Technical Articles
Some answers for the gCTS Community Call
On 24th November, I tried to explain and show the Git-enabled Change and Transport System (gCTS) in the SAP Community call ‘Introduction to Git-enabled CTS’. Many questions remained open when time was over. Let me try to answer them in this blog post. I tried to summarize similar questions – so it might be that you cannot find exactly your question but hopefully all the topics are covered. If not, please use the comments for this blog post to ask your question.
Q: Why should we go for GitHub and all this stuff for ABAP in a normal 3 System Landscape?
A: There is maybe no reason to use gCTS in a pure ABAP environment. Classical CTS is available, and it will stay available. If you are happy with the process and flows that you use in CTS, continue using them! gCTS is made for cases, where CI / CD processes in a DevOps minded environment are needed for ABAP as well. gCTS is somehow the door opener for ABAP development into this world. With gCTS, it is e.g. possible to set up pipelines for ABAP development.
Q: gCTS only for SAP S/4 HANA possible? Not for ERP ECC? is there anything similar to gCTS available or planned for SAP ECC?
A: Currently, there are no plans to downport gCTS to anything below SAP S/4HANA 1909. For some parts, this is even not possible at all from a technical perspective.
Q: Is the strategy in the future is to replace the old STMS (as all the existing features are planned for gCTS ?)
A: There are no plans to replace CTS / STMS.
Q: Can we mix old STMS concepts and gCTS for deployment? Is it possible to have the classical CTS and gCTS to be running in a parallel? How can we choose which released transports go to git, and which go through the classical CTS path?
A: Yes, you can use classical CTS and gCTS in parallel for one system landscape. The transport layer determines which way a certain object goes. But you should decide once how a certain object is handled and not switch from classical CTS to gCTS and back and forth at every change of the object.
After a transport had been released, you cannot switch from one tool to the other anymore. What you can do is adding objects of a certain transport request to a repository. With this, you don’t have to change every object that you would like to handle via gCTS to add it to a new transport request. This is helpful to initially fill your repository with the objects that should not use classical CTS in the future anymore. Additional information is available on the SAP Help Portal in the topic Manually Push Objects
Q: How does gCTS work with ChaRM (Change Request Management of SAP Solution Manager) and Focused Build.
A: First steps for an integration of gCTS into ChaRM are planned for the next SP of SAP Solution Manager 7.2. When this is published, we will also provide documentation explaining the details how this works in combination with STMS and classical CTS. Integration in Focused Build is not planned yet. How gCTS in ChaRM will work with CSOL and DGP is currently in some kind of planning phase. It might even be that some of the functionality is not needed if gCTS is in use. Transport requests are no longer the single source of truth for your ABAP objects. The coding to be imported is determined by the commit that you choose. Older or newer versions are not overwritten in the git repository. They are just part of another commit that is maybe currently not active in your ABAP runtime.
You can also get more details in the TechEd session Change Control Management: Building a Bridge for CI/CD in a Hybrid Solution [DEV104]
Q: How to enable gCTS when we have a pure backend for all ABAP objects when we have different frontend system for Fiori?
A: The recommendation is to use the embedded Fiori. Carola Steinmeier describes that in her blog post SAP Fiori Deployment Options and Recommendations. There is also a blog post available written by Jorge Baltazar SAP Fiori for SAP S/4HANA – Transition from Standalone to Embedded Deployment in SAP S/4HANA to learn how to move from standalone to embedded deployment.
If you still decide to use the hub deployment, from a gCTS perspective, you need to activate the cts_abapvcs and the bc_cts_git services in the SICF transaction, and add the SAP Fiori Tile Catalog SAP_BASIS_TCR_T (SAP: Application Services) to the user roles that will use the gCTS app.
Q: see http in the URL (right, port 50008), not http(s) this right?
A: gCTS uses https (SSL) for sure. SSH is also possible. Http in the demo was only due to a special internal demo environment that I used. More details are described on the SAP Help Portal in the topic Repository-Specific Authentication Options:
Q: Is the UI that we saw an officially released app?
A: The official App is the application called Git-enabled CTS which is available in the SAP: Application Services catalog. In the demo, I used a special version that is not published. But the difference is only that I had a system list on the left-hand side
Q: Is this part of the Trial Account
A: In SAP Cloud Platform, ABAP Environment, the Software Component App which uses gCTS in the background is part of the trial. Other features of gCTS are not available in SAP Cloud Platform, ABAP Environment.
Q: How would you setup a single git repository, where different branches should be deployed to different S/4HANA environments? We assume a scenario where we are providing a standardized product/service to multiple different clients, make a new version of the product and want to roll it out to our clients.
A: One branch is active for a certain system. What is provided in this branch can be imported into the ABAP runtime by using the functionality on the Commits-tab. It is always possible to switch branches and if you do so, the coding of the selected branch will be imported into the respective ABAP runtime. All the branches that exist for one repository are visible in the gCTS App in each system that is connected to the repository.
Q: Can gCTS also be integrated in Azure DevOps?
A: In principal, yes. We plan to publish the required API. The steps provided in Project ‘Piper’ do not completely depend on Jenkins. Please check the documentation in project ‘Piper’ to get the details what can be done in Jenkins only and what is possible outside – like e.g. for the step gctsExecuteABAPUnitTests
Q Is Jenkins mandatory for the rollback feature?
A: We have a special step in Project ‘Piper’ that is made to add a rollback to a pipeline: gctsRollback. But the functionality behind the rollback is available via the gCTS App: you can pull any commit from the commits list on the Commits tab into the respective ABAP system. Doing so will update the objects in your ABAP runtime to the version that is part of the respective commit. Details are described on the SAP Help Portal in the topic Use the Commits Tab of the gCTS App
Q: Is it possible to do a preliminary import with gCTS? I mean import a single change in production and not the entire release assign to a branch?
A: Updates to an ABAP system are done on commit level. In the standard, a commit is created whenever you release a transport request. You can change that to creating commits when a task is released. This requires implementing a BAdI.
You can pull any commit into your ABAP system and thereby import the objects that are part of the commit. The differences between the commit that you chose and the commit that was active previously, are calculated and are imported.
If you switch the active branch in the gCTS App for a repository, then the latest commit is imported into the ABAP runtime.
You can influence the import behavior by setting parameters. Details are described on the SAP Help Portal in the topic Update ABAP Target Systems
Q: Does gCTS work with all object types? Even objects that are classic “outdated” ones (e.g. generated table maintenance views require entries in SAP tables like TVIMF along with the coding to work properly)?
A:The way how transport requests are used in the development process is the same for classical CTS and for gCTS: all objects that are touched are tracked in a task. When you release the task and the transport request, a new commit is created that contains the objects that are part of the respective transport request. Therefore, any object that can be part of a transport request can be part of a commit. (Note that for customizing objects, support for CDAT is not available up to now). The import is done again by the same tools (tp and R3trans). When you choose a commit to be pulled, a new transport request containing the differences between the status of the objects in the system and the commit that you chose is created and imported. Note all of this is valid for SAP S/4HANA on Premise. The situation for SAP Cloud Platform, ABAP Environment is different. In there, gCTS is used in the background when you work with the Software Components App. You cannot use gCTS in there directly to e.g. manually push objects to the repository. It is therefore not possible to get any objects into the system that are not allowed in SAP Cloud Platform, ABAP environment
Q: Where is the object serialization of objects done and how performant is it? I’ve worked with abapGit and serialization in abapGit is rather slow for developments with thousands of objects. Is this better in gCTS?
A: Serialization is done when the transport request is released. The transport tools have been enhanced to be able to do so. ABAPGit is an open source project and not owned by SAP. Therefore, we are not conducting any comparisons between the two tools.
Q: Are there any other instructions, than project PIPER, Wizard or Note, available for step-by-step how-to guide (possible by video) of how to setup gCTS to connect an S/4HANA environment to a git repository
A: The configuration required for gCTS is described on the SAP Help Portal. Creating repositories is described in the topic Configuring Repositories. If you follow the topic and its sub-topics, that will guide you through the configuration. Video is not available up to know but we plan to enhance our documentation with some in the future.
Q: With every commit, we can push a TR or a task also, but can we push multiple TRs in one go?
A: Commits are created by default when you release a transport request. To create a commit when a task is released, you have to implement a BAdI. These are the options that we have. You cannot combine several transport requests in one commit. But – if this is the origin of the question – you don’t have to import each commit. Just import the latest commit and all the changes that were done in between, will be imported as well.
Q: How does gCTS handle changes of multiple developers in the same object? Does it support hunk selection or some similar mechanism? How does the overwriting of changes work if two/more developers work on same SAP object?
A: The mechanisms of the development workbench (SE80 or ADT) are not touched by gCTS. The functionality that an object can only be changed by one developer at a time remains in place. You can still change only the active version of the coding. The version of an object that is active when a transport request is released, will be committed. If an object is committed of which the coding before that respective change of that transport request was different from what is available in Git, then conflicts will come up, if the repository is configured accordingly. This is possible starting with SAP S/4 HANA 2020. Details are available on the SAP Help Portal in the topic Resolve Conflicts.
Q: Do we have controls for overwriting risks when you merge the development in the branches? Or define critical objects? or manage retrofit? In other words: has Git some Change Control tools?
A: I can’t speak for what Git does in general. Starting with SAP S/4HANA 2020, gCTS comes with a conflict resolution UI that you can use to work on conflicts. This requires that you prepare your repository in the gCTS App by setting two parameters. If you don’t set them, changes might be overwritten. You can find more information on the SAP Help Portal in the topic Resolve Conflicts and Use the Conflict Resolution Editor. This should be used when you do merges and end up with conflicts – which is most probably the case when you do fixes to n object and would like add this fix to your feature development, as well.
Another aspect in here: you can see the list of commits in the gCTS App and you can activate any of these commits. Be aware that this might include loss of data if you switch back to older versions of the coding that cannot handle the data that had been created based on the newer version.
Q:How does the multiple package mapping works from on-premise to git rep?
A: In gCTS, a transport layer (to a virtual SID in STMS) is used to decide whether a package or some objects that are part of the package shall be sent to Git as a commit or whether the classical CTS and transport routes shall be used. You can use the same transport layer for many packages. A transport layer is assigned to a repository. So all objects that make use of the same transport layer will be part of the same repository in Git. If you need special conditions or cannot change the assignment of packages, another option would be to implement a BAdI to define what shall go to Git. The BAdI implementation is described in the blog post Create a commit in Git when an ABAP task is released. The blog post focuses on how to create commits when releasing a task – but you define also conditions in there when this commit is created, and you can set them according to your needs.
Q: Have seen, you only releasing the Tasks not the TR. When finally to be moved to Prod, how it goes with out TR released
A: First of all, working on a task basis to create commits requires implementing a BAdI. The BAdI implementation is described in the blog post Create a commit in Git when an ABAP task is released.
Without this, commits will only be created when a transport request is released. But also, with the BAdI implementation, an additional commit will be created when you release the transport request.
Anyhow – transport requests don’t follow the transport routes into the import queue of a system, anymore, if you use gCTS. One option to manage the deployment of new software into production could be to use two branches: one for development (and test) and one for production. After development is finished and has been tested successfully, you could initiate a merge of the development branch into the production branch. This would be done via a pull request in e.g. GitHub. And only after the Pull request is finally approved, new software can be imported into production as only then, all the new and changed objects are available in the branch that is active for production.
Q: Can you merge ABAP and non-ABAP (open SQL)
A: You can use a mono-repository – if this is the question. Otherwise, gCTS does not provide any new development tools. It makes use of the transport mechanisms and tools.
Q: Will ABAP parallel development be possible on ABAP Cloud?
A: gCTS in the way you saw it in the session is only available in SAP S/4HANA 1909 and 2020. SAP Cloud Platform uses gCTS for managing Software Components. But in there, you currently cannot work with the repository or with commits other than what is provided in the Software Components App.
In addition and in general: gCTS does not allow parallel development. The object locking mechanisms of the ABAP workbench are still in place
Q: Do you have any best practice for organization the new gCTS. cause in the “old” world sap basis guys are manage/setup CTS but now they should have knowledge about git, jenkins but this knowledge isn’t in the SAP ABAP admin’s mind
A There is no best practice for this. I think that this is a learning curve. Developers need to get into the mindset of the DevOps world and learn. Basic idea could be to start with a small project which is decoupled from the rest of your ABAP development and which can be used as playground. Use this to get some experiences with gCTS. You don’t need extra systems for that. gCTS can be used in parallel with classic CTS. A staring point could maybe also be page Continuous Integration and Delivery by SAP on the SAP Help Portal to learn about CI/CD in general – not specifically for ABAP
I hope that I could clarify some questions. Feel free to comment on this blog post to start further discussions or ask additional questions
Hi Karin,
We are trying to configure gCTS in our internal systems and trying things out. How do we relate a git repo to the transport request? Intent was to send one ABAP package via transport request to a specific git repo. As of now we have 100+ packages in the system. Idea is relate a SE80 package to a GitHub repository, 1:1 relationship.
Thanks
-Aman
Hi Aman,
when you create a repository, you have to name a virtual SID (vSID) which consists of three letters. A non-ABAP system with this SID is created in TMS. The transport layer that results out of this SID (so Z<SID>) has to be used for every object / package that shall be pushed to the repository when you release the transport request.
If you would like to fill your repository with packages that already exist, you don't need to create a new transport request. You can also manually push existing transport requests. You can find more details on the SAP Help Portal: https://help.sap.com/viewer/4a368c163b08418890a406d413933ba7/202009.002/en-US/d7ffc00f4f304f4a9e7a13a09878980d.html
Allow me one additional remark: there is no need to use a separate repository per package. Do you have a special reason to go for that approach?
Thanks Aman.
That's exactly the question I posted here: https://answers.sap.com/questions/13493996/release-tr-while-using-git-enabled-cts-gcts.html
Hi Karen,
Let's say we have a teams working under Finance Space, another team working in Manufacturing space. Ideally we would have two different repositories in gCTS, each one linked by different github repositories, and mostly used by different package levels.
At our tests by using different repositories, for now, let's just consider we will have different teams working on different package levels.
When we released a TR directly by SAP (SE09), all our repositories in gCTS received the released objects, even though they were not attached anywhere.
We are still considering and evaluating how a group of Developers would be working with these new tools and processes.
It seems to me that, it's better to have someone (PO, Project Leader, DevOps Engineer) creating the repository at gCTS level, attaching the github repository and adding configuration parameters.
Developers would be adding and pushing their objects by the gCTS Fiori page and letting Jenkins and project piper do its thing.
Our plan is to have Developers checking their code with virtual forge and add other validations like worksoft business tasks with Jenkins pipeline.
This questions and considerations appears to be valid for ABAP. While our tests with Fiori objects we are still using two repositories and handling both with Jenkins, one repo for OData and other objects and another repo only for Fiori Application artifacts.
Any comments on that would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Hi Karin,
We have exactly the same question as outlined in the following post
https://answers.sap.com/questions/13493996/release-tr-while-using-git-enabled-cts-gcts.html
Our objective is to send packages and underlying objects to their own repositories created in github. Package to repo relationship is 1:1. No other packages should be allowed to commit object to other repositories.
Is this achievable via gCTS ? As of now we are using ABAPGit and we send 1 package to one git repo and we like the way it is, as its clean.
Thanks
Aman
Hi Aman,
if you would like to use different repositories for different packages, you have to use different transport layers - which means that you have to use different vSIDs. Please also refer to my answer in here: https://answers.sap.com/questions/13493996/release-tr-while-using-git-enabled-cts-gcts.html
Kind regards
karin
We also set up gcts in our system and are using it in daily development, but we do not use the "one sid per repository" approach.
We use a single sid for all repositories and are using the mentioned badi to determine which repository the transport belongs to with custom logic. This is done either via the transport attribute SAP_SCTS_AVCS_TARGET (the target repository) and GIT_BRANCH or via the gcts Registry where all previously committed objects and packages are registered to a repository (https://help.sap.com/viewer/4a368c163b08418890a406d413933ba7/202110.000/de-DE/3c88a27e05f845a6b0f1e755c664b5d2.html).
Whenever an object or a package of an object is registered to a repository, it cannot be comitted to another repository to prevent duplications or mixups.
Hello Karin,
Thank you for all the effort in the blog. I did some research and came to a question...
Having the Central note 2821718 - Central Note for Git-enabled Change and Transport System (gCTS) the component BC-CTS-GIT assigned, I assume that gCTS will work with BW/4HANA as well, as long as maybe version / SP levels are reached (BW/4HANA 2021 comes with UIBAS001 700)
The relevant software component seems to be UIBAS001 plus ABAP Kernel.
Am I correct?
At least the BW bridge of DWC is using gCTS (Note 3130759 - SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, SAP BW bridge: Software Component, Package, Transport Request).
Note 2888887 is also not clear on this for me.
Any input is highly appreciated.
Kind regards, Phil
Hi Phil,
gCTS as it was presented in the session to which this blog post refers is the on premise version. For this case, the important thing for gCTS is that the release of SAP_BASIS fits for gCTS so that the kernel version including the abap2vcs.jar, the ABAP layer and also the UI have the correct versions that fit together. gCTS was first shipped with SAP S/4HANA 1909 - so any basis release higher that would be fine for gCTS on premise.
Note https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/3117800 describes SAP BW bridge as a cloud component. gCTS cannot be use in its full extend in the cloud. Especially the gCTS app which allows working with repositories and commits is not available in the cloud. Instead, gCTS is used in the background when you transport a software component, but repositories or commits are not open for working with them directly.
Note 2888887 is about limitations that gCTS has in general in some onPremise releases. It is mainly about customizing transports that we were not able to support in the beginning.
Does this answer your questions?
Kind regards
karin
Dear Karin, Thank you very much for your time and effort. Kind regards, Philipp
Hi Karin,
can we use gCTS for conflict resolution during dual maintenance between ECC and S4.
Hi Sri,
this is not possible. gCTS is only available starting with SAP S/4HANA 1909. ECC releases do not support gCTS
Kind regards
Karin
Hi Karin,
I was trying to create the git Repository in gCTS it throws an error
'[GCTS.API.703] Could not create repository 'asankadl-gctsr'.' what could be the reason behind? I deleted the repository from the Application and tried to re create again.
THanks,
Asanka.
Hi Asanka,
does your user have sufficient permissions to e.g. also write on the file system? You could check for details in here: https://ga.support.sap.com/dtp/viewer/index.html#/tree/2504/actions/34024:45389:45391:46723
Kind regards
karin
thanks Karin, I checked I have authorization. now the repository is created. yet the clone repository button is deactivated. how do I clone my repository.
Thanks,
Asanka.
Hi Asanka,
is the status of your repository now 'created'? What do you mean that the button is deactivated? Does anything happen when you click on the button? Any error message?
Did you already store credentials for your user? Depending on the Git provider and -version that you are using, it can be that anonymous access is not supported.
Did you take a look into the health check? Is the connection to Git green? Health check is explained in here: https://help.sap.com/viewer/4a368c163b08418890a406d413933ba7/202110.000/en-US/dda82c58029d43bf946e0290844fc938.html
If not: did you provide the certificates to ABAP and Java? (explained in here: https://ga.support.sap.com/dtp/viewer/index.html#/tree/2504/actions/34024:47832:47061:47062:43841)
Kind regards
karin
Hi Karin,
Yes the status of the repository is 'Created'. yet the clone repository button is disabled.
i got below error from TMS alert.
Error: 'The specified directory '/usr/sap/SH1/D00/gcts/asankadl-gctsr/data/' is not a working directory of a version control system'
POSIX_CLOCK: ERROR in get_posix_nanoseconds() !!!!! (ret = -1)
Health check shows a green arrow for connection to Git and also provided the certificates to ABAP and Java.
Thanks,
Asanka.
Hi Asanka,
I am not sure what exactly happened in your case, but some guesses: the behavior of your system and the message suggest, that your repository had once been cloned successfully - this is what gCTS assumes. Did you - after a first try to clone - maybe change the gCTS-directory (either via the enablement wizard or by changing the parameter VCS_PATH in the gCTS app) or delete the repository directly on the operating system, not in the gCTS app?
Kind regards
Karin
Hi Karin,
sorry for the delay. I have recreated the GIT repository. I get the below error
'[ERROR] Updating remote references along with associated objects failed: https://github.com/AsankaDL/gctsR: not authorized'
What should I do for this ?
Thanks,
Asanka.
Hi Asanka,
this looks like the permissions on GitHub do not fit.
Did you follow what is described in here. https://help.sap.com/viewer/4a368c163b08418890a406d413933ba7/202110.000/en-US/3431ebd6fbf241778cd60587e7b5dc3e.html
Please also note that GitHub doesn't support account passwords any more. You need to use tokens: https://github.blog/changelog/2021-08-12-git-password-authentication-is-shutting-down/
Kind regards
Karin
Hi Karin
when I tried to save my credentials ,
Credential Store of ABAP User ALIYANAGE
Credential Store of ABAP User ALIYANAGE
Hi Asanka,
which release are you using? Could you please check whether this Guided Answer helps? https://ga.support.sap.com/dtp/viewer/index.html#/tree/2504/actions/34024:47832:42026:42027:43935
If it fits for your release, we have also re-worked the credentials store to simplify usage. https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/3108593
Did you enter the token before hitting 'Save'. The token is only kept once for saving. If you open your data again and click save again, it tries to save the new (now most probably empty) token
Hope this helps
Kind regards
Karin
HI Karin,
Thanks for the links.
Since we are on HANA 2021 we cannot apply the note '3030266' to fix the credential store issues. still it doesn't allow me to save the Token.
Is there another way I can get pass this road block.
Thank you!
Asanka.
Hi Asanka,
does anything provided in this GA help? https://ga.support.sap.com/dtp/viewer/index.html#/tree/2504/actions/34024:45389:45390:43935
Did you check the central SAP Note on gCTS and apply the required SAP Notes for 2021 (https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2821718) Especially, did you apply this SAP Note https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/3107363
If all of this doesn't, could you maybe sent a screenshot of the screen where you add the credentials?
Kind regards
karin
Hi Karin,
Thank you for the links provided.
we can't apply the note 2821718. we are on Basis 701. Is there a way that we could have a screen sharing session? I can work on the monetary requirements if that is required.
Thanks,
Asanka.
Hi Asanke,
Note 2821718 cannot be applied directly itself. It is the central note for gCTS. Please check for the notes that aplly for your release and implement those notes.
What do you mean by 'we are on Basis 701'? This release does not support gCTS at all. You need basis 7.54 (so S/4HANA 1909) at least. Before, you said that you are on 2021.
Kind regards
Karin
thanks Karin.
SAP Basis 756 mistakenly types as 701.
I will import the appropriate notes and let you know.
Thank you for the help.
Asanka.
Hi Karin,
Is there a way that we could have a screen share session?
Thanks a lot.
Asanka.
Hi Asanka,
I would suggest that you open an incident for SAP support. With this, you could then open connections and my colleagues from support can investigate on your system what is going wrong. Please describe in the incident what you already tried and please refer to the conversation that we had in here. This is the official way how support on customer systems should be done in a secure way.
Thanks for your understanding
kind regards
karin
Thanks Karin I will do that!
Asanka.
my git repository is 'https://github.com/AsankaDL/gctsR'
user name is AsankaDL.
my ABAP user name is ALIYANAGE.
what should I give as my API end point https://Api.github.com or 'https://github.com/AsankaDL/gctsR'?
Thanks,
Asanka.
Hi Asanka,
the API-endpoint is neither user nor repository specific.
The API-endpoint for GitHub is https://api.github.com/ (with the '/' in the end). You can find more information on user-specific authentication with gCTS in here: https://help.sap.com/viewer/4a368c163b08418890a406d413933ba7/202110.001/en-US/3431ebd6fbf241778cd60587e7b5dc3e.html
Kind regards
Karin
hi Karin,
I have stored the credentials in the gCTS APP with a Token successfully.
Yet it gives me an error
Hi Asanka,
what do you see, when you look into the details for your credentials? Is the GitHub user displayed? This is the indicator whether the credentials are valid on GitHub side. The error message means that the credentials are somehow not valid
Did you implement SAP Note 3129344 - gCTS - Authentication handling fix for SAP S/4HANA 2021 FPS00 and 01?
Kind regards
Karin
Thank you Karin.
It's all good now. everything works fine. the reason was the CLIENT_VCS_CONNTYPE parameter set to HTTPS instead of ssl.
Again thank you so much for your support without which I would have never been able to fix those issues.
Regards,
Asanka.
Hi Karin,
I have noticed that releasing. the transport doesn't automatically commit to the repo. I have to manually push the object using object push. Have I missed something in config?
THanks,
Asanka.
Hi Asanka,
could you please check whther this GA helps? https://ga.support.sap.com/dtp/viewer/index.html#/tree/2504/actions/34024:45389:45390:39420
Kind regards
Karin
Hi Karin.
I created the user gctsobserver in SAP system and in gCTS app I have initialized the repository. Itr has successfully created the observer job. Also I have added gctsobserver as a Collaborator in my git repository.
Now when I release a transport It doesn't commit yet. When I try to push the transport manually it gives me a message 'This is tp version 381.385.88 (release 785, unicode enabled) ERROR: Options 'CLIENT' and 'CLIRES' may never be specified together'
Please help me in figuring this out.
Thanks,
Asanka.
Hello Asanka,
this issue is probably caused by a certain combination of transport parameters. Please post a screenshot of the current transport profile parameter settings of the virtual system that you are using to address the repository.
Use transaction STMS -> system overview -> choose virtual system -> transport tool
best regards, Uli
Thanks Uli.
I have watched the open SAP (gcts) course videos and fixed the issue. It's all good now gCTS process works well.
Cheers,
Asanka.
Hello All,
Any idea, if we can use gCTS for Portal Launchpad Sites which are completely deployed on BTP.
If yes, is there any documentation available for it.
Thanks,
Ajay
Hi Ajay,
this blog post deals with gCTS in on-premise ABAP systems. To my knowledge, Launchpad sites are not ABAP coding and cannot be integrated in GIt (if this is the goal) by the help of gCTS.
Kind regards
Karin
Dear gCTS community
I am trying to set up gCTS as a test case for the company.
We first started with our system on version S/4 Hana 2020 FPS 02. Configuration, gCTS setup, first repository and first manual vSID.
Our testing system is now running version S/4 Hana 2021 FPS 01 with the latest implemented note 3129344. There were some problems connecting to the Azure Devops Repo we are using on premise that are now fixed with this version and the new released note.
I am now able to automatically push changes to our Azure Devops repo's with gCTS after successfully release of a task and transport.
The only problem we are facing now is when you checkout an earlier commit from the commits table. This action fails because of an exception see attachment, the latest commit remains active. Tested this on the Open SAP gCTS course exercise and no problems there.
Could it be an issue, the virtual system was created during the old system version and now after upgrade we are reusing this?
And as I may ask two extra questions about those vSID's
1) Is it the intention to create a new virtual system every time you'll start with a new development project ? After some testing it seems old objects are some time commited when retesting with the same vSID (old commit's are also sometimes visible again even when creating a new repo and deleting all packages and objects)
- Reflected at a company with around 60 developers doing all kinds of individual workbench and customizing projects, what is the best approach to manage the vSIDs for every single developer ?
The Open SAP gCTS course uses predefined codes based on our userId's
Trigger old commit
Checkout Error
Error Log Checkout older commits
Kind Regards
Fabian De Greef
Hello Fabian,
>>> This action fails because of an exception see attachment, the latest commit remains active.
The screenshot shows that you are suffering from a bug in the transport program R3trans which was detected and resolved only recently. So please update the transport program R3trans to the latest version from the SAP service marketplace. We described the issue and the solution in note 3154061.
>>> Is it the intention to create a new virtual system every time you'll start with a new development project ?
No, we assume that vSID are stable, because they relate to transport routes, which are pointing to git repositories. Furthermore, in the course we explain how the gCTS registry will help you to get rid of transport layers at all, then you would need only one virtual system.
Best regards, Uli
Hi Ulrich
Thanks for your answer, implementing the new note did indeed fix this bug.
We decided to set up our second system to test some more with gCTS (like a DEV en TST landscape scenario ) But we are now facing a new problem since the S/4 Hana 2021 FPS 01 version.
In my previous post I explained we did our first initial setup of gCTS on version S/4 Hana 2020 FPS 02. The gCTS setup wizard did the job. When we now run on this same patched system S/4 Hana 2021 FPS 01 and our new (TST) system which was already patched to S/4 Hana 2021 FPS 01 without pre configuration of gCTS the gCTS wizard no longer seems to work when pressing the (setup gCTS) button from within the app. This seems to be happen when running the setup (can't continue from step 1 because of the error and when running the system status check gives the same error )
Gateway endpoint /sap/opu/odata/SAP/SCTS_GCTS_SRV/SystemValidate is throwing an exception.
We are running both systems with kernel version 785 SP-level 100.
I attached some pictures regarding the exception
Kind regards
Fabian De Greef
System Check Error
Gateway Error SCTS_GCTS_SRV/SystemValidate
UPDATE:
The Exception seems to be occur when system status is checking for outgoing github connectivity. We are using our own internal git server (Azure Repo's) and cannot use Github for the company, all outgoing traffic needs to pass by our Proxy.In this case it will be forced to use github during initial setup and check (which was not the case in the S/4 Hana 2020 FPS 02 gCTS version). Is there an option to turn off github check functionality or can somehow ensure that the traffic can be redirected through our proxy
The problem was solved with the recently released SAP note 3170636
Kind regards
Fabian De Greef
Hi Ulrich,
when gCTS app pushes changes from DEV to TST system is it using TOC concept? can you please give me some insight to that methodology?
Thanks,
ASanka.
Hello Asanka,
yes: internally gCTS creates "transports of copies" in order to pull the objects from the git repository to the abap system, thus leveraging all capabilities of the transport tools like activation of data dictionary objects, execution of after import methods and so on.
Are you taking part in the openSAP couse? There's a post where some more details about this "ToC" are explained ...
best regards, Uli
Thanks Uli,
Thank you! Yes I do take part in openSAP course please let me know which post contains those details.
Thank you.
Asanka.
https://open.sap.com/courses/gcts1/question/10478450-974d-4d8b-98c3-a46df5bcdc5d
Thank you Uli!!
Hi Karin ,
We have set up the gcts application in our SAP S/4 HANA 2021 systems. After maintaining the credentials we are now trying to create a repository . Post entering the values for URL,Description,VSID, Role,Type & Visibility , when Save is clicked , the error comes as '[GCTS.API.703] Could not create repository 'uditas10-workbench'. (Screenshot attached)
To further investigate the issue we checked the STSM t code on S/4 HANA system.It gives the below error 'POSIX_CLOCK: ERROR in get_posix_nanoseconds() !!!!! (ret = -1) '.(Screenshot attached).
Thanks ,
Udita Saklani
Hi,
Is the system on which you are trying to create the repository, a domain controller?
If yes: could you please check whether the system with the System-ID of your vSID that you chose for the repository has been created in STMS? And if it is available, could you please check that the parameter NON_ABAP_SYSTEM is set to VCS?
If the system is not the domain controller, did you create the system with the ID of the desired vSID as non-ABAP system on the Domain controller and distribute it?
Kind regards
Karin
Hi Karin , ,
In response to the solution you provided above :
Is the system on which you are trying to create the repository, a domain controller? - Yes it is a domain controller.
If yes: could you please check whether the system with the System-ID of your vSID that you chose for the repository has been created in STMS? - The system got created and is visible under t- code STMS as shown in screenshot 1 . It is of type 'Non- ABAP system '
And if it is available, could you please check that the parameter NON_ABAP_SYSTEM is set to VCS? - Since now both systems are visible, which one needs to be used for Repository Creation? We tried using both , and none of them is leading to repository creation and still gives an error as shown in screenshot2.
Thanks,
Udita Saklani
Hi,
UDI needs to be used as vSID when you create the repository. Could you please add a screenshot from STSM -> UDI -> Transport Tools so that I can see the parameters?
Kind regards
Karin
hi Karin , ,
Please find attached screenshot .
Thanks,
Udita Saklani
Hi Udita,
the JAVAPATH looks a bit uncommon... Could you please check the documentation in here https://help.sap.com/docs/ABAP_PLATFORM_2021/4a368c163b08418890a406d413933ba7/e7a002e42d8544ae975c53bd112eb2f8.html
Please check where Java is installed on your ABAP system and set the path accordingly
Kind regards
Karin
Hi Karin , ,
We have did all the required configuration on the system. When we performed the health check, it gives us two warnings as highlighted in screenshot.
We have set up the below paths :
Thanks ,
Hi Udita,
the Path to Java Runtime still looks not ok. It cannot end with bin,
Please refer to what is written in the documentation:
Enter the path to the Java executable of the Java runtime. For ABAP systems on Unix platforms, the path must end with java. For ABAP systems on Windows platforms, the path must end with java.exe.
Example: /usr/sap/<SID>/SYS/exe/run/jre/bin/java
Kind regards
Karin
Hi Karin,
I am getting error while cloning the Repo in Quality system as [GCTS.API.705] Could not create SSH file.
We have checked the permission of folders, also we have checked Transport Routes and Parameters.
SSH File error
Regards,
Aditya
Issue is resolved .
Hello Aditya,
what was your solution?
thank you Sven
Hi Karin,
I am getting error while doing Push or Commit Objects to GitHub.
ERROR : Updating remote references along with associated objects failed: https://github.com/adtygpt/adtygpt: git-receive-pack not permitted on 'https://github.com/adtygpt/adtygpt/'
Can you please help me what is the main cause of it. I have generated the token as well and added to GCTS config of Repo. I am using Hana 2020 system.
Regards,
Aditya Gupta
Hi Aditya,
this sounds a bit like the user who is trying to push has not provided credentials in the credentials store for the GitHub endpoint. Did you also store credentials for the user who runs the observer job and add that gitHub user for which the credentials are stored for the observer job user as collaborator to the repo on GitHub?
Kind regards
karin
HI Karin,
I am using Token based authentication through Github and given all roles and authorization to it and configuring through https, but somehow while adding the credentials in GCTS it is not validating it and not able to storing it.
But i am passing Token through client_vcs_Auth_token in configuration parameter.
I am using hana 2020 fps 02 system. Is their any way out to resolve the issue or am i doing something wrong?
Regards,
Aditya Gupta
Hi Aditya,
please check this GA: https://ga.support.sap.com/dtp/viewer/index.html#/tree/2504/actions/34024:47832:42026:42027:43935
Kind regards
karin
Hi Karin,
Can you help me the cause for below error please. This error comes while deploying object in Quality system through Jenkins.
Hi Aditya,
to be honest, I have never seen this message. But in my eyes, there should be more information somewhere in the console output if the pipeline execution fails. Could you maybe check whether there is some information provided which contains 'error' or 'fatal error'?
Kind regards
Karin
Hi Karin,
I cannot find any Error And Fatal error in my console output. I am adding below screenshot as well if you find anything on that please help me.
Regards,
Aditya Gupta
Hi Aditya,
this log looks completely normal to me. Could you maybe ass some information where you see the error or what goes wrong? Are the changes missing in the target system after the pipeline ran? Is the pipeline red? It it is, then there should be som error message in the log.
Kind regards
karin
Hi Karin,
As per audit trail requirements how do we track a change from inception to production deployment from SAP side on gCTS actions???
Thanks,
Asanka.
Hello Asanka,
when you pull a certain commit from a Git repository to an SAP system, also transport requests are used internally. So still the well known functionality like STMS import history, object search in transport requests etc still work and can be used.
Each such transport has attributes from which you can see from which repository it was pulled and which commit was pulled.
Best regards, Uli
Thanks Uli,
Did you mean to say that, even though the changes are not deployed in target system we can have a look at STMS logs from development system?
Asanka.
Thank you for the response Uli.
Which table contains the connection to the commit ID and the transport number generated in the development system?
Cheers,
Asanka.
Hi Asanka,
You can find the connection in the activities tab of the gCTS-App. In there you can see in one line the from-commit, the to-commit and the transport request that was created to bring the differences into the system
kind regards
karin
Hi Karin,
Thanks!
Asanka.
Hi Karin ,
We are trying to set up the gcts on our Test System. While performing the health check two warnings are shown :
Screenshot error1:Git-Enabled CTS - The logon user requires the authorization to perform actions in the repositories on the ABAP system. For this, the authorization object S_GCTS_REP must be assigned to the user. The authorization object is part of the delivered role SAP_BC_GCTS_ADMIN.
The authorization object 'S_GCTS_SYS' is assigned to the relevant role and the role has been assigned to the user as S_GCTS_REP is showing obsolete.
Screenshot error2:Connection between ABAP Server and GitHub - If you use GitHub as your external version control system, the ABAP server must be able to connect to https://github.com.
The key icon that is used to connect to GitHub repository , is giving the attached screenshot error3 even if valid token is entered.
Thanks,
Udita Saklani
Hi,
Do you execute the Health Check with a user who has all the permissions that are needed for gCTS and TMS?
Concerning error1: did you use a copy of the delivered role SAP_BC_GCTS_ADMI? If not: does it work if this role is assigned to a user?
Concerning error2: could you please check that the certificate chain is working correctly? Certificates need to be provided on the OS, for Java and in ABAP. You can find more information in here: https://ga.support.sap.com/dtp/viewer/index.html#/tree/2504/actions/34024:47832:38743:38744:45976:43841
concerning the error3: could you please check this guided answer https://ga.support.sap.com/dtp/viewer/index.html#/tree/2504/actions/34024:47832:38743:38745:40945 and implement the notes that are relevant for your SP?
Kind regards
Karin
Hi Karin , ,
Error 2 & 3 : Both are resolved ! Thanks for the quick help!
Regarding Error 1 : I have assigned SAP_BCT_GCTS_ADMIN that didn't work . Then I copied this role and assigned the copied role to the Fiori User. Then the error 'Git-Enabled CTS-The logon user requires the authorization to perform actions in the repositories on the ABAP system. For this, the authorization object S_GCTS_REP must be assigned to the user. The authorization object is part of the delivered role SAP_BC_GCTS_ADMIN.' still shows up in the Health Check.
Any idea what could be missing here?
Thanks & Regards,
Udita Saklani
Hi,
did you refresh the Health Check?
If you only open the Health Check via the button in the header, it will show the previous results.
Kind regards
karin
Hi Karin ,
Yes I refreshed the health check explicitly via 'Refresh health check' button only.
I also deleted and re assigned the SAP delivered role SAP_BC_GCTS_ADMIN to the fiori user, yet the error persists.
Any idea what could be possibly wrong here still?
Thanks,
Udita Saklani
Hi,
sorry, I am running out of ideas. It would maybe be the easiest if you opened a case so that my colleagues who do support could take a look into your system
Kind regards
karin
Hello Karin,
We are trying to configure gCTS and we have reached at a stage where we have created repositories at both github and local but when trying to clone the repository locally we are getting error.
do we need to set proxy configuration at OS layer? if yet can anyone share the steps to configure proxy at OS to connect with git server
Thanks in Advance.
Regards,
Rahul
Hi Rahul,
have you maintained a token in the credentials store for the user who does the cloning?
In addition, you have to make sure that the certificate chain is valid. This means that certificates need to be installed on OS level, in ABAP and in Java. You can find more details in this guided answer: https://ga.support.sap.com/dtp/viewer/index.html#/tree/2504/actions/34024:45389:52005:52006:45976
Kind reagrds
karin
Hello Karin,
Thank you for a quick response, really appreciate it.
We checked the authentication and SSL certificates, everything are in place. Only place we feel we are not able to connect git server is the proxy settings at OS level. we did some troubleshooting ourselves and found some command to run linux to set enable proxy:
export HTTP_PROXY=*web proxy*
export HTTPS_PROXY=*web proxy*
export ALL_PROXY=*web proxy*
this has to add in the .bash_profile to enable proxy, with respect to SAP we are not sure about this .bash_profile
alias setproxy='export HTTP_PROXY=*web proxy*
export HTTPS_PROXY=*web proxy*
export ALL_PROXY=*web proxy*'
can you please suggest if we can go with these commands to set proxy at OS level
Regards,
Rahul
Hi Rahul,
I don't know about your proxy configuration and how your reach your GitHub provider..sorry.. So I would suggest that you consult your provider.
Kind regards
Karin
Hello Karin,
Our OS team is not having any clue on what is the issue. when we perform command at OS level to set the proxy, we starting getting below error while cloning a repository.
Please see if you can suggest on this.
Command which we tried :
echo $SHELL
set HTTP_PROXY = <password@proxy:port>
echo $HTTP_PROXY
Hi Rahul,
I don't have any additional solutions than what is written in the Guided Answer that I referenced in my first reply. It is not necessarily the OS level where things go wrong. Has the token that you provided in the credentials store been successfully validated?
Kind regards
Karin
Hello Karin,
Thank you again for your response.
We are using corporate Github Enterprise which is hosted in AWS, we had raised an OSS to SAP and they said that since we are not using the default Github 'Credentials not validated' warning will come and these token authentications can be maintained in configuration parameters which we have already maintained along with correct api.
Thanks and Regards,
Rahul Pawar
Hi Rahul,
if the hints that you got in the incident and the ones that are provided in the guided answer do not help. then I am running out of ideas, sorry.
If there is an issue to connect your ABAP system and your git server network-wise in your company, I fear, it is hardly possible to solve that issue via a discussion in this forum.
Sorry and kind regards
karin
Hi Karin,
Could you help me please. Can I prevent the addition of standard objects for SAP S/4 HANA 2020 through the Manually Push Objects option?
Regards,
Armen
Hi Armen,
there is no option available to restrict the objects that can be pushed manually
Kind regards
karin
Hi Karin,
we are thinking of enabling gCTS next to our normal STMS/CTS on our system landscape. We are also using ChaRM (Change Request Management of SAP Solution Manager). I understand that for each package we would decide whether or not it is in a GIT repository or not. And based on your documentation, this should also not be switched back and forth (which also makes sense).
How would a process with ChaRM look like, if one change request would touch objects of GIT and non-GIT packages? Would we need two change requests / two transports in the development system? Is this a scenario that is supported by the Solution Manager and gCTS? Or would this always require even two change request tickets?
Thanks and regards
Rick
Hi Rick,
gCTS in ChaRM requires a separate change document and therefore a separate transport request. You can find ChaRM with gCTS explained in a blog post by Sawyer
Kind regards
karin
Hi gCTS Community,
we are trying to integrate gCTS with our Azure Devops Repo. Could anyone guide us with the API for the same which we will maintain in credential store of gCTS. i.e API Endpoint/ Endpoint Type/ Type and token.
something, I am missing at this API endpoint I think as I am getting error as "No relation between system and repository" while creating Repositories in gCTS.
Thanks in Advance.
Hi,
the api-endpoint should follow this pattern: https://dev.azure.com/{organization}
Kind regards
Karin
Hi Karin,
Thanks a lot for the quick response. I am still missing somewhere as I am still getting error as "No relation between system and repository". Can you guide us with the blog/document for azure devops intergration with gCTS. Thanks in Advance.
Hi,
sorry, we don't have any documentation for that. But as a test, you could maybe try to use the api-endpoint as a direct URL in the browser. This should show a meaningful response. E.g. if you try https://api.github.com you get some information about the api. The Url should not show some http-error
Kind reagrds
Karin
Dear Karin,
Is there gCTS API published, as you have announced it? I know that we can check and reverse Piper code, but it would be more convenient to have it documented. We are trying to incorporate gCTS calls into Azure DevOps pipeline directly.
Best Regards,
Maciej
Hi Maciej,
sorry, we have not publish any API. But the Piper-steps for gCTS do not rely on Jenkins. It should e possible to use them with other CI-Servers, as well.
Kind regards
Karin