SAP EP Upgrade from 7.0 to 7.3

Hi,

I am working on SAP EP upgrade from 7.0 to 7.3

Current environment:

SAP Netweaver 7.0 SP 26

SQL server 2005 SP 4

Windows 2003

Target environment:

SAP Netweaver 7.3 Ehp1 SP 6

Sql server 2012

Windows 2008 R2.

I plan to do below steps:

1. Copy the current system to new system which is running in windows 2008 R22.

2. Upgrade Sql from 2005 to 2012

3. Upgrade SAP from 7.0 to 7.3

Question:

1.      For the step 1: can I use the system copy OR backup restore. What is the SAP recommended version for EP

2.      Can i do step 1 and step 2 together. Meaning can i install new OS (2008 ) and db (2012) and restore the data. In this steps i am doing OS, db and 32 to 64 bit upgrade. Is it recommended by SAP

Thanks and Regards,

Suganthi AN