Method for effecting software maintenance in a software system landscape and computer system

• US 7,721,257 B2
• Filed: 10/27/2005
• Issued: 05/18/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/27/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Demuth, Michael, Stegmuller, Herbert, Schulz, Volker
• Primary Examiner(s): Bullock, Jr.; Lewis A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Yun; Carina
• Application Number:
  US11/262,543
• Publication Number:
  US 20060117311A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,664 Days
• Field of Search: 717120-123, 717168-178, 713/201, 713/167, 713/121
• US Class Current: 717/120
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management

Abstract

A method for effecting software maintenance in a software system landscape comprising a central control system and a plurality of logical systems interconnected by logical transport paths, each system having associated therewith one of a plurality of system roles is described. The method comprises: providing system role types, each system role type comprising a group of system roles; providing an association of tasks to system role types; providing a transport track that defines a route for software services through a group of systems in a particular order and specifies one source system in which software services are permitted, adjacent interconnected systems, and at least one target system, each software service relating to at least one of the code and the data of at least one system in the landscape; and generating a maintenance instance from the system role types, the association and the transport tracks, the maintenance instance defining tasks for effecting a software service in a maintenance interval.

Claims

1. A method for effecting software maintenance in a software system landscape comprising a central control system and a plurality of logical systems interconnected by logical transport paths, each logical system having associated therewith one of a plurality of system roles, the method comprising:

providing system role types, each of the system role types comprising a group of system roles;

providing an association of tasks to the system role types;

providing a transport track, the transport track defining a route for software services through a group of systems in a particular order and specifying one source system in which software services are permitted, adjacent interconnected systems, and at least one target system, each of the software services relating to at least one of a computer code and associated data of at least one system in the landscape;

generating automatically a maintenance instance in the central system from the system role types, the association and the transport tracks, the maintenance instance defining tasks for effecting a periodic software service in a maintenance interval, generating the maintenance instance involves analyzing the transport tracks to identify affected systems, analyzing the systems to identify their system roles, analyzing the system roles to identify their type, and compiling required tasks for the affected systems according to a list which contains different mapped tasks for the different system role types of each system on the transport track; and

carrying out the tasks in the respective affected system after logon to the system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the maintenance instance is generated with hierarchy levels.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the hierarchy levels are generated to include a transport track level, a system role type level below the transport track level, a system role level below the system role type level, a system level below the system role level and a task level below the system level.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein as a system role type one of the group of source system, follow-on system, target system or postprocessing system is used.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the maintenance instance is locked when it is completed and a new maintenance instance is generated.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the tasks in the respective system are executed from the central system.

7. A computer system comprising:

a central control system;

a plurality of logical systems, each logical system having associated therewith one of a plurality of system roles;

logical transport paths that interconnect the logical systems to form a software system landscape;

a transport track that defines a route for software services through a group of systems in a particular order and specifies one source system in which software services are permitted, adjacent interconnected systems, and at least one target system, each software service relating to at least one of a computer code and associated data of at least one system in the landscape;

system role types, each system role being of a system role type;

an association of tasks to system role types; and

a maintenance instance to be automatically generated from the system role types, the association and the transport tracks, the maintenance instance defining tasks for effecting a periodic software service in a maintenance interval, the maintenance instance further to involve analyzing the transport tracks to identify affected systems, analyzing the systems to identify their system roles, analyzing the system roles to identify their type, and compiling required tasks for the affected systems according to a list which contains different mapped tasks for the different system role types of each system on the transport track, and carrying out the tasks in the respective affected system after logon to the system.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the maintenance instance comprises hierarchy levels.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the hierarchy levels include a transport track level, a system role type level below the transport track level, a system role level below the system role type level, a system level below the system role level and a task level below the system level.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the system role types comprise one of the group of source system, follow-on system, target system or postprocessing system.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the tasks in the respective system are executable from the central system.

12. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, upon execution on a computer system, causes the computer to perform a method for effecting software maintenance in a software system landscape comprising a central control system and a plurality of logical systems interconnected by logical transport paths, each logical system having associated therewith one of a plurality of system roles, the method comprising:

providing system role types, each of the system role types comprising a group of system roles;

providing an association of tasks to the system role types;

providing a transport track, the transport track defining a route for software services through a group of systems in a particular order and specifying one source system in which software services are permitted, adjacent interconnected systems, and at least one target system, each of the software services relating to at least one of a computer code and associated data of at least one system in the landscape;

generating automatically a maintenance instance in the central system from the system role types, the association and the transport tracks, the maintenance instance defining tasks for effecting a periodic software service in a maintenance interval, generating the maintenance instance involves analyzing the transport tracks to identify the affected systems, analyzing the systems to identify their system roles, analyzing the system roles to identify their type, and compiling required tasks for the affected systems according to a list which contains different mapped tasks for the different system role types of each system on the transport track; and

carrying out the tasks in the respective affected system after logon to the system.