Which Support Package is recommended for BW?

Many customers I worked for were looking for a reply to this question. The thing is that it goes beyond the SAP BW’s usual "BW Support Strategy" according to which – a quote from SAP Note:

To assist SAP in providing an optimal level of support it is important for the customer system to be up to date. For this, SAP recommends running the latest (or latest – 1) BW Support Package available on the SAP service marketplace.

Thus, SAP doesn’t publish one single “recommended Support Package” number that fits all customers — instead it is the general recommendation - to always run the most up-to-date Support Package Stack that is available for particular release, or at least the latest and the one immediately before the latest.

OK clear. But there are also security issues fixes delivered via SAP Security Notes with high or very high priority. Those normally customers implement on ad-hoc basis as the Notes are published. But some customers may neglect those activities. Therefore, to stress this importance SAP issues following statement – again a quote from SAP Note:

We therefore strongly recommend to update the system at least once per year to the latest Support Package.

Last thing – where to check what is the latest support pack available for my BW? Go to PAM – Product Availability Matrix for that. Find your BW there and published SP are listed on Support Package Stacks tab.

 

More information:

2792181 Which Support Package is recommended for BW/4HANA-customers?

375631 Which Support Package is recommended for BW-customers?

PAM or PAM or PAM – listing more links as they may be changed in future

SAP BW/4HANA (B4H) versions