Using Configuration Transport Center

Configuration Transport Center (CTC) provides a holistic view of the configurations that are supported across SAP SuccessFactors. With Configuration Transport Center, you can do the following:

• View SAP SuccessFactors application configurations. You can view all the SAP SuccessFactors configurations that are available in your tenant, in a single view, along with a business-oriented classification. You can also view the user's name who made the change along with the date and timestamp of the changes made
• Download configurations to a local folder.. You can download one or more configurations, so that you can take a backup of your application's configurations. You can also share the configurations with an Implementation partner or Customer Support for troubleshooting purposes.
• Transport configurations and configuration bundles from a source tenant to a target tenant. You can export one or more configurations from the source tenant to the target tenant, so that you can copy the configurations from the preview system to the production system, or from the test system to the production system, to deploy the configurations for production usage.

The following feature configurations must be enabled in Provisioning→Company Settings in both the source and target tenants.

• Enable Generic Objects — requires "Enable the Attachment Manager"
• Enable the Attachment Manager

The Configuration Transport Center (CTC) tool, supports many configurations for downloading and transporting between instances, such as:

• Features Configurations: It refers to the Provisioning Settings (back end) to set up SAP SuccessFactors modules for your company.
• System Configurations: It refers to the settings within the SAP SuccessFactors application (front end).
• MDF Object Definitions: You can choose the MDF object definition to view and manage database object definitions, object relationships, and object hierarchy, as well as association types of Valid When and Composite.
• Custom MDF Data and Custom MDF Object Definitions: You can transport custom MDF data, if the object definition is categorized as a configuration. Data and object definitions can be added to a transport bundle from the respective tools Configure Object Definition and Manage Data.
• Custom Configurations: Those other configurations from the customers which include:
  • Talent: Includes Route Maps, Rating Scales, Templates, Goal Library, Opportunity Marketplace Assignments, Mentoring Programs, Career Paths, Calibration Settings and more.
  • Business Rules
  • Foundation Objects
  • Data Models
  • Role-Based Permission Groups (can include both Dynamic and Static Groups)
  • Role-Based Permission Roles.
  • Workflow Groups
  • Picklists and Picklist Values.
    Caution

    Picklist Values are not enabled by default, but customers can open an ticket using component LOD-SF-PLT-CGC to request enablement of the picklist value functionality under Upgrade Center.
  • Form Label Translations.
  • Manage Configuration UI.
  • Organizational Setup. Includes data shared across the company, like Foundation Objects, Job Entities, and other.

To access the tool, navigate to Configuration Transport Center using Action Search. An Instance Management menu will display with two options: Copy Configuration, which will open CTC, and Full Copy, which would navigate to Instance Refresh.

The first tab, Configuration Activities, allows you to select configurations to add to a Transport Bundle (Transport Mode) and be transferred to another instance. You can also add configurations to a Download Bundle (Download Mode) and save the configurations in your local computer as a backup or for another purpose.

First, search for the configurations to be transported or downloaded:

1. Select Transport Mode or Download Mode, depending on the purpose.
2. Select Configuration Area, like Talent, Employee Central, or Platform.
3. As an optional step, based on the Configuration Area selected in step 2, type the Configuration Type, if you would like to show on the results only a specific type.
4. Choose Go to start searching. On the results, you can expand the different categories and select the one of your choice, like System Configurations, Feature Configurations, or customer-defined configurations, such as templates, rating scales, competencies, and so on.
5. Select the configuration items from the results, or select all at one using the checkbox beside the Configuration Name (to a maximum of 50 rows). For example, if you selected Rating Scale, now you can select which rating scales can be included in the bundle to transport or download configurations.
6. Select to Add to New Bundle or Add to an Existing Bundle if one already exists.

In the Download Requests tab, you can see your configuration bundles including Configuration Activities that were selected previously. You can see on the status column if these configurations are Ready for Download or still on Pending status (being prepared). These requests are available in the tool for up to 7 days.

In the Transport Routes tab, you can see your available Target Pairings with other tenants (instances). You can use them as target destinations for your Transport Requests, those configurations added as Transport Mode in the Configuration Activities tab.

You can also select Add New Pair to start a new pairing, as per the following steps:

1. Select the Data Center, Environment, and Company ID for your target instance.
2. A token is generated in your new target instance. Log in to the target instance and navigate to Configuration Transport Center→Transport Routes where a warning message displays, and you then copy the token.
3. Log back into your source instance and navigate to Configuration Transport Center→Transport Routes→Add New Pair. Select your target Company ID in this step.
4. Paste the token generated and copied from the target instance to validate. A confirmation that the new Target Pairing has been successfully completed is displayed. The target instance is available for transporting configurations.

In the Transport Requests tab, you find those requests initiated from the source instance (Export) and those requests from the target instance (Import) as well as an option to create an Import History report for the transport requests details.

In the following figure, the Export requests initiated from your tenant display two transport bundles (configurations added into transport mode from Configuration Activities). While one is being prepared, another one shows Ready for Import.

In the target instance, you navigate to Configuration Transport Center→Transport Requests→Imports to acknowledge the request and starting importing the transport bundle with the configurations into the target instance.

1. Navigate to Configuration Transport Center→Transport Requests→Imports, and review the Import requests received by your tenant (those requests that were sent from the source instance within the Exports tab.
2. Select the option Validate under the Action column. You can also select View to review the content from the bundle.
3. Once the Bundle Status shows Validation Completed, some additional actions display: View Report and Show History.
   • View Report allows you to download an XLS file, including a Validation Report. You can review the status for each configuration, from which tenant each configuration comes from, and other relevant details.
   • Show History shows an audit trail for the different actions performed on the Import request. An example is if there was a first validation with some errors, and then a second validation is now successful. The report of each action captured on the audit trail is also available.
4. Once the validation results are confirmed and you're ready to import the configuration, select Import from the Action column. A confirmation dialog displays where the Import action needs to be submitted to start. The Bundle Status now shows as Import Pending.
5. The status updates to Import in Progress, and then Import Completed. There's a new option to Promote that is available from the Action column.

Promote

This new action available in Configuration Transport Center allows to Promote a Transport Request that has been successfully imported into the target tenant. With this option, a tenant that received a transport request can then export that onto other target instances, without having to create the transport bundle manually.

Once Promote is selected, you're redirected to a screen where you can select from your existing Transport Routes or Add a New Pair to set up a new target instance. When selected, the Promote button exports the transport request to that target instance.

Note

The Promote option only appears for those transport bundles that aren't expired. The configuration bundles are available to import for up to 30 days.

The last tab Bundle Management shows the different configuration bundles available in your tenant. From there, you can Initiate Transport to start a transport request to another target instance and copy over these configurations, as well as view the content or delete the bundle if no longer used. New bundles can also be created from this tab.

There are several tools within the SAP SuccessFactors HCM solution that includes an option to add a configuration to a Transport Bundle, so it becomes accessible from Configuration Transport Center and can be easily transported into a target instance. The available options are:

• Picklist Center
• Manage Configuration UI
• Configure Object Definition
• Manage Data
• Configure Business Rules
• Manage Business Configuration
• Integration Center

Picklist Center: It's possible to select one picklist at a time to add to an existing Transport Bundle.

Manage Configuration UI:: The UI screens created for MDF Objects can be also transported with Configuration Transport Center. An option to add to a Transport Bundle is available from the same tool.

MDF definitions in Configure Object Definitions, as well as MDF records from those objects categorized as Configuration or Non-User Transactional in Manage Data, can be added to a transport bundle, to eliminate manual configuration efforts for MDF object instances in the paired target system.

For predelivered MDF objects, the availability of the Add to Transport Bundle option for an object is defined by SAP SuccessFactors. The Add to Transport Bundle option isn't allowed for those MDF Objects with an Uncategorized category.

Business Rules can be easily added to a Transport Bundle directly from the Business Rule Admin by selecting Take Action.

In BCUI or Manage Business Configuration tool, an option Add to Transport Bundle is also available, to add HRIS Elements (Person and Employment objects in Employee Central), Standard or Background Elements, Dynamic Group Filters, Custom Filters, and so on.

Another tool where configurations can be added into a Transport Bundle is the Integration Center. You can select from your Integration Center Definitions and add them easily to be transported to another instance.

Some of the key takeaways for this lesson are:

• The Configuration Transport Center provides a view of the configurations across SAP SuccessFactors and features a transport mode to easily copy configurations across instances.

• The application is built on metadata framework and permissions to the respective MDF objects need to be granted under Miscellaneous Permissions. Additionally, a Configuration Transport Center category in RBP grants access to the tool to view, download and transport configurations.

• Some of the supported configurations to download and transport between instances are the Feature and System configurations, MDF Object definitions, and Custom Configurations and MDF Data. Some examples are rating scales, templates, mentoring programs, business rules or role-based permission groups and roles.