Besides all the possibilities about extending SAP Landscape Management functionality, SAP Landscape Management’s Automation Studio delivers options to save activities such as configured provisioning procedures as provisioning blueprints. You can then parameterize and execute provisioning blueprints without navigating through a provisioning workflow.
The former used provisioning templates had one essential disadvantage compared to blueprints: you weren't able to change parameters after you created a provisioning template. Not even a password.
The easiest way to create a provisioning blueprint is at the end of any provisioning road map. Here you can find the Create Provisioning Blueprint button, which saves all information for the type of provisioning this refresh is configured, plus all individual information like Master Password or the <SID>ADM user.
When saving any provisioning road map as a blueprint the provisioning type is set and can’t be changed afterwards. Only the parameter can be changed. But you can create provisioning blueprints from "scratch" if you want and then you have the choice of all kinds of provisioning tasks. By selecting the type of choice most likely, all important steps are covered and you can concentrate on the necessary parameter to add to make it work for you. The group, that has to be defined is a so-called button group and defines the name in the operations context menu where you’ll find your actual blueprint. If you don’t have one you name it right now. This can be renamed afterwards, if the name doesn’t fit anymore.
The parameter within provisioning blueprints are based on json. If you have saved the blueprint out of a provisioning road map, you’ll have a good example of the necessary parameters. You can copy this blueprint, replace the parameters like password or PCA task lists and can create a second provisioning blueprint without going through the landscape.
The execution of a Provisioning Blueprint will not happen inside the Automation Studio → Provisioning Blueprint. Instead you’ll find the button group within the operations context menu of a managed system. Remember the name you used while creating or saving the blueprint and you can select the correct blueprint below this group . If you use constraints for each blueprint, you can avoid multiple selection at this point and avoid using the wrong blueprint.
Another option to trigger any provisioning blueprint is to schedule the blueprint. In SAP Landscape Management only operations templates can be scheduled and therefore the blueprint needs to be embedded in one. You simply select your Refresh Blueprint as the operation and select your system on which the blueprints should be executed. If the template is ready you schedule it and provide the date and time of the planned execution within Automation Studio → Scheduler.
Operations Templates
Operation Templates combine multiple SAP Landscape Management operations that are ready for execution on certain entities. As the look and feel of operation templates and custom processes is the same there is one big difference. Operation Templates have all entities assigned already while on custom processes entities get assigned when executed. This means that an operation template will be sufficient when doing the same process over and over again for only one system. If this process is supposed to be executed on several other systems you can either duplicate operation templates, or create one custom process and apply this custom process on whatever system when ever you want.
Creating an Operation Template is similar to creating a custom process. Select your step and choose from the amount of operations offered by SAP Landscape Management. When you are in need of another step just choose + on the right side of the step and another one will be created. Go to Automation Studio → Operation Template to start creating or editing existing templates.
Operation Templates must have entities assigned. Otherwise it is not possible to create them. On the right side you can select the operation to select for the specific task and Entities section to select one or more entities.
The 1:1 comparison between operation templates and custom processes shows clearly the difference between them. On the left side, the operation template with the process sequence and assigned entities displays. On the right side, the custom process displays. This is the same process sequence but no entities have been assigned yet.
Operation templates can be triggered directly where created, inside Automation Studio → Operation Template or via Automation Studio → Schedules. Custom processes can be executed via Operations → System or Instance inside the context menu of the Operations button.
Schedules
Schedule operation templates to be executed on instances, systems, or hosts at specific points in time. Schedules can be configured as one-time occurrence or periodic. Periodic options are hourly, daily, monthly up to yearly.
In Automation → Schedulesyou can find all past or pending schedules waiting for execution. You can also monitor the status of each schedule in here. The activity behind can be scheduled via Monitoring → Activities.
Creating or editing of schedules is straight forward. First, select your operation template, that need to be created before. After providing a name of the schedule you must select a date for execution. One-time or periodic depends on the operation, it’s up to the customer. Last but not least you can define notification settings. If you have activated notifications globally in Setup → Settings → Notification and use the same email address in here, you will receive two emails. One is from the scheduling engine and one is from Monitoring → Activities. But you can also define someone else who doesn’t get all the general notifications from SAP Landscape Management.