Using SUSE Automation to Deploy an SAP HANA Cluster on Azure #

This document will walk you through the deployment of a simple two-node SAP HANA HA Cluster using the SUSE Automation Project for SAP Solutions Project and operating on Azure.

This project uses Terraform and Salt to deploy and configure the operating system (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications), SAP software (SAP HANA), and a SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability (HA) cluster. If extensive configuration and customization are required, refer to the project documentation at https://github.com/SUSE/ha-sap-terraform-deployments.

For simplicity, this guide uses the Cloud Shell to perform the deployment, as it provides easy access to most of the required tooling.

It is possible to use a local Linux or macOS computer, but some commands may need modification or omission.

The architecture for the deployment is similar to the one shown below:

Figure 1: Azure Automation Architecture #

 

The project will perform the following actions:

Start an Azure Cloud Shell simply from the top menu within Azure Portal. It is the small icon with the command line prompt.

After its started the first time, you can choose between "Bash" and "powershell". Select "Bash".

The Cloud Shell is a managed service by Microsoft, and comes with the most popular command line tools and language support you need. The Cloud Shell also securely authenticates automatically for instant access to your resources through the Azure CLI or Azure PowerShell cmdlets.

Terraform is already deployed as part of the Azure Cloud Shell. The following command output shows the Terraform version used at the time of creating this guide:

$ terraform -v
Terraform v1.0.0
on linux_amd64

With the correct entitlement, SAP HANA media can be downloaded from the SAP Web site at https://support.sap.com/en/my-support/software-downloads.html. The SAP Media needs to be made available so it can be accessed during the deployment.

The SUSE Automation for SAP Applications project allows for three methods for presenting the SAP media:

The different formats come with some benefits and drawbacks:

In the example at hand, we use the compressed archives for the install (exe/RAR) as it is the easiest way to download and upload to the cloud share.

This guide uses the most recent SAP HANA media, SAP HANA 2.0 SPS05. The SAP HANA media file name downloaded at the time of creating this guide is 51054623. Follow the SAP instructions to download the SAP HANA media.

Tip

It is a good practice to have the SAP Media versioned on the cloud share to build a library for automatic installs and (re)deployments. Thus you should think about your SAP media structure first.

As an example, see below how a full SAP Application media tree (in a compressed format) for a S/4HANA version 1809 install would look like:

<FS>/s4hana1809
       ├SWPM_CD
       │  ├SWPM20SP07_5-80003424.SAR
       │  └SAPCAR_721-20010450.EXE
       │
       ├EXP_CD
       │  ├S4CORE104_INST_EXPORT_1.zip
       │  ├S4CORE104_INST_EXPORT_2.zip
       │  └...
       ├DBCLIENT_CD
       │  └IMDB_CLIENT20_005_111-80002082.SAR
       ├BASKET_CD
       │   ├SAPHOSTAGENT24_24-20009394.SAR
       │   ├igshelper_4-10010245.sar
       │   ├igsexe_1-80001746.sar
       │   ├SAPEXEDB_400-80000698.SAR
       │   └SAPEXE_400-80000699.SAR
       └HANA
          ├51053061_part1.exe
          ├51053061_part2.rar
          ├51053061_part3.rar
          └51053061_part4.rar


 HANA       : contains the HANA Database install
 BASKET_ CD : contains SAP kernel, patch + more like hostagent.
 DBCLIENT_CD: contains the package corresponding to DB CLIENT, e.g HANA
 EXP_CD     : contains the package corresponding to EXPORT files
 SWPM_CD    : must contain the .exe file corresponding to SAPCAR and the
              .sar file corresponding to SWPM.
              The file suffix must be .exe and .sar.

In the next steps, we use a simple HANA install download.

For Azure, an Azure File Share is used to host the SAP HANA media.

Using the Azure Portal or the Azure CLI, perform the following actions:

The SUSE SAP Automation code is published in GitHub.

The following command will clone the project to the Cloud Shell ready for configuration:

$ git clone --depth 1 --branch 7.2.0 https://github.com/SUSE/ha-sap-terraform-deployments.git

Note

If the following SSH keys already exist, the next step can be skipped.

Then, generate SSH key pairs to allow for accessing the SAP HANA instances:

#optional if ssh-keys already exist
$ cd ~
$ ssh-keygen -q -t rsa -N '' -f  ~/.ssh/id_rsa

5.1 Configuring the deployment options and modifying the Terraform variables #

 

The files that need to be configured are contained in a subdirectory of the project. Use that as the working directory:

cd ~/ha-sap-terraform-deployments/azure

A Terraform example template is provided. For a demo environment consisting of a simple HANA cluster, only a handful of parameters will need changing.

Copy the Terraform example file to terraform.tfvars:

$ cp terraform.tfvars.example terraform.tfvars

Edit the terraform.tfvars file and modify it as explained below. If you are duplicating the lines before modification, ensure the original is commented out, or the deployment will fail.

Choose the region for the deployment, for example:

# Region where to deploy the configuration
az_region = "westeurope"

The following parameters select the version of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications to deploy:

Note

The values shown equal the default values. All defaults point to PAYG images for an easy start. Thus you only need to enable or change the variables if you want to work with different values.

#os_image = "sles-sap-15-sp2:gen2"

Next, enter the path for the public and private SSH keys that were generated earlier. Below is an example using the default created SSH keys:

# SSH Public key location to configure access to the remote instances
public_key  = "~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub"

# Private SSH Key location
private_key = "~/.ssh/id_rsa"

To keep the cluster architecture and deployment simple and to provide additional packages needed to deploy, uncomment and set the following parameters:

ha_sap_deployment_repo = "https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/network:/ha-clustering:/sap-deployments:/v7/"

Then, enable the pre_deployment parameter:

pre_deployment = true

The Jumphost server (Bastion Host Server) is enabled by default, and provide the public IP adress to the database. Otherwise the two HANA servers will get a public ip

#bastion_enabled = true

Next, set which SAP HANA instance machine type should be selected: The default is set to some standard types, and you only need to enable and change the variable if you want other sizes.

#hana_vm_size = "Standard_E4s_v3"

Modify the following parameter to point to SAP media that was uploaded to the storage location:

storage_account_name = "YOUR_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME"
storage_account_key = "YOUR_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_KEY"

The "hana_inst_master" parameter needs to be set according to your settings of the file share you created before. Find an example below:

hana_inst_master = "//YOUR_STORAGE_ACCOUNT_NAME.file.core.windows.net/mysapmedia"

hana_archive_file = "s4hana1809/HANA/{hana_archive_version}.exe"

To create the cluster, we need to set this parameter to true, otherwise only a single system is created.

# Enable system replication and HA cluster
hana_ha_enabled = true

Finally, to ensure a fully automated deployment, it is possible to set passwords within the terraform.tfvars file. Uncomment and set the following parameters to your own value:

hana_master_password = "SAP_Pass123"

Note

If the parameters are not set in the terraform.tfvars file, they must be entered when running the deployment.

Important

All passwords must conform to SAP password policies or the deployment will fail.

Optional: If a monitoring instance should be as part of the deployment, find and uncomment the following:

monitoring_enabled = true

Ensure that the subscription used to host the SAP HANA HA cluster meets the infrastructure quota requirements. For more info, refer to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/get-started

Terraform will create and name resources when running the deployment based on the "workspace" in use. It is highly recommended to create a unique workspace from which to run the deployment.

$ terraform init
$ terraform workspace new demo
$ terraform workspace select demo
$ terraform plan
$ terraform apply

Tip

The Cloud Shell has a timeout of around 20 minutes and the shell will close if left unattended, resulting in a failed deployment. It is strongly advised to retain focus on the Cloud Shell window to ensure the timeout does not occur.

If successful, the output will be the public IP addresses for the cluster nodes.

When finished with the deployment, or even if the deployment has failed, ensure that Terraform is used to tear down the environment.

$ terraform destroy

This method will ensure all resource, such as instances, volumes, networks, etc are cleaned up. You need to delete the following components manually:

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