MII configuration and content transport management

[RajeevKansal]

1.    Introduction

SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence is a manufacturing platform providing seamless integration from top floor to shop floor and vice versa, shop floor operational visibility and manufacturing performance management. customer/partner does quite of MII configuration and MII content development to cater to specific shop floor requirement customer has which needs to be transported across system e.g., development to quality to production system. This document will share what are the different options for transporting MII configuration and MII content across systems.  

2.     MII Configuration transport

MII has quite of configuration objects e.g. data servers, credential store etc. which needs to be transported across system for faster implementation. in MII, There are 2 ways of transporting MII configuration i.e., using export/import using Zip files and using CTS+ configuration which will be discussed further.

2.1     MII Configuration transport using zip file.

In order to transport MII configuration data using zip file, please use the following steps.

1. In the source system, Go to MII Menu -> System Management -> Configuration -> Export tab. Choose Export Method as File System, file format as Zip, Encryption Algorithm as one of the option mentioned in the dropdown, provide a pass phrase to protect the file and select the configuration data you would like to transport to other system.

                             

           2. It will provide an option to download the file into your file system. Save the file in your machine.

           3. In the target system, Go to MII Menu -> System Management -> Configuration -> Import tab.                     Choose the encryption algorithm and pass phrase as what was provided during the export,  provide the file location and choose Import button. This will import the content from the Zip file into                 target system.

                                   

2.2     MII Configuration transport using CTS+.

Export/Import using the zip file could be quite cumbersome, provide no tracking and approval process hence it is possible to use CTS+ process to transport the MII configuration data across system which internally creates an ABAP transport request, attaches the content file to the transport and on release import into target system as defined in the transport route in ABAP system. This process can be integrated with solution manager also to provide transporting content from different technologies i.e., MII and ABAP. Please check the note 3452468 - How to transport MII configuration data across system using CTS+ approach for step by step details on how to configure such transport.

3     MII Content transport

Customer/Partner creates quite of development objects in MII using MII workbench i.e. Query Template, Display template, transaction. All these objects are stored in MII DB in XML format. This content needs to be transported across system for seamless implementation and also requires proper source code management since multiple people need to work on these development object and for multiple releases. MII supports multiple options for transporting MII content with and without source code management which will be discussed now.

3.1     MII Content transport using zip file.

In order to transport MII content data using zip file, please use the following steps.

1. In the source system, Go to MII Menu -> System Management -> Projects and select a project and choose Export button.

                    

1. It will download the project content in a zip file and store it in your machine.
2. In the target system, Go to MII Menu -> System Management -> Projects and select import. Provide the zip file path in the pop up screen and choose Ok. This will import the project in the target system.

The transport using the zip file approach doesn’t provide any source code management for MII content and moves the whole project instead of only changed projects hence it is always recommended to use the NWDI based approach which provides central source code management, build process and deployment process.

3.2     MII Content transport using NWDI integration with CMS.

MII Content transport using NWDI approach uses SAP NetWeaver Java Development Infrastructure with following components.

1. Design Time Repository (DTR): DTR is a central storage of design time objects (application source code) that supports distributed versioning. Access to the central storage is through the standard WebDAV and DeltaV protocols.
2.  Component Build Service (CBS): CBS plays a central role in the realization of the concepts of the NWDI. It offers centralized build services, storage of build results and build tools.
3.  Change Management Service (CMS): CMS offers services to configuration of the landscape, transport software changes within the landscape and also packaging and delivery of the components being developed using NWDI.  

For step-by-step details on how to do this set up, kindly check the following note 3452084 - How to setup/configure NWDI in MII for content development.

3.3     MII Content transport using NWDI integration with CM Services

CM Services is a enhanced version of CMS which provides fine granular transport of the activities. For details please check the note 1361909 - CM Services in CTS+ and following blog.

MII NWDI integration using CMS moves the all the project across system. In case much fine granular transport is needed then use NWDI integration with CM Services. Please find the step-by-step details in following note 2862116 - CM services integration with SAP MII for build process using NWDI.

4    Conclusion

SAP MII supports detailed transport management for configuration and MII Content

based on above mentioned information. In case, you have different version of MII content

development e.g., one deployed on production on which corrections are needed for

patch delivery and another version for new development then it is recommended to use

different tracks for these scenarios. Please check the following blog for more details.