You can upgrade SAP Host Agent from a downloaded SAPHOSTAGENT<SP-version>.SAR archive with a higher version. You perform the upgrade by executing the saphostexec executable with the –upgrade option and providing the path to the downloaded SAPHOSTAGENT<SP-version>.SAR archive.

You can use the saphostexec executable either of the existing SAP Host Agent installation or of the downloaded SAPHOSTAGENT<SP-version>.SAR archive. If you use the saphostexec executable of the existing SAP Host Agent installation, you do not need to decompress the downloaded SAPHOSTAGENT<SP-version>.SAR archive manually but execute the program with the additional option –archive and provide the direct path to the downloaded SAPHOSTAGENT<SP-version>.SAR archive.

On UNIX, you can also use the hostexecstart program for upgrading SAP Host Agent as a user without root authorization.