Software Delivery Unit
Definition
A software component archive (SCA), Java archive (JAR) or SAP archive (SAR) that can be deployed by the JSPM.
SCAs that are modified using the NWDI can also be handled by the JSPM.
Use
The following software delivery units (SDUs) can be deployed by the JSPM:
● Support package stacks
Support package stacks are defined by SAP collections of support packages for all software components in one product. Support package stacks have been designed to reduce the amount of different combinations of software versions at customer systems and to provide customers with a set of versions that can work best together.
A support package stack can contain a combination of the following:
○ A set of different SCAs
○ A set of different SCAs that are modified using the NWDI
○ The SDM JAR – SDMkit.jar
○ The kernel SARs:
■ Database Independent: SAPEXE.SAR and other operating system dependent SARs
■ Database Dependent: SAPEXEDB.SAR and other database dependent SARs
■ The SAP archiving tool – SAPCAR
○ The IGS SAR – IGSEXE.SAR
○ A configuration XML file, which includes a description of the components that are part of the stack and their respective support package and patch levels.
● Single support packages
SAP provides support packages on a component level. Java support packages contain the complete version of the development components of an application. You, therefore, need to import the latest support package only. If there are dependencies with other Java support packages, they are specified in an SAP Note.
SAP provides support packages also as a single component patch. For example, patch 2 of support package 3 may include some fixes.
Support packages are provided in the form of SCAs, JARs, and SARs. Support packages that are provided in the form of SCAs can be modified using the NWDI.
● New software components
Third-party software components and SAP software components, both ones that are part of an SAP usage type and ones that are not part of an SAP usage type.
Software components are provided in the form of SCAs.
● Business packages of mySAP Business Suite
Business packages of mySAP Business Suite are business solutions and applications, for example, mySAP Customer Relationship Management, mySAP Supplier Relationship Management, and so on. Business packages are provided in the form of SCAs.
In addition, during the scan of the global EPS inbox directory, JSPM can detect and offer for deployment SCAs with a ZIP file extension.
Structure
Each SCA has the following attributes:
● Vendor
The company that produced the software, for example, sap.com.
● Name
The name of the component, for example, SAP-JEE.
The vendor and the name form the unique identifier of the software component. Components with one and the same name but with different vendors are considered different components.
● Release
● Support package level
● Patch level
● Counter
Contains the release, support package level, patch level, and timestamp. For example, 1000.7.00.2.0.20050524093600, where 7.00 is the release, 2 is the support package level, 0 is the patch level, and 20050524093600 is the timestamp.
● Provider
The provider that built the software component version, for example, SAP AG.
An SCA may have several versions. An SCA version is defined by a combination of all of the attributes above. Before the deployment of a software component, the JSPM performs the following types of version checks:
● The vendors and the names of the SCAs are the same as the ones of the software components that are installed on the system.
● The releases of the SCAs are the same as the ones of the software components that are installed on the system. JSPM allows updates only within one release.
● The support package levels of the SCAs are higher than or equal to the ones of the software components that are installed on the system.
● If the support package levels of the SCAs are equal to the ones of the software components that are installed on the system, the patch levels of the SCAs are higher.
● Checks for modified software components
If the provider of an SCA is different from the original provider, SAP AG, of the software component that is installed on the system, this SCA has been modified using the NWDI.
● Checks on foreign software components
The JSPM checks if, after the deployment of a software component, the dependencies on other software components are fulfilled.
JSPM executes additional checks at the Check Queue wizard step. You can view the results of these checks in the JSPM UI and in the log files.
Integration
Before the deployment of a software component, the SDM server performs additional version checks. Only new software components that have a higher counter than the counter of the old software components can be deployed.
JSPM detects software components that have been modified using the NWDI. The way in which JSPM handles modified software components depends on the respective NWDI system role.