Links across project areas after enabling configuration management

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To link across project areas in IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM), team members must work in the context of a global configuration. If they do not see the expected links between artifacts, they must refresh their browser page.

Administrators must ensure that the Global Configuration Management (GCM) and Link Index Provider (LDX) applications are installed, and that the ldx.log file does not indicate errors.

Note: Link management and link validity are separate but related concepts:
  • Link management refers to where links are stored and built. For more information, see Linking after configurations are enabled.
  • Link validity status, sometimes called validity status, refers to the status of links between artifacts, which indicates whether the contents of two artifacts meet the intended meaning of the link between them. For more information, see Link validity.

    Link validity information is stored separately from links: it is not stored in the link index.

    Not all applications provide validity status information on all link types.

For more information about supported OSLC link relationships and how they appear in ELM applications after you enable configuration management, see Table 1 in Enabling your application to integrate with configuration-management-enabled ELM applications on Jazz.net.

Linking for administrators

To see, use, and create cross-project area links between artifacts, as a Jazz® administrator, you must install the LDX and GCM applications.

If one or more project areas, such as Requirements Management (RM), Quality Management (QM), or Architecture Management (AM), use configuration management and link across project areas, ensure that the following applications are installed and registered:
Link Index Provider (LDX)
Builds and maintains an index of links between artifacts in different project areas. The first time the index builds (after you activate configuration management in the QM and RM applications, and enable it for at least one RM or QM project area) can take a while, especially for a large project. By default, the link index refreshes its information every 60 seconds. You can specify a more frequent refresh rate so that team members see the links that they expect without a delay, but an increased frequency might decrease system performance. You can change this setting for each data source in the LDX application. For more information, see Changing the frequency of link index updates.

The LDX application automatically detects the data sources links for the first time, and shows it on the Data Sources page. You can recover the data sources links easily if they are removed or re-created at later point. For more information, see Restoring data sources links in Link Index Provider (LDX).

Global Configuration Management (GCM)
Provides the configuration context for resolving the links in the index. To see links between artifacts in different applications, team members set their current configuration context to a global configuration.

To ensure that team members do not lose their configuration context when they switch between applications, the GCM application caches the links between global configurations and their local configurations. By default, this caching occurs asynchronously every 5 seconds. You can change this setting in the GCM application's Advanced Properties > Global Configuration SDK section. This property is separate from and does not affect the refresh rate of the link index. For more information, see Server settings for configuration management.

Note:
  • Upgrading from version 5 releases: Upgrading from version 5 to any release of version 7 is a two-step process. You must first upgrade your server to the recent fix pack of version 6 release, start the server and make sure your upgrade to version 6.x was successful, and then upgrade to version 7. For more information, see Upgrading ELM. Complete the steps to register the LDX and GCM applications.
  • Single Jazz Team Server instance: In a single-server environment where all applications are on one Jazz Team Server instance, go to https://hostname:9443/jts/admin and in the left navigation pane, click Registered Applications. Verify that the LDX (/ldx) and GCM (/gc) applications are in the list.
  • Multiple Jazz Team Server instances: For a topology with multiple Jazz Team Server instances, see Getting started for application administrators (global configurations).
QM and RM applications: After you enable configuration management in at least one QM and RM project area, back links between artifacts are removed. Links between artifacts across project areas are now owned by and stored in only one of the applications (products) involved in the link, as shown in the following table. For example, links from tests to requirements are stored in and owned by the QM application because requirements are typically baselined before tests are created. Therefore, you can link from a test case in a stream to the baselined requirement that it validates.
Link owner Owns links to artifacts in these applications Queries the link index for links to these artifacts
Architecture Management (AM, or IBM Engineering Systems Design Rhapsody® - Model Manager)* RM CCM, QM
Requirements Management (RM, or IBM Engineering Requirements Management DOORS® Next)* RM CCM, QM
Quality Management (QM, or IBM Engineering Test Management) QM, AM, RM CCM
Change and Configuration Management (CCM, or IBM Engineering Workflow Management) CCM, AM, QM, RM None