NWDI for development on both NW04 and NW2004s

[Former Member]

Hi,

I have a question from which I think is very common for all users who are planning to use NWDI on NW2004s. The situation is:

We have both ERP 2005 running on WAS 7 and CRM 4.0 running on WAS 6.40. Now, we are given a project to do application development on NW2004s (WAS 7) together with some customization on CRM which is running on NW04 (WAS 6.40). We're going to install a NWDI server for the lifecycle control for both projects, however the question is which version of NWDI / WAS we should install for it considering the followings:

1. If we install NWDI 7, that means our developer's machine should also install the NetWeaver Developer Workplace from NW2004s (NWDS 7 & J2EE Engine 7). If a developer is assigned to work on the development on both NW04 and NW2004s, will the NWDI 7 and NWDS 7 be able to take care of it? Also, since J2EE Engine 7 will be installed in the developer's machine in that case, how could he do local tests for the development based on WAS 6.40?

2. And, If we install NWDI server on WAS 7, will it be able to take care of the development based on WAS 6.40? That means, at build time, will the CBS be able to build the DC using 6.40 archives? And at deploy time from CMS, will it be able to deploy onto WAS 6.40 using NWDI 7?

3. What is the suggestion from SAP for developers who need to work on development based on different WAS versions. Which version of WAS should the developers install locally for development workplace. Or, should the developers install 2 sets of NW Development Workplace for the development on different WAS versions?

Thanks a lot,

Marc

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

This weblog about JDI software vs. JDI content will give answers to your questions: /people/marion.schlotte/blog/2005/10/25/jdi-software-vs-jdi-content

Basically it comes down to this:

1. Always try to use the latest version of the JDI software.

2. Creates separate tracks for different Web AS target SP levels

3. Import the 3 base SC's with the same SP level as the target Web AS systems into each track.

Message was edited by: Pascal Willemsen

[Former Member]

Thanks a lot everyone for your inputs.

I'm going to plan the following configuration, please let me know if there is any potential problem you see from it:

- Each developer installs 2 sets of NW Development Workplace (6.40 and 7.0) for development under different netweaver version. They will both point to the same NWDI server 6.40.

- On the NWDI server, we will use NWDI 6.40 (with SLD 6.40). Inside, we will create 2 tracks (one for 6.40 based development, and one for 7.0 based development meaning all the 7.0 required archives will be imported).

- Each track from the NWDI will have its own DEV CONS QA and PRD. The 6.40 track will point to the runtimes systems running on WAS 6.40. The 7.0 track will point to the runtime systems on WAS 7.

Theoratically looks okay for me. Any potential problem from your experience?

Thanks again,

Marc

[Former Member]

That should work. If Web AS 7 is more stable then you can upgrade.

[Former Member]

In my opinion that's the way to do it.

[Former Member]

Hello All,

Hope you don't mind if I post to this old thread. I'm interested in the same information when upgrading application servers (WAS 640 SP23) from 32 bit to 64 bit.

We have a simple setup. We are not running local WAS on development boxes. We deploy to out DEV application servers. We are on WAS 640 for both application servers and NWDI. They are all 32 bit hardware & Windows OS. I'm trying to understand the prerequisites for NWDI as we think about upgrading to 64 but (x64) hardware and OS for our application servers. Must NWDI be upgraded to 64 bit versions as well. Can we simply import into our tracks the common SC's now found on the 64 bit app servers and rebuild? We have a mix of straight java and Web Dynpro.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Doug

[Former Member]

Thanks a lot guys,

I believe that means the solution for us is to install 2 sets of Netweaver Development Workplace (7.0 and 6.40) in each developer's machine for local development and testing. And install 2 sets of NWDI servers (7.0 & 6.40) for the central build and transport for the 2 tracks.

The problem of it is we will basically need to double the license for each of our developers, which don't seem to be right for us.

Does anyone know of any workaround for it? Any suggestion is welcome.

Thanks a lot,

Marc

[Former Member]

To save a lot of work, you could create two VMWare images. You then only have to copy those images to each developer workstation and install the VMWare Player there. The VMWare workstation (used to create the images) requires a license, but the VMWare Player is free. You need to check though what kind of OS license you have within your company. If you have a company-wide license this is a great option. In other cases you might have to pay for each VMWare OS installation. (I believe MS allows you to run 4 VMWare instances with one OS license on a single machine).

[Former Member]

You can install 2 versions of developer workplace on a computer. you must change the ports of web as on setup.

[former_member183805]

Hi Marc,

No, you do not need "2 sets of NWDI servers (7.0 & 6.40)" - you only need one (7.0). In that NWDI installation, you need to create two tracks, one for 6.40 (where you import the 6.40 SCAs) and one for 7.0 (where you import the 7.0 SCAs).

Regards,

Manohar

[Former Member]

SLD/NWDI 7.0 (SPS04) does not work accurate. It has massive bugs. you can't create a software component. without a sc you can not configure a domain and a track... you can not develop.

[Former Member]

Thanks Pascal,

But the problem is we have different Versions of WAS and not different SP levels. If we install WAS 7 on the developer's machine for the app development, the developer will not be able to do local test on his customization development for the CRM 4.0 on WAS 6.40. And the same problem vice versa. The suggestion from the weblog doesn't really fit our situation.

Any other idea?

Regards,

Marc

[Former Member]

NWDI supports also different version of Web AS.

You can use a Web AS 7 for NWDI. You can setup the dependencies for your development component to version 6.40. Then you can build and deploy to a Web AS 6.40.

[Former Member]

For developer testing the only option you have is to provide your developers with both versions of the Web AS, either local or with central servers.

[Former Member]

One addition: It is possible to run two concurrent Web AS installations (even different versions) on one system, but this will require some serious hardware!