ABAP and Git
The idea of being able to manage source objects in Git that have been created in an ABAP development environment has been awaited for a while so when SAP introduced gCTS (Git-enabled Change and Transport System), it couldn’t have been more well received. This allows you to store versions of ABAP source objects in a Git repository, efficiently creating one source of truth. This way they can be taken back to any environment they were needed in and making DevOps for ABAP easier.
While your environments stay the same, once you release a transport, it is saved as a separate commit in the Git system, and you can pick the commit that you want in your ABAP system. Functions such as the health check, customizations, branching, etc. make gCTS immensely popular.
The gCTS (Git-enabled Change and Transport System) integration in ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming) provides several advantages when it comes to managing and transporting changes to ABAP-based systems. Some of the main benefits include:
- Centralized management: gCTS allows for the central management of transports for all systems in an SAP landscape, making it easier to track and coordinate changes across different environments.
- Improved efficiency: It automates many of the steps involved in transport management, such as the creation of transport requests and the import of transports into target systems. This can help to reduce the time and effort required to manage transports.
- Increased security: It enables a number of security features, such as the ability to encrypt transport data and assign different levels of access to transport functions. This can help to protect sensitive data and ensure that only authorized users are able to perform transport-related tasks.
- Better visibility: It provides detailed information about the status of transports and the systems that are involved in transport processes. This can help to improve visibility into the transport process and make it easier to identify and resolve any issues that may arise.
Overall, gCTS integration helps to streamline the process of managing and transporting changes to ABAP-based systems, and provides better governance, security, and transparency to the process.
ReleaseOwl gCTS Integration
However, using Git is only one facet of DevOps. Other essential concepts for successful DevOps, like orchestrations, automation, CI/CD can be handled with ReleaseOwl. In order to make the best use of ReleaseOwl gCTS integration, you’ll have to follow these simple steps:
1. Register your SAP gCTS systems in ReleaseOwl by entering all the required information in the ABAP Systems tab, under Administration.
2. Configure your workflow through the Release Pipelines tab.
3. Add an existing Transport using the Add button in User Stories or Create a new Transport. Add all the necessary details and select your gCTS system as your Target System.
4. Once you’ve saved your User Story, you will be able to see how this works by simply making a minor change in your SAP system and activating it. Using the same Transport Request, release the transport request from SAP and ReleaseOwl. To do this, click Edit in the User Stories options and select Release from your Actions drop down.
5. You will be able to view your Transport Request in your gCTS dashboard as well. Once you click on Promote in your User Stories section, you will be able to view this with the pending tasks based on your Release Pipeline.
6. Once your approvals have been done, your deployment will run, after which you can view the Deploy Logs, where you will notice that there is a conflict. Here, ReleaseOwl has cherry picked all the commits pertaining to this Transport and found one conflict.
7. You can click on View Conflict to see the exact change that has occurred.
8. Once you have resolved the conflicts, the deployment can be completed. You can view this in your ABAP gCTS system to ensure that the right Transport has been activated.
This integration allows you to automate and ensure CI/CD even in your ABAP gCTS integration, taking your SAP DevOps journey one step further and several paces quicker.
If you’d like to learn more on how ReleaseOwl can take you ahead of the curve on your SAP DevOps journey, contact us here.
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