How does Automated Element Level Versioning work together with Delta and Aged Level Consolidation?

Products

• Endevor

Issue/Introduction

Endevor provides three methods to consolidate delta levels

• Automated Element Level Versioning,
• Auto Consolidation and
• Aged Delta Retention

Automated Level versioning is the default, but is also used in conjunction with the other two optional methods. 

 

Resolution

Auto Versioning and Auto Consolidation are managed at the type level, and Aged Delta Retention is managed at the system level.

Automated Element Level Versioning increases the limit on delta levels to 9996 and is activated at the Type level. For each Type to be activated, navigate to the Type Definition panel in foreground and set AUTO CONSOL === > N and LVLS TO CONSOL ===> 0. Note that these field values will already be set if you were not previously using Auto Consolidation. Alternatively, you may run the Batch Admin DEFINE TYPE action to set these field values for each Type to be activated. Also note that with Auto Consolidation turned off you may eventually run out of levels or end up with more levels than you really need.

Auto consolidation is implemented by type and lets you specify the physical level threshold at which the consolidation process is initiated and the number of physical levels to consolidate when the threshold is met. The maximum number of levels you can keep is 96. Element data consolidation is comprised of two functions: the "consolidation level" and the "number of levels to consolidate".

The consolidation level (CONSOL AT LVL) specifies when the consolidation process is initiated. This is the maximum number of physical levels you want stored on the system. For example, the CONSOL AT LVL parameter is set to 96. When the physical number of levels reaches 97, CA Endevor SCM begins the consolidation process.

Note : For the most efficient level consolidation across environments, set this parameter to the maximum value of 96.

The number of levels to consolidate (LVLS TO CONSOL) specifies the number of physical levels to consolidate when the threshold is met. For example, the LVLS TO CONSOL parameter is set to 25, the CONSOL AT LVL (consolidation trigger) is set to 96. An element in Production is at the maximum level 0196, and vvll 0197 is about to be moved in. Prior to saving the 97th level, CA Endevor SCM does the following:

• Merges levels 01 through 25 together to create a single delta level (level 01)
• Renumbers the remaining levels to 02 through 72:
  
  CONSOL AT LVL + 1:    97
  - LVLS TO CONSOL:   - 25
  _____________________________
  New level                     72

When working in the lower stages where the level number is not equal to the physical number of levels Auto Level Versioning is used to increment or "roll over" the vvll value until the number of physical levels specified on CONSOL AT LVL is reached.

Using the same consolidation values as above, an element at vvll 0194 is retrieved from the production stage for modification. When it is added back into Endevor at a lower stage, level 0194 is fetched back for compare and level 0195 is created. The level number is 95 but the number of physical levels is 2, 0194 and 0195. In order for auto consolidation to be triggered in this lower stage 94 more changes would have to be made to get up to 96 physical levels. Auto versioning comes into play when vvll 0199 is reached, the next change would roll over to 0200, then 0201 and so forth until 0290 is reached (0194+96=0290), should one more change be attempted auto consolidation would be triggered causing the lower 25 levels, 0195 through 0220, to become a new 0195, and levels 0221 through 0290 to be renumbered accordingly.

Aged Delta Retention lets you set the number of months that delta levels are retained. The maximum retention limit is 999 months. This option is inactive by default and is set on each system definition in foreground or batch. It can be set for elements, components, or both, and overrides any consolidation levels set on all type definitions in that system. This method is invoked only at the end of the mapped system location route.

When auto age level retention is set, change levels for all types in the system expire after the number of months specified on the system definition. The base element or component is rebuilt to reflect the changes from the deleted levels, with the base delta version and level numbers set to the last discarded version and level. The delta format you are using, reverse, forward, or full image, determines how the consolidated level is built. For reverse and full image deltas, change levels that expire are dropped. For forward deltas, change levels that expire are incorporated into the base.

 

Additional Information

rpj- updated format