Windchill+ Access, Deployment, and Configuration
 |
The Business Administrator (BA) role provides elevated privileges to support business-critical configuration changes, including access to site-level utilities pages. While this capability enhances agility, it must be used judiciously and does not replace the recommended CCD deployment methodology.
To get started with the business administrator capability, you must raise a service request. Upon approval, a site administrator will assign you to the Site Business Administrator - Contributor (Site) group, thereby granting you the required privileges. For more information, see Opening a Service Request.
For more information on the Business Administrator role, see Business Administrator User Group.
|
Access
• You have access to the front-end part of the integration environment, including the organization-level and site administrator-level utilities pages.
• You have administrative access that is limited to the site-level and organization-level utilities pages for both QA and production environments. This access should be used primarily for view-only purposes, although with the new business administrator role this is not enforced. PTC recommends using this access only for troubleshooting and monitoring purposes. The specific organization-level utilities available to you vary depending on the environment. Use this access responsibly and remain within the defined scope of your role at all times.
• You do not have access to the backend part of your Windchill servers on any PTC-hosted Windchill+ environment. Backend access is available only in local development environments, either as a developer-hosted virtual machine or cloud-portal-hosted virtual machine.
Deployment Methodologies
• PTC supports deployment of build packages only through the automated build deployment process.
• Automated build deployment accepts only a single packaging methodology, called CCD (Code and Configuration Deployment).
• The CCD utility is installed and shipped with PTC Windchill PDMLink. For more information, see Deploying Code and Configuration Package.
• The system uses the Business Administrative Change (BAC) framework to capture, export, and import business configurations. To be promoted, a BAC package must be included in the CCD package.
• CCD is the only supported deployment methodology.
• A BAC package must include all configurations and combine all workstreams (cumulative) within a given timeframe, according to the release cadence and schedule. For more information, see Importing a BAC Package Using CCD Utility.
• PTC does not recommend using BAC to manage your container Access Control Lists (ACLs). Instead, use the LoadFromFile framework, which is supported within the CCD package. For more information, see CCD Package Structure.
• ACLs are not permitted through BAC or any other similar objects. This restriction applies specifically to Windchill+ deployments.
• The LoadFromFile functionality has defined limitations. It only supports CCD packages that do not exceed a specific size threshold.
Development and Configuration Best Practices
• All projects must start with data modelling activities using the Type and Attribute Manager utility.
• Data modelling refers to defining an object type and attribute strategy. In your development environment, develop your data model and publish it to the integration environment using automated deployment.
• You must validate all CCD packages before submitting them to the automated build service. It is recommended that you set up two development environments:
◦ A source development environment where the changes are implemented.
◦ A target development environment for testing whether the CCD package can be deployed. For more information, see the deploy target section in Targets.
In this context, the Targets topic refers specifically to the CCD ANT targets used for build and configuration purposes. It does not refer to deployment environments such as INT (integration), QA, PROD (production), or any associated pipeline targets.
• For configuration management, you must create a BAC package after each successful functional acceptance testing (FAT). Customers and partners must plan to store these packages in your source code management system (SCM). The BAC package includes the data model and serves as the starting point to onboard new developers or to refresh the local development environment.
• Once a BAC package is available in the integration environment, developers can perform minor tweaks from the UI.
• All development must be done in a local development environment, such as a local virtual machine or a cloud portal.
• CCD must be used in the development environment to prepare, build, and deploy.
• PTC does not recommend managing individual container configuration in your development environment; for example, a product or project.
• Some containers may be created to create a container template.
• Use the container-level configuration with caution in QA and production environments.
Business Administrator Role Summary
 |
PTC recommends that the user assigned to the business administrator role is not a member of any other user group with lower permissions.
|
The business administrator user group grants elevated privileges to make changes directly in the production environment. These capabilities enable direct access to view and update your business configuration—including type definitions, attribute structures, and classifications—but they also carry significant operational responsibility. Improper or uncoordinated changes may disrupt active workflows, impact data integrity, or compromise business process continuity.
Customers are strongly encouraged to establish internal governance practices, including change management protocols, testing in non-production environments, and administrator training. This capability is designed to reduce dependency on platform pipelines where appropriate, but not to eliminate best practices around validation and accountability. Business agility and platform stability must be carefully balanced.
System disruptions caused by this capability are considered the responsibility of the customer and are not covered under SLA-related disruption or the 99.5% uptime guarantee.
Parent topic