Downgrade SUSE Linux for SAP apps 12 SP1 to SLES Standard

SUSE Product Topics SLES Configure-Administer
1

Hello all.

WHAT HAPPENED:

  1. We have installed SLES for SAP 12 on our server before our license arrive.
  2. When the license arrived, we just found out that our license is just for the Standard edition.

Due to this, we cannot feed the license key that we have into the SLES for SAP server because of the wrong version.

CONSTRAINTS:

  1. However, we cannot scrap the servers that we have installed SLES for SAP and start all over again because we have already installed our applications from there and if we scrap it, our current project will be delayed by 3 weeks and this will incur so much cost.
  2. We also cannot just let this be because our company is a publicly listed company and it is a requirement by our auditors to keep an active maintenance agreement on all our IT resources, including servers and OS.

QUESTION:

  1. Can we downgrade SLES for SAP apps 12 SP1 to SLES Standard edition?
  2. If #1 is not possible, is there a way were we can feed the SLES Standard license into our server that has SLES for SAP apps? Do note that SLES IS NOT ACCEPTING our activation attempts due to the incorrect version, but we are also asking if there is another way…
2

Hi and welcome to the Forum :slight_smile:
You would need to disable the install media/medium repository for the SAP version install, then add the SLE 12 standard install media as a repository first via YaST Software Repositories (or command line with zypper).

Then run a distribution upgrade with zypper, in your case it will be a switch;

zypper -vvv dup

This will switch the packages/product, the added verbosity (-vvv) will show you what is happening in more detail.

3

On 22/08/17 08:14, venturebasis wrote:
[color=blue]

Hello all.

WHAT HAPPENED:

  1. We have installed SLES for SAP 12 on our server before our license
    arrive.
  2. When the license arrived, we just found out that our license is just
    for the Standard edition.

Due to this, we cannot feed the license key that we have into the SLES
for SAP server because of the wrong version.

CONSTRAINTS:

  1. However, we cannot scrap the servers that we have installed SLES for
    SAP and start all over again because we have already installed our
    applications from there and if we scrap it, our current project will be
    delayed by 3 weeks and this will incur so much cost.
  2. We also cannot just let this be because our company is a publicly
    listed company and it is a requirement by our auditors to keep an active
    maintenance agreement on all our IT resources, including servers and
    OS.

QUESTION:

  1. Can we downgrade SLES for SAP apps 12 SP1 to SLES Standard edition?
  2. If #1 is not possible, is there a way were we can feed the SLES
    Standard license into our server that has SLES for SAP apps? Do note
    that SLES IS NOT ACCEPTING our activation attempts due to the incorrect
    version, but we are also asking if there is another way…[/color]

Whilst there is an official and supported way of migrating SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server (SLES) 12 SP1 in-place to SLES for SAP Applications 12
SP1[1] there isn’t one for going the other way.

Essentially you need to do the opposite of the script available for
migrating SLES to SLES for SAP Applications.

HTH.

[1] https://www.suse.com/support/kb/doc/?id=7017320

Simon
SUSE Knowledge Partner

If you find this post helpful and are logged into the web interface,
please show your appreciation and click on the star below. Thanks.

4

[QUOTE=malcolmlewis;39210]Hi and welcome to the Forum :slight_smile:
You would need to disable the install media/medium repository for the SAP version install, then add the SLE 12 standard install media as a repository first via YaST Software Repositories (or command line with zypper).

Then run a distribution upgrade with zypper, in your case it will be a switch;

zypper -vvv dup

This will switch the packages/product, the added verbosity (-vvv) will show you what is happening in more detail.[/QUOTE]

THIS WORKED!!! Thank you Malcolm for saving me after 3 days of agony. :slight_smile: