What is a Maintenance Certificate?
The Maintenance Certificate enables SAP's software logistics tools (like SPAM, SAINT, JSPM,…) to identify your system and the exact scope of your corresponding SAP maintenance agreement. It ensures that only customers with a valid maintenance contract can apply Support Packages. As of January '09 software logistics tools will only apply maintenance items if a valid Maintenance Certificate is available.
When will a Maintenance Certificate be required by SAP's software logistics tools?
Maintenance Certificate will be required for all customers as of January '09.
Which SAP products require a Maintenance Certificate?
All SAP products based on SAP NetWeaver 7.0 and beyond require a Maintenance Certificate.
How long is the validity of a Maintenance Certificate?
Maintenance Certificate has a validity of 3 months. You then have to renew it.
Which options for the deployment are available?
In order to minimize the effort for customers an automated deployment for Maintenance Certificate via SAP Solution Manager 7.0 is offered. In addition a manual deployment option will be available via SAP Support Portal.
Which version of SAP Solution Manager will be required to benefit from automatic deployment of Maintenance Certificates?
SAP Solution Manager 7.0 SP 16 will be required to benefit from automatic deployment.
Is a network connection (RFC) from SAP Solution Manager to SAP's Service Backbone required to use automatic deployment of Maintenance Certificates?
Yes, SAP Solution Manager requires a connection to SAP as well as a connection to the satellite systems in order to use automatic deployment.
Is it required to use SAP Solution Manager for the deployment of Maintenance Certificates?
No, the automated deployment option is recommended but not required. It is possible to use automatic deployment for some systems and manual deployment for other systems.
Does the automatic deployment through SAP Solution Manager 7.0 ensure that a new Maintenance Certificate is applied before the end of validity of the current certificate has been reached?
Yes, SAP Solution Manager will request a new Maintenance Certificate 30 days (can be customized) before of end of validity of an existing certificate.
Do I have to install a SAP Solution Manager just to use Maintenance Certificates?
No, this is not required. You can use the manual deployment option.
How can I request a Maintenance Certificate manually?
A self-service ia availbale in SAP Support Portal, which enables you to request Maintenance Certificates for all systems. The Maintenance Certificate has to be downloaded, distributed to the server and imported manually.
How can I check the Maintenance coverage of a System?
The Maintenance coverage will be visible in SAP Support Portal in System Data (available as of May '08).
Is a maintenance certificate required during the installation?
During the installation, there is no step to import Support Packages, therefore the Maintenance Certificate is not checked. Afterwards, when applying Support Packages, it's required announced.
Is a Maintenance Certificate required during an upgrade?
During the upgrade no Maintenance Certificate is required. This allows for example an easy upgrade from 4.6c to current releases and include Support Packages.
How can I check the successful deployment of a Maintenance Certificate?
In the relevant system, run transaction SLICENSE, Choose button "New Licenses" (to switch to the display of "Digitally-Signed License Keys").
Then check, whether an additional license key is visible with:
• Software Product : "Maintenance_" in column "Sware Prod" (DE: "SW-Produkt")
• Valid from: "date when the Maintenance Certificate was requested"
• Valid until: date of request + approx. 3 months
Can Service Partners use their SAP Solution Manager for automated deployment of Maintenance Certificates?
Yes, with (SPS 16) SAP Solution Manager will be prepared to serve several customers. In addition please apply SAP Note 1229904 - Maintenance certificate distribution for service provider.
Do I have to download SPs separately for all my systems?
No, this is not required. As today you can download Support Packages once and deploy and use them in many systems.
Regards
Rajnikanth