Hello,
I work on SAP Product Support. There are several incidents opened by customers related to transport from different system releases. Basically they transport notes or objects, and after that, several inconsistencies start occurring (especially dumps of type SYNTAX_ERROR). My goal with this post is to show how dangerous such transports are, the incompatibilities might be unrecoverable.
SAP objects may NOT be transported between different releases. Even though it is technically possible, it is not supported by SAP. Data loss and severe inconsistencies may happen if you transport SAP objects between different releases, between systems with same release but different support package level, or between systems with different add-on versions etc. Below there are some example of inconsistencies, which mighr result in synatx errors:
- A table in an old release could have less fields than in the newer release and, then, such a transport might delete data.
- The code calls a function module and, in a different released, a new mandatory parameter has been added.
Usually there are three options to fix the inconsistencies:
- Restore the system before you have done the transport.
- Transport all object of the transport requst from a system with same support package level and notes.
- Using the version management to replace the object that were modified by the transport request.
So be carefull when transaporting such requests, especially for basis control objects into the production system. Some objects are used by all applications (for instance Function modules DD_NTAB*). If such objects get inconsistenty, the whole system will most likely be inconsistent as well. In this cases, the only solution is a restoring from a backup.
Additional information can be found on the following notes:
SAP Note 556734 - FAQ Transport: Setup and further information
SAP Note 1090842 - Composite note: Transport across several releases
Best regards,
Maurício Grisa.