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RaquelF
Advisor
Advisor
Transport is a very critical element of an SAP environment, and if not enough consideration is given during the planning stages, it can result in errors, inconsistencies, security gaps and unplanned downtime in the productive landscape.

Since the early days of SAP systems, it has been generally recommended to use the typical "Three-System Landscape": all development and customization is done in the development environment, the changes are tested in QA and once all changes have been successfully tested and approved, they are imported to the productive system. To move these changes across the landscape, a transport mechanism ensures that any customisations or enhancements are implemented successfully and securely, in the correct target environment.

The systems and transport tools have evolved over time, but the original concept still applies to most SAP systems these days. In SAP Cloud Platform Integration, for instance, in order to separate development, testing, and productive usage, separate subaccounts can be created to represent each system. Integration Packages can then be reused between multiple tenants by exporting it from one tenant and importing it on another using content transport.

Let us consider an example where you have two tenants, test and production. You design and test an integration flow on the test landscape and it works as expected. Instead of redesigning the integration flow on the production landscape, you can use the same integration content that you have tested in the test landscape, in the production landscape.

In SCPI, it is generally recommended to create a landscape with at least two subaccounts: development and production. However, in landscapes with extensive development of custom integration content, a third subaccount should be added, leaving a dedicated tenant for development, and another one exclusively for testing. It is therefore important to consider the organizational criteria in relation to the quality assurance processes the company follows.



Once the landscape is defined, the transport method needs to be chosen. Currently, there are four options available:



    • CTS+: The Enhanced Change and Transport System (CTS+) is recommended for hybrid scenarios. Besides handling the transport of on-premise systems (such as ABAP objects), CTS+ also lets you transport SAP Cloud Platform artifacts from one subaccount to another.







    • Transport Management Service: the SAP Cloud Platform Transport Management service (TMS) is recommended for cloud-centric scenarios. It allows you to transport application-specific content, such as SAP Cloud Platform Integration packages, between different subaccounts, which might also reside in different global accounts, spread across different regions. This service might be especially suitable if you don't have an ABAP-based landscape, don't want to involve on-premise ABAP systems in your scenario, or have to handle SAP Cloud Platform application-specific content.







    • MTAR Download: In this option, you download a MTAR file from the tenant you want to export integration content and manually upload this MTAR file to a CTS+ system.







    • Manual export and import: In this option, you use the Export feature in your workspace to export integration content from the tenant you want to export integration content and manually import this in the target tenant.




These options require different levels of planning and infrastructure prerequisites, so the organizational needs must be evaluated to ensure the method chosen meets development requirements, security standards and audit specifications, since some of these options might not provide enough traceability of the changes.

To learn how to the setup a transport mechanism in your environment, watch the tutorial "Setting up Transport Management for SAP Cloud Platform Integration" available in the SAP Learning Hub.

This tutorial explains, step-by-step, how you can configure and execute transport in SCPI using CTS+, TMS, MTAR download and Manual export and import.

 

Note: To access the SAP Learning Hub, edition for SAP Enterprise Support, a one-time sign up is required.

https://support.sap.com/en/offerings-programs/enterprise-support/enterprise-support-academy/learn.ht...

Only customers with one of the following maintenance agreements are eligible to access the support edition: SAP Enterprise Support, SAP Enterprise Support, Cloud Edition, or SAP Product Support for Large Enterprises (PSLE).

A valid S-user is required to attend Expert Webinar sessions. If there are issues in registering for the above sessions, please contact the SAP Enterprise Support Academy.

Further information including how to contact the SAP Enterprise Support Academy is provided below.

https://support.sap.com/en/offerings-programs/enterprise-support/enterprise-support-academy.html