Hi,

Can anyone please tell me that if i want to upgrade upto SP 18 or SP 22, what is the latest stable Porting Set is available for each (what if SP 18 or what if SP 22)...currently the client is on SP3 with PS: 6.1c.04.01, OS: HP UX 11.11 with oracle 9i. Any suggestion with reason whether Oracle 9i should be upgraded to Oracle 10g (client is ready for that but only if it brings stability...)...Any kind of help with certain reasoning is highly appreciated...?

Another thing is, can anyone tell me that which one is more stable SP above SP17...should i stop on SP 18 or better to go for SP22....if anyone who has an experience on this please put some words of guidance...

Thanks in advance...
Regards,
Dilip.

Hi Dilip,
To SP or not to SP, has been the headache of baan admins..Sp's could bring in new problems or bring relief to some older problems..So its a decision you got to take, taking into consideration your business process.
To upgrade to any service pack above 19 you got to have porting set 6.1c.07.13 installed. There is a downfall to this. This version of porting set would render your AFS programs unusable. If you do not have any AFS programs you could go ahead with the upgrade. Dont forget to read through the documents of these SP's as they outline what changes are brought forth with each. There is nothing called as stable SP imho. SPs could behave well in one site while on the other it could ruin things. IT all depends on your business procedures(how to conduct your businees in baan).

I am not an oracle guy and so i am not sure whether you need to upgrade or not. Again, whichever version you choose please do see which porting set would be needed for those versions....

sk

Dear Sukesh,

Thank you very much for your guidance, it really made my view clearer...after going through the release notes document I found that for SP 18 & 19 the Portign Set 6.1c.07.05 or later and for SP 20 & 21 Porting Set 6.1c.07.08 or later is recommended...but now I am worried about the issue you mentioned regarding AFS..will AFS not work only if go with PS 6.1c.07.13...? What is the solution of it then...? And why should I (or should I) not stop upgrading Porting Set below than 6.1c.07.13 (lets make it 6.1c.07.10 or something till SP 22)...? Please reply...

I agree that there is nothing as such stability in context of SPs but what I meant by that is if client is having SP 21 and he upgrades upto SP22 and if SP22 is not having any modification in what has been delivered in SP21 then SP 21 (or any SP) can be thought as stable or other thing is if on SP21, client doesn't require to go to Baan Support again and again for new fixes/patches... then also the SP can be thought as stable...what is your idea on the same...?

Thanks again, please reply...
Regards,
Dilip.

Dilip,
I have read the notes on SP20 or 21(i dont remember which) and i remember seeing that porting set 13 is to be installed and i guess a newer version of BW too(i guess) before those SP. I think the BW thats to be installed needs porting set 13 or something like that. Now as for a solution to overcome this, Baan would suggest to install OpenWorld and use it instead of AFS. What this means is that you would have to modify the codes you have written using AFS...

SPs are nothing but collection of patches that fixes certain or all of your modules. So if after reading through the documents of an SP and you see that there is nothing in it that really helps your cause, then you could stay put with what you have. See the point is, if your existing environment is working for you and you are satisfied with it, i would say not to go for SP.

sk

Dear Sukesh,

Thanks alot for helping me and that is too so promptly...and becuase of you I am in a position to decide what I need do with...now I have decided to upgrade the server with SP but with Porting Set less than 6.1c.07.13 so that I can use my AFS programs...and also service pack upgrade i will do only till 18 or 20 and that too only after going through the Release Notes so that I can come to know what are the components, fixes being delivered...and if required then only upgrade with SPs...:) ThanQ very much...(is it possible to have your personal email or contact plz...? If yes, you can mail that to me: dilipk.pandey@gmail.com)

Thanks to board and all...
Regards,
Dilip.

Please let us know how it goes. I am currently on SP19 and a bit apprehensive about moving forward because of a lot of AFS modules running around Baan.

sk

Right now I have to prepare a proposal plan to managment..., and upgrade will take place in next couple of days (or week also - for live server), the moment I will get it done, will let you know for sure...Thanks alot for all your help...

Regards,
Dilip.

<quote>
I have read the notes on SP20 or 21(i dont remember which) and i remember seeing that porting set 13 is to be installed
</quote>

The release notes for SP23 mention that the minimum portingset is 6.1c.07.09
As far as I can see there is no reference in any of the release notes of portingset 09-15 that AFS is not supported anymore. It does mention that support for the old BCK will be dropped by December 2007

regards,
Robert

Robert,
Check the technical notes of this porting set. I am sure there is a statement in there which reads as follows....
The Windows porting set 6.1c.07.12 will be the last porting set supporting BCK. With the Windows porting set 6.1c.07.13 and later BCK will not be delivered anymore. The 6.1c.07.12 porting set code will be the base for resolving issues for customers using the BCK integration

I am on holidays right now and so i dont have the technical notes at my disposal and so can only recall seeing this statement. But to further foolproof what i said, the above statement was copied from a reply, by Infor Support personel, to one of our case surrounding the above mentioned porting set. They themself have warned us against the use of this porting set if we are using bck...
So there you have it..as they say straight from the horse's mouth...

sk

Hi sk,

Here is what it literally says in the release notes of porting set 6.1c.07.13:

End-of-service notifications

BCK and BCBE
The support for the BaanConnectKit (BCK) and BCBE will be dropped by
December 2007. Customers are advised to plan migration to SSA®
Integration.

Nothing explicitly about Windows OS or UNIX or whatever.
The text in the release note for porting set 12 is exactly the same.
They might mean that in December they will come with a SP that at least needs a portingset that does not support BCK anymore....

Robert,
Try the technical notes or for confirmation purposes better take this up with Infor. That way, i too can verify from my sources at infor if and at all there is a contradiction. I am sure they(infor support) wont be spreading wrong information about stuff like this. I have passed on to you an excerpt from the reply to one of my cases concerning this Porting Set. The same wordings i have seen in the technical notes(or some other pdf file that i had downloaded from infor) of this porting set. Since i am not in a position to check those documents right now, i cant comment further to what i already said and know...

sk

Robert,
Now that i am back at work, i would like to dispel the doubt on this issue with proof from the document i was referring to. The document name is Technical Notes Porting Set 6.1c.07.13. The page number in the document where this statement(i quoted) could be found is 16 under the heading "Important Note for BCK Customers". Since the wordings are exactly the same as what i mentioned in my previous post, i am not repeating it again. The chapter would be #2 titled Operating System Notes and this note can be found under Microsoft x86 Windows.


sk

Hi,

Indeed I now see the phrase you mention, and indeed this is only for the Windows portingset, I guess for others it will be dropped in a later version.


R.

End of life for BCK - does that mean no support for AFS . IS there any specific mention about that . Currently I have not seen the documents so far .

Hitesh,
If my understanding about the connection between BCK and AFS is correct then BCK forms an integral part of AFS. Therefore withdrawal of support for BCK wouldnt be that good for AFS..The document i am referring to is the Technical Notes on porting set 6.1c.07.13.

sk

I dont think AFS and BCK are directly connected . AFS works through ttstpstandard , ttstpapihand and ttstpcreatdll . All these are tools objects and not part of the porting set per se . So indeed BCK support may have been withdrawn with porting set as u have read in the doc. But not necssarily AFS (Unless there is clear statement to that effect in the release notes ) .