Using NWDI on a Dev/QAS/Prod

[Former Member]

Hi,

When I make changes in NWDS, on DEV, I have option to test this directly in QA, and create an SCA file. What is the best strategy or approach for this? I am scared to test it in QA, as I am afraid of crashing the QA. Or, do you have any other systems to test it, before going to QA?

[ErvinSzolke · Accepted solution]

Hi Jim,

in contrary to abap, nwdi is a 4-system landscape,

meaning here we have DEV, CONS, TEST (i.e. QA) and PROD.

Therefore if you set up a RunTimeSystem for CONSolidation, then you can do your tests there.

I hope this answers your question.

Best Regards,

Ervin

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Ervin,

A little more clarification. Lets take a scenario of a Portal system which requires code to be changed via NWDS/NWDI. Do you mean that I need to have a 4 system landscape for Portal?

please let me know which guide or notes would help me on this.. Thanks for your help.

[ErvinSzolke · Accepted solution]

Hi,

I would not say it is a "must", the RunTimeSystems (RTS) are always optional.

Please have a look at this guide:

http://scn.sap.com/people/guenter.schiele/blog/2005/12/21/best-practices-for-running-the-nwdi

It is might be misleading when reading the above guide, but it would be also correct to have an arrow pointing to a RTS from the Consolidation. What I want to say with this is that if you set up an RTS for Cons, then during the transport cycle, your software will be deployed to a system right before assembly and before deployment to QA (in our terminology to TEST).

I hope this helps,

Best Regards,

Ervin

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Ervin. I understand that its better to have a CONS enviornment. So, my portal landscape will have 4 systems which will be linked to NWDI (one system). please let me know if this is correct.

One more clarification - probably the last one. why does the developers need an AS JAVA installed in their workstations, as said in the link you have provided?

Thanks again..

[ErvinSzolke · Accepted solution]

Hi Jim,

I would rather put it this way:

you have 1 NWDI system (which mustn't be a runtime system), and you can have zero or up to four Runtime Systems where you deploy and test your application. These are physically 4 different J2EE Instances. Let's say you don't want to test at all up to production, then you configure only a PROD Runtime system. If you want to do this before delivering the product to PROD or even before TEST (QA), then do a deployment to a runtime system first set up for your CONS system.

Indeed ABAP is a 3-system landscape where the term consolidation is not used, so this might be unusual for developers used to the transport cycle of abap.

Regarding your other question:

The developer can have an AS JAVA system on his workstation so he can test locally completely separated and independently from others. If his local tests are fine, he can check-in and activate his changes which then goes central this way. Meaning that this case the software goes to a central store others can access (checkout -- this is DTR),  a central build will take place (CBS) and also if the activation is succesful, a central deployment can take place as per your Runtime System configuration (set up in CMS).

However if you can dedicate a server for tests for your developers and you can ensure somehow they won't interfere with each other (for instance you have only 1 developer who is doing development tests in a sandbox system), then of course you can set up in your NWDS a remote server too and this case you don't need an AS JAVA installed on your workstation (e.g. on your laptop).

I hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Ervin

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Many thanks Ervin.

The runtime systems are the real SAP (eg: Portal) system itself, right? I mean the runtime PROD is the Production system itself, and not a different system, right? (sorry, just trying to understand better)

Will just a plain AS JAVA be enough for the developers to test individually? For eg: If they are making changes to a PI repository object, wouldn't they require to have a PI system installed in their laptop to test changes, or a plain AS JAVA be enough? (probably a dumb question, as I am not aware of the Java development process).

Thanks Ervin.

[ErvinSzolke · Accepted solution]

Hey Jim,

yes, the prod system is a real j2ee instance where you can run your application after deployment and which is used by your customers/employees as the productive system.

If the application requires the presence of PI in runtime, then I assume yes, the engine where you test your software has to have PI as well, however my knowledge on PI is pretty limited.

Cheers,

Ervin

P.S.:  there are no silly questions.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thank you Ervin!!