SAP provides
mainstream maintenance (formerly: standard maintenance) as part of the
maintenance strategy. At the end of the mainstream maintenance period for a
release of an SAP application, the following scenarios are possible:
- After mainstream maintenance has
ended, SAP provides extended maintenance for an additional maintenance
fee. Extended maintenance has a similar scope of service as mainstream
maintenance.
- The customer accepts the offer and
concludes a supplementary agreement for extended maintenance (for
extended maintenance of SAP Business Suite 7, see SAP Note 2881788).
After the validity period of the supplementary agreement has expired, the
release automatically enters customer-specific maintenance.
- The customer does not accept the
offer of extended maintenance. After mainstream maintenance has expired,
the release automatically enters customer-specific maintenance.
- SAP does not provide extended
maintenance after mainstream maintenance has expired.
After the end of mainstream maintenance, the release automatically moves
to customer-specific maintenance (for some applications in the portfolio
of SAP BusinessObjects, different rules apply; for more information, refer
to the white paper "SAP's Release Strategy" at https://support.sap.com/releasestrategy).
The dates for the end of mainstream maintenance (and extended maintenance, if
provided) are published on the SAP customer support website at https://support.sap.com/releasestrategy and
in the Product Availability Matrix at https://support.sap.com/pam.
Note that individual, downward-compatible software components within a release
of an SAP application (for example, SAP GUI or SAP Kernel) can have a shorter
maintenance period and must be exchanged with a newer version during the
mainstream or extended maintenance of the release.
Scope of service of the customer-specific maintenance
As of a certain time in the life cycle of a release, it is no longer adjusted
to external requirements. Such requirements are, for example, the need to
implement legal changes or support new technologies. The time in question is
marked by the end of the extended maintenance or the end of the mainstream
maintenance if no extended maintenance is provided. As of this time, the
customer-specific maintenance begins.
Customer-specific maintenance applies to all SAP applications with the
exception of some applications in the SAP BusinessObjects Portfolio and does
not have an expiry date. More information about special maintenance strategy
rules for SAP BusinessObjects is available in the white paper "SAP's
Release Strategy" at https://support.sap.com/releasestrategy.
During customer-specific maintenance, you must pay the maintenance fee in
accordance with your maintenance contract (for example, SAP Enterprise Support
or SAP Standard Support). The customer-specific maintenance does not have to be
ordered explicitly.
In customer-specific maintenance, customers receive similar maintenance
services in accordance with their maintenance contract (as far as these
services were delivered during mainstream maintenance for the relevant
release), however, there are some restrictions in the scope of service because
the release is no longer adjusted to new requirements, as described above.
During customer-specific maintenance, the following restrictions in the scope
of service apply:
- No delivery of legal changes
- No delivery of Support Packages
- No guarantee for technological
updates, for example:
- No new kernel versions for the
support of new database versions and operating system versions
- No new patches for non-ABAP
components (for example, Java patches or front-end patches)
- In some cases no direct upgrade to
a current release. In this case, the upgrade to a current release must be
performed in several steps.
For a start release in customer-specific maintenance, we do not usually provide new or additional upgrade paths. Upgrade paths that are provided during the mainstream maintenance or during the period in which we provide extended maintenance continue to be available during customer-specific maintenance. You can use available upgrade paths whether or not you make use of the extended maintenance.
- No support of new interfaces
- Processing of problems is
customer-specific. This means that for known problems, the solution of
problems is still covered by the maintenance. However, the customer may
have to pay for the expense of solving new problems not yet known to SAP.
This applies to customer-specific enhancements in particular.
- The service level agreements for
initial response times and corrective measures are no longer delivered.
- Remote support for support during
the evaluation of the latest Enhancement Package is no longer provided for
Enhancement Packages that are based on releases in customer-specific
maintenance.
Note the following restriction:
- SAP cannot support software from
third-party providers (for example, operating systems, databases or
components), which is no longer maintained by the manufacturer. Therefore,
you may have to carry out an upgrade to more current versions of this
software. However, more recent versions of the software may not be
supported for releases in customer-specific maintenance. In this case, it
is your responsibility to decide whether you want to carry out an upgrade
or continue using the old version of the software that is no longer
supported.
- During customer-specific
maintenance in particular, you may experience problems if your system has
an obsolete Support Package level. You may encounter problems that have
been corrected with a more recent Support Package. In addition, it may be
more difficult or even impossible to create individual corrections.
Detailed
information about customer-specific problem processing:
For releases in the customer-specific maintenance, problems are processed
according to the following rules:
- Customers can continue to create
messages as usual. The normal service and support tools (for example, the
SAP customer support website and SAP application lifecycle management) and
the SAP Customer Interaction Center/Support Advisory Center continue to be
available.
- Primary Support and downstream
institutions accept and process problem messages during the regular
message processing. This includes, among others, the 7x24h Support for
messages with priority "Very High" (for more information about
the priority of messages, see SAP Note 67739).
- The reported error is analyzed.
- If the software error is already
known, an SAP Note that has been released for customers and that
documents the problem exists for the relevant release. An already known
solution is made available to the customer.
- If the error is not known yet, no
SAP Note documenting the problem has been released for customers for the
relevant release. The error is regarded as a new, as yet unknown error.
In this case, further processing is regarded as a consulting service
subject to charge.
- There are several options to
correct the error:
- Standard correction using an SAP
Note: The error is documented in an SAP Note, which is then available to
all SAP customers. The relevant SAP Note contains the corrections for the
error.
- Standard advance correction (see
SAP Note 538778 also): The error is documented in an SAP Note, which is
then available to a restricted number of installations. The relevant SAP
Note contains the corrections for the error.
- Customer-specific corrections: The
error is documented in the problem message for this installation. The
corrections for the error are documented in the problem message.
SAP
specifies the form in which corrections are provided to the customer.
- SAP cannot guarantee that every
problem can or will be solved within customer-specific maintenance. For
example, SAP cannot provide corrections in cases such as those specified
below:
- Problems that are caused by
third-party software; especially if the software is no longer supported
by the third party
- Problems that are caused by
software components whose source code is not available to the customer
One
of the reasons for restrictions is that SAP removes the internal system
landscapes for a release at the start of the customer-specific maintenance of
that release. As a result, it may only be possible to analyze the error
directly in the customer system. For the analysis, the customer has to make a
remote access available.
It
may only be possible to correct as yet unknown errors as individual corrections
in the customer system. In the customer system, SAP acts as a developer of the
customer and has no further rights. Therefore, SAP cannot provide corrections
for software components whose source code is not available to the customer. SAP
cannot provide corrections for as yet unknown errors with third-party products
that are no longer supported by the manufacturer.
- You can find more information
concerning message processing and the cost of message prosessing subject
to charge in the country-specific consulting notes under XX-RC and
XX-SER-GEN.
Detailed
information about individual support services
Support
Packages, Support Package Stacks and kernel patches
The archive of the Software Download Center contains Support Packages that
are available during mainstream maintenance for releases that are already in
customer-specific maintenance (we use SAPR/3 4.6B as an example here):
https://support.sap.com/swdc
-> Download
-> Support Packages and Patches
-> Archive for Support Packages and Patches
-> My Company's Application Components
-> My Company's Software
-> SAP R/3
-> SAP R/3 4.6B
When a release is in customer-specific maintenance, the Support Package
Stacks that were available during mainstream maintenance are no longer
visible in the Software Download Center. You can still access Support Packages
using the Software Download Center archive.
The following path contains old kernel patches for kernel versions no
longer in maintenance:
-> Support Packages and Patches
-> Archive for Support Packages and Patches
-> My Company's Application Components
-> Complimentary Software
-> SAP Kernel
The following path contains kernel patches for kernel versions in
maintenance:
https://support.sap.com/swdc
-> Download
-> Support Packages and Patches
-> My Company's Application Components
-> Complimentary Software
-> SAP Kernel
Installations and upgrades
We do not support installations or upgrades to target releases that are in
customer-specific maintenance. If you require the installation software, for
example, when you migrate a database or an operating system, create an SAP
customer message under the component XX-SER-SWFL-SHIP. Depending on the
release, the provision of the installation software may require some processing
time.
Information Sources: PAM and Support Package schedules:
Information about the maintenance duration and maintenance phases for
SAP software releases can be found in the Product Availability Matrix
(PAM) on the SAP customer support website at https://support.sap.com/pam.
For information about the availability of Support Packages, go
to https://support.sap.com/hrsp (for
SAP HR Support Packages) and https://support.sap.com/en/release-upgrade-maintenance/maintenance-information/schedules-for-maintenance-deliveries.html (for
Support Packages for other software components).
Product
documentation
SAP recommends that
customers archive the relevant product documentation and other types of user
assistance locally. Customers must have available the relevant hardware and
software that is required to display the user assistance.
Additional information about maintenance is available on SAP Support Portal
at https://support.sap.com/maintenance.
For more detailed information, contact your Account Team.