is based on Enhancement Package 01 for SAP NetWeaver 7.0. And they
are bound to each other: EHP 4 for SAP ERP 6.0 requires EHP 1 for SAP NetWeaver 7.0.
The software components seemed always to follow the numbering of the product: SAP HR 6.04 belongs to
Enhancement Package 4 for SAP ERP 6.0, just like SAP BASIS 7.01 belongs to Enhancement Package 01 for SAP
NetWeaver 7.0, see figure 2.
Why SAP ERP 6.0 EHP6 contains SAP BASIS 7.31
Posted by Boris Rubarth in Software Logistics on Dec 21, 2012 11:15:48 AM
Share 9 21 Like



Correlating software component versions with product versions

So it seems conclusive to inspect the software component versions of an SAP system to deduce the product version. If
you see SAP BASIS 7.02, you know that it is part of the Enhancement Package 2 for SAP NetWeaver 7.0. And if you
see this in an SAP ERP - ECC server, you may know that it is based on Enhancement Package 5 for SAP ERP 6.0 (if
you know about the correlation of "NW 7.0 EHP2 <-> ECC 6.0 EHP5").
But then, as stated at the beginning of the blog: EHP 6 for SAP ERP 6.0 is different: the SAP ERP - ECC server is using
software component versions SAP BASIS 7.31, SAP ABA 7.31 and others - instead of 7.03, as you may have expected.
Indeed, these software components do not have a version 7.03! SAP has consolidated some software components, and
as a result, an SAP NetWeaver 7.31 Application Server ABAP uses the same software component version SAP BASIS
7.31 as a system based on Enhancement Package 3 for SAP NetWeaver 7.0. Figure 3 shows this for some software
components in a comparison for EHP6 for SAP ERP 6.0 and EHP1 for SAP BW 7.3.


Digging deeper

This discrepancy between software component version and product versions is not new: let us have a look at software
component SAP HR: it does not have a version 6.05, so you may have detected this already with Enhancement
Package 5 for SAP ERP 6.0. Figure 4 shows both EHP5 and EHP6 for SAP ERP 6.0.


Figure 4 now includes more software components - but still not all. Now when you update your SAP ERP 6.0, you may
select only some of all the technical usages. If you select only these that do not require software component EA-DIMP,
this software component will not be updated to the new version. That is why figure 4 shows the software component
ECC-DIMP with version 6.00.



Evolution of code lines for software component SAP BASIS

Let us focus on one prominent software component of the foundation of each ABAP system: SAP BASIS. After SAP
NetWeaver 7.0 was released, the code line of SAP BASIS 7.0 was split. On the one hand, this allowed faster innovation
for technology solutions like SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (PI), based on SAP BASIS 7.1, 7.11 and above (until
7.3). At the same time, the SAP Business Suite based applications like SAP ERP had the requirement of a stable core.
This lead to the code line 7.0, 7.01, and 7.02.
Meanwhile SAP has reached a high degree of interoperability between SAP Business Suite based application systems
(like SAP ERP) and SAP NetWeaver based technology systems (like PI). So it was possible to merge the two code lines
back into one and this one had to be named 7.31.

Read more

Part 2 of this blog is now available: SAP versioning, part 2 (why EHP7 contains SAP APPL 6.17)
Read SAP Note 1566412 for a mapping between technical usages and software component versions for SAP
ERP
Overview on SAP Business Suite releases: Confused with different SAP Business Suite Releases ?? Read it !!
Not completely up to date, but worth reading: SAP product naming confusion
Learn details about product instances and Funtionally Equivalent Instances
Understanding Landscape Descriptions Part II: Products and Product Instances in Detail
Learn about the Software Update Manager (SUM) that replaces the Enhancement Package Installer (EhpI):
Software Update Manager (SUM): introducing the tool for software maintenance

Remarks
This blog intends to make you aware of the fact that product versions and software component versions have their own
numbering - it still simplifies the picture. Figure 5 for example does only focus on the ABAP stack of SAP NetWeaver
Process Integration (PI), although PI used to be a dual-stack, running a Java stack with java software components as
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well. Code line 7.20 (listed in brackets in figure 5) was only used for products based on the SAP NetWeaver Application
Server Java, like Composition Environment (CE).

Regards, Boris Rubarth
[Product Management Software Logistic, SAP AG]
22393 Views Categories: System Upgrade & Update
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32 Comments
Like (0)
Srinivas Kakarla Dec 21, 2012 11:38 AM
Thanks Boris, this is good information and in-depth explanation.

As usual you rocks !!
Like (0)
Arun Kumar Jan 7, 2013 8:24 AM
Hi Boris,
This is really useful


Regards
Arun
Like (0)
James Blair Jan 10, 2013 3:47 AM
Hi Boris,

thanks for the useful information. One questions though.

What is the difference then between Netweaver 7.03 and Netweaver 7.31? If they share all the same
product versions (or is it just SAP_BASIS and SAP_ABA?), why is it necessary to differentiate the
netweaver version number? Why not just say ERP6 EHP6 <==> NetWeaver 7.31?

Cheers,
James
Like (1)
Boris Rubarth Jan 10, 2013 9:45 AM (in response to James Blair)
Hi James,

as you assume, they (*) do not share all the same software component versions, mainly
SAP_BASIS and SAP_ABA (and few others) - but SAP NetWeaver has much more
components - especially the java stack!
You may also have a look at the overview presentation "Technolgy Facts" that is offered in
SAP Service Marketplace, quick link /businesssuite (direct link to the PDF), on page 22.

Cheers, Boris

(*) "they" means: "Enhancement Package 3 for SAP NetWeaver 7.0" (aka NW 7.03) and
"Enhancement Package 1 for SAP NetWeaver 7.3" (aka NW 7.31)
Tom Cenens Feb 21, 2013 3:38 PM
Hi Boris

Interesting information in this blog post and thanks for mentioning my "old" blog post.

I'll look into editing it to format it a bit better again (SCN migration messed up the formatting).

All the versioning is still very confusing for many .

Best regards

Like (0)
Tom
Like (0)
Boris Rubarth Feb 21, 2013 3:52 PM (in response to Tom Cenens)
Hi Tom,

fine, looking forward for your "updated" blog!
What is your release number strategy for the blog, 1.07b?

Best regards,
Boris
Like (0)
S BASIS Mar 13, 2013 11:44 AM (in response to Boris Rubarth)
Hi Bris,

Nice blog..... It's solve my lots of confusion regarding SAP Product, Product version
etc...

My query is:-

1) What's Difference between SAP ERP 6.0 and ECC 6.0, If SAP ERP is Product
then Is SAP ECC a s/w component or component version. In my system SAP ECC
is shown as COMPONENT VERSION & sap_aba, sap_basis, finbasis, SAP_HR,
SAP_appl, IS-cWM etc as SOFTWARE COMPONENTS

2) Correlation of "NW 7.0 EHP2 <-> ECC 6.0 EHP5". What does it mean->
Enhancement Package 04 for SAP ERP 6.0 is based on Enhancement Package 01
for SAP NetWeaver 7.0 ?

3) Are EHP4 FOR SAP ERP 6.0 and EHP4 FOR SAP ERP 6.0 / NW7.01 different
terms?

Please help...

Thanks
Sumit
Like (0)
Boris Rubarth Mar 13, 2013 5:56 PM (in response to S BASIS)
Hi Sumit,

thank you for the feedback, and for the questions:

1) SAP ERP is the solution that spans across several systems, like Portal,
and "SAP ERP Central Component" = ECC server. But the word
"component" is used in different contexts: ECC is not a software
component: ECC is an installation option, and it contains several software
components like the ones you listed: SAP_ABA, SAP_BASIS, and many
others.

2) correct:
ECC 6.0 EHP5 is always based on SAP NetWeaver 7.0 EHP 2, and
ECC 6.0 EHP4 is always based on SAP NetWeaver 7.0 EHP 1, and
ECC 6.0 EHP6 is always based on SAP NetWeaver 7.0 EHP 3.
Implementation of an EHP for ECC includes applying an SAP NetWeaver
EHP (starting with ECC EHP 4).

3) "EHP4 for SAP ERP 6.0" is the same as "EHP4 for SAP ERP 6.0 / NW
7.01", when you refer to the ABAP "parts" like the SAP ECC server - as
stated in answer 2).

Hope that helps, kind regards, Boris
S BASIS Mar 15, 2013 7:14 AM (in response to Boris Rubarth)
Hi Boris,

Thankyou for your response. But there is still a little confusion on
ERP6.0 & ECC6.0. If you see below screenshot of market place,
I can see SAP ERP6.0 after SAP ECC 5.0



Like (0)


Thanks
Sumit
Like (0)
Boris Rubarth Mar 28, 2013 2:09 PM (in response to S
BASIS)
Hi Sumit,

"mySAP ERP 2004" is equivalent to "SAP ERP 5.0",
(although this was not an official renaming).

Having this in mind, the hierarchy is consistent:
SAP ERP
-> SAP ERP 6.0
-> SAP ERP 5.0
-> -> SAP ECC 5.0

Kind regards, Boris
Like (0)
S BASIS Mar 16, 2013 3:01 PM (in response to
Boris Rubarth)
Hello Boris,

I have taken these screenshot from SAP
market place, can you check from your end
also?




Regards
Sumit
Like (0)
Boris Rubarth Mar 28, 2013 2:06 PM (in response to S
BASIS)
Hello Sumit,

yes, unfortunately the official name for "SAP ERP 5.0"
is still "mySAP ERP 2004", that is why this name is
listed in the SAP Service Marketplace. I see that name
as well when I navigate to the download area.

Regards, Boris
Like (0)
Federico Galban Mar 20, 2013 1:48 PM
Hello,

I'm a BW Consultant and I am interesting to know the impact we could have from the BW side. Our
ERP is going from SAPKW70020 to SAPKW73105 for the SAP_BW component.
Do you know where I can read information about what is changing regarding datasources, BI content,
and extraction?
I really appreciate your help.
Federico
Boris Rubarth Mar 28, 2013 9:16 AM (in response to Federico Galban)
Hello Federico,

sorry to tell you that I am not a BW expert, and this blog is not discussing BW topics in
particular. The usual answer is to search in SCN for related blogs and other resources. I did
Like (0)
that and found the following blog that may be a good starting point:
Basic features of BW 7.3 compared to BW 7.0

Kind regards, Boris
Like (0)
S BASIS Mar 28, 2013 4:17 AM
Hello Boris,

Steps I followed to enter in market place:-

service.sap.com->Software downloads->Installations and Upgrades->Installation and Upgrade Guides-
>SAP Business Suite Applications->SAP ERP


Thanks
Sumit
Like (0)
Balint Biermann May 3, 2013 12:17 PM
Very good, very clear.
Like (0)
Akshay Gupta May 3, 2013 1:57 PM
Hello Boris,

Very meticulously explained.
I always kept on wondering the catch behind such numberings 600 --> 604 --> 605 then 700 --> 701 -->
702 --> 703 --> --> 730 --> 731.

I thought it was always going to be a inside SAP story forever, but overwhelmed to know what
happened actually. Especially "Evolution of Code lines for Software Component SAP BASIS"
settled all the dust .

Candidly guessing, how would this be evolving onwards Netweaver 7.40?
I believe SAP Netweaver 7.40 Business Warehouse is due releasing this May.
How does the Netweaver Base look like in Release 7.40?
"SAP_BASIS 740" / Or there is another story behind the future road-map of Netweaver, if you could
candidly share .

Regards,
Akshay.
Like (1)
Boris Rubarth May 3, 2013 2:46 PM (in response to Akshay Gupta)
Hello Akshay,

thank you for the feedback.

Indeed, SAP NetWeaver 7.4 is on it's way ... are things becoming simpler?
Yes, AS ABAP 7.4 is based on Software Component Version SAP BASIS 7.40 (and uses
SAP Kernel 7.40, as of SAP NetWeaver 7.4 SP02). Wow, that is easy! See also blog from
Bjoern Goerke The simple things in life...

Is there another story behind ... ? Well, I'll be updating this blog soon with details, watch out

Regards, Boris
Like (0)
Akshay Gupta May 4, 2013 7:16 AM (in response to Boris Rubarth)
Hello Boris,

Much thanks for the info.
Yes, actually things have become a lot simpler, and I wanted to mention it in my
previous comment .i.e. SWPM & SUM have made life a lot easier now, 2 Master
pack(s) for installation and 1 for maintenance is really flattering, instead for every x
tool which used to be product/component specific for life-cycle maintenance

Looking forward to more such in-depth informational blogs.

Regards,
Akshay.
James Ibbotson May 7, 2013 3:48 PM
Hi Boris, Nice little blog.
Like (0)

The most confusing aspects of the SAP systems are the fact that EHP5/6 still relies on HR 6.04 !

Trying to communicate this to when investigating legal HCM changes and PI ESR notes often brings
confused looks ! As if to say you can't be serious !

James
Like (0)
Annie Chan May 13, 2013 2:00 AM
Hi Boris,

Very nice little blog to explain the confusing topic. I agree with James totally on the HR side. It is great
to hear that things are getting simplify and hopefully it applies to HR soon.

Regards,
Annie
Like (0)
Boris Rubarth May 22, 2013 5:11 PM (in response to Annie Chan)
Hi all,

thank you all for your contributions, questions, and comments.
I have now created part two of the blog, see SAP versioning, part 2 (why EHP7 contains
SAP APPL 6.17) ... looking forwared for your comments!

@Annie, James:
Although EHP5/6 still relies on HR 6.04, other components delivered news, e.g. EA-HR. Now
form your own opinion what the news of my 2nd blog mean for HR...

Regards, Boris
Like (0)
Andrei Balashchanka Jun 5, 2013 1:29 PM
Exellent! Clear ans short
Like (0)
Pedro Martins Jun 23, 2013 4:04 PM
Perfect! Many thanks
Like (0)
Swati Behl Jul 29, 2013 2:34 PM
Thanks Boris for sharing the information !
Cleared many of my doubts on one go !


Thanks,
Swati
Like (0)
Julius Kaplan Aug 21, 2013 1:14 PM
congratulations for this information! very good explanation

what about the j2ee part? does it have the same 703 and 731 problem?
Like (0)
Boris Rubarth Aug 21, 2013 6:50 PM (in response to Julius Kaplan)
Hi Julius,

no, the java components are different as we do not have a codeline split and merge like for
the ABAP software components.

Regards, Boris
Like (0)
Bernie Culaton Aug 22, 2013 12:43 AM
Very informative blog. Thanks for sharing. Also see related Note 774615 - Support Package levels of
ERP/ECC installations/upgrades.
Kiran Nimmagadda Sep 11, 2013 1:18 PM
Like (0)
Dear Boris,

Really good and felt happy after reading this...

Small small doubts got clarified..

Regards
Kiran N
Like (1)
Raj Sampath Oct 1, 2013 9:06 PM
hi Boris,
Thanks for detailed analysis on ERP6.6 and NW7.31. As ERP6.6/NW 7.03 and NW7.31 has same
component versions, I would like to update my BW system name from ERP6.6/NW7.03-SP07 to
NW7.31-SP07.

This has some of the ERP comp as well (SEM-BW and FINBASIS).

Is it possible to rewrite system name to NW7.31 with out updating to next support packs level?

Thanks,
Raj
Like (0)
Boris Rubarth Nov 12, 2013 2:58 PM (in response to Raj Sampath)
Hi Raj,

please check SAP Note 1681435 (logon to SAP Service Marketplace required) which is
explaining how to relabel the product version in this case.

Regards, Boris
Athmane Nouiouat Jun 26, 2014 11:05 PM
I do understand Boris's logic but I think there's another vision of what's going on with all the SAP
versions and components progress! If you look at it from a Business and
Technology perspectives you may have another logic.
SAP Marketing/Business Goals:
-Innovation: Keep the different Development Teams independent from each other so that Innovation in
one team can move forward without having to wait for other teams.
-Internet/Standards: Rapid Adoption of new standards e.g SOA
-Business Needs: Organize the different Releases in such a way that Revenue and profit goals are
met and kept predictable. For example, release 2 required products in 1 quarter and 3 in the next
might show a steady profits growth to the investment community.
- Integration: Maximize Product Integration to keep customers buying SAP Products e.g have the
popularity of ERP induce customers to by SAP CRM , or SAP HCM , SCM, etc for better TCO.
-Etc, this persepective has Business goals and objectives as drivers.

Technology Prespective: Align the technology with Business Goals.
-Organize the Software Engineering teams in such a way that each can go at its own speed as
required by marketing. Thus Componentize the Software devlopment while keeping the Components
Integration possible. This leads sometimes to irreconcilable results that's why we see glitches in the
release logic sometimes.
To understand the evolution one has to understand how SAP Systems and Apps work.
Initially in R/3, the Application Server (AS) was a Kernel (a bunch of Virtual Machines )Executing Apps
written in ABAP and some ABAP components (SAP_BASIS and SAP_ABA) to manage ABAP to
Kernel integration. The role of the AS is to isolate the ABAP Apps from OS/Net, RDBMS
dependencies and ensure Portability of those apps. However, since SAP had one Product R/3, so the
AS and the ABAP Apps were "Tightly Coupled".
When SAP came up with New Dimensions products (BW, CRM, APO, ..) which are ABAP apps but
couldn't run on the AS of R/3 without tweeks.
-Fastforward to the Ecomerce era after Y2K. SAP needed to focus on Integration and Internet
Standards for EC/eBusiness. So they "Decoupled " the Apps from the A.S , Added ICM for HTTP(s) at
kernel level to support Internet standards, and added J2EE Engine to support Non-SAP to SAP
Integration. This started the independence of the AS releases from the Application Releases. Thus we
had new AS releases 6.10, 6.20, 6.30, 6.40, 7.0
while R/3 moved through releases 4.7 then ECC5, ECC 6.0. Likewise CRM, SCM,etc.
One major decision was: How to make the A.S completely independent from the ABAP Application?
Even before, the O.S level kernel of the AS was the same for all the APPs because they all used
WorkProcesses (ABAP Virtual Machines) to execute the APPS. However, the SAP_BASIS, SAP_ABA
couldn't support BW/BI for example.
So SAP made the component SAP_BW (BW Engine without content), and other ones like the Plug_ins
for ETL, standard part the AS. This made the AS able to run and integrate with any ABAP based
application.
At this point then, all the development of the AS technology has to do is be backward compatible!
The above resolves the Goals of independent development teams each Innovating at its own speed
while unifying the runtime Platform (AS) for all the appliactions!
What if the PI team creates an Innovation (driven by Market needs) for which the AS release is not
ready? Easy, the AS Development team creates a bunch of SPs, or new AS release, to make the new
PI release runnable!
Keep in mind that we are looking at the latest AS 7.4 SR1 but the AS Dev team at SAP are already
working on AS 8.x and 9.x! AS 7.4 is just what's released to custmers!
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Besides the major Innovation of decoupling APPs from AppServer and Java Support, SAP made ABAP
Object Oriented, HTTP Based Applications Support (BSPs and WDs), started a movement to SOA,
introduced the concept of continous Upgrades (EHPs), created the Netweaver stack with 4 levels of
Integration using Web/Enterprise Services where the A.S is the platform Intgration Layer because it
supports all the APPs (the other layers are PI, BI, EP). Notice that SAP Application Server naming
(branding) has been changing based on what SAP Marketing wanted to emphasize to the Market! (App
Server, Web AS cause of Internet Support, then Netweaver to emphasize SOA Integration, guess the
next name?)
Notice also that at Business level, SAP has only 2 main branding levels Netweaver for SOA Based
Integration and Business Suite for Business Process innovations! These translate into 1000s of
Software componennts that the SLD and the LMDB have to keep harmonized!
Each of these Innovations and the teams working on them move at differnt speeds with different
requirements to responds to the Business needs of higher revenues and profits. It's Wall street that's
driving and creating the mess for all of us Techies down here!
So what happen, when SAP Merketing annouces that ECC will be available on Hana at date XYZ?
Well, the developers of ECC scramble to get rid of all those internal tables and the SQL statments
have to be adapted to take advantage of Hana features, architecture. The NW AS development team
have to make sure that the new ECC re-writes and the Hana client libs, and soforh are accomodated!
How do they make that happen? Well, each team writes what they can, create the EHP and the SPS
they need for their product to work with the other teams products inorder to deliver a Working ECC +
AS on Hana. If they did major changes they might brand it as a new release
for example NW AS 7.0 + EHP3+SPSx= AS 7.3 SPz, etc. What happen to us as a result? Well we
scramble to make sense of it all but beyond that to make it work for our customers!
Bottom line is that there's an overarching logic to the maddness but the devil is ib the details! So keep
going and while enjoying the ride!
Atman N.