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Function documentationDowngrade Protection

 

The downgrade protection function tracks objects in transport requests, and reports conflicts in five scenarios when an object that is saved in two or more transport requests, is released, reassigned, or imported.

Note Note

Downgrade protection is available only for ABAP systems.

Downgrade protection can be used in Change Request Management and in Quality Gate Management. The function is identical, however, the user interfaces and the related terminology can be different.

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Prerequisites

  • You have configured downgrade protection and the cross-system object lock, in Customizing, under Start of the navigation path SAP Solution Manager Next navigation step Capabilities Next navigation step Change Control Management Next navigation step Cross-System Object Lock and Downgrade Protection End of the navigation path, globally, and locally in the development system.

    Note Note

    In Customizing, you can, for example, configure the conflict criticality for each check type, and the systems that bypass downgrade protection. For more information, see the detailed documentation for the Customizing activities in the SAP system.

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  • The Solution Manager system has an up to date CTS plug-in version installed.

    The import check logic depends on the central CTS downgrade protection import check logic, which is a part of the CTS plug-in,

  • If you want to use the predecessor and the imminent downgrade checks, you have distributed the CTS service plug-ins to the managed systems (including development, quality assurance, and production systems). For more information, see SAP Note 1688276Information published on SAP site.

  • To be able to explicitly ignore conflicts, the authorization object SM_CM_DGP has been assigned to your role.

    Note Note

    In the SAP standard delivery, the following roles contain this authorization object:

    • SAP_CM_SMAN_CHANGE_MANAGER (Change Manager)

    • SAP_CM_SMAN_OPERATOR (IT Operator)

    • SAP_CM_SMAN_ADMINISTRATOR (Administrator)

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    If you do not have one of these roles, the authorization object needs to be assigned to your user.

Features

  • In Change Request Management, the Downgrade Protection assignment block in the WebClient UI is available for project and maintenance cycles and for change documents. Whenever the system detects a conflict, it is displayed in the assignment block. For more information, see Using the Downgrade Protection Assignment Block.

  • In Quality Gate Management, information related to downgrade protection is displayed on the Downgrade Protection Tab.

  • There are two ways to trigger downgrade checks:

    • Manually

      In Change Request Management, you can trigger downgrade checks from the Downgrade Protection assignment block. In Quality Gate Management, you can trigger the check from the Project Overview and the Changes tab. The system analyzes potential release check conflicts for all open transport requests in the development system, and import check conflicts for all released transport requests in all systems into which they can be imported. This helps you to handle the conflicts before triggering the transport. The check is performed asynchronously. Refresh the assignment block or tab page to display up-to-date check results.

    • Automatically

      Downgrade checks are triggered automatically when releasing transport requests, importing, decoupling, assigning transport requests or when reassigning a change document. In case of a conflict, the operation (release or import) is canceled, unless you have ignored the conflict. You can set the system to automatically ignore conflicts in specific project and/or in logical systems. To do so, refer to the downgrade protection Customizing for more information.

  • You can also trigger a downgrade check from a task list. In case of a conflict, the system displays a dialog box notifying the user about the conflict and the cancelation of the operation. A link to the change cycle document in the WebClient UI, where the conflicts can be checked and handled, is provided.

Note Note

The manual check checks all open transport requests (release check) and all importable transport requests (import check), including all corresponding target systems. The automatic check checks only the transport requests to be released or imported, and only the relevant target systems, so the automatic check checks a smaller number of transport requests.

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Downgrade Check Types

The following downgrade checks can be performed by the system:

  • Cross-system object lock

    The cross-system object lock (CSOL) ensures that when an object is changed in a managed system, it is locked in the central SAP Solution Manager system. Depending on the conflict scenario, this prevents changes being made to this object in any other transport request. For more information, see Cross-System Object Lock.

  • Release check

    When you release a transport request, downgrade protection can detect conflicts for objects in transport requests. The conflicts are the same as those displayed by the cross-system object lock when saving the objects to the transport requests. For more information, see Release Check.

  • Reassign check

    The system performs this check when you reassign a change document or assign or decouple transport requests in a change document. For more information, see Reassign Check.

  • Predecessor check

    The system can detect conflicting predecessors, that is, preceding transport requests containing conflicts, at the time of importing transport requests or transports of copies to the production or quality assurance system. For more information, see Predecessor Check.

  • Imminent check

    The system can detect impending (imminent) downgrade conflicts when transport requests are imported. This kind of conflict would become an actual downgrade if you ignore the conflict. For more information, see Imminent Check.

Note Note

Import checks depend on the transport requests being imported. Any conflicts found while importing a project or urgent change task list, are displayed in the Downgrade Protection assignment block of the change cycle document. Any conflicts found while importing a change document are displayed in the same assignment block of the change document.

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Caution Caution

Release check conflicts are sometimes not seen during an import check. This is because the release check reports conflicts between the same objects in different transport requests to be imported into the same production system. In one particular case, they are not reported as import check conflicts: when the import order of the transport requests is the same as the release order. For example, if TR1 and TR2 have modified the same object, they result in release check conflicts. However, if TR1 is released first, TR2 is released second, and TR1 is imported first, TR2 is imported second, the system reports no conflicts during the predecessor check and the imminent check

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Activities

The following graphic shows the user and system activities during the downgrade protection process.