This part of the document contains information about planning your SAP system update.

Before you begin the actual update, you have to first plan it carefully. This includes requesting all the SAP Notes and SAP documentation that you need. Careful planning is a prerequisite for a successful update. The following information helps you plan your update so that downtime is reduced to a minimum, and the update runs as efficiently as possible.

When you plan your update, consider the following information:

• All the times specified in this document are based on hardware with medium performance levels.

• Do not perform any additional actions during the Software Update Manager run that could cause it to run less smoothly.

• Start planning your update at least two weeks before you start with the update preparations.

• To make sure that all requirements are met, run the preparation roadmap steps of the Software Update Manager, Welcome, Select Target, Confirm Target, Execute Process, Initialization, Extraction, Configuration, and Checks as soon as possible. You can reset and repeat the preparation roadmap steps as often as you need by choosing Back before you start the actual update in roadmap step Preprocessing. The successful execution of the preparation roadmap steps is a prerequisite for starting the update in roadmap step Preprocessing.

• If you are updating a modified system where changes have been made to the standard ABAP system, you have to start by updating a development or quality assurance system that has the same SAP system release (including Support Package level) and contains the same modifications. The adjustments you perform manually for the new standard in this system can be automatically exported to the global transport directory and are integrated into the update of the production system from there. This procedure eliminates the need for time-consuming adjustments to the production system.