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Your Technical Guide to SAP DMO (Database Migration Option)

The SAP DMO (Database Migration Option) toolset simplifies and dramatically streamlines the entire SAP migration with one process, one tool, one downtime. DMO allows SAP users to update an existing SAP system to a higher release version and/or can migrate to SAP HANA database. This blog post is a technical overview on all you need to know about DMO. 

Benefits of DMO 
DMO provides many benefits over other upgrade/migration options by combining ease of use, shortened number of steps, and additional tools for reducing downtime. Here’s a quick overview of the many benefits of DMO. 

  • Migration steps are simplified 
    • Before DMO (Database Migration Option), you needed to update the SAP software with SUM (Software Update Manager), and then migrate it to a new database with SWPM (Software Provisioning Manager). 
    • DMO simplifies the migration with one tool (SUM with DMO) that will run the system update, Unicode conversion, and database migration combined into one tool 
      • If your systems weren’t already Unicode, a Unicode conversion can be included (for single-code-page systems). 
    • A combined procedure only needs one maintenance phase (not two). 
      • Reduces business downtime (TCO) 
      • Less regression test necessary 
    • In place migration keeps the application server and System-ID stable. 
      • Low impact on system landscape, as only the database server is new 
  • Original database is kept and can be reactivated as a fallback 
    • Reduces risk 
    • No restore required 
    • More time for testing before cutover
  • The tool is easy to work with, as it’s just SUM with an improved UI (User Interface) 
  • As of SUM 1.0 SP 13, the benchmarking tool has been added for use as a technique to tune the migration and reduce the technical downtime. 
  • A certification is recommended but is not required for consultants using DMO. 
  • No migration check service is required for DMO on productive systems.

Before you get started 
Before beginning a DMO project, there are a few critical items you should know. With any SAP project, knowing how to navigate the tool and proper planning are the key to success. Here’s a quick list of rules around DMO of SUM. 

  • DMO supports a migration to SAP HANA DB, as well as SAP ASE, MS SQL Server, and IBM DB2. 
    • A homogenous migration is not supported, for example HANA to HANA 
  • DMO can only be started for a maintenance 
    • You need to apply at least on SP, for example ST-PI 
  •  SAP HANA requires a single stack. 
    • DMO only works for AS ABAP based systems: no dual-stack spit option in DMO. 
    • DMO keeps the application server and SID. No switch is possible.
  • For a target system based on SAP Netweaver 7.5 (such as SAP ECC 6.0 EHP8), the source system must be on Unicode already. For this scenario, DMO is not able to cover the Unicode Conversion. 
  • Using DMO for a migration across data center is not supported. There are no technical restrictions, but it comes with a high performance and latency impact. You my use it at your own risk. No support is provided in case of performance issues or broken procedures due to network/latency issues 

Supported SAP start releases for DMO 
Currently, DMO does not cover all possible start releases, but it covers several popular versions. You’ll want to verify your start release is supported before starting the project. The following are supported SAP instances for DMO: 

  • SAP R/3 4.6C – SAP ECC 6.0 (or above) 
  • SAP Business Suite 7 (or above) 
  • SAP BW 7.0 (or above) 
  • Sap Netweaver 7.0 systems (or above) 

The following are the migration options for SAP HANA: 
While SAP general migration option is to use DMO of SUM, it may not fit every company’s needs. It could be the case that you want to move your application to a newer OS version, migrate it to a different location, or maybe your landscape just doesn’t meet a requirement for DMO. Whatever reason it may be, it’s important to know what options you have. Listed below are the current migration options supported by SAP. 

New installation (using SWPM) 

  • Install a new system on SAP HANA 
  • Either without changing existing solutions 
  • Or for transforming an existing solution to SAP HANA by performing (selective) data migration 

Classical migration (using SUM and SWPM) 

  • To bring original system on release supported by SAP HANA, you perform update/upgrade (if required) 
  • Then, you classically migrate your traditional database to SAP HANA 
  • Must pay for migration check service 
  • Must be certified 

One-step procedure with DMO (using SUM) 

  • One process, one tool, one downtime. 

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