Implementing CI/CD Pipelines for SAP Applications

Implementing CI/CD Pipelines for SAP Applications

Continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) for SAP applications automates building,
testing, and deploying your code changes, reducing manual effort and accelerating
release cycles. SAP offers both cloud-native and on-premise tooling, enabling you to
choose the solution that best fits your landscape.

1. Selecting Your CI/CD Toolchain

Hosted/On-
Tool Use Case Key Features
Premise

SAP Continuous SAP BTP (Cloud UI-guided job editor,

Hosted on
Integration & Foundry), Fiori, predefined pipelines,
SAP BTP
Delivery Service Integration Suite, Kyma transport integration

Preconfigured Jenkinsfiles,
On-premise ABAP, On-Premise
SAP Piper + Jenkins reusable pipeline stages, SAP-
multi-target apps or Cloud
centric steps

Code-as-config workflows,
Open-source projects, Hosted by
GitHub Actions matrix builds, native SCM
CAP Node.js/Java GitHub
webhooks

2. CI/CD for SAP BTP Cloud Foundry (CAP)

1. Subscribe to the CI/CD Service

o In your SAP BTP subaccount, enable Continuous Integration and Delivery.

o Assign the CICD Service Administrator role to your user.

2. Add Credentials

o Under the Credentials tab, add:

o Git provider (GitHub/Bitbucket) user and PAT.

o SAP BTP Cloud Foundry credentials for deployments.

3. Register Your Repository

o In Repositories, click +, provide the Git repo URL, select credentials, and let
the service generate a webhook.

4. Configure a CI/CD Job

o In Jobs, click + and set:

 Job Name (e.g., cap-fullstack-pipeline)

 Repository and branch (main)

 Pipeline type: SAP Cloud Application Programming Model

o Use the Job Editor to configure stages:

o Build (MTA packaging)

 o Unit Tests (npm test or JUnit)

o Deploy to Cloud Foundry space using cfdeploy credentials

o (Optionally) Transport Upload via Cloud Transport Management

5. Trigger and Monitor

 Push changes to Git, and the webhook triggers the job.

 View logs and statuses in the Builds view of the CI/CD service.

3. CI/CD for On-Premise ABAP with SAP Piper

1. Provision Jenkins

o Install Jenkins (LTS recommended), configure global tools (Java, Git).

2. Install SAP Piper Library

o Use the SAP piper Jenkins shared library in your Jenkinsfile.

o Include pipeline steps like abapEnvironmentClone, abapEnvironmentRunATC,

abapEnvironmentTransportRequest for ABAP code checks, ATC scans, and
transport creation.

3. Define Your Jenkinsfile

@Library('piper-lib-os') _ pipeline { agent any stages { stage('Checkout') { steps

{ checkout scm } } stage('Build & ATC') { steps { abapEnvironmentRunATC(credentialsId:
'sap-abap-creds') } } stage('Quality Gate') { steps { sonarScan() } } stage('Deploy')
{ steps { abapEnvironmentTransportRequest(target: 'DEV', credentialsId: 'sap-abap-creds')
}}}}

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4. Set Up Webhooks and Credentials

 In your corporate Git, add a webhook to Jenkins to trigger builds on push.

 Store SAP system credentials in Jenkins Credentials (user, password, client).

4. Alternative: GitHub Actions for CAP and ABAP

 CAP Node.js/Java

o Use workflow templates from CAP community or adapt SFlight sample.

o Leverage actions/setup-node, npm test, and custom CF CLI actions for deploy.

 ABAP Environment

 Community actions exist for ATC and transport release.

 Combine with self-hosted runners that have SAP CLI tools installed.

5. Best Practices and Extensions

 Pipeline-as-Code
Store all pipeline definitions (Jenkinsfile, config.yaml, GitHub workflows) alongside
your application code to version control your CI/CD logic.
  Multi-Branch and Feature Pipelines
Configure multi-branch jobs (Jenkins) or GitHub dynamic workflows to run on feature
branches and pull requests, enforcing quality checks early.

 Quality Gates
Integrate SonarQube, ATC, ESLint/TSLint (for CAP) to fail builds on code smells or
critical issues.

 Transport Management
For transport-based deployments, automate approvals using SAP Cloud Transport
Management and integrate transport logs into your pipeline dashboard.

 Security
Rotate credentials regularly, restrict spaces/orgs in SAP CI/CD UI, and enforce least-
privilege roles in SAP BTP IAM.

6. Further Resources

 SAP Help Portal: CI/CD Solutions by SAP

 Tutorial: Set Up a CI/CD Pipeline for SAP BTP, Cloud Foundry Runtime

 CAP Project Guide: Deploy using CI/CD Pipelines

 SAP Piper Repository: https://github.com/SAP/jenkins-library

 SAP Press: Configuring CI/CD with SAP Continuous Integration and Delivery Service

Feel free to dive deeper into any of these areas—whether it’s advanced ABAP pipeline
customization or multi-target CAP deployments—and let’s discuss how to tailor CI/CD
exactly to your project’s needs!