Procedure documentationUpgrading Databases and Their Server Software Locate this document in the navigation structure

 

When you upgrade a database to a higher version and update its server software at the same time, this procedure is known as an upgrade.

The upgrade procedure depends on the target version as well as on the number of databases which use the software installation to be updated

Recommendation Recommendation

Make sure you have made complete backups of all data in the relevant database, and that you also have the database software of the source version. Only then you can immediately revert to the source version if an error occurs and this way avoid long periods of system downtime.

End of the recommendation.

Procedure

Upgrade the software and one or more databases using this software with the help of the SDBINST or SDBUPD program. Which of these two programs applies, depends on the number of databases using the same software installation.

If a software installation is used by just one database which needs to be upgraded together with the software, use the SDBUPD program. It is quick and safe and requires very few user interaction.

(See: Upgrade if an Individual Database Uses the Software Installation

If a software installation is used by several databases and you want to upgrade one or more of these databases, use the SDBINST program. Within the upgrade process, first install the new version of the database software and then upgrade the affected databases one by one.

(See: Upgrade if Several Databases Use the Software Installation)

Starting with version 7.7, the catalog data of all SAP MaxDB databases is stored in Unicode. Therefore, databases of versions up to and including 7.6., whose catalog data is not stored in Unicode, need to be migrated before you can upgrade them to version 7.8.

(See: Catalog Migration to Unicode)

The migration procedure must be carried out in version 7.6.

If you want to upgrade a database from version 7.5. or 7.6 to version 7.8 , whose catalog data is not stored in Unicode, the following procedure applies:

  1. Upgrade to version 7.6 and migrate the database catalog to Unicode

  2. Upgrade to version 7.8

If you want to upgrade a database to version 7.8 , the catalog data of which is stored in Unicode yet, you can directly upgrade your database software to version 7.8.

Note Note

For all database versions whose catalog data might not be stored in Unicode yet, that is for all databases up to and including version 7.6, you can display the value of the UNICODE database parameter (see: Database Manager CLI, param_getfull) and this way determine whether the catalog data is stored in Unicode.

End of the note.