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SAP OSS Notes Series - Part 1 - SAP Versioning and Five Ws about OSS Notes
FabioPagoti
FabioPagoti
Active Contributor
2013 Oct 31 7:00 PM
9,514
SAP Managed Tags: ABAP Development

This is the first post of a blog series focused on SAP OSS Notes. In this series,
I'm going to explain everything you will need to fully understand SAP OSS Notes
concept, how to find them, their application and risks. If you are an ABAP
developer, BASIS or a Functional consultant I'm sure this information will be
really valuable for you during upgrade projects and support periods. In other
words, having this knowledge will make you less dependent on SAP support and as a
consequence you will contact it when you have no other option.

SAP Versioning
Before saying what a SAP note is, it crucial to understand SAP versioning strategy
and how upgrades are made.

SAP Product Version

Each SAP product, including SAP ECC which is the scope of this blog post, has a
version (usually represented by a number). The bigger this number is, the more up-
to-date the software is. Many years ago companies were using SAP ERP known as R/3
(versions 4.0B, 4.5B, 4.6C, 4.70 for exemple - Check R/3 in Wikipedia and this SDN
thread for more information about SAP ERP releases). At that time, SAP developers
where making its software better by doing two different activities:

Creating new functionality (for example, creating a new transaction responsible for
filling a business gap)
Fixing bugs (fixings functionalities which were supposed to be working, but
weren't).
Both activities were done writing new ABAP code. No matter if we were talking about
a new functionality or a bug fix, the release of this new ABAP code was done in the
next R/3 version.

So, R/3 version 4.70 was able to do things that R/3 version 4.5B was not in terms
of business requirements met (new functionality). By upgrading the system to a new
version companies were able to abandon legacy systems responsible for filling
business requirements that SAP was (still) not able to fill. This is really useful
because in theory as time passes your system landscape becomes simpler and easier
to maintain.

In a similar manner, R/3 version 4.70 was able to do things that R/3 version 4.5B
should do but was not doing (bug fixes). Of course, every system has bugs and it's
crucial to fix them to have a more robust system.

However, upgrading the system is not an trivial task. As the software is changed,
you have to test it again to ensure your business keep operating without any major
issue. A lot of effort is required from different people (BASIS, ABAP, Functionals
and users as well). An upgrade projects usually takes some months and in some
companies it might take more than 1 year. And SAP knows that since its early years.

To add insult to injury, even thought SAP customers might be happy and comfortable
with SAP version they use, they have no option but to upgrade their system from
time to time. The answer for that is simple: SAP as any other huge software
company, is also responsible for supporting the products they sell until a specific
time. That is to say you cannot ask for SAP help your software is really old. You
might not know but Microsoft does the same with Windows and the support for Windows
XP has gone for some years now. This is part of software lifecycle.

As I said SAP knew how painful and upgrade project was and for that reason it
changed its versioning strategy. With the advent of SAP ECC 5.0 (no more "R/3" in
the product name from now on) SAP deliveries new functionality with something
called Enhancement Packages and deliveries bug fixes in 2 ways:

A mass bug fixes - using something called Support Packages

A single bug fixes - using something called SAP Note, the focus of this series
Enhancement Packages
An enhancement package (aka EHP) is a set of new functionalities SAP delivers since
SAP ECC 5. An EHP is represented with a number as well and this number is usually
part of the product version. For example:

SAP ECC 6.01 means SAP ECC version 6 EHP1

SAP ECC 6.02 means SAP ECC version 6 EHP2

...

SAP ECC 6.07 means SAP ECC version 6 EHP7

To see the new functionality provided by each EHP you have to go to SAP Marketplace
(so you need an user for it) and then:
Release & Upgrade Info >>> Realease Notes >>> Select SAP product using the menu in
the left.

When SAP releases a new EHP it explains to the community the new functionalities
provided using for example webinars. Unfortunately the documentation of each
business function is not ideal and many companies have no idea of what their SAP
system could do for them.

This is because each SAP customer have to "activate" each new functionality it
wants. This is not the scope of this series but the activation of a business
function is no easy task as well. It changes the way the system works and usually
this cannot be reversed.

Giving and example of a business function, did you know SAP ECC EHP 4 has a
business function called ARM (Advanced Returns Management) which enables companies
to speed-up their sales and purchases returning processes by automating the
creation of sales and purchase documents (among other cool stuff)?

Functionals are responsible for identifying which business function might be

activated to fill a gap (using transaction SFW5) and are responsible for
configuring it as well.

SFW5 Transaction

Support Package
An EHP provides a set of new functionalities (aka business functions). A Support
Package on the other hand is a set of bug fixes (aka SAP Notes). Each Support
Package is represented by a number and usually it is mentioned after SAP version +
EHP, for example6

SAP ECC 6.04 SP8 means SAP ECC version 6 EHP 4 Support Package 8

SAP ECC 6.04 SP11 means SAP ECC version 6 EHP 4 Support Package 11

SAP ECC 6.05 SP8 means SAP ECC version 6 EHP 5 Support Package 8

Note that the fixes inside SP8 from EHP4 and SP8 from EHP5 might be totally
different.

BASIS professionals are responsible for the application of support packages.

What is the version my company uses?

Open the system and no matter the transaction you are, go to the Menu

System >>> Status

A popup will be opened. Then, click on the blue magnifying glass. Another popup
will show up. This is the list of SAP software components. Usually you will be
looking for SAP_APPL as below.

Inthis case, the current version is SAP ECC 6 EHP 6 SP 7.

5 W about OSS Notes

What is a SAP Note?
A SAP Note is (usually) a bug fix on SAP standard code. If you have a problem in
let's say, in transaction VA01, there might be a SAP Note which fixes it. Each SAP
Note is represented by a number and at the time this post is written there are more
than 1,900,000 SAP Notes.

Where can I see a SAP Note?

SAP Notes can be seen in SAP Marketplace as well but in a different menu path:

Help & Support > Search for SAP Notes & KBA

It's also possible to see SAP Notes using transaction SNOTE, which will be
discussed in future posts in this series.

Why are they important?

A SAP note is a bug fix, no matter if it's critical or not. A bug might unable a
user to create an invoice and on such cases the application a SAP Note is urgent. A
SAP note might also be a documentation about something SAP is currently working on.
Then, SAP might provide information to its customers using SAP Notes.

Who is the responsible for implementing/applying them?

SAP will always implement a standard bug fix so SAP developers implement SAP Notes.

Usually, ABAP developers and sometimes BASIS professionals are responsible for
applying them. As a SAP Note might be a code change, IMHO ABAPers are more
indicated to apply SAP Notes as they can understand ABAP code.

When are they implemented/applied?

SAP Notes are implemented by SAP at the moment they discover that a bug fix was not
fixed yet (usually when a customer opens an incident to SAP)

Regarding its application, depends on the circumstance. A SAP Note might have to be
applied asap if it is already delivered by SAP at the same time business is being
impacted or it might be applied before/after a configuration is done during a
specific project.

How they are applied?

They might be implemented automatically (using SNOTE transaction) or manually using
other transactions, usually development ones like SE11, SE37, SE24 or SE80. These
changes might be in repository objects, which will require a transport or might be
in customizing data, which might be transported or not.

Coming Up Next
We are going to focus on SAP Notes, how to search for them, how to read and
understand them. Also, we are going to see Notes pre-requisites, versions and
corrections as well as learning how to apply them.

Conclusion
SAP Notes is part of SAP versioning strategy and it is relevant for ABAPers, BASIS
and Functional people. Knowing how to use them can save you time fixing SAP product
without having to contact SAP and wait for its answer. They are critical for
supporting a SAP system.

Do you know any SAP note? What is your experience with it? Have you ever
experienced a bug on a standard transaction?

If so, don't forget to comment below.

Cheers,

Fabio Pagoti
SAP OSS Notes Series - Part 2 - Discovering and reading notes

abaparmbasisehpfunctionallo armoss notessap marketplacesfw5snotespversion

14 Comments
soned_soned
soned_soned
Participant
2013 Nov 01 11:26 AM
Great post Fábio, congratulations!

I'll be waiting for the next.

Former Member
2013 Nov 02 8:08 AM
Informative Blog!

Thaks,

Kiran

FabioPagoti
FabioPagoti
Active Contributor
2013 Nov 03 3:53 PM
Part 2 of the series is released. Check out below.

http://scn.sap.com/community/abap/blog/2013/11/03/sap-oss-notes-series--part-2--
discovering-and-read...

MartinMaruskin
MartinMaruskin
Active Contributor
2013 Nov 13 4:02 PM
Hi Fabio,

thank you very informative blog! I just wonder about the number of SAP Notes -
where the no (1,900,000) came from?

cheers,

m./

FabioPagoti
FabioPagoti
Active Contributor
2013 Nov 13 4:23 PM
Hi Martin,

Thanks for your feedback. The newest SAP OSS Notes I'm aware of have a similar
numbers. So, supposing that SAP started counting from SAP note number 1), yes there
are almost 2 million SAP notes created so far.

Regards,

MartinMaruskin
MartinMaruskin
Active Contributor
2013 Nov 13 4:36 PM
Hi Fabio,

really interesting I always wonder what number range do they use for OSS (we should
call it SMP nowadays :slightly_smiling_face: but old habit is stronger) notes.

When I tried to run search on OSS w/o any key word and language set to English I
got following no: 1.482.408

But as you say Notes are numbered in sequence makes sense.

Thanks for sharing.

m./

FabioPagoti
FabioPagoti
Active Contributor
2013 Nov 13 4:43 PM
Hi!

It might be an option but based on my sad experience with this search engine inside
SAP marketplace I tend to believe it won't show you the most recent SAP notes.

There are a few other ways to search for SAP Notes in SAP Marketplace. You can
search for all Support Packages inside the most recent version of, let's say, SAP
ECC 6 (which is SAP ECC 6 EHP7). The newest support package in this system contains
should contain the most recent SAP notes and they might have reacher 1900... This
number gets higher very fast you will note that.

Cheers,

former_member186401
former_member186401
Participant
2014 Mar 19 2:26 PM
Nice topic. Enjoying.

Former Member
2014 Apr 04 3:09 PM
Great Job!!!

Former Member
2014 May 20 6:40 AM
Very Informative blog and you have done a great job !!!!

former_member184362
former_member184362
Explorer
2014 Jun 08 9:56 AM
Thanks for informative post

dheeraj_sharma
Associate dheeraj_sharma
Associate
2014 Jun 10 4:09 PM
very good post... Thanks.

Former Member
2014 Dec 02 2:38 PM
Awesome post.Explains the basics very well wihtout leaving any doubts!Thanks Fabio

FabioPagoti
FabioPagoti
Active Contributor
2014 Dec 02 2:58 PM
Thank you. Don't forget to check parts 2 and 3 of the series.

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