Question: How to add a Sandbox system as a second Quality System?

Question

Dear experts,
I am kindly asking for your help and asking you to write me exact procedure on how to do this.
We have a 3 system landscape - DEV, QAS and PRD. There are 2 routes from DEV and QAS:
ZDEV and the SAP standard route and a delivery route from QAS to PRD.
We also have built a Sandbox system, which we temporarily need to include in TMS, in order
to perform a few transports from our DEV system to the Sandbox. When doing a transport
(not sure exactly at which step), the system has to offer a choice, whether the transport to be
imported in the QAS or in the sandbox.
For sure I know that we will need to make /usr/sap/trans shared to the sandbox as well.
Then I am kindly asking you to explain exactly how to setup this configuration.
I am relying very much on your help, as I made quite bad experience with OSS messages, which
are hanging for weeks without any answer... And I believe that this forum is faster and more precisely
answered, than OSS messages. And we have 4 non-working days ahead, and right on tuesday in the
morning I need to implement this configuration!
Many many thanks in advance!!

Answer 1

Hi Symon,
You're right, the first step is to ensure that the SAPService<SID> user for your sandbox (let's call it SAPServiceSBX) must have the same level of access to /usr/sap/trans on your transport domain controller (usually, but not always, your DEV system) as the other systems in the transport domain.  If you are in a Windows Active Directory environment, this is most easily accomplished by adding the SAP_SBX_GlobalAdmin Active Directory group to the SAP_LocalAdmin local group on the DEV system.  Your SAPServiceSBX user should have already been a member of SAP_SBX_GlobalAdmin as part of the normal installation process when you created the SBX system.  If you are on another OS, I can't really help you there, but it must achieve the same effect of granting that file system access.
Next, you need to tell SBX how to find the domain controller.  Log on to SBX as an administrative user and start transaction RZ10.  Open your DEFAULT profile and, if it's not already there or has something different, put in an entry with Parameter Name = SAPTRANSHOST and Parameter Value = the host name of your domain controller, i.e. your DEV system, where the /usr/sap/trans directory resides.  Save and activate the profile.  If you made a change here, you will probably need to restart the SBX system for it to take effect.  In the old days, you would have to add a SAPTRANSHOST entry to your hosts file on the operating system level and/or add it as an environment variable for your sidadm OS user, but I don't think that's necessary anymore, if you put it in the profile.
After the restart, logon to SBX again, this time to client 000, as an administrative user and start transaction STMS.  Most likely, if SBX isn't a member of a transport domain already, you will get a popup asking you to add it to one (or to create one).  If so, put in the name of the transport domain (probably DOMAIN_DEV, but you can find it out by going into STMS on the DEV system), and any other details about the DEV system that it asks for.  If you don't get a popup, then select Extras... Delete TMS Configuration to reset it so that you are starting over fresh (you may have created a standalone transport domain just for SBX when you installed it, and if so you need to delete that so it can join your DEV domain).  You should get a message then that the system is waiting to be approved for inclusion in the domain.
Now go logon to your DEV system and start STMS, then call up the System Overview.  If necessary, refresh the list.  You should see your SBX system there with a status indicating it's waiting for inclusion.  Click on the symbol, or select SBX and click in the menu SAP System... Approve, and now it should be in.  Once that's done, highlight all the systems in the list, then click SAP System... Update Configuration to distribute the information about the new system to all systems in the domain.  Now select SAP System... Check... and go through the three tests respectively to ensure everything is working.
Back out of the system overview and go into Transport Routes.  Refresh if necessary.  You should see your ZDEV and SAP transport routes you mentioned earlier, and SBX should now show up as a Single System.  It's fine to leave it this way, and if this is temporary, I recommend leaving it this way.  Check the configuration for consistency, then select Configuration... Distribute and Activate (you can also do this from SBX with Adjust with Controller).
That should be all you have to do to set it up.  You can do some further tests to ensure the Transport Groups configuration is good (from the System Overview screen).
Because you have configured SBX as a Single System, transports released from DEV won't automatically show up in the SBX import queue.  However, you can forward transports there easily.  From the SBX system, in STMS, in the Import Overview, select the import queue (or import history) of your QAS system and highlight the transports you want in SBX.  Choose Request... Forward... System and select your SBX system.  They should now show up in the SBX import queue ready for import as normal.
I hope this helps.
Best regards,
Matt