MOPZ no longer selects the latest available Java patches by default

[Former Member]

Recently I discovered that MOPZ no longer selects the latest available Java patches for the selected Support Package. It seems that SAP has changed the default behavior in MOPZ so that it selects patch level 0 when choosing stack dependent files. SAP Solution Manager 7.1 SP12 was used as the reference system, I believe it has MOPZ 3.0.

I chose to post this blog to SAP NetWeaver Administrator instead of SAP Solution Manager or Application Lifecycle Management because I felt that this is a basis concern and most basis folks are tuned to the selected space.

Now what's the big deal? Unless you are aware of the new default behavior you might end up with a NON-WORKING SYSTEM. Sorry SAP, your patch level 0 releases are rarely production quality. I don't remember when was the last time our landscape would have had patch level 0 systems in it. Typically all systems have at least patch 1, some have patch 2 or 3 and we stick with it until it is time to update or upgrade again. As it was when we updated our NetWeaver 7.31 SP10 system to NetWeaver 7.31 SP16, even Portal Content Catalog wasn't operable as demonstrated by the attached screenshot.

Portal Content Catalog broken after applying SPS16 (patch level 0) for NetWeaver 7.31

Okay, got it. Anything else I should be aware of? Unfortunately yes. Unless you use the "Add Java Patches" in the Stack-Dependent step of MOPZ while generating the stack XML, YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO APPLY PATCHES LATER ON, unless you do it manually that is. MOPZ seems to use the selected set of files to determine the available patches. If your system is already at the target level, you won't have any files to select and thus MOPZ won't find any patches. Basically what that meant for us is that we had to restore the system and to start over. I did go through the manual process of selecting the latest patch levels of about 15 components always taking a note of the dependencies. It is however always a gamble to manually patch any system, you don't know for sure whether your defects will be fixed by the selected components nor will you know all possible side effects of the selected components.

Any closing words? In my opinion, although I don't know the reasons behind the change, the new behavior is disruptive. I have been using MOPZ together with SUM (and JSPM before that) to patch Java systems for years admitted though that I haven't been actively using them in the past couple of years. That said I have trusted MOPZ to always select the latest patches while generating the stack XML, which it no longer does. MOPZ should at least give a very visible warning that the default behavior has been changed and that Java patches are no longer selected by default.

And yes, SAP has released KBA 2022451 to address the topic although it doesn't address/cover everything in my opinion.