As SAP PaPM Cloud Universal Model landscapes grow, organizations typically operate across multiple tenants such as Development (DEV), Quality Assurance (QAS), and Production (PRD). While transporting environments between tenants is a standard practice, managing HANA Schema Connections across these environments can become a maintenance challenge.
A common question is:
How can you transport models across tenants without reconfiguring HANA Schema Connections after every transport?
The solution is Manage Tenant Connections, this feature allows you to create and maintain HANA Schema connection that is tenant-specific. By defining tenant-specific mappings, you can transport models between tenants without repeatedly updating connection settings. Each PaPM Cloud tenant can then independently control which physical HANA schema the connection points to.
Why Use Manage Tenant Connections?
By using tenant-specific connections, you can:
- Keep the same HANA Schema Connection name across multiple tenants.
- Reduce maintenance after transports.
- Configure schema assignments independently per tenant.
- Minimize the risk of errors caused by manual connection updates after transports.
- Prepare your landscape for future changes without modifying existing models.
Bottom line: Consistent models, flexible schema assignments, and fewer deployment risks.
How It Works?
Imagine you have developed a model that uses the HANA Schema Connection CONSALES to read from or write to the SALES table.
By setting the connection's Tenant Specific property to Yes, each tenant can maintain its own schema assignment through Manage Tenant Connections.
In the Source Tenant, CONSALES points to FIN_SRC HANA Schema, while in the Target Tenant, CONSALES points to FIN_TGT HANA Schema. When the model is transported, nothing in the model needs to change. The same connection, table reference, and business logic are reused, while PAPM automatically resolves the correct schema based on the tenant-specific configuration.
How to Use Manage Tenant Connections?
Now that we've covered the concept and benefits of Manage Tenant Connections, let's walk through a practical example.
Disclaimer: The screenshots and configuration values shown in this guide are for illustration purposes only. Connection names, schema names, descriptions, and other values are sample data intended to demonstrate the setup process and may differ from your actual system landscape.
Prerequisite:
Before proceeding, ensure the following requirements are met:
- You must have an access to Administration, Connection Management and Manage Tenant Connections. Refer to Role Templates in Universal Model
- SAP Cloud Universal Model have the access to read or write in the HANA Schema. Refer to Database Administration in BYOD SAP HANA Cloud and Database Administration in BYOD SAP Datasphere
- The HANA Schema Connection must be configured with Tenant Specific = Yes. Refer to Manage Connections: HANA Schema
- The HANA Schema Connection Name must be identical across all tenants
Source Tenant Configuration
Step 1: Ensure Tenant-Specific Is Enabled for the HANA Schema Connection
Before configuring Manage Tenant Connections, verify that the HANA Schema Connection is configured with Tenant Specific = Yes. This setting allows each tenant to maintain its own schema mapping while using the same connection name across the landscape.
When reviewing the HANA Schema Connection:
a. Navigate to Manage Environment > Environment > Connections
b. Open the HANA Schema Connection that will be used by the model.
c. Verify that Tenant Specific is set to Yes.
Important: The connection name must remain identical across all tenants. When Tenant Specific is enabled, the schema assignment is maintained separately through Manage Tenant Connections, allowing the same model to be transported without modifying connection references.
Step 2: Configure Manage Tenant Connections
a. Navigate to Administration > Manage Tenant Connections
b. Select Create.
c. The Environment field is optional. Note that only activated environments will be displayed in the value help. Select HANA Schema as the Connection Target Type, then click Continue.
e. Enter the required values
Attribute | Value |
Connection | Provide the HANA Schema Connection |
Description | Optional |
Target HANA Schema | Provide the Target HANA Schema for the Source Tenant |
After saving, the CONSALES connection is mapped to the FIN_SRC schema.
Step 3: Export the Environment
Export the environment from the source tenant using the standard SAP PaPM Cloud export process. For detailed guidance, refer to the SAP Help documentation: Export Environment
Target Tenant Configuration
Step 1: Import the Environment to the target tenant
Import the environment to the target tenant using the standard SAP PaPM Cloud Universal Model Import process. For detailed guidance, refer to the SAP Help documentation: Import Environment. At this stage, the environment can remain inactive.
Step 2: Configure Manage Tenant Connections in the target tenant
Before activating the imported environment, create the corresponding tenant connection in the target tenant.
- Navigate to Administration > Manage Tenant Connections.
- Select Create.
- The Environment field is optional. Note that only activated environments will be displayed in the value help. Select HANA Schema as the Connection Target Type, then click Continue.
- Use the same connection name used in the source tenant and specify the target schema.
Attribute | Value |
Connection | Provide the HANA Schema Connection |
Description | Optional |
Target HANA Schema | Provide the Target HANA Schema for the Target Tenant |
This is the key benefit of tenant-specific connections wherein the model remains identical while each tenant controls its own schema assignment.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
The Target HANA Schema maintained in the HANA Schema Connection serves as the connection definition; however, when Tenant Specific = Yes is enabled, the actual runtime schema for each tenant is controlled by Manage Tenant Connections. Therefore, always check Administration > Manage Tenant Connections to confirm the effective schema assignment.
Step 3: Activate The Environment and Perform Validation
After configuring the tenant connection:
- Activate the imported environment.
- Execute a process that uses the HANA Schema Connection (for example, a Reader or Writer function).
- Verify that the operation uses the expected target schema.
Test Result:
In this example, a Writer function was executed after activation.
Although the model continued to reference the CONSALES connection, the target tenant's Manage Tenant Connections configuration redirected the operation to FIN_TGT. As expected, the data was successfully written to FIN_TGT.SALES without requiring any modifications to the transported model.
FIN_SRC.SALES
FIN_TGT.SALES
Final Thoughts:
Manage Tenant Connections is a simple yet powerful feature that helps organizations streamline their SAP PaPM Cloud Universal Model. If you're working with a multi-tenant SAP PaPM Cloud landscape, implementing tenant-specific connections can save time, reduce manual effort, and make your deployments more reliable.
Have you already started using Manage Tenant Connections in your SAP PaPM Cloud projects? Share your experiences and tips in the comments below.
Reference
SAP Application Help: Universal Model > Manage Tenant Connections > HANA Schema
SAP Learning: Managing Tenant Connections
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