SAP OS/DB Migration to SQL Server–FAQ v6.2 April 2017

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The FAQ document attached to this blog is the cumulative knowledge gained from hundreds of customers that have moved off UNIX/Oracle and DB2 to Windows and SQL Server in recent years.

In this document a large number of recommendations, tools, tips and common errors are documented.  It is recommended to read this document before performing an OS/DB migration to Windows + SQL Server.

The latest version of the OS/DB Migration FAQ includes some updates including:

  1. Due to the considerable number of customers moving off AIX/DB2 to Windows and SQL Server running on Azure a section of creating an R3load server for DB2 has been added
  2. Migration of BW systems to SQL Server to leverage the Column Store, Flat Cube and FEMS pushdown logic continues to be popular with several major customers replacing SAP BWA with SQL Server Column Store
  3. Post migration report RS_BW_POSTMIGRATION automatically converts F Fact and E Fact tables to Column Store when the recommended "All Column-Store" option is selected in SMIGR_CREATE_DDL
  4. Windows 2016 is now Generally Available for almost all SAP applications on all major DB platforms other than Oracle 12c
  5. Older Operating System and Database releases such as Windows 2012 (non-R2) and SQL 2012 are now no longer recommended for new projects
  6. Ensure sp_updatestats is included in the post processing steps after the import
  7. Many other recommendations around kernels, known bugs and Azure specific migration information

Recently a large Asian Airline recently moved from AIX/DB2 to Windows 2016 and SQL Server 2016 on Azure.  The migration was completed in two phases over two weekends and was 100% successful with the customer realizing significant performance improvement running on D-Series VMs and Premium Storage.

Another large Energy Company in Australia moved from HPUX/Oracle to Windows 2012 R2 and SQL 2016 on Azure. More information on this customer can be found Large Australian Energy Company Modernizes SAP Applications & Moves to Azure Public Cloud

Latest OS/DB Migration FAQ can be downloaded from oracle-to-sql-migration-faq-v6-2