Explaining SAP HANA Revision Strategy

SAP HANA is a dynamic product and that’s why it is important to know the best way to keep your SAP HANA database maintained based on your situation.

There are several terms used to describe parts of the SAP HANA revision strategy.

• SAP HANA Revisions: “Revision” refers to packages containing fixes for core SAP HANA components such as SAP HANA database, SAP HANA Studio, SAP HANA Clients, AFLs, SDA and HWCC tool.
• Support Packages (SP): “Support Package” refers to all other non-core SAP HANA platform components such as SAP Host Agent or SAP HANA Smart Data Access.
• Support Package Stacks (SPS): Everytime a new SAP HANA Support Package Stack is released, new capabilities are introduced and it happens twice a year. For easier handling, the numbering of SAP HANA SPS and Revisions are aligned.

For instance, Revision 110 refers to the SAP HANA Revision, which contains SPS11 related capabilities.

Revision 100 –> SPS10

Revision 110 –> SPS11

Revision 120 –> SPS12 etc.

• SAP HANA Maintenance Revisions: SAP HANA Maintenance Revisions are minor version shipments of the last SAP HANA Revision within a certain SPS, for instance 110.01, 110.02, etc.
• Maintenance revisions only provides fixes for the following:
• Major bugs concerning critical functionality in the key SAP HANA scenarios (Business Suite on HANA, SAP BW on HANA, SAP HANA Data Marts etc.)
• Production systems or endangered go-lives within the next 6 weeks
• Bugs with non-existing workaround
• Minor code dependencies and code changes or impact
• SAP HANA Datacenter Service Point (DSP): The SAP HANA Datacenter Service Point is a “point” in time, providing customers with more guidance as to when and on the base of which version they should plan their production SAP HANA maintenance.

SAP HANA revisions that are referenced by a DSP, had been running in production systems at SAP prior to when they are officially released. SAP recommends staying on the current Support Package Stack (SPS) until the next DSP is reached. Once the DSP is reached (usually in March and September), customers are advised to update their systems to referenced, or any newer SAP HANA revision of the same SPS to ensure all available fixes as of date are being adopted.

Revision Type	Schedule	Comprises of	Recommended for
New SPS	Every 6 months	New features and fixes	Early adopters and non-production systems
DSP Revision	Every 6 months, after having run in SAP Production system for 2+ weeks	Incremental fixes, based on latest SPS feature set	Production systems (targeting planned maintenance)
Standard Revision	On demand	Incremental fixes, based on latest SPS feature set	Systems on DSP Revision and non-production systems
Maintenance Revision	On demand, provisioned between New SPS and DSP only	Incremental critical fixes only, based on predecessor SPS feature set	Production systems, targeting unplanned maintenance

SAP HANA maintenance strategy is based on incremental, non-disruptive innovation updates. Updates to the SAP HANA platform is released in the form of SAP HANA Support Package Stacks (SPS) twice a year, delivered from within a single delivery stream and the updates shipped for the SAP HANA platform are all downwards compatible.

SAP HANA platform product will remain in maintenance as long as any SAP business application releases built on top of SAP HANA are in mainstream maintenance, extended maintenance or priority-one support.

For customers running SAP HANA in production (or with a planned go-live within the next 6 weeks), SAP provides SAP HANA maintenance revisions, allowing customers to stay on an older SPS for up to three months longer. These maintenance revisions contain only a subset of available fixes, identified to be relevant for production environments.

For customers running SAP HANA in a non-production environment, SAP proposes the implementation of the highest SAP HANA revisions available to benefit from incremental but non-disruptive improvements.

SAP HANA Revision and DSP

The best update path?

The best upgrade or update path depends on the specific customer situation. System landscapes that are in production are best-maintained using SAP HANA Maintenance Revisions and Datacenter Service Points (DSP) releases. Non-productive landscapes can be maintained using SAP HANA revisions. Note that these SAP HANA revisions are released more often than a DSP, so new or fixed functions are available more quickly.

Customers running mission critical systems require a longer maintenance support window than standard 3 months. To accommodate this SAP provides for SAP HANA SPS12 Maintenance Revisions for a period of 3 years after the release to customer. So the end of maintenance for existing SPS12 is set for May 2019.

SAP HANA SPS12 Longterm Support