Deploy to Cloud Foundry

A comprehensive guide on deploying applications built with SAP Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP) to SAP BTP Cloud Foundry environment.

• Intro & Overview
• Prerequisites
• Prepare for Production
  • 1. Using SAP HANA Database
  • 2. Using XSUAA-Based Authentication
  • 3. Using MTA-Based Deployment
  • 4. Using App Router as Gateway
  • 5. User Interfaces
  • 6. Optional: Add Multitenancy
  • 7. Freeze Dependencies
• Build & Assemble
  • Build Deployables with cds build
  • Assemble with mbt build
• Deploy to Cloud
  • Inspect Apps in BTP Cockpit
  • Upgrade Tenants
• Deploy using cf push
  • Prerequisites
  • Add a manifest.yml
  • Build the Project
  • Push the Application

Intro & Overview

After completing the functional implementation of your CAP application by following the Getting Started or Cookbook guides, you would finally deploy it to the cloud for production. The essential steps are illustrated in the following graphic:

First, you apply these steps manually in an ad-hoc deployment, as described in this guide. Then, after successful deployment, you automate them using CI/CD pipelines.

This guide is available for Node.js and Java.

Use the toggle in the title bar or press v to switch.

Prerequisites

The following sections are based on a new project that you can create like this:

cds init bookshop --add sample
cd bookshop

Alternatively, download or clone the sample repository

Exercise the following steps in the bookshop subfolder of the cloud-cap-samples repo:

git clone https://github.com/sap-samples/cloud-cap-samples samples
cd samples/bookshop

cds init bookshop --java --add sample
cd bookshop

If you want to use a ready-to-be-deployed sample, see our java/samples.

Learn more about Setting Up Local Development.

In addition, you need to prepare the following:

1. SAP BTP with SAP HANA Cloud Database up and Running

• Access to SAP BTP, for example a trial
• An SAP HANA Cloud database running in your subaccount
• Entitlement for hdi-shared service plan for your subaccount
• A Cloud Foundry space

Starting the SAP HANA database takes several minutes

Therefore, we recommend doing these steps early on. In trial accounts, you need to start the database every day.

2. Latest Versions of @sap/cds-dk

Ensure you have the latest version of @sap/cds-dk installed globally:

npm -g outdated       #> check whether @sap/cds-dk is listed
npm i -g @sap/cds-dk  #> if necessary

Likewise, ensure the latest version of @sap/cds is installed in your project:

npm outdated          #> check whether @sap/cds is listed
npm i @sap/cds        #> if necessary

3. Cloud MTA Build Tool

• Run mbt in a terminal to check whether you've installed it.

• If not, install it according to the MTA Build Tool's documentation.

• For macOS/Linux machines best is to install using npm:

  npm i -g mbt

• For Windows, please also install GNU Make.

4. Cloud Foundry CLI w/ MTA Plugins

• Run cf -v in a terminal to check whether you've installed version 8 or higher.

• If not, install or update it according to the Cloud Foundry CLI documentation.

• In addition, ensure to have the MTA plugin for the Cloud Foundry CLI installed.

  cf add-plugin-repo CF-Community https://plugins.cloudfoundry.org
  cf install-plugin multiapps
  cf install-plugin html5-plugin

Prepare for Production

If you followed CAP's grow-as-you-go approach so far, you've developed your application with an in-memory database and basic/mock authentication. To prepare for production you need to ensure respective production-grade choices are configured:

We'll use the cds add <facets> CLI command for that, which ensures the required services are configured correctly and corresponding package dependencies are added to your package.json.

1. Using SAP HANA Database

While we used SQLite as a low-cost stand-in during development, we're going to use a managed SAP HANA database for production:

While we used SQLite or H2 as a low-cost stand-in during development, we're going to use a managed SAP HANA database for production:

cds add hana --for production

Learn more about using SAP HANA for production.

2. Using XSUAA-Based Authentication

Configure your app for XSUAA-based authentication:

cds add xsuaa --for production

This will also generate an xs-security.json file

The roles/scopes are derived from authorization-related annotations in your CDS models. Ensure to rerun cds compile --to xsuaa, as documented in the Authorization guide whenever there are changes to these annotations.

For trial and extension landscapes, OAuth configuration is required

Add the following snippet to your xs-security.json and adapt it to the landscape you're deploying to:

"oauth2-configuration": {
  "redirect-uris": ["https://*.cfapps.us10-001.hana.ondemand.com/**"]
}

Learn more about SAP Authorization and Trust Management/XSUAA.

3. Using MTA-Based Deployment

We'll be using the Cloud MTA Build Tool to execute the deployment. The modules and services are configured in an mta.yaml deployment descriptor file, which we generate with:

cds add mta

Learn more about MTA-based deployment.

4. Using App Router as Gateway

The App Router acts as a single point-of-entry gateway to route requests to. In particular, it ensures user login and authentication in combination with XSUAA.

Two deployment options are available:

• Managed App Router: for SAP Build Work Zone, the Managed App Router provided by SAP Fiori Launchpad is available. See the end-to-end tutorial for the necessary configuration in mta.yaml and on each SAP Fiori application.

• Custom App Router: for scenarios without SAP Fiori Launchpad, the App Router needs to be deployed along with your application. Use the following command to enhance the application configuration:

  cds add approuter

Learn more about the SAP BTP Application Router.

5. User Interfaces

SAP Cloud Portal

If you intend to deploy user interface applications, you also need to set up the HTML5 Application Repository in combination with the SAP Cloud Portal service:

cds add portal

SAP Build Work Zone, Standard Edition beta

For single-tenant applications, you can use SAP Build Work Zone, Standard Edition:

cds add workzone

6. Optional: Add Multitenancy

To enable multitenancy for production, run the following command:

cds add multitenancy --for production

If necessary, modifies deployment descriptors such as mta.yaml for Cloud Foundry.

Learn more about MTX services.

You're set!

The previous steps are required only once in a project's lifetime. With that done, we can repeatedly deploy the application.

7. Freeze Dependencies

Deployed applications should freeze all their dependencies, including transient ones. Create a package-lock.json file for that:

npm update --package-lock-only

If you use multitenancy, also freeze dependencies for the MTX sidecar:

npm update --package-lock-only --prefix mtx/sidecar

In addition, you need install and freeze dependencies for your UI applications:

npm i --prefix app/browse
npm i --prefix app/admin-books

Learn more about dependency management for Node.js

Regularly update your package-lock.json to consume latest versions and bug fixes

Do so by running this command again, for example each time you deploy a new version of your application.

Build & Assemble

Build Deployables with cds build

Run cds build to generate additional deployment artifacts and prepare everything for production in a local ./gen folder as a staging area. While cds build is included in the next step mbt build, you can also run it selectively as a test, and to inspect what is generated:

cds build --production

Learn more about running and customizing cds build.

Assemble with mbt build

Prepare monorepo setups

The CAP samples repository on GitHub has a more advanced (monorepo) structure, so tell the mbt tool to find the package-lock.json on top-level:

ln -sf ../package-lock.json

Now, we use the mbt build tool to assemble everything into a single mta.tar archive:

mbt build -t gen --mtar mta.tar

Got errors? See the troubleshooting guide.

Learn how to reduce the MTA archive size during development.

Deploy to Cloud

Finally, we can deploy the generated archive to Cloud Foundry:

cf deploy gen/mta.tar

You need to be logged in to Cloud Foundry.

This process can take some minutes and finally creates a log output like this:

[…]
Application "bookshop" started and available at
"[org]-[space]-bookshop.landscape-domain.com"
[…]

Copy and open this URL in your web browser. It's the URL of your App Router application.

For multitenant applications, you have to subscribe a tenant first

In this case, the application is accessible via a tenant-specific URL after onboarding.

Inspect Apps in BTP Cockpit

Visit the "Applications" section in your SAP BTP cockpit to see the deployed apps:

Assign the admin role

We didn't do the admin role assignment for the AdminService. You need to create a role collection and assign the role and your user to get access.

Got errors? See the troubleshooting guide.

Upgrade Tenants

The CAP Java SDK offers main methods for Subscribe/Unsubscribe in the classes com.sap.cds.framework.spring.utils.Subscribe/Unsubscribe that can be called from the command line. This way, you can run the tenant subscribe/unsubscribe for the specified tenant. This would trigger also your custom handlers, which is useful for the local testing scenarios.

In order to register all handlers of the application properly during the execution of a tenant operation main method, the component scan package must be configured. To set the component scan, the property cds.multitenancy.component-scan must be set to the package name of your application.

The handler registration provides additional information that is used for the tenant subscribe, for example, messaging subscriptions that are created.

WARNING

You can stop the CAP Java back end when you call this method, but the MTX Sidecar application must be running!

This synchronization can also be automated, for example using Cloud Foundry Tasks on SAP BTP and Module Hooks in your MTA.

The main method optionally takes tenant ID (string) as the first input argument and tenant options (JSON string) as the second input argument. Alternatively, you can use the environment variables MTCOMMAND_TENANTS and MTCOMMAND_OPTIONS instead of arguments. The command-line arguments have higher priority, so you can use them to override the environment variables.

The method returns the following exit codes.

Exit Code	Result
0	Tenant subscribed/unsubscribed successfully.
3	Failed to subscribe/unsubscribe the tenant. Rerun the procedure to make sure the tenant is subscribed/unsubscribed.

To run this method locally, use the following command where <jar-file> is the one of your applications:

>= Spring Boot 3.2.0

java -cp <jar-file> -Dloader.main=com.sap.cds.framework.spring.utils.Subscribe/Unsubscribe org.springframework.boot.loader.launch.PropertiesLauncher <tenant> [<tenant options>]

< Spring Boot 3.2.0

java -cp <jar-file> -Dloader.main=com.sap.cds.framework.spring.utils.Subscribe/Unsubscribe org.springframework.boot.loader.PropertiesLauncher <tenant> [<tenant options>]

In the SAP BTP, Cloud Foundry environment, it can be tricky to construct such a command. The reason is that the JAR file is extracted by the Java buildpack and the place of the Java executable isn't easy to determine. Also the place differs for different Java versions. Therefore, we recommend adapting the start command that is generated by the buildpack and run the adapted command:

>= Spring Boot 3.2.0

sed -i 's/org.springframework.boot.loader.launch.JarLauncher/org.springframework.boot.loader.launch.PropertiesLauncher/g' /home/vcap/staging_info.yml && sed -i 's/-Dsun.net.inetaddr.negative.ttl=0/-Dsun.net.inetaddr.negative.ttl=0 -Dloader.main=com.sap.cds.framework.spring.utils.Subscribe/Unsubscribe/g' /home/vcap/staging_info.yml && jq -r .start_command /home/vcap/staging_info.yml | sed 's/^/ MTCOMMAND_TENANTS=my-tenant [MTCOMMAND_TENANTS=<tenant options>]/' | bash

< Spring Boot 3.2.0

sed -i 's/org.springframework.boot.loader.JarLauncher/org.springframework.boot.loader.PropertiesLauncher/g' /home/vcap/staging_info.yml && sed -i 's/-Dsun.net.inetaddr.negative.ttl=0/-Dsun.net.inetaddr.negative.ttl=0 -Dloader.main=com.sap.cds.framework.spring.utils.Subscribe/Unsubscribe/g' /home/vcap/staging_info.yml && jq -r .start_command /home/vcap/staging_info.yml | sed 's/^/ MTCOMMAND_TENANTS=my-tenant [MTCOMMAND_TENANTS=<tenant options>]/' | bash

Java 8

sed -i 's/org.springframework.boot.loader.JarLauncher/-Dloader.main=com.sap.cds.framework.spring.utils.Subscribe/Unsubscribe org.springframework.boot.loader.PropertiesLauncher/g' /home/vcap/staging_info.yml && jq -r .start_command /home/vcap/staging_info.yml | sed 's/^/ MTCOMMAND_TENANTS=my-tenant [MTCOMMAND_TENANTS=<tenant options>]/' | bash

---

Appendices

Deploy using cf push

As an alternative to MTA-based deployment, you can choose Cloud Foundry-native deployment using cf push, or cf create-service-push respectively.

Prerequisites

Install the Create-Service-Push plugin:

cf install-plugin Create-Service-Push

This plugin acts the same way as cf push, but extends it such that services are created first. With the plain cf push command, this is not possible.

Add a manifest.yml

cds add cf-manifest

This creates two files, a manifest.yml and services-manifest.yml in the project root folder.

• manifest.yml holds the applications. In the default layout, one application is the actual server holding the service implementations, and the other one is a 'DB deployer' application, whose sole purpose is to start the SAP HANA deployment.
• services-manifest.yml defines which Cloud Foundry services shall be created. The services are derived from the service bindings in package.json using the cds.requires configuration.

Version-control manifest files

Unlike the files in the gen folders, these manifest files are genuine sources and should be added to the version control system. This way, you can adjust them to your needs as you evolve your application.

Build the Project

This prepares everything for deployment, and -- by default -- writes the build output, that is the deployment artifacts, to folder ./gen in your project root.

cds build --production

Learn how cds build can be configured.

The --production parameter ensures that the cloud deployment-related artifacts are created by cds build. See section SAP HANA database deployment for more details.

Push the Application

This command creates service instances, pushes the applications and binds the services to the application with a single call:

cf create-service-push

During deployment, the plugin reads the services-manifest.yml file and creates the services listed there. It then reads manifest.yml, pushes the applications defined there, and binds these applications to service instances created before. If the service instances already exist, only the cf push operation will be executed.

You can also apply some shortcuts:

• Use cf push directly to deploy either all applications, or cf push <app-name> to deploy a single application.
• Use cf create-service-push --no-push to only create or update service-related data without pushing the applications.

In the deployment log, find the application URL in the routes line at the end:

name:              bookshop-srv
requested state:   started
routes:            bookshop-srv.cfapps.sap.hana.ondemand.com

Open this URL in the browser and try out the provided links, for example, …/browse/Books. Application data is fetched from SAP HANA.

Ensure successful SAP HANA deployment

Check the deployment logs of the database deployer application using

cf logs <app-name>-db-deployer --recent

to ensure that SAP HANA deployment was successful. The application itself is by default in state started after HDI deployment has finished, even if the HDI deployer returned an error. To save resources, you can explicitly stop the deployer application afterwards.

No Fiori preview in the cloud

The SAP Fiori Preview, that you are used to see from local development, is only available for the development profile and not available in the cloud. For productive applications, you should add a proper SAP Fiori application.

WARNING

Multitenant applications are not supported yet as multitenancy-related settings are not added to the generated descriptors. The data has to be entered manually.

Got errors? See the troubleshooting guide.