Best Practice 2.1 – Use version control and configuration management - SAP Lens

Best Practice 2.1 – Use version control and configuration management

Configuration Management systems reduce errors caused by manual processes and reduce the level of effort to deploy changes. Doing so supports tracking changes, deploying new versions, detecting changes to existing versions, and reverting to prior versions (for example, rolling back to a known good state in the event of a failure). Integrate the version control capabilities of your configuration management systems into all your procedures across SAP – the infrastructure, the database, the application, and SAP custom code and developments (for example, ABAP, Java, and UI5/JavaScript).

Consider different version control systems for each type of configuration, but consolidate metrics into a central release planning tool. Consider how non-transportable configuration and binary versioning is managed across your environments (for example - how do you know that your SAP Kernel versions are aligned across your landscape?).

Suggestion 2.1.1 - Implement SAP change control or other third-party tools for managing your SAP development code and versioning

Ensure you implement change control for all development approaches and custom code that support your SAP applications - ABAP, Java, UI5/JavaScript, and any other extensions or scripting areas. Consider all your SAP applications and how you will orchestrate code deployment across multiple SAP deployment patterns (for example, how will you simultaneously release related developments hosted on AWS and SAP Business Technology Platform).

Suggestion 2.1.2 - Implement configuration management systems for your SAP applications

Implement configuration management tools for ABAP, Java, and other SAP technologies and consider how non-transportable configuration and binary versioning is managed across your landscape (for example - how do you know that your SAP Kernel versions are aligned across your environment?). Use SAP Solution Manager to plan and implement configuration and version changes to your SAP applications.

Suggestion 2.1.3 - Implement configuration management systems for operating systems

Use AMI baking or in-place configuration management software such as Ansible, Chef or Puppet to align configuration management across your SAP workload operating systems. Consider security focused configuration management tools which will alert you to vulnerabilities and prompt you to keep your operating systems patched and hardened.

Suggestion 2.1.4 - Implement configuration management systems for databases

Work with your database software vendor to understand configuration management approaches for your database.

Suggestion 2.1.5 - Implement configuration management systems for infrastructure

Use infrastructure as code (IaC) approaches to provision and manage AWS resources supporting your SAP workloads. AWS CloudFormation and AWS Cloud Development Kit (AWS CDK) are tools you can use to provision and manage configuration in AWS resources programmatically.

Consider configuration audit and control tools such as AWS Config: Conformance Packs that allow you to deploy rules and policies to evaluate your infrastructure periodically to assess compliance and resolve any problems with applicable best practices and standards.