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
Mainstream Maintenance
Mainstream maintenance is offered for all SAP software products and begins with the Release-To-Customer (RTC) milestone and continues throughout the unrestricted delivery phase. Usually, the end of mainstream maintenance for an SAP software product is later than (or equal to) the end of mainstream maintenance of the predecessor product and after General Availability (GA) of a successor product.
During this period, SAP provides:
Security patches and vulnerability fixes
Bug fixes and software corrections (SAP Notes)
Legal and tax updates (country-specific changes)
Compatibility updates for supported databases, operating systems, and browsers
Performance improvements
New support packages and feature package stacks (where applicable)
Full SAP incident support through SAP Support
Knowledge Base Articles (KBAs) and documentation updates
Mainstream maintenance is offered for all SAP software releases. Mainstream maintenance begins with the release-to-customer date and continues throughout the unrestricted shipment phase. During the mainstream maintenance phase, you receive support according to your support agreement with SAP. Towards the end of mainstream maintenance, you have three options:
1: Upgrade - Typically SAP recommends to upgrade before you reach the end of the mainstream maintenance phase. The delivery of new releases of the licensed software (if available), as well as upgrade tools, are covered by the SAP support contract. Go to the Upgrade Information page to learn more about the possible transition options and SAP's offerings to efficiently support the upgrade.
2: Extended Maintenance (see below)
3: Customer-Specific Maintenance (see below)
Extended Maintenance
Extended maintenance is available for SAP Business Suite 7. The scope of support for the extended maintenance period is similar to the scope of support provided during mainstream maintenance. Extended maintenance requires an additional payment and specific maintenance addendum based on a valid maintenance contract. For further details, see the product specific maintenance information section.
Customer-Specific
Maintenance Customer-specific maintenance is generally offered for all SAP products except for SAP Business One. For SAP BusinessObjects solutions different rules apply, please refer to SAP Note 3348644 for more information. Products can enter the customer-specific maintenance phase in one of following three ways: • Customer’s extended maintenance contract term ends • Mainstream maintenance period ends, and extended maintenance is not offered • Mainstream maintenance period ends, and extended maintenance is offered, but the customer does not choose to take advantage of the offer A product enters customer-specific maintenance automatically and there is no need to apply for an additional contract. During customer-specific maintenance, SAP offers support services like those offered in the mainstream maintenance phase, with some restrictions, including: • No delivery of new support packages • No updates to cover legal changes • Technology updates are limited • Problem resolution is customer specific, which means customers are charged for solving problems not yet known to SAP Customer-specific maintenance currently does not have an expiry date. The scope of Customer‑Specific Maintenance is strictly defined in SAP Note 52505. This document does not expand, modify, or interpret the commitments defined in SAP Notes. In case of discrepancies, the SAP Note text prevails.
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.