SAP job to change the phase of the maintenance cycle in ChaRM ( solman 7.1 sps12 )

[Former Member]

Hi All,

Do we have any program via which i can change the status of the maintenance cycle in ChaRM ? I did find a program but that only changes the phase for tasklist and not for maintenance cycle

[Former Member]

Thanks Tom & Christoph. Yes the report CRM_SOCM_SERVICE_REPORT dint work for me too.

I even tried the report /TMWFLOW/PHCNTRL_DB_UTILITY. But in this case only task list status is changed not the maintenance cycle phase.

Do we have any other options to have the maintenance cycle phases changed via program. I will try the suggestion of using the zreport as mentioned by Christoph.

BR, Alex

[TomCenens]

Hi Alex

I assume that check is there for a reason, I wonder for example if the system would perform any kind of check if you would enable the program to push the cycle further.

I'll provide this feedback (wish) to the product management team of SAP Solution Manager as it would be interesting to have such kind of functionality.

Best chance at getting it to work would be through CBTA ~ that's actually something I can test since I've got CHARM + CBTA configured in our system ~ I need some time though.

Kind regards

Tom

[Former Member]

Hi Tom,

Did you happen to have a check on this ?

[TomCenens]

Hi Alex

Not yet I'm afraid, I've been on vacation past few weeks, I just returned and my planning is super hectic.

We have got our whole flow in CBTA (creating a change up to deploying it into production) in terms of CHARM so in terms of functionality/feasability it will work, the only question is how you'll handle it in terms of parameters or changes when needed.

Kr

Tom

[TomCenens]

Hi Alex

Yes, it works fine.

Two things that are specific in CBTA, one is you provide the CRM Business Role as Executable after choosing Executable type CRM_WEBCLIENT and two, you should replace CBTA_CRM_M_SELECTMNUITEM in the script after recording by CBTA_CRM_SELECTMENUITEMBYTEXT as you can see in above screenshot.

This is mentioned somewhere in one of the CBTA guides as well.

Kind regards

Tom

[Former Member]

Hi Alex,

a maintenance cycle is just another ticket of transaction type SMMN or SMMM.

So you can try to use report CRM_SOCM_SERVICE_REPORT to set this ticket to the next status.

If it works, set up a job with a variant for this report.

Best Regards,

Christoph

[TomCenens]

Hi Christoph

That doesn't work, I've tried it out before

Kr

Tom

[Former Member]

Hi Tom,

i just tried it myself, does not work for me too.

There is an explicit check to prevent a change of maintenance cylces, i gues for security reasons.

But you can copy the report to a z-report and delete line 355 - 410, then it might work.

Best Regards,

Christoph

[dillipkumar_r]

Hi Alex,

Just a idea and wanted to share here about the possibility.

We can create a test script using automated test management for changing the phase and execute it whenever required for maintenance cycle. This will also take care of the specific transaction number as well.

I would be also interested to know any other means to automate the phase change.

Regards,

Dillip

[TomCenens]

This can work, you can use CBTA to achieve this but you still need a front-end laptop that executes the test script ~you can schedule it in but it does need a front-end "client" still so it's not really completely in background since the laptop has to be up and running etc at that moment in time.

[TomCenens]

Hi Alex

If you wish to automate a specific flow, you could achieve this in a different way as well. You can allow certain actions (like import into production) in another phase. That can result is not having to push the phase along in the first place thus allowing full automation.

I assume you're asking this because you want to automate a specific release (urgent, non impacting changes for example)?

2145487 - ChaRM: How to check allowed actions for each phase of Maintenance Cycle.

Note that small letters that SAP support might give you trouble (although I don't see why... nothing world changing in my opinion).

Best regards

Tom

[Former Member]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for your reply. My intention is to change the cycles phases automatically. For example - i want to push a Normal maitenenance cycle to Test phase via a job so that my developers cannot create or release new TRs.

[TomCenens]

Hi Alex

I haven't tried it but I would say, try to schedule the CRM action (SMMN or ... maintenance cycle transaction type - action to switch to Test phase) using a background job through transaction CRMC_ACTION_JOB.

Kind regards

Tom

[Former Member]

Thanks Tom. I checked the program. I did understand most of the fields but the question i have now is ... how do i mentioned for which maintenance cycle i want to set the phase " test ". Is Application Key the field where i need maintain the maintenance cycle ID which i want to change.

[TomCenens]

Hi Alex

I don't think so, not sure though, haven't used it but looking around through Google / SCN I don't see anyone reference Application Key as to be used for Transaction ID.

What looks possible to me, again, haven't tried this yet although I'm interested in knowing as well as in the end is to copy the action to move the cycle and copy the condition that goes along with it and then to insert the transaction number (I believe it's called there) into the condition.

So you would have something like

previous line AND

&CRM Service Process.Transaction Number&=

That should do the trick to point to a specific transaction number but it would also mean you've got to maintain those per maintenance cycle (transaction number) you would define.

Again, just giving ideas here, I don't know if it will do what it's supposed to do.

I tried a bunch of programs that can move change document status but those have a build-in restriction to not function for maintenance cycle transaction ID.

Kind regards

Tom