2021-09-03 1915323

1915323 - OS User Concept for SAP NetWeaver for 12c

and higher
Version 14 Type SAP Note
Language English Master Language English
Priority Recommendations / Additional Info Category Installation information
Release Status Released for Customer Released On 17.03.2020
Component BC-DB-ORA ( Oracle )

Please find the original document at https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/ 1915323

Symptom

OS User Concepts for SAP NetWeaver on Oracle SI/FS

New User Concept 'Oracle Standard' for SAP NetWeaver Standard Installations

Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1) SAP supports the user concept 'Oracle Standard' with a
separate Oracle software owner ‘oracle’ also for SAP NetWeaver standard installations with Oracle single
instance on file system (SI/FS). This is the same user concept that is used for SAP NetWeaver installations
on Oracle RAC, Oracle ASM and Oracle Engineered Systems.

User Concept 'SAP Classic' is Deprecated

Starting with Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1), user concept 'SAP Classic', the classic user concept for
SAP NetWeaver installations with 'ora<dbsid>' as Oracle software owner and database administrator, is
deprecated. It can be desupported in the future. For SAP NetWeaver standard installations with a non-CDB
database of release 12.1.0.2, 12.2.0.1, 18c or 19c, 'SAP Classic' is still supported.

User concept 'SAP Classic' is only supported for Oracle databases with the non-CDB database architecture.
'SAP Classic' is not supported for CDB databases (see SAP Note 2336881).

NEWS

June
INFO: User concept 'SAP Classic' is supported for SAP NetWeaver standard installations (SI/FS)
27,
with Oracle Database 19c (non-CDB only).
2019
October
INFO: User concept 'SAP Classic' is supported for SAP NetWeaver standard installations (SI/FS)
29,
with Oracle Database 18c (non-CDB only).
2018
March INFO: User concept 'SAP Classic' is supported for SAP NetWeaver standard installations (SI/FS)
7, 2017 with Oracle Database 12c (12.2.0.1) (non-CDB only).
March INFO: User concept 'SAP Classic' is supported for SAP NetWeaver standard installations (SI/FS)
7, 2017 with Oracle Database 12c (12.1.0.2) (non-CDB only).
October
A new version of SAP guide "Upgrade to Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1): UNIX" is
22,
available that describes the upgrade procedure for user concept 'SAP Classic'.
2015
August In order to give SAP customers more time to migrate their existing SAP installations with Oracle
13, single instance on file system (SI/FS) to the new user concept ‘Oracle Standard’ with software
2015 Owner ‘oracle’ the decision has been made that the classical user concept ‘SAP Classic’ with

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2021-09-03 1915323
Oracle software owner ‘ora<dbsid>’ is still supported for SAP installations with Oracle SI/FS with
Oracle database release 12.1.0.2. With this decision customers have enough time to test the new
user concept ‘Oracle Standard’ in their environment and to adapt existing scripts and processes, if
required. For installing a new SAP system based on Oracle Release 12.1 SI/FS with user concept
‘SAP classic’ SAP Software Provisioning Manager SWPM SP09 is required. This version will be
available by mid of September 2015. Customers who are planning to upgrade their existing SAP
installation on Oracle SI/FS to 12c Release 1 can decide to stay on the classic user concept 'SAP
Classic' with software owner ora<dbsid> or migrate to the ‘Oracle Standard’ user concept. The
user concept ‘Oracle Standard’ is used in SAP environments for all Oracle installations with Oracle
RAC, Oracle ASM and Oracle Engineered Systems. Customers who use SAP with these types of
Oracle installations can benefit from using the same user concept for all their SAP installations
including SI/FS. For Oracle Release 12.1.0.2 SAP recommends to use ‘Oracle Standard’ as user
concept with software owner ‘oracle’ also for SAP installations with Oracle SI/FS. User concept
‘SAP Classic’ is deprecated. For the future with Oracle Releases 12.2 or higher SAP may de-
support or replace the old, classic user concept ‘SAP classic’.

Other Terms

Oracle Software Owner (SWO)

Oracle Database Administrator (DBA)
Oracle Home (OH)
Oracle Single Instance (SI)
File System (FS)
Oracle Single Instance Database on file system (SI/FS)

Reason and Prerequisites

This SAP Note is valid for:

• SAP installations based on SAP NetWeaver

• Oracle single instance database on file system (SI/FS)
• Oracle Database Release 12c (12.1), 12c (12.2.0.1), 18c, 19c
• Unix platforms

Solution

OS User Concepts for SAP on Oracle SI/FS

Starting Oracle Database 12c SAP supports two user concepts for SAP NetWeaver standard installations
with an single instance database on file system (SI/FS):

• User concept "SAP Classic"

• User concept "Oracle Standard"

User Concept "SAP Classic"

In user concept ‘SAP Classic’ there is one OS user ‘ora<dbsid>’ that is used for installation of Oracle
database software and for administration of database <DBSID>.

‘ora<dbsid>’

'ora<dbsid>' is software owner and database administrator for database <DBSID>. You log on as ora<dbsid>
to install new Oracle homes or apply patches into existing Oracle homes. You also log on as ora<dbsid> for
daily database administration tasks. Whenever you log on as ora<dbsid> the environment for database

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2021-09-03 1915323

<DBSID> is already set (PATH, ORACLE_SID, DB_SID, ORACLE_HOME, LD_LIBRARY_PATH).

The user home directory is '/oracle/<DBSID>' for SAP installations with Oracle releases 11.2 and before.
Starting 12.1 the user home directory was changed to '/home/ora<dbsid>' (reason: avoid OUI warning 'INS-
32008', see SAP Note 1523171).

As a result, we have the old 'SAP Classic' user concept with software owner 'ora<dbsid>',
ORACLE_BASE=/oracle and HOME=/oracle/<DBSID>. And we have an up-to-date, modern 'SAP Classic'
user concept with software owner 'ora<dbsid>', ORACLE_BASE=/oracle/<DBSID> and
HOME=/home/ora<dbsid>.

Old 'SAP Classic' Modern 'SAP Classic'

SAP standard for 11.2 and before SAP standard for 12.1 and later
ORACLE_BASE=/oracle ORACLE_BASE=/oracle/<DBSID>
HOME=/oracle/<DBSID> HOME=/home/ora<dbsid>

By default, 'ora<dbsid>' is a member of the OS groups 'dba' and 'oper'. As a member of these groups,
ora<dbsid> is allowed to connect to the database instance via OS authentication '/ as sysdba' or '/ as
sysoper'.

Every database <DBSID> has its own software owner 'ora<dbsid>' and its own Oracle home.

Technical restrictions of this user concept are:

1. Multiple databases on the same database server can not share the same Oracle home. Using a shared
Oracle home is only possible with user concept 'Oracle Standard'.
2. OS user ora<dbsid> can connect to another database on the same database server other than
<DBSID> using OS authentication if the corresponding Oracle homes were installed with the same
OSDBA/OSOPER groups.
3. The administration tasks ‘Software installation’ and ‘Database administration’ are performed by the
same OS user.

This user concept is deprecated (see NEWS above).

The following table shows OS users and their corresponding OS groups and roles.

User Concept 'SAP Classic '

OS User Administrative Role / Task
ora<dbsid> Oracle software owner for <DBSID> Oracle database administrator for <DBSID>
SAP system administrator for SAP system <SAPSID> Oracle database operator and
<sapsid>adm
administrator for database <DBSID>

User Concept "Oracle Standard"

User concept 'Oracle Standard' is used by SAP since Oracle Release 11.2 for SAP installations with Oracle
RAC, Oracle ASM and also on Oracle Engineered Systems. Starting Oracle Release 12.1 this user concept
is now also supported for SAP installations with an Oracle single instance database on file system.

OS User 'oracle'

‘oracle’ is the Oracle software owner for all Oracle databases on a database server. You log on as ‘oracle’ to
install Oracle software, to apply patches into existing Oracle homes or to install or clone new Oracle homes.

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2021-09-03 1915323

The user home directory is '/home/oracle'.

This user has no environment variables for ORACLE_HOME or ORACLE_SID for a specific database set by
default. This user should be used for software management tasks only.

OS User 'ora<dbsid>'

'ora<dbsid>' is database administrator dedicated for database <DBSID>. You also log on as ora<dbsid> for
daily database administration tasks. Whenever you log on as ora<dbsid> the environment for database
<DBSID> is already set (PATH, ORACLE_SID, DB_SID, ORACLE_HOME, LD_LIBRARY_PATH).

The user home directory is '/home/ora<dbsid>'.

By default, 'ora<dbsid>' is a member of the OS groups 'dba' and 'oper'. As a member of these groups,
ora<dbsid> is allowed to connect to the database instance via OS authentication '/ as sysdba' or '/ as
sysoper'.

Every database <DBSID> has its own database administrator user ‘ora<dbsid>’.

Technical restrictions of this user concept are:

1. OS user ora<dbsid> can connect to another database on the same database server other than
<DBSID> using OS authentication if the corresponsing Oracle homes were installed with the same
OSDBA/OSOPER groups.
2. All database files or all databases are owned by software owner ‘oracle’.
3. All database instance processes belong to software owner ‘oracle’.

Benefits and advantages of this user concept:

1. Unified user concept for SAP on Oracle SI/FS, SAP on Oracle RAC, SAP on Oracle ASM and SAP on
Oracle Engineered Systems.
2. Multiple databases on the same database server can share the same Oracle home.
3. Allows to separate responsibility for Oracle software administration from responsibility for Oracle
database administration (security)

The following table shows OS users and their corresponding OS groups and roles.

User Concept 'Oracle Standard'

OS User Administrative Role / Task
oracle Oracle software owner for all databases on a server
ora<dbsid> Oracle database administrator for <DBSID>
SAP system administrator for SAP system <SAPSID> Oracle database operator and
<sapsid>adm
administrator for database <DBSID> SAP default database administrator

Recommendation

User concept 'SAP Classic' is deprecated. It can be desupported in the future (see above). 'Oracle Standard'
is the default user concept for new SAP installations.

User Concept Support in SWPM

For SAP installations with Oracle Database 12c Release 1 (12.1.0.2) and higher SAP SWPM supports both
user concepts 'Oracle Standard' and 'SAP Classic'. For support of 'SAP Classic' SWPM SP09 or higher is
required.

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2021-09-03 1915323

Upgrading your SAP Database to 12c or higher

When you upgrade your SAP database to a new database version (12c or higher), you can decide to stay
with user concept 'SAP Classic', or you can decide to migrate to user concept 'Oracle Standard'. The
corresponding SAP Guide describes both alternatives.

For more information, see SAP Note 2540847.

Database Upgrade with user concept 'SAP Classic'

You can stay with user concept 'SAP Classic' while you upgrade your database to release 12.1 or higher.
You can migrate from 'SAP Classic' to user concept 'Oracle Standard' at any time later after the upgrade.

Database Upgrade with user concept 'Oracle Standard'

In order to use 'Oracle Standard' as user concept, you migrate the software owner from 'ora<dbsid>' to
'oracle' before you upgrade the database. The procedure consists of the following steps:

1. Create new OS user 'oracle'

2. Change ownership of existing Oracle home from 'ora<dbsid>' to 'oracle (Cloning).
3. Change ownership of database files

The complete procedure how you can migrate to user concept 'Oracle Standard' is described in SAP Note
1915317.

This document refers to

SAP Note/KBA Title

1915317 Migrating Software Owner to 'oracle'

This document is referenced by

SAP
Title
Note/KBA

Transformation of an existing SAP Oracle database into an SAP Oracle pluggable database running
2335850
in an Oracle Multitenant database container (CDB)

2204211 SWPM: Installl ora<dbsid> User for Oracle 12.1

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