SAP OSS Notes Series – Part 1 – SAP Versioning and Five

Ws about OSS Notes

October 31, 2013 | 495 Views |

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:

1. Creating new functionality (for example, creating a new transaction responsible for filling a business
gap)
2. 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:

1. A mass bug fixes – using something called Support Packages

 2. 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
 SAP OSS Notes Series – Part 2 – Discovering and reading
notes
November 3, 2013 | 593 Views |

Fabio Pagoti



more by this author
ABAP Development
correction instructionsheader dataoss notesreason and prerequisitessap markplacesap support
portalsnote

 share 0
 share 0
 tweet
 share 0

Follow

This is the second part of a series called “SAP OSS Notes”. If you missed part one, I suggest you to read
before continuing this post. On the first post, we talked about how SAP give versions to its software and
how is the strategy to update it. Moreover, we answer 5 simple W’s questions about SAP OSS Notes.
In part 2, we are going to see how a SAP Note is documented and the different ways to find and read it.

How to find a SAP Note

There is a few ways to search and find for a SAP Note. However, I organized this post according to the
situations you might have. Depending on the circumstances, you are going to search for a note in a
different way.

Scenario I: You already know the SAP Note

As you might know now, a SAP Note is represented by a number. It contains bug fixes and sometimes
documentation about a specific subject. You might be given a SAP note number when using search
engines as Google or reading a thread here at SDN.

So, if you have a problem and someone suggests you to check out a SAP Note, you might do it in two
ways.

SAP Marketplace
Again, SAP Marketplace is where you check for SAP notes. On the home page, click on “SAP Support
Portal”. Enter your credentials (they are not the same as SDN – SAP Marketplace is not available to
anyone). On the menu of the following screen, go to:
Help & Support >> Search for SAP Notes & KBAs.
Supposing you want to check SAP Note 1444611, enter its number in the right side of the screen.

A new tab will be opened with SAP note documentation as below.

In the upper part, we can see the note title, its current version (we are going to discuss SAP Notes versions
on a next post) and the validity. The sections in blue and orange in the body are common in most SAP
Notes. Let’s discuss a little about them in the last section of this post.

Transaction SNOTE
Even thought you might not have a SAP Marketplace account you might be able to see a note. Log into
your SAP system and enter in transaction SNOTE. There, you can download the note you wan to see and
open it. Be aware that when using this transaction you will always have to know the OSS Number. It’s not
possible to search for notes using different criteria as it’s possible in SAP Marketplace. Also, you will
usually do from a development environment because if you apply the note a transport will be generated.
To download a SAP Note, go to the green icon marked below and enter the note number in the proper
field.

If you get an error tell the admin responsible. If you get a success message, then you can open the sap
Note.

A simple report will be shown. Enter the note(s) which are already downloaded by the transaction.
Afterwards, the OSS note will be shown in a PDF format as below.
Basically, the same information displayed in the transaction is the one available in SAP Marketplace.

Scenario II: You want to check the existence of a SAP Note

Usually, searching for a SAP note is not the first option when coming across an error in the system. You
might check first some master data, system configuration, user privileges and other data which might cause
a specific problem. However when you are sure everything is set right and the problem still persists, it’s
worth searching for some SAP notes which might fix the issue.

Search Engines and SDN

You might use SAP Marketplace to search for a specific term and this is totally feasible. Note that you can
sort SAP Marketplace results by release date and this is important when the error you have is related to
something new in the system. The advantage of SAP Marketplace is that you can search for a note for a
specific product/software component. However it’s also possible to search for the DUMP/error message
you might be getting in Google/SDN and someone suggests you to read a specific note. Then you would
fall in the first scenario already described.

How to read a SAP Note

No matter you open a SAP Note in SAP Marketplace or SNOTE transaction. The documentation is
organized in the following sections. Understanding how to read a SAP note is crucial to understand if it
applies to you. Check the sections below:

Symptom – This section will describe the error being fixed by the note. Basically, what error occurs
and when it occurs.
Other Terms – some keywords that might be used to search for this note. Usually related to the error
name, transactions or tables involved.
Reason and Prerequisites – This section will describe why the error occurs and also if you need
to check/apply previous SAP Notes before the current one. (prerequisites will be discussed in a future post)
Solution – Usually, it will contain the the application of the note itself. However there might be manual
steps in this process. (Manual steps will be discussed in a future post)
Header Data – Information about the product component being fixed.
Validity – This section is one of the most important ones. It tells you if the SAP release you are on
contains the error described by the note. If you don’t find your release in the table, you shouldn’t worry
about the SAP because the error just doesn’t happen in your release
Correction Instructions – This sections contains all changes of the SAP repository objects being
fixed for each release.
Support Packages & Patches – This section is also very important. It tells you which Support
Package contains this note. As a consequence, if you are on SAP ECC 6 EHP 04 SP 11 and the Note is
contained in SP 7 of ECC 6 EHP 04 then you don’t have to worry about the note as well – it is already
fixed. On the other hand, if the note is contained in SP 11 of ECC 6 EHP 04 and you are in SAP ECC 6
EHP 04 SP 10, then you will have to apply the SAP note independently or wait for the next upgrade
project of the company you work for the see the error fixed.
Tags – Other search terms that you might use to find this note.
Attachments – Some SAP Notes contains a sections for attachments as well (just show in SAP
Marketplace). They are available when you have to upload a file in your system or when the documentation is
so big that SAP creates some PDF files for it instead of writing everything inside the note body.

Coming Up Next
We will see in part 3 how to apply a SAP note considering possible pre-requisites and manual steps usually
performed by different people (BASIS, ABAPers an Functional professionals).

Conclusion
Searching for a SAP Note and knowing how to read it is crucial to check if you have a system or
customization issue. Also, it enables you to validate if you release has a specific bug and decide if it’s the
right time to fix it or not. Search for some notes in Marketplace and SNOTE and get used to this process.
Also, read each section and understand what is the purpose of this note. And also, if you found this post
useful or have a specific question, don’t forget to comment below.
Cheers,
Fabio Pagoti