New Integration of SAP Cloud Transport Management and SAP Cloud ALM

[moritzgysler]

Motivation

In the ever-evolving world of technology, staying ahead of the curve is not just an advantage, but a necessity. The newly recommended integration of SAP Cloud Transport Management (in the following referred to as CTMS) and SAP Cloud ALM is a testament to this fact. This has replaced the existing integration of CTMS subscribed in the SAP Cloud ALM subaccount. In the following referred to as the legacy integration of CTMS and SAP Cloud ALM.

One of the key challenges that many businesses face today is dealing with supported content types and programmatic access. These technical limitations can hinder your business's growth and efficiency. However, with the new integration, these limitations become a thing of the past. The integration provides a robust platform that supports a wide range of content types, including SAP Analytics Cloud Network Package content, and offers programmatic access to your CTMS instance through API, thereby streamlining your operations and making them more efficient.

Documentation issues, particularly those related to describing special handling of SAP Cloud ALM managed deployment management for different content related use cases, can be a significant roadblock. The new integration addresses these issues head-on. It provides comprehensive and easy-to-understand documentation that makes it easier for you to understand and handle SAP Cloud ALM in combination with CTMS. 

The integration of CTMS and SAP Cloud ALM is not just combining two tools; it's a catalyst for change. It's about overcoming the challenges and limitations that have been holding you back. It's about embracing the new and making the most of the opportunities it presents. So, why wait? Embrace the new integration and take your business to new heights of success.

 

Procedure to connect CTMS to SAP Cloud ALM

Subscribe to CTMS

In order to perform the following steps please make sure that your user has the role Global Account Administrator in your SAP BTP Global Account, and is a subaccount admin of the subaccount you want to subscribe to CTMS.

Execute the following steps:

1. You must configure your entitlements to CTMS. Assign entitlements for a dedicated subaccount, and add service plans accordingly. Recommended are standard (Application) and standard, which is used for programmatic access. Check this SAP Help Portal page for more details --> Configuring Entitlements to SAP Cloud Transport Management.
2. Now you must subscribe to CTMS. Use the standard plan for the subscription. Check this SAP Help Portal page for more details --> Subscribing to Cloud Transport Management.
3. Since you want to deploy transports through SAP Cloud ALM the pre-delivered roles MS_LandscapeOperator_RC and TMS_Viewer_RC are sufficient. Check this SAP Help Portal page for more details --> Setting Up Role Collections.

Create Service Instance and a Service Key

1. Create a Space in your SAP BTP subaccount or reuse an existing one.
2. In the space, create a service instance of CTMS. Select the standard plan of type Instance.
   1. Runtime Environment: Cloud Foundry
   2. Space: Select the space that you created / selected previously
   3. Instance Name: Enter a meaningful name
3. Create a service key based on the service instance for CTMS.

Check this SAP Help Portal page for more details --> Creating a Service Instance and a Service Key. 

Connect CTMS to SAP Cloud ALM

Now you must connect your CTMS instance to SAP Cloud ALM. In case you've subscribed to several CTMS instances it's possible to connect all of them to the same SAP Cloud ALM. 

Destination from SAP Cloud ALM to your standalone instance of SAP Cloud Transport Management

In order to perform the following steps please make sure that your user has the role Global Account Administrator in the global account that was created when you requested SAP Cloud ALM, and is a Subaccount Admin of the subaccount containing your SAP Cloud ALM subscription.

Execute the following steps:

1. Create a Destination in the Connectivity area of your SAP Cloud ALM subaccount.
2. Enter the values of the table below in the Destination Configuration area. The values must be taken from the service key created in section Create Service Instance and a Service Key of this blog:

   Name	Here, use the prefix CALM_FTR_CTMS_ and then add a meaningful suffix. Example: CALM_FTR_CTMS_FEATURES (this value is case-sensitive)
   Type	HTTP
   Description (optional)	You can provide a description for your reference.
   URL	Value of uri from the service key of your CTMS service instance.
   Proxy Type	Internet
   Authentication	OAuth2ClientCredentials
   Client ID	Value of clientid (uaa section) from the service key of your CTMS service instance.
   Client Secret	Value of clientsecret (uaa section) from the service key of your CTMS service instance.
   Token Service URL	Value of  URL (uaa section) from the service key of your CTMS service instance. Append /oauth/token to the URL retrieved from the service key.

   
   

   

3. After you've established the connection, it can take up to 5 minutes before the first transports appear in the Features app.

Caution

Don't maintain two destinations to the same CTMS instance because this leads to duplicate entries of transports in the transport assignment dialog.

Even if you delete one destination, the transports that were already pushed to SAP Cloud ALM aren't deleted since existing data could still be relevant for audit purposes.

 

Usage of the new option

In the Features app of SAP Cloud ALM, transports created in CTMS appear in the transport list with the destination as a prefix to the transport ID. See screenshot below.

In case you are still using the legacy integration of the CTMS and SAP Cloud ALM, those transports are showing up without a prefix.

 

Migration Options

In the following blog post (https://community.sap.com/t5/technology-blogs-by-sap/how-to-migrate-a-sap-cloud-transport-management... Harald explains how to migrate an existing CTMS landscape of your CTMS instance subscribed in the SAP Cloud ALM subaccount, to your newly subscribed CTMS instance in your own SAP BTP Global Account.

The CTMS transport requests coming from the legacy integration of CTMS and SAP Cloud ALM will not be removed from your SAP Cloud ALM instance and the integration will still work. Those transport request are showing up without any prefix and you can utilize the existing legacy integration to finish your ongoing implementations. By this you can phase out the usage of legacy integration and at a certain point in time just go ahead with the newly subscribed and integrated CTMS instance.

 

Wrap-Up and Outlook

In this blog post I tried to emphasize the importance of using the newly recommended way to integrate your own SAP Cloud Transport Management instance with SAP Cloud ALM and considering the migration from your CTMS instance subscribed in the SAP Cloud ALM subaccount to the one subscribed in your own SAP BTP Global Account.

By using the integration you can control your SAP BTP changes easily and manage your SAP BTP extensions efficiently.

As a next step the assignment of CTMS nodes to System Groups in SAP Cloud ALM will be enabled. This provides an option to assign a CTMS managed landscape to a SAP Cloud ALM project to segregate deployments on project level.

Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting development!