SAP Note

130906 - How can versions be transported?

Component: BC-UPG-NA (SAP Notes Assistant), Version: 18, Released On: 14.01.2011

Symptom
You want to copy the versions of the repository objects from one R/3 system into another,
for example because you are planning to copy your production system to your development
system.
Such a procedure does not correspond to the strategy recommended by SAP, to always retain
the development system.
When you delete the development system, important information is lost, among other things
the complete version history of all repository objects. Since the version history of the
changed SAP objects is particularly important for later upgrades, a workaround is described
here with which the complete version database of the development system can be exported and
imported again after the system copy.
Note that no change request data is copied in this case. References from the version
database to change requests will only remain intact if the corresponding change requests
were previously included in the copied production system.
Furthermore you should note that the versions from the copied system are lost completely
with this procedure.
When you copy between non-Unicode systems and Unicode systems, you must read Notes 80727 and
638357.
You must only copy versions between systems that run on the same release of the software
component SAP_BASIS. The SAP_BASIS Support Package level of the system into which the
version database is imported must be higher than or equal to the SAP_BASIS Support Package
level of the system from which the version database was exported.
Otherwise, runtime errors may occur when the versions are read.

Other Terms

Reason and Prerequisites

Solution
Caution: You can only transport ALL versions. All existing versions in the import system are
deleted.
The import and export can only be carried out using R3trans or database resources. Importing
and exporting using R3trans is described in this note.

I) Before the system copy: Export the version database

1) Create a control file for the export with the following contents
export
file = '...' # Name of data file
delete from vrsd
select * from vrsd
delete from vrsx
select * from vrsx
delete from vrsx2
select * from vrsx2
delete from vrsmodisrc # table required as of Release 4.5A
select * from vrsmodisrc # table required as of Release 4.5A
delete from vrsx3 # table required as of Release 4.6A
select * from vrsx3 # table required as of Release 4.6A
delete from vrsx4 # table required as of Release 6.40
select * from vrsx4 # table required as of Release 6.40
delete from vrsx5 # table required as of Release 7.02
select * from vrsx5 # table required as of Release 7.02
Comment: The lines with "delete" are no SQL commands and therefore, they do NOT
affect the data in the export system. These "delete" lines are necessary to delete the old
contents from the target system before you import the new table entries.

2) R3trans call for export:

R3trans -w <log file> < name of the control file Export>

II) After importing the system copy

3) R3trans call for import:

R3trans -w <log file> -i <name of the data file>

If you need additional information on R3trans, refer to Note 1942.

Manual Activities

This document refers to

SAP Note/KBA Title

80727 Transporting non-LATIN-1 texts

784931 Hom./Het.System Copy SAP Web AS 6.40 SR1 ABAP

638357 Transporting between Unicode and non-Unicode systems

This document is referenced by

SAP Note/KBA Title