In the initial dialogs after the SUM start, you first select the scenario category with configuration file. Enter then the path to the stack.xml configuration file that has to be available in your download directory. The Software Update Manager reads the download directory, unpacks the .SAR files, and moves the files to the appropriate directories from where they are then further processed by the Software Update Manager.

You can put the following files in the download directory:

• Support package stacks of the target release

  The support package stacks include among other things ABAP patches, which are optional. If you do not fill your download directory with ABAP patches, the Software Update Manager will not automatically extract them during the Extraction roadmap step.

• Enhancement packages

• SAP kernel for the target release

  Unless you are performing the upgrade directly after you have downloaded the calculated software archives, you can always check whether there is a newer version of the SAP kernel available on SAP Support Portal and download it to the download directory. The Software Update Manager then unpacks the files and moves them to subdirectory exe of the abap subdirectory of the SUM directory. Downloading the latest version of the SAP kernel has the following advantages:

  • You do not have to install the latest SAP kernel after the upgrade.

    During the Configuration roadmap step, the Software Update Manager prompts you to put the latest SAP kernel into the download directory. If the latest SAP kernel is available in this subdirectory, the SAP kernel of your system is already up-to-date after the upgrade.

  • You can avoid this prompt if you download the latest SAP kernel from SAP Service Marketplace to the download directory. It appears if you have included SAP Basis support packages in the upgrade and dependencies exist between these support packages and the SAP kernel version.

• Additional archives

  In addition to the SAP Kernel archives, the Software Update manager detects and unpacks other patch archives such as disp+work package, Database Library, R3trans, tp, DB2RADM, and ILE.

• Stack configuration XML file

• Calculated archive files

  You can provide all necessary language archives in the download directory.