Updating SAP ABAP Systems on UNIX and Linux: SAP ASE

Integration of Customer Transports

This section deals with the integration of customer transports into the update procedure to reduce business downtime.

After the update procedure and before you start the production system, that is, during the business downtime, you import your own transport requests, for example with new customizing or new developments for the target release. To reduce the business downtime, the Software Update Manager is equipped with the feature Customer Transport Integration with SUM that integrates your transport requests into the update procedure. Moreover, it enables the import of multiclient customer transport requests and - in connection with the near-Zero Downtime Maintenance (nZDM) technology - the conversions of custom tables during the uptime.

Basic Concept

The Software Update Manager processes during the update a customer transport buffer file from the Change and Transport System (CTS). This file is a list of customer transport objects for the import into the target system during the update. It contains the following information:

  • Transports in the correct order

  • One target client per transport route

  • Transport deliveries already calculated by the CTS or the Change Request Management

The customer transports are imported logically after the SAP packages (upgrade packages, enhancement packages, and support packages). For example, if the target release of the SAP enhancement package installation is SAP ERP 6.0 Enhancement Package 6 with Support Package Stack level 2, all customer transports to be included must be valid for this target release, too.

The results of the import are synchronized back from the Software Update Manager to the Transport Management System (TMS) during the Postprocessing roadmap step. Afterwards, the transaction STMS can be used to analyze the results of the import.

If you use the Change Request Management of SAP Solution Manager, you can also integrate transports that were created by the Change Request Management.

Note that customer transport objects are processed according to certain predefined criteria, so that some objects are imported and integrated into the shadow operations and therefore processed in the uptime. Examples for those objects are ABAP Dictionary objects such as tables, view types, or search help, or ABAP objects such as classes, programs, or screens. Objects, which are not processed during uptime, are integrated with SUM downtime operations. Examples for these objects are roles, authorization objects, forms, or customizing.

Included Features and Products

The Customer Transport Integration feature of SUM includes the following features and products:

  • Modification handling

    Multiple SPDD and SPAU requests can be included in the customer buffer file together with customer transports. The dialogs to include SPDD or SPAU transport requests and single transport requests, which are normally displayed during the Preprocessing roadmap step, are not necessary and therefore not displayed. SPDD/SPAU-related transports in the customer buffer file are identified automatically during the update procedure.

    The correct order of the SPDD and SPAU transport requests in the customer buffer is preserved by the update procedure and already adjusted objects are automatically recognized in the transactions SPDD and SPAU.

  • Multiple clients

    Client-specific transport routing is used by default. Therefore, transport requests for multiple target clients are supported. The customer buffer file can contain multiple lines per transport with one target client per transport route (CTC=1 format).

  • Transport Management System (TMS)

    Information about customer transports managed in SUM is transferred to the TMS. The transport logs can be viewed in TMS.

  • Change Request Management

    The Change Request Management is a Solution Manager scenario that provides tracking and documentation of change requests and transports. Changes created in the Change Request Management can also be integrated in the update procedure.

More Information

The preparation and the use of the Software Update Manager with integrated customer transports is described in Integrating Customer Transports into the Update Procedure.