The responsibility for installing SAP ASE and other SAP products is sometimes placed with the system administrator. If installation is one of your responsibilities, use the following pointers to help you in the process. there are several items you should consider, including product compatibility, installation and upgrade issues, third-party software installation, and configuring and testing client connections.
Before installing new products or upgrading existing products, always read the release bulletin included with the products to understand any compatibility issues that might affect your system.
Compatibility problems can occur between hardware and software, and between different release levels of the same software. Reading the release bulletin in advance can save the time and guesswork of troubleshooting known compatibility problems. Pay particular attention to the lists of known problems that are included in the release bulletin.
Read through the installation guide for your platform before you begin a new installation or upgrade.
You may also want to consult with the operating system administrator to discuss operating system requirements for SAP ASE. These requirements can include the configuration of memory, raw devices, asynchronous I/O, and other features, depending on the platform you use. Many of these tasks must be completed before you begin the installation.
If you are upgrading a server, back up all data (including the master database, user databases, triggers, and system procedures) offline before you begin. After upgrading, immediately create a separate, full backup of your data, especially if there are incompatibilities between older dump files and the newer versions.
SAP ASE generally includes support for the network protocols that are common to your hardware platform. If your network supports additional protocols, install the required protocol support.
As an alternative to the SAP interfaces file, you can use a directory service to obtain a server’s address and other network information. Directory services are provided by platform or third-party vendors and must be purchased and installed separately from the installation of SAP ASE. See the Configuration Guide for your platform for a list of the directory services that SAP ASE currently supports.
A successful client connection depends on the coordination of SAP ASE, the client software, and network products.
If you are using one of the network protocols installed with SAP ASE, see the Configuration Guide for your platform for information about testing network connections. If you are using a different network protocol, follow the instructions that are included with the network product. You can also use “ping” utilities that are included with SAP connectivity products to test client connections with SAP ASE. For details about the name and contents of the interfaces file, see the Configuration Guide for your platform