Prerequisites for BW 7.3

BW 7.3 is almost here, should be released this month. To see all of its new features read this post. Therefore customers are asking how about to upgrade to this version. Unfortunately there are some limitations.

First of all platform version matter: You cannot upgrade to version 7.3 from version below 7.x. Sequence is to first upgrade to 7.x and afterwards you can go for 7.3. No 7.3 upgrade for systems based on 3.x. Version 7.x meant here is pure technical upgrade. So you do not need to have all the functionalities of 7.x in place but platform as in overall must be based on 7.

Secondly data flows: They do not need to be migrated into the 7.x fashion specifically but it is advisable. So this is not real prerequisite :-) Usually customers are performing just technical upgrade; just align with SAP’s maintenance matrix and do not loose support from SAP. After that they stop and to not deploy new features of 7.x like new authorization concept or new data flows. Framework of data flows in 7.3 seems to be much more powerful (copying of data flows, DTPs, process chains, repetition/reversing of migration etc.) comparing it to 7.0. However SAP advice to migrate to 7.x fashion right after you did technical upgrade to 7.x.

Thirdly new authorization concept: Old concept of the BW 3.5 reporting authorizations will technically no longer be available. Therefore again it is essential that before 7.3 upgrade you have migrated to new 7.x authorization concept.

I’m very excited about this new version of BW. Looking forward to hearing from you in blog comments as soon you touch this version :-)

See SDN’s official news and update page regarding SAP BW 7.3.
See Features of SAP BW 7.3
See collection of materials related to SAP BW 7.3