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BorisZarske
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
0 Kudos

The configuration wizard (formerly known as "Template Installer" or "Central Technical Configuration - CTC") is a central, uniform and simple configuration tool that accelerates the technical configuration process and makes it less error-prone. In this weblog, I want to show you how the new version introduced with SAP NetWeaver 7.0 Support Package Stack 13 looks like (although some new features are already available as of SAP NetWeaver 7.0 SP Stack 12).

How to Start the Configuration Wizard?

As before, you start the configuration wizard after the installation + patching of a new system by logging on to SAP NetWeaver Administrator and clicking "Deploy and Change" in the navigation bar. The configuration wizard always operates on the local system in which it is executed. Therefore, it is central in the sense of offering one starting point for the configuration of a local system instead of having to use several local tools to perform this task.

List of Configuration Tasks

In the main pane, you see a list of configuration tasks (in former releases, we used the term "template" for these tasks) that could be executed on the selected system.

In the example shown on the screenshot, there are 32 configuration tasks offered that the configuration wizard might perform. In the corresponding column header, you can optionally sort or filter the list (for example, if you only want to see the list of configuration tasks already performed in this system).

For every task, you also get a short description. By clicking on the icon next to "Details", you see the whole list of configuration steps comprised by the selected task and the current status of every step ("Not executed", "In progress", "Finished successfully", "Incompletely executed", "Finished unsuccessfully").

In this list, you can also select to skip steps before you let the configuration wizard perform the corresponding task. This is useful if you want to execute only a subset of the steps, such as in case something went wrong the first time and you want to repeat only certain steps or if you want to perform certain steps manually. For a detailed configuration documentation, see the SAP Library and choose --> Technology Consultant's Guide.

Maybe you are wondering why there is sometimes more than one task available for certain use cases. In most cases (as for the configuration of SAP NetWeaver Administrator), there are historical reasons for offering several subtasks in addition to one overall configuration tasks. We plan to clean up these areas in the future so that not required tasks will vanish.

Improved Configuration Task for Usage Type DI

With SAP NetWeaver 7.0 SP Stack 13, there is an improved configuration task to set up the SAP NetWeaver Development Infrastructure (NWDI) in your landscape. NWDI provides the environment for Java-based development and Java-based software life-cycle management. For example, the new configuration task provides the following new features concerning the configuration of the Change Management Service (CMS):

  • The configuration now includes the possibility to create a track for certain predefined application patterns (in addition to the possibility to create a SANDBOX track as in the past). For example, you can now create a track for the development of J2EE, Web Dynpro, Portal, CAF, xApps, or composite applications during the initial setup of NWDI.
  • The configuration of a remote system landscape directory is simplified.
  • In addition, you can now specify freely the CMS name/domain name.

Besides all the new features, the main advantage remains that you can easily set up NWDI without having to manually perform the steps described in about 70 pages of pure configuration documentation (not to mention the other documentation you have to know about NWDI and all involved technologies like Java administration and UME concepts + administration). Instead of spending several days to manually set up an NWDI landscape (even if you are an experienced administrator), just run the configuration wizard and you are done with your first NWDI landscape after around 30 minutes. What better arguments could be there to use the configuration wizard for DI?

Protocol Provides Complete Transparency

After you have run a task, you can click on it or on a performed step in the detail list to view a protocol. This protocol provides detailed information about performed actions (including used parameters) and skipped actions (including information about why these actions were skipped - such as due to not fulfilled interdependencies). So, the protocol provides complete transparency on what steps the configuration wizard performed in your system and how it performed these steps. This transparency is highly appreciated by a lot of customers with which we were able to talk about this new version of the configuration wizard.

Summary

Altogether, we offer configuration tasks on different levels and with full transparency to help you to address many challenges you face in your task to configure systems in your landscape.

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