SAP Community - SAP Landscape Management

SAPinsider 2023 in Vegas, here I come => the latest about LaMa and LaMa Cloud

2023-03-08T18:11:59+01:00

Finally! After my last visit in 2019, I am back at SAPinsider 2023 in Las Vegas (March 20 – 23, 2023) and really excited to talk and meet in person again.

I am glad that I have got the opportunity to give an overview and outlook about our two solutions –
SAP Landscape Management (LaMa) and SAP Landscape Management Cloud (LaMa Cloud).

Please join me on

Tuesday, March 21 from 12:30 – 01:10 pm in my session Sustainable and Efficient Management of Your SAP Systems Running on Hyperscalers to get an overview and the latest about our youngest solution – SAP Landscape Management Cloud.

Wednesday, March 22 from 04:30 – 05:10 pm in my session Efficiently Manage Your SAP Systems in Hybrid Environments With SAP Landscape Management to get an overview and the latest about our classical solution.

I encourage you to take a look at the agenda in order to prepare yourself for the event.

Besides my two sessions I am happy to answer all your questions around LaMa and LaMa Cloud. Please approach me directly at the conference or schedule a personal meeting by sending an email to me (please see my address in my profile => jens.rolke#about).

Looking forward to a great conference with nice meetings and talks.

See you in Vegas!

SAP Landscape Management (LaMa) & Ansible Tower/AWX: Provisioning Of Cloud Instances With REST API

2023-04-12T16:46:20+02:00

Introduction

In this blog I will cover the scenario of provisioning a new instance in a public cloud directly from LaMa and then using this new host to perform an operation (e.g. new HANA replication tier, add application server, system copy/clone).

I will use AWS (Amazon Web Services) as the public cloud and Ansible AWX (upstream open source project for Ansible Tower) to launch the playbook for creation of a new instance. The same approach also applies to Azure or GCP. The module used in the playbook can be replaced by those for the other cloud providers and some other minor adjustments.

In a previous blog I described the outbound REST API feature of LaMa that was first added in SP25.

The ansible playbook (for use in Ansible AWX or Tower) and the LaMa configuration (provider definitions, custom operations etc.) are available at GitHub .

Scenario Description

The REST provider that is part of automation studio will be used to trigger the new host provisioning via Ansible AWX, followed by a discovery and then using the new host to provision an additional application server.

It is also possible to use the newly added host for other provisioning tasks such as system copy or new replication tier.

The diagram below illustrates at a high-level how the flow looks like.

It should be noted that when using some cloud adapters in LaMa (such as the Cloud Manager for AWS), it is already possible to provision new cloud instances as part of tasks like "Install Application Server" or "System Copy". The choices presented are to use existing hosts (already discovered in LaMa as ready to use) or provision a new host. However, the built-in process does not always meet the requirements for some customers. For example there may be a need to customize the instance further before it is used. In this case this alternative approach with Ansible can be used.

Disclaimer

This blog is published “AS IS”. Any software coding and/or code lines / strings (“Code”) included are only examples and are not intended to be used in any productive system environment. The Code is only intended to better explain and visualize the features of the SAP Landscape Management Automation Studio. No effort has been made to make the code production quality (e.g. security, error handling, robustness, etc). If you use any of the code shown, you are doing it at your own risk.

Information in this blog could include technical inaccuracies or typographical errors. Changes may be periodically made.

Ansible Playbook

This is the playbook on GitHub.

The blog does not cover how to configure Ansible AWX.

The following key configuration steps need to be performed and relevant guides consulted. These are just the configuration steps performed for this scenario and not necessarily the only way to do it.

Add SSH credentials

Add AWS credentials

Add Inventory

Add host -- optional as the playbook itself will make the entries but you add an existing host to just have an entry in addition to localhost

Add Project (source control type = Git; Source control URL = url)

Add Job Template (assign above Project and Inventory; Also assign above credentials - SSH and AWS)
- A Survey also needs to be added and enabled - described further down

Create a new Application (Note down the Client ID and Client Secret - we will need it in LaMa)
- Authorization grant type: Resource owner password-based
- Client type: Confidential

Figure out your job template ID and note it down.

The playbook takes the following parameters and should be added as "Survey" in the job template:

i_name (name assigned to the instance as well as the hostname at OS level)

i_type (the AWS instance type that matches your requirements - e.g. t2.xlarge)

i_subnet (the subnet id where your SAP landscape is installed)

i_secgrp (the security group id applicable to your landscape)

i_keypair (the private key file that has also been stored in Ansible AWX to allow SSH)

i_ami (the image file to use - this can be an image that you have taken from an existing server to act as a starting point for further configurations as needed)

lama_ip (IP address of LaMa)

awx_username (credential for AWX/Tower)

awx_password (credential for AWX/Tower)

When calling from LaMa the initial authentication credentials needed to launch the playbook will also be passed automatically. So the input of credentials is only once.

The playbook has multiple plays within it and you can get the detailed description of each play at the GitHub site.

Prior to configuring LaMa, test the template directly in AWX/Tower web UI. If it successfully creates a new instance then move to the LaMa section. Remember to terminate the test instance, cleanup the host file of LaMa, and remove the DNS entries (if you kept that section of the playbook).

Provider Definitions (calls to AWX)

You can get the provider definitions xml files at GitHub

Retrieves the Ansible AWX token and acts as supplier to the main provider definition

Create a Provider Definition that retrieves a token
- Provider Type: REST
- Provider Subtype: Token Supplier
- URL: http://<AWX host>:<AWX port>/api/o/token/

- Method: POST

- Authentication: BASIC
  - User Name: <Client ID> -- previously created in AWX
  - Password: <Client Secret> -- previously created in AWX

- Request Configuration - Header Entry

Request Body:

grant_type=password&username=${PARAM_username}&password=${PARAM_password}&scope=write

Add a Response Parser

Obtaining the Ansible AWX job results

Create a Provider Definition that monitors the AWX job and knows when it has completed or if there was an error. It does this by making multiple GET calls with a defined interval.
- Provider Type: REST
- Provider Subtype: Result Retriever
- URL: http://<AWX host>:<AWX port>/api/<REF-jobLocation>

- Method: GET

- Authentication: DYNAMIC TOKEN

- Token Type: Bearer
  - When saved it will show as all CAPS but must be entered as shown above

- Token Supplier: Select the previously create provider definition for token retrieval

- Request Configuration - Default

- Add a Response Parser

Executing the ansible playbook

Create a Provider Definition to make REST API call to Ansible AWX
- URL: http://<AWX host>:<AWX port>/api/v2/job_templates/<template ID>/launch/
  - Get the template ID by clicking on the template in AWX and looking in the url bar. The ID is the number after the job template.

- Operation Uses: Instance

- Provider Type: REST

- Provider Subtype: Standalone

- Method: POST

- Authentication: DYNAMIC TOKEN

- Token Type: Bearer
  - When saved it will show as all CAPS but must be entered as shown above

- Token Supplier: Select the previously create provider definition for token retrieval

- Result Retriever: Select the previously create provider definition for obtaining AWX job results
  - Timeout (Milliseconds): 600000
  - Sleep Time (Milliseconds): 15000

- Request Configuration - Default

- Request Body:

{

    "extra_vars" :

    {

        "i_name": "${PARAM_hostname}",

        "i_type": "t2.xlarge",

        "i_ami": "ami-xyz",

        "i_subnet": "subnet-xyz",

        "i_secgrp": "sg-xyz",

        "i_keypair": "xyz",

        "lama_ip": "xyz",

        "awx_username": "${PARAM_username}",

        "awx_password": "${PARAM_password}",

        "awx_host_name":  "${PARAM_hostname}"

    }

}

- Add Response Parsers

- Add Parameters
  - username for AWX (in the example 'admin' is used but can be a different account that is authorized to run a job template
  - password is for the above account
  - hostname refers to the new cloud instance

Custom Operation: Create VM (call to AWX)

In order to execute the REST API call to Ansible AWX and execute the playbook, we need to create a custom operation from the provider definitions created earlier.

LaMa Provisioning Blueprint

The provisioning blueprint needs to be created and then parameterized. The blueprint is not saved to Github and should be created from scratch in your own environment. Read the relevant section in LaMa Guide. The steps are below.

Provision a new application server using an existing host. You can refer to this blog for the process
- At the end of the roadmap and just before executing, choose the option to create a blueprint
- Proceed with the execution to ensure that the blueprint is valid and leads to a successful application server installation

Now edit the blueprint
- Automation Studio -> Provisioning Blueprints and click edit on the above created blueprint
- Click on Parameters tab
- In the "Custom Placeholders section at the bottom you already have parameter listed - "ASInstallSapinstStep_abapSchemaUserPassword"
- Add the following additional parameters by first making changes
  - Name of new host -> "host" : "$[as_hostname]"

- - Name of virtual hostname to assign to the above host (this virtual hostname should already exist)

- - Click on Refresh and this will transfer the new parameters to the Custom Placeholders section

It is also recommended to parameterize the instance number so that you can use the same blueprint to create more application servers. Just find the entry and change the value to a parameter. I left it out as I'm only using it for demo purposes.

Provider Definitions (calls to LaMa)

This section covers the provider definitions for making calls from LaMa to LaMa (outbound and inbound rest APIs)

Obtaining the LaMa job results

Create a Provider Definition that monitors the LaMa activity and knows when it has completed. It does this by making multiple GET calls with a defined interval.
- Provider Type: REST
- Provider Subtype: Result Retriever
- URL: http://<lama host>:<lama port>/lama-api/<REF-jobLocation>

- Method: GET

- Authentication: BASIC

- Request Configuration - Header Entries
  - Content-Type: application/json
  - x-csrf-token (blank value)

- Add Response Parsers
  - Type "Recurring_Execution", name "status_executing" and JMES Path "status == 'executing'"
  - Type "Success_State", name "status_completed" and JMES Path "status == 'completed'"

Discovery of new VM

Create a Provider Definition to make REST API call to itself (LaMa to LaMa)
- URL: http://<lama host>:<lama port>/lama-api/discovery

- Operation Uses: Instance

- Provider Type: REST

- Provider Subtype: Standalone

- Method: POST

- Authentication: BASIC

- Result Retriever: None
  - As there is no activity id we cannot use it for this
  - Instead we will use a sleep step via script registered with host agent

- Request Configuration - Header Entries
  - Content-Type: application/json
  - x-csrf-token (blank value)

- Request Body:

{

  "entityDetectionType": "Hosts",

  "hostnames": [

    "${PARAM_i_name}"

  ],

  "detectInstancePhysicalHost": true,

  "connectionTimeout": 0,

  "socketTimeout": 0,

  "hostAgentSettings": {

    "useSecureCommunication": false,

    "port": 1128,

    "httpProxy": "",

    "authenticationType": "Basic",

    "userName": "sapadm",

    "password": "${PARAM_ha_password}"

  },

  "pool": "us-east-1d",

  "autoAssignInstances": true,

  "storeEntities": true

}

- Response Parsers - none

- Add Parameters
  - i_name - name of the new host
  - ha_password - sapadm password to be used for host agent authentication

Trigger Blueprint

Create a Provider Definition to make REST API call to itself (LaMa to LaMa)
- URL: http://<lama host>:<lama port>/lama-api/activities

- Operation Uses: Instance

- Provider Type: REST

- Provider Subtype: Standalone

- Method: POST

- Authentication: BASIC

- Result Retriever: LaMa Job Results
  - Timeout: 600000
  - Sleep Time: 15000

- Request Configuration - Header Entries
  - Content-Type: application/json
  - x-csrf-token (blank value)

- Request Body:

{

    "operation": "NM_Install_Application_Server",

    "validateOnly": false,

    "type": "blueprint",

    "ignoreWarnings": false,

    "parameters": [

        {

            "key": "ASInstallSapinstStep_abapSchemaUserPassword",

            "value": "${PARAM_schema_password}",

            "isSecure": true

        },

        {

            "key": "as_hostname",

            "value": "${PARAM_as_hostname}",

            "isSecure": false

        },

        {

            "key": "virt_hostname",

            "value": "${PARAM_virt_hostname}",

            "isSecure": false

        }

    ]

}

- Response Parsers

- Add Parameters
  - schema_password - ABAP schema password
  - as_hostname - new VM hostname
  - virt_hostname - virtual hostname to be attached to the new VM

Provider Definition for Hook: Sleep 120 Seconds

Create a Provider Definition using script registered with host agent to sleep for 120 seconds to give enough time for discovered host to be validated
- Specify a Central Host such as the central instance

Name:sleep

Command: /usr/bin/sleep 120

ResultConverter: flat

Platform: Unix

Custom Operation: Discover VM (call to LaMa)

Using the provider definition created earlier to discover the new host, create a custom operation

Custom Operation: Trigger Blueprint via REST (call to LaMa)

Using the provider definition created earlier to trigger the blueprint, create a custom operation

Custom Hook: Sleep 120 Seconds

Use the earlier provider definition for sleep, create a Post Hook operation. The hook applies to the earlier created operation for VM discovery.

LaMa Custom Process

Now that we have the custom operations created, we can join them together to create a custom process that allows us to perform an end-to-end execution.

Step 1 - Create VM Operation Parameters -- this is the custom operation that makes the REST API call to AWX
- All are set to global parameters for this step - will prompt at execution

Step 2 - Discover VM Operation Parameters -- this is the custom operation that makes a REST API call to itself (i.e. LaMa to LaMa) and triggers a discovery
- Hostname: Quick Binding to "hostname" - see step 1
  - Hostname = hostname (New VM hostname)
- host agent password: Global Parameter - will prompt at execution

Step 3 - Blueprint execution to install application server -- this is a REST API call to itself (LaMa to LaMa) that triggers the provisioning blueprint to perform an AS install using the newly provisioned VM
- Schema password: Global Parameter - will prompt at execution
- New VM Host: Quick Binding to "hostname" - see step 1
  - new_host = hostname (New VM hostname)
- Virtual Hostname: Global Parameter - will prompt at execution

Note that the Post Hook is inserted automatically between step 2 and step 3.

LaMa Custom Process Execution

We can now execute the custom process from any instance. It does not matter which instance is used to trigger it as none of the three steps require any info related to an instance or system.

The custom operations that were created can also be executed independently. For example if you only want to trigger a new VM provisioning, then you can just use the custom operation. The custom process combines the two custom operations (create VM, discover VM) with the operation that triggers the blueprint for application server install.

Conclusion

What has been shown is how you can integrate infrastructure provisioning via Ansible AWX/Tower to workflows in LaMa. This example can be extended to cover other scenarios that need an empty target host such as system clone/copy and HANA replication tier. Once the custom process is in place, it can be used multiple times.

With the XML files on GitHub, you can get started quickly and get a feel of the feature.

References

Samples on GitHub (for this blog)

LaMa Automation Studio Provider Definitions

Editing LaMa Blueprints

JMESPath

Ansible AWX and Tower API

Ansible AWX

Learn SAP Landscape Management for Free

2023-04-19T21:04:49+02:00

We are happy to announcement that there is now a free training for SAP Landscape Management, enterprise edition (LaMa) at SAP’s e-learning platform (learning.sap.com). This is the digital version of the former LM300 classroom based training.

This version of the LaMa training is now known as Managing the SAP System Landscape

The course is completely free of charge and has the following learning objectives:

Understand and explain what SAP Landscape Management can do to simplify and automate SAP Basis operation in any environment

Learn to install and configure SAP Landscape Management

Learn to use visualizations and perform operations

Learn about System Provisioning such as System Clone, System Copy and System Refresh

Understand Post Copy Automation

Make use of Automation Studio to extend the capabilities of SAP Landscape Management

Understand inbound REST API features

Learn about the security capabilities

Explore maintenance and troubleshooting

The course also includes exercises (simulation) and quizzes.

Please note that the course is at the same SP level of LM300 and at a future date we plan to update it to include the latest features. In the meantime we have the "Stay Current" mini course that can be accessed via our SAP Learning Hub (requires an active subscription) and covers the delta.

Classroom based LaMa training has been discontinued with our digital first approach. Instructor led training will only be available via a services engagement.

Happy Learning.

Do we have learning materials to learn how to install and configure SAP Landscape Management

2023-04-21T14:53:18.394000+02:00

Hello,
You might want to explore our Managing the SAP System Landscape Digital Learning Journey we recently published on our SAP Learning Site and get the knowledge you need to succeed in your career.

It comprise the learning materials you can studying to build the skills you need, for free and at your own pace.

This learning journey will enable users to leverage SAP Landscape Management, enterprise edition as an automation and orchestration solution to simplify and standardize the administration of their on-premises, IaaS cloud, or hybrid SAP landscapes.

Understand and explain what SAP Landscape Management can do to simplify and automate SAP Basis operation in any environment
Learn to install and configure SAP Landscape Management
Learn to use visualizations and perform operations
Learn about System Provisioning such as System Clone, System Copy and System Refresh
Understand Post Copy Automation
Make use of Automation Studio to extend the capabilities of SAP Landscape Management
Understand inbound REST API features
Learn about the security capabilities
Explore maintenance and troubleshooting

Hope this is helpful.
We appreciate your feedback and we will make sure to continue sharing interesting topics.

Kind regards
Margit

Meet the LaMa and CAL team @ SAP Sapphire & ASUG Annual Conference Orlando

2023-05-04T17:38:58+02:00

Are you attending SAP Sapphire & ASUG Annual Conference Orlando (May 16-17, 2023)?

Are you interested to hear more about SAP Landscape Management (LaMa), SAP Landscape Management Cloud (LaMa Cloud) and/or SAP Cloud Appliance Library (CAL) or want to talk about your current usage or adoption plans?

If both answers are "Yes" then please reach out to your SAP representative or directly to jens.rolke#about to schedule your private meeting.

My colleague Markus Winter - Chief Product Owner (CPO) - and I are looking forward to talking to you soon!

Landscape Efficiency and Operations Solutions for partners

2023-05-10T09:26:58+02:00

We invited our global OPC partners for a webinar “Landscape Efficiency and Operations (LEO) Solutions for partners” where the scope and the benefits of SAP Landscape Management Solutions for partners as well as for their customers were highlighted.

SAP Landscape Management (SAP LaMa) provides capabilities to manage and automate the lifecycle of SAP systems and landscapes. With simplified and standardized SAP S/4HANA deployment and automated workflow support the solution allows reduction of downtime, improvement of system performance, and thus the increase of overall profitability.

We were reaching out to our global partners with a personalized invitation to learn how SAP Landscape Management solutions help them to manage customers' transformation to SAP S/4HANA.

As an introduction, the current market situation in the context of system management was outlined with a focus on the concrete situation for partners who manage customers' systems and landscapes.

This was followed by an overview of the solution offerings around Landscape Efficiency and Operations solutions: SAP Cloud Appliance Library (SAP CAL), SAP Landscape Management Cloud, and SAP Landscape Management, enterprise edition.

Afterward, as a highlight, our partner nexQuent gave an insight into its experiences with SAP Lama: they talked about use cases for SAP LaMa, gave examples of daily business tasks, and illustrated how SAP LaMa is interacting with other tools. Finally, a live system demo completed the webinar.

We were pleased by the number of attendees during the sessions. In a further step, additional partners will be informed through various channels.

If interested, partners are welcome to contact our SAP expert product team via LaMa@sap.com for specific follow-ups or to get further information.

Details about the solutions can also be found on these pages:

https://community.sap.com/topics/cloud-appliance-library

https://community.sap.com/topics/landscape-management-cloud

https://community.sap.com/topics/landscape-management

An overview of all certified partners (global as well as local) can be found in the SAP Outsourcing Operations Partner Guide (www.sap.com/opc).

A Treat for SAP Sapphire – LaMa 3.0 SP27

2023-05-11T18:18:43+02:00

Just in time for SAP Sapphire we deliver our latest Support Pack 27 for SAP Landscape Management.

As usual in my feature blog posts, I would like to highlight 3 new capabilities that were released with this feature support pack. All other innovations and improvements can be found in the “What’s New” section on our SAP Help Portal for SAP Landscape Management.

Let me start with Pacemaker Cluster integration. For clustered systems, LaMa is now supporting scale-out SAP HANA setups. Furthermore, it is now possible for clustered target systems to refresh a database using replication or a file-based backup. During this end-2-end workflow the maintenance mode will be enabled at the beginning and disabled at the end of the process.

We added the capability to back up an SAP HANA tenant database. This can be used as a standalone operation, within a tenant move, copy, and refresh.

Building REST API calls is now much easier. Like already available for provisioning, we also added the <Remote Execution> capability/button for <Operations> under <Systems> and <Hosts> as well as for <Custom Processes>. Now you can assemble your calls in no-time.
Update (May 12, 2023): my colleague naeem.maqsud posted a comprehensive blog about this. Check it out!

I hope you enjoyed my quick intro to SP27. Don’t wait any longer and update your version of SAP Landscape Management to the latest SP.

BTW: If you’re attending SAP Sapphire in Orlando and are interested to talk about LaMa, LaMa Cloud and/or CAL => just reach out to jens.rolke#about (see also my other blog post).

Further information

What’s New in 3.0 SP27 Enterprise Edition
SAP Note 3248920 - SAP Landscape Management 3.0 SP27

JSON-format Data Generation in SAP Landscape Management (LaMa) for Inbound REST API

2023-05-12T09:45:18+02:00

Introduction

In order to make an inbound REST API call to SAP Landscape Management (LaMa), the JSON-format data needs to be built the right way. With the exception of provisioning, all other types of remote executions required the JSON-format data to be created by referencing the API guide and figuring out what should be included and excluded.

As of SP27, inbound REST API calls became much simpler to execute. Now the JSON-format data can be generated in LaMa for system and host level operations, custom operations, operation templates, and custom processes. This JSON-format generated content can then be used in the external application or a REST client.

The JSON-format data contains the operation ID, given entities, and parameters required to perform the operation remotely using the SAP Landscape Management API. Depending on the operation, default parameters that were generated by SAP Landscape Management are also listed in a separate tab. Secure parameter values are replaced by asterisks (*) and should be filled out when making the remote REST API call.

Almost any operation that can be executed from the LaMa UI, can also be executed via a REST call. Remote Execution button/tab shows up at the summary screen after the user input roadmap and this is where you will see the generated JSON-format data.

Refer to this older blog for getting started with inbound REST API and then use the information in this new blog to experiment with various auto generated JSON-format data.

Lets now go through a couple of examples to show how it works.

Host Level Operation: Validate Host

Here we will perform an operation at the host level.

Go to Operations > Hosts screen

Select Operations > Other > Validate Host

On the next screen select Remote Execution

Note down the Remote Execution URL and also what method to use. In this case we are told to send a POST request

Click on the "Execution request" tab. Here you will see the JSON data that can be copied with the Copy option and pasted into a REST client such as Postman

Verify with Postman. Paste above into the Body and send the request

Check in LaMa that the operation executed

System Level Operation: Change Dynamic Profile Parameter

Here we will perform an operation at the System level.

Go to Operations > Systems screen

For the desired system, select Operations > Mass Operations > RFC > Change Dynamic Profile Parameter

In Parameters section on the right, enter Name of parameter (rdisp/rfc_max_login) and new value (100)

Click Remote Execution at the bottom of the screen

As in previous example, note down the remote execution URL and the method (POST in this case)

On the "Execution request" tab, copy the JSON data

As in the previous example, verify with a REST client such as Postman. Paste above into the Body and send the request

You can monitor the progress in the LaMa UI

Provisioning: System Copy

Here we will conduct a provisioning type remote execution and perform a system copy from a source A4H to target B4H.

Go to Provisioning > Systems screen

Select Provisioning > System Copy

Navigate through the roadmap by following the instructions on the screen

Change the parameters you want to include in the JSON-format data for remote execution.

When you reach the Summary screen, choose Remote Execution

As in previous examples, note down the remote execution URL and the method (POST in this case)

On the "Execution request" tab, copy the JSON data and fill out where any password is marked with asterisks (*) or #secure

The Parameters tab displays all parameters, including the parameters generated by LaMa that haven't been changed in the roadmap. The data here is not needed for remote execution

As in the previous examples, verify with a REST client such as Postman. Paste above into the Body and send the request

You can monitor the progress in the LaMa UI

Conclusion

The blog has demonstrated how easy it is to make REST API calls to LaMa from an external application. There is no need to struggle with the JSON format and you only send data that is needed.

References

Get started with inbound REST API

LaMa Product Guide

SAP API Business Hub (LaMa API)

LaMa Developer Guide

Let's talk about SAP Landscape Management and SAP Cloud Appliance Library at SAP Sapphire Barcelona

2023-05-12T13:17:32+02:00

Next to team mates being onsite in Orlando, our Solution Manager Michael Jilg and our Chief Product Owner Markus Winter are onsite at SAP Sapphire Barcelona May 24–25, 2023. Feel free to reach out to lama@sap.com for scheduling an onsite discussion about SAP Landscape Management solutions and SAP Cloud Appliance Library!

We are happy to talk to you on how you can become more efficient in managing your SAP solutions when standardizing your SAP operations.

Automate and standardize SAP operations using Dell ESI for Storage Integration

2023-06-01T13:21:01+02:00

Automate and standardize SAP operations using Dell ESI for Storage Integration

SAP landscapes for enterprises can have multiple interrelated instances when you include the nonproduction systems that are used for development, testing, training, and sandbox experimentation. SAP Landscape Management (SAP LaMa) software combined with the Dell Enterprise Storage Integrator (ESI) for SAP LaMa simplifies management of these complex SAP environments using advanced storage-based replication services - local and remote - that are integrated into Dell storage systems.

Dell Technologies offers SAP customers one of the industry’s broadest portfolios of storage array options. ESI for SAP LaMa software supports all the storage systems that are listed in the following table for simplifying landscape management. Customers can choose a solution from N and N-1 PowerStore and PowerMax storage array models, and then purchase integration with SAP LaMa to improve management of their SAP systems. The new PowerStore All-Flash Storage appliance provides a data-centric design and adaptable architecture. PowerMax arrays are larger storage platforms that accelerate applications with end-to-end NVMe flash storage, global deduplication and compression, and data protection.

The following table shows the ESI-supported storage arrays

NAS/NFS	SAN/Fibre Channel	Unified SAN and NAS
PowerStore	PowerMax PowerStore	PowerMax PowerStore

SAP LaMa is an automation and orchestration solution that replaces manual or scripted processes for creating clones and copies and monitoring activities. Simplified landscape management provides key business benefits including improved service quality and the capability to drive new business innovation. SAP LaMa combined with Dell ESI provides a single pane of glass for operations like SAP system relocation, creating and using snapshots, provisioning processes, and more. This increases manageability and enables business agility by facilitating administration teams to address rapidly changing organizational demands. Dell ESI supports SAP LaMa in physical, virtual, and cloud environments, providing a single pathway to manage most landscape configurations.

Improved operational capabilities with ESI for SAP LaMa include:

SAP LaMa System Relocation: This operation enables relocation of an SAP system from the original host to another host that is recognized by SAP LaMa. System relocation operations are useful when the primary SAP server system needs scheduled maintenance or an upgrade. The entire relocation operation is automated, with ESI enabling administrators to quickly move the running SAP system from one host to another. All the following configurations are supported:
- Physical-to-physical (P2P) bare-metal to bare-metal
- Physical-to-virtual (P2V) bare-metal to VMware virtual using Raw Device Mapping (RDMs) and conversely
- Virtual-to-virtual (V2V) VMware VMDK discs from one VM to another

Managed SAP LaMa: The managed snapshots operation enables all source volumes from an SAP system to be “snap copied” using a single API call to maintain storage consistency. Storage snapshots are a low-overhead point-in-time image of source volumes on a storage system that can be used in place of full copies for many management tasks. For example, PowerMax arrays use SnapVX to create a consistent image of SAP system volumes. Snapshots are more efficient than full copies because only the data changes between the source volumes and the images are copied to the “snap copied” volumes. For many SAP landscape management operations, PowerMax snapshots consume only a small fraction of the space that is used on the primary SAP system storage system.

SAP LaMa system provisioning:
- System Clone: This operation duplicates a currently running system or previously created managed snapshot. The duplicated clone and source systems have identical system IDs. The clone is isolated (fenced) from the network to prevent data transfer to an incorrect system by mistake. The default configuration for all system clones, copies, and refresh processes that are created on Dell storage systems is to use space-efficient snapshots of the source volumes (space-saving copies).
- System Copy:This operation creates a copy of an SAP system with a new unique SAP system ID (SID), hostname, and IP address. A system copy is useful when the business needs a copy of either a production or nonproduction system for quality assurance, development, or testing. The key differences between a system clone and system copy are the creation of a new identity (SID) when using a copy operation, and the use of new storage volumes and full space allocations by the copy. Also, the target system is temporarily fenced until the changes take place.
- System Refresh:This operation refreshes a specified part of an existing system, either complete or used. Three options are enabled by system refresh procedures: system refresh, database refresh (database only), and restore-based refresh. The restore-based system refresh operation integrates with the leading Dell Data Protection solutions, such as PowerProtect Application Direct Database Agents and Data Domain with DDBoost.

Figure 1: Dell ESI integration with SAP Landscape Management

Additional operations such as monitoring, and data protection can be streamlined by enabling Dell integration with SAP LaMa. For example, with data protection integration, customers can perform on-demand and scheduled backups of the SAP source system. Using PowerMax ESI integration, customers can automate most storage system operations for SAP. In addition, the opportunity for increased storage savings using efficient storage snapshots means that SAP customers can have more SAP systems consuming less overall space on their Dell storage systems.

Resources

The SAP Landscape Management website is the ideal place to learn more about the benefits of automation and orchestration and post any questions you may have.

Tags: PowerMax SAP landscapes PowerStore ESI ESI for SAP LaMa

SAP Landscape Management Cloud (LaMa Cloud) REST API Sample

2023-06-21T19:44:22+02:00

Inbound REST API feature for LaMa Cloud was recently released and explained in the blog. Here I will show how to establish an API communication between LaMa Cloud and another application.

Sample is available at GitHub

API Configuration in LaMa Cloud

In order to use the API, you need to configure an API key. This is described in the LaMa Cloud Guide and the steps are summarized below:

Go to Configuration > API Management

Click Create and enter a name for the API Key

Select the Scope (description)

In this example we will not use X.509 certificate so it will be deselected

Click Create and the generated JSON output should be saved as it contains important info that will not be displayed again

API Client Test Call

We will use postman to test the API call before we use it in our application. Below is the configuration of Postman used.

Authorization:

Type: OAuth2.0

Grant Type: Client Credentials

Access Token URL: Enter tokenurl from previous section

Client ID: Enter clientId from previous section

Client Secret: Enter clientSecret from previous section

Scope: blank

Client Authentication: Send as Basic Auth header

With the above click on Get Access Token and then use it.

GET URL:

Enter the "url" from the JSON generated in the previous section and append "/systems"

Clicking on Send should produce an output in JSON format such as below:

API Calls From A Sample Application (local machine)

Now that we have tested that we can make a GET call via Postman to retrieve Systems, we can now make the same call from a test application. For this I created a very simple Python web application. This will use the same OAuth2.0 authentication and using the token to then retrieve the Systems in JSON format. In the web app we will filter the JSON results and display only System names in a tabular form.

Sample code of this application can be found at GitHub and also shown below.

server.py

import os

import requests

from flask import Flask, jsonify, request, render_template

import json

from tabulate import tabulate



app = Flask(__name__)

port = int(os.environ.get('PORT', 3000))



# OAuth 2 client configuration

client_id = "Enter your clientId"

client_secret = "Enter your clientSecret"

token_url = 'Enter tokenUrl from LaMa Cloud API Config'

api_url = '<Enter url from LaMa Cloud API Config>/systems'



# Get access token using client credentials

def get_access_token():

    payload = {

        'grant_type': 'client_credentials',

        'client_id': client_id,

        'client_secret': client_secret

    }

    response = requests.post(token_url, data=payload)

    access_token = response.json()['access_token']

    return access_token



# Extract "name" entries from JSON data and reformat

def extract_names(data):

    names = []



    if isinstance(data, dict):

        if "group" in data:

            del data["group"]  # Exclude the "group" section



        for key, value in data.items():

            if key == "name":

                names.append(value)

            elif isinstance(value, (dict, list)):

                names.extend(extract_names(value))



    elif isinstance(data, list):

        for item in data:

            names.extend(extract_names(item))



    names.sort()



    return names



@app.route("/")

def hello_world():

    return "Hello, World!"



@app.route('/api/v1/systems', methods=['GET'])

def get_data():

    access_token = get_access_token()

    headers = {

        'Authorization': f'Bearer {access_token}',

        'Content-Type': 'application/json'

    }

    response = requests.get(api_url, headers=headers)

    data = response.json()

 

    names = extract_names(data)



    # Create a dictionary 

    sid_components = {}



    for name in names:

        parts = name.split(":")

        if len(parts) > 1:

            sid = parts[0].strip()

            component = parts[1].strip()

            if sid in sid_components:

                sid_components[sid].append(component)

            else:

                sid_components[sid] = [component]



    # Create a list of lists containing "SID" and "COMPONENTS" columns

    table_data = [["SID", "COMPONENTS"]]



    for sid, components in sid_components.items():

        table_data.append([sid, ', '.join(components)])



    # Generate the HTML table with borders

    table_html = tabulate(table_data, headers="firstrow", tablefmt="html")



    # Render the template with the table

    return render_template('table.html', table_html=table_html)

        

if __name__ == '__main__':

    app.run(host='0.0.0.0', port=port)

templates/table.html:

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

    <title>GET Call to LaMa Cloud</title>

    <style>

        table {

            border-collapse: collapse;

        }

        th, td {

            border: 1px solid black;

            padding: 8px;

        }

    </style>

</head>

<body>

    <h1>GET Call to LaMa Cloud</h1>

    {{ table_html | safe }}

</body>

</html>

We also need to install some libraries that we are using in the Python script.

% pip install flask

% pip install tabulate

Now run the Python script as follows:

Go to the directory where the above python script is located. Make sure that you have also created a sub directory called templates and in it you have the table.html file.

On your system, issue the below command

% python server.py

Open a browser on the same machine and go to URL "http://127.0.0.1:3000/api/v1/systems" and you should see a table such as below
- Alternatively you can also use the IP address of the machine and then it will work from a remote browser as well

This shows that from the web app, we were able to retrieve a token and then use this to make a GET call to /systems. This resulted in a JSON output from LaMa Cloud that we were then able to format to display as above.

API Calls From A Sample Application (in SAP BTP Cloud Foundry)

We will now run the same python web application in SAP BTP and using the Cloud Foundry runtime. You need the following prerequisites met:

You have a trial or productive account for SAP BTP. A new trial account can be created via try out services for free.

You have created a subaccount and a space on Cloud Foundry Environment.

Install npm (refer to this site)

Install the Cloud Foundry CLI by (refer to this guide)

Install virtualenv

% pip install virtualenv

In the directory where the Python script resides, create the following additional files:

manifest.yml

---

applications:

- name: myapp

  random-route: true

  path: ./

  memory: 128M

  buildpack: python_buildpack

  command: python server.py

requirements.txt

Flask==2.0.1

flask-restful

flask

requests

tabulate

runtime.txt (adjust to reflect your version)

python-3.10.11

Execute below commands

% cf api https://api.cf.us10-001.hana.ondemand.com (change to your own region URL)

% cf login

% cf push

In the output of the "cf push" command note down the URL listed for routes.

Now you can test this by going to the URL: https://<URL from the cf push>/api/v1/systems. You should get the same output as in previous section.

As you can see, we successfully made the API call to LaMa Cloud from an SAP BTP hosted application.

You have now learnt the basics of how to make RESTful API calls to LaMa Cloud.

References

LaMa Cloud Guide - API section

LaMa Cloud API Reference Guide on Business Accelerator Hub

SAP BTP Cloud Foundry Tutorial

How-to discover SAP Business Objects (BOBJ) and SAP Data services (BODS) in SAP Landscape Management (LaMa)

2023-07-07T00:20:34+02:00

Use Case:

With LAMA, you can easily stop, start, or restart SAP Business Objects (BOBJ) and SAP Data Services (BODS) either for multiple instances all at once or for individual instances.

With LAMA, you can easily stop, start, or restart individually of SAP Business Objects (BOBJ) and SAP Data Services (BODS) such as Apache Tomcat, BOBJ services, and BODS job server.

Challenges:

Discovering BOBJ/BODS servers into LaMa is not straightforward.

We need to onboard them as custom instances.

Pre-Requisites:

SAP BOBJ servers should be installed on “/usr/sap/<SID>/sap_bobj” for this process.

SAP BODS servers should be installed on “/usr/sap/<SID>/sap_bobj/dataservices” for this process.

Configuration:

Prepare Each BOBJ/BODS servers host very much like SAP ABAP system
1. Installing or upgrading Host agent to least
  - Linux command to Install (from downloaded SAPHOSTAGENT path): ./saphostexec -install

1. - Linux command to Upgrade: /usr/sap/hostcrtl/exe/saphostexec —upgrade —archive <path to downloaded SAPHOSTAGENT version>.SAR
2. SAP Adaptive Extensions Installation (Linux command):
  - /usr/sap/hostctrl/exe/sapacosprep -a InstallAcExt -m /tmp/<path to downloaded SAPACEXT version>.SAR

Add below parameters on host agent profile “host_profile” on “/usr/sap/hostcrtl/exe”
- service/admin_users = sapadm <sid>adm
- service/protectedwebmethods = NONE

Reset sapadm user password.
- Linux command to change sapadm password: passwd sapadm

Create pool if it’s not there before.
- From LAMA portal: Configuration -> Pools -> Add Pool.

Download scripts files from below links and unzip them copy into “/usr/sap/hostctrl/exe/operations.d” path based on BOBJ or BODS app server in all hosts
- This is part SAP Note 1396981 - SAP Landscape Management - Custom Instance Configuration
- BOBJ Script files: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ikbuD_lBRaXTEjdVXyJPnCo6n1vawwTq/view?usp=sharing
- BODS Script files: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14D78C4BcwKL2z1Drsswppuu-VCjAPBPF/view?usp=drive_link

Discover System
- LaMa Configuration (Legacy Web Portal) -->Systems--> Discover
- Give mandatary details like hostname, sapadm, password.
- Detect
- Select the pool and click Auto Assign
- Next -->Next --> Save.

Conclusion

You now have a simple and convenient way to control your BOBJ and BODS servers from LAMA. Whether you want to stop, start, or restart them, you can easily do it with just a few clicks. You can also manage specific services like Tomcat, BOBJ, and BODS jobserver individually, giving you more flexibility and control.

ASUG Tech Connect 2023 in New Orleans - hear the latest about LaMa and CAL

2023-10-24T23:28:52+02:00

Are you attending ASUG Tech Connect in New Orleans, LA (November 7-9, 2023) ?

If so, then I would like to share that I have a session in the System Operation & Administration track. It gives the latest information about SAP Landscape Management, SAP Landscape Management Cloud, and SAP Cloud Appliance Library.

Please join me in my session to hear everything about this great portfolio of solutions. In addition, the Chief Product Owner (Markus Winter) and I will be available during the conference to have 1:1 meetings. If interested please let me know (see my email address in my profile => naeem.maqsud#about).

Looking forward to a great conference and meeting with some of you.

See you in New Orleans!

Ready for LaMa 3.0 SP29?

2023-11-07T04:19:28+01:00

This year we’re a little bit earlier than the years before – so let me introduce you to our latest Support Package 29 of SAP Landscape Management 3.0.

As usual in my feature blog posts, I would like to highlight 3 new capabilities that were released with this feature support pack. All other innovations and improvements can be found in the “What’s New” section on our SAP Help Portal for SAP Landscape Management.

Let me start with the SAP Kernel Update. We continue our end-2-end story for this topic. Now you’re able to restore a backup of a previous release version in case you need to do so (e.g. if the recent update of the SAP Kernel fails). This was requested by several customers and now we’re proud to make this available to you.

Another new topic is the SPAM/SAINT Update that can now directly be executed via LaMa. We also made this available via REST API in case you need to perform it remotely.

Additionally, we optimized the Database Refresh Operations. Let me highlight the following:

We removed the “User” step where not needed

For SNC enabled systems we added more steps to the refresh procedure

It is also possible now to skip the SWPM step if required

You can pre-import system users into the target system

I hope this little intro to SP29 encourages you to update your LaMa installation.

BTW: If you’re attending ASUG Tech Connect 2023 in New Orleans, LA (Nov 7-9, 2023) and want to hear more about the latest and the future of LaMa as well as are interested to have a meeting with the team => just reach out to my colleague naeem.maqsud#about for more details).

Further information

What’s New in 3.0 SP29 Enterprise Edition
SAP Note 3316859 - SAP Landscape Management 3.0 SP29

Future of SAP Landscape Management

2023-11-07T14:00:08+01:00

As the year 2027 approaches fast, customers of SAP Landscape Management 3.0 are wondering about SAP’s plan how the future automation solution for customer-operated SAP landscapes beyond 2027 will look like. With SAP Landscape Management 3.0 (including its Enterprise Edition and Standard Edition) being an “Add-On product” to SAP NetWeaver AS for Java, it is impacted by the announced End of SAP Business Suite 7 mainstream maintenance in SAP Note 2881788. Here, I will elaborate our plans for the future of Landscape Management as of October 2023 and future blog posts will provide more details and updates.

The mainstream maintenance for SAP Landscape Management 3.0 will conclude on December 31, 2027. As of today, there are no plans to provide an extended maintenance period afterwards. This is documented in the SAP Note 3375877.

In the meantime, SAP Landscape Management Cloud becomes the automation solution for customer-operated SAP landscapes beyond 2027. Its current scope provides value-adding use cases in combination with SAP Landscape Management 3.0, enterprise edition while hybrid consumption of the two solutions together will be improved in the future. Road map items of SAP Landscape Management Cloud will elaborate on these planned hybrid use cases.

To ensure an easy entry into the world of SAP Landscape Management Cloud, we are planning to add the solution to the consumption-based commercial model of SAP Business Technology Platform. This will allow you to try out its functionality and connect your SAP Landscape Management Cloud tenant to your existing SAP Landscape Management 3.0, enterprise edition installation via SAP Cloud Connector. Going fully productive with orchestrating SAP operations for your mission critical business, you can of course easily upgrade to production use both in consumption-based fashion with SAP Cloud Platform Enterprise Agreement credits and regular subscription options – available in the SAP Store and through your SAP Account teams.

The future direction for Landscape Management is SAP Landscape Management Cloud. To achieve this goal, the product team is working on integrating key capabilities of SAP Landscape Management 3.0 into SAP Landscape Management Cloud to enable SAP operations across Hyperscalers and on-premise IT infrastructure. Safeguarding customers’ investments by enabling many of today’s automation scenarios in the cloud solution and by keeping the current API level as stable as possible is key for a smooth transition to a standalone usage of SAP Landscape Management Cloud later this decade.

We recommend all customers of SAP Landscape Management 3.0 to start familiarizing with SAP Landscape Management Cloud, which sets them on the path towards the future. Particularly after the planned launch of the “try before you buy” approach, anyone can explore the solution free-of-charge without time restrictions and with community support.

Feel free to leave comments and questions below this blog post. Furthermore, follow the tags SAP Landscape Management, SAP Landscape Management Cloud, and SAP Landscape Management, enterprise edition for staying updated.

SAP Partners: Explore SAP Landscape Management Cloud for free!

2023-11-08T13:54:59+01:00

If you are an SAP Partner or SAP PartnerEdge Partner, you are eligible to access the test, demo & development (TDD) licensing (see prerequisites). Via this non-commercial licensing framework, there is the offering of the "consumption-based model for test, demo, and development for SAP Business Technology Platform" (SAP BTP) which you can find at https://partneredge.sap.com/en/partnership/licenses/wp_payg_btp.html.

As of mid-October, SAP Landscape Management Cloud is part of that SAP BTP service offering. It enables you to easily create your tenant and try out / demo the system management via SAP Landscape Management Cloud with a daily count of managed systems, thus, a very flexible payment model.

Furthermore, the consumption-based model for TDD includes a free version of SAP Landscape Management Cloud to try before buying: You can provision a full tenant, add all your IaaS-based SAP solutions for basic management capabilities and elevate up to two systems for the full set of features provided by SAP Landscape Management Cloud (what’s the difference?).

Creating your SAP Landscape Management Cloud service instance in SAP BTP is described here. Try it out and let us know your feedback via comments to this post or the built-in feedback button.

PS: We plan to provide the same flexibility to customers as of Q1 2024.

Meet our colleagues at SAPinsider EMEA 2023

2023-11-08T16:30:55+01:00

If you join SAPinsider EMEA 2023 on November 14 - 16, 2023 in Copenhagen, you can meet our team around SAP Landscape Management and SAP Cloud Appliance Library. There are two sessions on the agenda relevant to these product areas:

1. SAP Landscape And Efficiency Operations

"Infrastructure and Application Automation is a key skill and technology set every IT professional needs. SAP applications can be demanding to manage and thus helpful to automate. This session will show how to harness the power of SAP Landscape Management and SAP Cloud Appliance Library to develop extensive automation capabilities that simplify the configuration, provisioning, monitoring, and management of SAP applications and associated infrastructure and services."

And secondly (loosely based on the recent SAP TechEd Virtual jump-start session)

2. Empowering Efficient SAP System Management With SAP BTP And SAP Landscape Management Cloud

"See how SAP Landscape Management Cloud software lets you optimize and automate your SAP system management, such as for SAP S/4HANA. Combine SAP Landscape Management Cloud with other SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) services using provided events and REST APIs, and automate your landscape management use cases."

Both sessions are part of the “On-Premise + Cloud Operations“ track and run by Daniela Schmidt and Michael Jilg. Join their sessions, contact them via LinkedIn, or contact lama@sap.com for meeting 1:1.

Relation between SAP S/4HANA System Upgrade | Migration | Conversion and SAP Security Upgrade

2023-12-20T00:13:38+01:00

In the ever-evolving world of SAP, it is indispensable to update Security and Authorizations as per Standard and Latest Controls. Upgrade | Migration | Conversion collectively known SAP Landscape Maintenance are the Core Project Transitions in SAP.

It is significant for a Security Consultant to understand | distinguish the above.

In this blog, I will present a crisp knowledge on Upgrade | Migration | Conversion and discuss how does it impact SAP Authorizations and when Security Upgrade should be performed.

What is SAP SECURITY UPGRADE?

SAP introduces New | Updated authorizations (Transaction Code | Authorization Object | Authorization Field | Authorization Check Indicator) to SAP Tables – USOBT | USOBX during Core Component Upgrade.

SU25 – Security Upgrade Tool will be used to update the authorizations to Customer Tables – USOBT_C | USOBX_C. Impact of Security Upgrade will be reflecting in roles post execution of Upgrade Steps – 2A, 2B, 2D and 2C.

Note : As of Dec 2023, customer can Upgrade | Convert to SAP S/4HANA 2020 & above versions (Reference SAP Note: 3338941)

CONVERSION : Customer who is in SAP ERP Central Component (ECC) getting CONVERTED to Latest SAP S/4HANA version

SAP Conversion

UPGRADE : Customer who is already in SAP S/4HANA getting UPGRADED to Latest SAP S/4HANA version

SAP Upgrade

Database Migration : This can be categorized into three approaches, and it accords only to Database.
- Lift & Shift : Homogeneous Migration of SAP Database without changing the Database type in source and target host.
- Export & Import : Migrating Database from one host to another host where source and target host may or may not have same Database type.
- Database Migration Option : Popularly known as DMO, is an option in Software Update Manager (SUM) to move the data from Non-HANA Database to HANA Database. SUM meanwhile offers Homogeneous DMO for SAP HANA to SAP HANA Migration.

SAP Migration

SUMMARY :

It is fundamental to perform Security Upgrade for Conversion and Upgrade scenarios as there is change | upgrade in SAP ABAP Component Version.

When Software Provisioning Manager (SWPM) is used for Homogeneous and Heterogenous Database Migration - Security Upgrade is not required as there is no change in SAP ABAP Component Version.

When Software Update Manager (SUM) is used for Database Migration combined with Upgrade or Conversion - Security Upgrade is required as there will be change in SAP ABAP Component Version.

Effective Disaster Recovery Strategies for SAP Systems

2024-02-21T13:03:00.271000+01:00

A few years ago, I was sitting in my office sipping a coffee (Death Wish dark roast, of course) when I got a frantic call from our data center team. A massive power surge in a nearby transformer had left our SAP environment hanging by a thread.

The heart-pounding rush to initiate our disaster recovery plan was a wake-up call. It comes when you least suspect it.

Though we don’t like to think about it much, disaster can (and likely will) destroy your hard work, jeopardize key functions, and put your entire infrastructure at risk. Operate enterprise software long enough, and something will threaten its safety.

But even if Humpty Dumpty falls off the wall, we can still put him back together again.

Disaster recovery is about accepting a certain amount of data loss but reducing your RTO as much as possible (or at least to something you can live with).

Over the years, I’ve developed a few best practices that will help SAP applications get up and running after the proverbial earthquake.

Multi-Tier Backup and Restore

Alongside regular backups, I’ve maintained multi-tier backup solutions. For instance, there’s a daily incremental backup and weekly full backup strategy that maintains data both on-premises and in cloud storage for redundancy.

Automate the backup process with scripts that initiate a backup in SAP HANA using Backint and subsequently transfer the backup files to an offsite cloud location with versioning enabled.

Schedule a script as simple as:

And then transfer them using something like AWS CLI or Azure Blog Storage:

High Availability and Disaster Recovery Setup

I set up an HA and DR combination within my SAP landscape. HA in the primary site ensures minimum downtime, while the secondary site is ready to take over if it fails.

Synchronous or asynchronous replication to a failover site in a different location (in the same region) can be used, depending on the business requirements and tolerance for data loss.

On the primary system:

On the secondary system:

If their RPO is relatively high, you might be able to get away without a tertiary failover server, but if they can’t handle much data loss, it is better to have that dedicated DR host.

Database Log Shipping

Regularly shipping transaction logs to an offsite location helps recover systems to a point closer to the failure. This approach has helped me recover the last committed transaction, essentially a complete copy of the pre-failure data.

A Microsoft SQL server can continuously ship logs to a standby server, which can then be activated in case of failure.

Then, to restore it on the standby server:

Virtualization and Snapshots

I’ve used VM snapshots to enable restore points that could be quickly spun up in new hardware or a cloud environment after physical server failure. VMware’s vSphere is great for this, capturing consistent server states automatically.

It’s as simple as:

Warm Standby

Sometimes, you need to have a warm standby system regularly updated using system replications or backups. While it won’t handle production load, it’s ready to be activated and get your DR site up and running as quickly as possible.

Use LaMa to automate system replication in a reduced capacity system (compared to production) and take care of role-switching in case of disaster. These are the steps:

Install SAP LaMa on your management system.
Use LaMa to register all SAP systems in your landscape.
Set up system replication directly within LaMa’s UI, defining primary and secondary roles.
Regularly test failover to the warm standby to ensure your DR strategy is effective.

Testing can be initiated with predefined workflows, enabling you to simulate disaster scenarios and ensuring your warm standby system seamlessly takes over without significant disruptions.

Conclusion

Over the years, navigating through various IT crises, I've learned that expecting the unexpected is just part of the job.

But here's the thing, the real difference always comes down to the planning and the drills. Knowing the theory is one thing, but having run through disaster scenarios, troubleshooting on the fly, and seeing your plans hold up under pressure—that's where confidence in your DR plan really comes from.

Sharing this in a forum like ours, I hope to spark discussions on how we can all better prepare for those "Humpty Dumpty" moments. I've seen firsthand how the right approach can turn potential catastrophes into manageable incidents.

And while I hope you never have to face one, I strongly advocate for preparation. Test your setups, challenge your assumptions.

Staying prepared has allowed me and my teams to sleep a little better at night, knowing we've done our best. I'd love to hear about your experiences, your strategies, and what you've learned along the way.

10+ ways to reshape your SAP landscape with SAP Business Technology Platform – Blog Series

2024-03-18T17:56:24.598000+01:00

Blog 1: The Central Role of Clean Core and AI

Summary: In this blog series we will look at the role of the SAP Business Technology Platform to reshape your SAP landscape including SAP and Non-SAP systems. In this first blog we discuss why Clean Core and AI are so important on your path to a future-proof IT.

Today, companies are exposed to unprecedented combinations of threats and uncertainties by economics, new competitors, wars, extreme weather events, etc. Therefore, businesses must react to this. One the one side, they need to increase agility to become as flexible, fast, and resilient as possible. This involves a new speed of innovation and the capability to tailor customer experience to individual needs. On the other side, they need fully digitized processes within and beyond the company, across the complete value chain.

In such a demanding environment business needs a powerful IT that can implement new business requirements fast and leverage new technologies such as AI.

Many SAP systems such as SAP ECC have been up and running for decades. Technologies available at that time looked totally different. Today most processes need to be automated to minimize the number of manual steps and maximize the transaction speed. By embracing the cloud, processes can be implemented much faster. Accordingly, one important step in transformation is to determine which components remain on-prem and which processes and systems should be moved to the cloud. Especially extensions and apps are often developed faster in the cloud due to much smaller lead times.

Modernization is not limited to a single ERP and should include data management, development, integration, and steering across the full enterprise architecture, covering SAP and non-SAP systems.

This is exactly where the SAP Business Technology Platform comes into play as a booster of the Digital Transformation of your systems across 4 dimensions:

Extend your applications.
Automate & integrate business processes.
Unleash your data with Data & Analytics.
Modernize your Steering.

On top of the four domains, Clean Core and AI become key in 2024.

Clean Core:

The concept of Clean Core customers can adopt to make their IT future-proof. The Core of the system, the ERP has very often a long history of modifications. Upgrades take a long time and can be very costly. New requirements often took one to two years until they were taken up into the next release schedule. With the faster changing business environments and the need to digitize much faster, the ERP systems need to be cleaned up to become more flexible and agile.

This is where the Clean Core Concept can help. The goal is to eliminate modifications with three toolsets available:

The Key-User extensibility in S/4 to enhance fields and small logic.
The On-Stack extensibility based on the ABAP Cloud. This is a complete toolbox to adapt ABAP coding. The name ABAP Cloud is a bit misleading because it can available directly embedded on your S4 system on-prem and doesn’t require any cloud services on SAP BTP.
Side-by-side extensibility on SAP BTP. Bigger developments, mobile apps and automations would typically be done as loosely coupled side-by-side extensions on the BTP.

In the concept, customers determine which type of developments they do on which tool. With eliminated modifications and a “clean system” new requirements and new apps can be implemented much faster and upgrades go faster and with reduced costs. Clean Core is not a one-time task but an ongoing exercise making your IT systems future-proof.

AI:

AI is experiencing a huge hype. The challenge is to implement the technology into real business processes. AI today at many customers is technically capable but somewhere disconnected. It is trained on some data but it doesn‘t know much about the data, the processes, the people that can use it etc. This is where SAP Business AI comes into play with its business centricity in three dimensions:

The business context with access to semantic data, which is always available and using AI as an extension of the business process and the context being aware who can perform at which point which task and why they need to do it.
The business-friendly experience with integrated seamless access and embedded into the normal SAP business user.
The accelerated business outcomes with prebuilt content, actionable use cases that can be directly rolled out, automation with built-in AI, and smart support based on the context and business know-how.

The offering is relevant, reliable, and responsible. It is relevant - because AI will be embedded into all SAP-cloud-based applications. It is reliable because it is based on the customer’s unique business data and business context. And finally, it is responsible - because we will deliver AI with the highest levels of concern for security, privacy, compliance, and ethics.

The Blog Series 10 + ways to reshape your SAP Landscape with SAP BTP will be published regularly and the newest blogs can be found here: Video & Blog Series - SAP BTP MEE Overview (brandcast.io)

To get more insights, please also visit one of our BTP Innovation Days:

Innovation Day Vienna: Vienna 04-Apr-24 SAP BTP Innovation Day Vienna
Innovation Day Switzerland: Bern 14-May-24 SAP | SAP BTP Innovation Day Switzerland
Innovation Day Germany Essen 16-May-24 SAP | SAP BTP Innovation Day