With Focused Solutions SAP provides a new add-on concept for SAP Solution Manager.
The Focused Build Solution is designed to provide a ready-to-run process for agile projects. Parts of these agile process enhancements can be also beneficial for your current implementations and used to enhance your daily life with the SAP Solution Manager. In this blog series, I would like to describe a few standalone enhancements in more detail, which can be very helpful in special situations and can be used independently from the requirements to deploy process from Focused Build.
In the first part, I would like to introduce a standalone extension called "Cross Landscape Distribution." This extension is particularly useful for you when you have implemented or plan to implement Change Request Management with SAP Solution Manager.
Many customers have multiple landscapes and rising demand to synchronize customizing or development objects between these landscapes.
Common Use Cases (to name just a few)
SAP tried to solve this issue in the past with customizing distribution within SAP Solution Manager. This procedure was a valid solution for customizing problems. However, this solution did not work for every customizing or workbench object. One of the weaknesses was the integration in the change request management of SAP Solution Manager. The Cross Landscape Distribution Enhancement is designed to address these problems and provides an integrated solution as part of your Change Request Management process.
Cross Landscape Distribution (XLD)
The XLD is a guided procedure that can be opened from the transport assignment block of your source change. The guided procedure supports you with the selection of the correct target and automates the distribution of your change to a new landscape.
As a target, you can either select a different change from another landscape or directly select a different transport for a landscape that is not yet connected with Change Request Management.
When the distribution starts, the XLD executes the following steps automatically:
Does it always overwrite the objects in the target system?
Yes, that is its purpose. XLD is not a conflict detections tool that you should use when you have parallel changes in different landscapes (SAP Solution Manager provides Retrofit for this kind of problems). XLD provides you the flexibility to distribute all transportable changes from one landscape to any other landscape. To compensate for this total flexibility, we also provide three different levels of control to limit this flexibility and tune it to exactly to the amount you need.
Level 1: You have the option to control XLD via a specific authorization object but allow all objects to be distributed everywhere. (maximum flexibility, minimal control).
Level 2: Define specific source and target change cycles or development systems. (medium flexibility, medium control).
Level 3: Define detailed object lists with target systems. For customizing, you can define customizing groups, for workbench you can define the distribution based on the package the objects belongs. (minimal flexibility, maximum control).
For the Level 3, we also provide a specific consistency condition that will stop any change process when the change contains one of the defined objects but is not yet distributed. Therefore, XLS can ensure that all systems remain synchronized when you maintain your list of global development objects.
In the next release, further automation of the distribution process is planned. We are working on options to automate the creation of target transports and target changes so that you do not have to select these targets manually anymore.
If you are looking for more information about Focused Build and other Focused Solutions, please take a look at these Resources:
Other Articles of this Series:
The Focused Build Solution is designed to provide a ready-to-run process for agile projects. Parts of these agile process enhancements can be also beneficial for your current implementations and used to enhance your daily life with the SAP Solution Manager. In this blog series, I would like to describe a few standalone enhancements in more detail, which can be very helpful in special situations and can be used independently from the requirements to deploy process from Focused Build.
In the first part, I would like to introduce a standalone extension called "Cross Landscape Distribution." This extension is particularly useful for you when you have implemented or plan to implement Change Request Management with SAP Solution Manager.
The Challenge
Many customers have multiple landscapes and rising demand to synchronize customizing or development objects between these landscapes.
Common Use Cases (to name just a few)
- Syncronize the customizing for identical tables in different system landscapes
- Synchronization for development objects for basis or user management
- Global developments & customizing that need to be in sync with local implementation landscapes
Solutions
SAP tried to solve this issue in the past with customizing distribution within SAP Solution Manager. This procedure was a valid solution for customizing problems. However, this solution did not work for every customizing or workbench object. One of the weaknesses was the integration in the change request management of SAP Solution Manager. The Cross Landscape Distribution Enhancement is designed to address these problems and provides an integrated solution as part of your Change Request Management process.
Cross Landscape Distribution (XLD)
The XLD is a guided procedure that can be opened from the transport assignment block of your source change. The guided procedure supports you with the selection of the correct target and automates the distribution of your change to a new landscape.
As a target, you can either select a different change from another landscape or directly select a different transport for a landscape that is not yet connected with Change Request Management.
When the distribution starts, the XLD executes the following steps automatically:
- Create the Transport of Copies with all or filtered list of objects from the source change
- Import this Transport of Copies into the development system of the target landscape
- Repack the object list from the Transport of Copy into the target transport.
Does it always overwrite the objects in the target system?
Yes, that is its purpose. XLD is not a conflict detections tool that you should use when you have parallel changes in different landscapes (SAP Solution Manager provides Retrofit for this kind of problems). XLD provides you the flexibility to distribute all transportable changes from one landscape to any other landscape. To compensate for this total flexibility, we also provide three different levels of control to limit this flexibility and tune it to exactly to the amount you need.
Level 1: You have the option to control XLD via a specific authorization object but allow all objects to be distributed everywhere. (maximum flexibility, minimal control).
Level 2: Define specific source and target change cycles or development systems. (medium flexibility, medium control).
Level 3: Define detailed object lists with target systems. For customizing, you can define customizing groups, for workbench you can define the distribution based on the package the objects belongs. (minimal flexibility, maximum control).
For the Level 3, we also provide a specific consistency condition that will stop any change process when the change contains one of the defined objects but is not yet distributed. Therefore, XLS can ensure that all systems remain synchronized when you maintain your list of global development objects.
In the next release, further automation of the distribution process is planned. We are working on options to automate the creation of target transports and target changes so that you do not have to select these targets manually anymore.
If you are looking for more information about Focused Build and other Focused Solutions, please take a look at these Resources:
Other Articles of this Series:
- Cross Landscape Distribution - Focused Build Standalone Extensions Part 1
- Repack - Focused Build Standalone Extensions Part 2
- Simple IT Request - Focused Build Standalone Extensions Part 3
- Test System Refresh - Focused Build Standalone Extensions Part 4
- Release Batch Import - Focused Build Standalone Extensions Part 5
- Cut-Over Checks & Activities – Focused Build Standalone Extensions Part 6 (coming soon)
- SAP Managed Tags:
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