User Guide for VMware Adapter for SAP LVM VERSION 1.2

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User Guide for VMware

Adapter for SAP LVM

V E R S I O N 1 . 2

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Introduction to VMware Adapter for SAP LVM

Product Description

VMware Adapter for SAP LVM integrates SAP LVM with VMware Software Defined Datacenter (SDDC) Technologies enabling automated provisioning and management of a virtualized SAP system.

VMware Adapter for SAP LVM empowers SAP BASIS Administrators to rapidly clone, copy, refresh, mass stop, start and migrate SAP systems between hosts, storage and network devices.

Executive Summary

This guide describes the user functions of SAP LVM as it pertains to VMware Adapter for SAP LVM. The guide covers the features, how they work, what each does and the steps to execute the features.

Target Audience

The user guide is written for SAP BASIS Administrators or VMware Administrators looking to use SAP LVM to operate and provision SAP systems on VMware Virtual Infrastructure

Prerequisites

The user guide covers functions of SAP LVM that pertain to the VMware Adapter for SAP LVM and presumes that the user reading the guide has a functional understanding of SAP LVM. For documentation related to SAP LVM and or training on SAP LVM please contact your SAP representative.

Reference Architecture

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The VMware Adapter for SAP LVM consists of 3 components. The VMware LVM Appliance (vLA), essentially a virtual machine that contains all the application code. The second component is an adapter that the vLA deploys to SAP LVM. The adapter tells SAP LVM how to communicate with the vLA. The third component is VMware vCenter™ Orchestrator™ workflows. The workflows execute the commands SAP LVM sends to the vLA. vCenter Orchestrator executes these instructions on the VMware vCenter Server™.

Features

The VMware Adapter for SAP LVM enables two types of features, the first are operations features and the second are provisioning features. This section will explain in detail each feature, what it does and which steps are required to execute the features.

System Requirements

Software Dependencies

• SAP LVM 2.1 Service Pack 2 (Enterprise Edition)

• vSphere 5.5

• vCenter Orchestrator 5.5.2 vLA System Requirements

• 1 vCPU

• 4GB of Memory

• 9 GB of Disk Space

• 1 vNIC

• 1 CD (for updates) Port Requirements

• vCenter Server ports: 443, 7444

• vLA port: 8443

• vCenter Orchestrator ports: 8281, 8283, 5480 SAP Platforms Supported

• RedHat Enterprise Linux 6.3 or 6.5

• SuSE Enterprise Linux Server 11.3 or 12.1

• Windows Server 2012 R2

• Oracle 11gR2 (any patch level, on Linux)

• SAP HANA SP9 (on Linux)

• MS SQL Server 2012/14 (on Windows)

*Additional platforms support added quarterly

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Use Cases

Operations

Operations in SAP LVM execute features to existing SAP systems and infrastructure. Operations like activating and deactivating systems. With the VMware Adapter for SAP LVM there are 3 types of operations forced, non-forced and migrate.

Forced operations are those that affect the SAP virtual machine immediately. They ignore system services and/or daemons and are considered non-graceful operations.

Non-forced operations are those that affect the SAP system and the virtual machine in a proper sequences graceful manner.

The migrate operation allow you to migrate an SAP virtual machine to another host and/or datastore.

To access the features, login to the SAP LVM administrative console and navigate to the operations section, virtualization tab.

Forced Operations

There are 3 forced operations features that can execute:

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• Forced Deactivate (Shutdown OS) – Shuts down the operating system

• Forced Deactivation (Power Off) – Power Off to the virtual machine

• Forced Suspend – Suspends the virtual machine*

*Note: To suspend a virtual machine means to write the current system memory to disk and then power it off. When the vCenter System restarts the virtual machine, it will continue from the same state as before it was suspended including executing any running transactions.

Follow these steps to execute a forced operation 1. Select a SAP system

2. Press the ‘Forced’ fly-out button

3. Press the forced selection you intend to execute

Non-forced Operations

There are 4 non-forced operations features that can be executed:

• Activate – Graceful power on the virtual machine, operating system and the SAP system

• Deactivation – Graceful shut down of the SAP system and operating system

• Deactivate – Graceful shutdown of the SAP system, operating system and then the virtual machine

• Suspend – Graceful shutdown of the SAP system then suspension of the virtual machine Follow these steps to execute a non-forced operation

Activate

1. Select the SAP system to activate 2. Press the activate button

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Deactivation / Deactivate

1. Select a SAP System

2. Press the ‘Deactivate’ fly-out button

3. Press either deactivation (OS Shutdown) or deactivate (Power Off) depending on the operation you are trying to execute.

4. For some non-forced operations like Deactivate or Suspend LVM may perform stop and unprepared operation for the SAP systems and will ask for the confirmation.

5. The host will be marked as locked until the end of the operation

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Suspend

1. Select the SAP system to suspend 2. Press the suspend button

Migrate

The next operations feature is the ability to migrate a SAP system virtual machine. There are 3 components to consider for a migration

• The system can be migrated to a different host

• The system can be migrated to a different datastore

• The system can be switched to a different network

During the migration operation any combination of these components can be chosen.

The migrate operation is a powerful tool that can be used to move a system or isolate a system making it easy to support project, patching, development or IT objectives.

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Follow these steps to execute a Migrate operation:

1. Select a SAP system 2. Press the migrate button

A new operation options dialog window will appear

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1. Select the target resource pool

2. Select the target host

3. Select the target datastore

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4. Select the target network for each adapter assigned to the SAP system

5. Review the changes you selected

6. Press the Execute button to start the migration 7. The host will be locked until the operation completes

Provisioning

Provisioning with the VMware Adapter for SAP LVM allows the user to take source SAP systems and either clone or copy the system to create target SAP systems. This section describes that process.

Clone System

To clone a system is to create an exact duplicate of the source system as a new target system. The most common use case is to take a source development system and create a clone of that system for separate development work. Other use cases may apply.

To begin, login in to SAP LVM’s administrative console and navigate to the Provisioning Section Systems and AS Provisioning tab.

1. Select the source host you wish to clone 2. Press the Clone System button

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A new clone options dialog will appear

3. Type in a short name for the new target host, click next to move to the next step

4. Press the edit button to define the new virtual host settings

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5. Select a target resource pool or ESXi Host. The dialog presents useful information like utilization levels for either the resource pool or host, allowing for an informed decision.

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6. Select a target datastore. The dialog presents useful information like size and utilization levels for datastore, allowing for an informed decision.

7. Choose either a linked clone or a full clone.

a. A linked clone creates a target system that has a file link to the original system. This reduces utilized storage for the target system. It is most commonly used in development or sandbox systems. Linked clones complete substantially faster than full clones.

b. A full clone creates a target system that has the same disk structure and size as the source system. There is no link between source and target. Full clones are most often used to create production systems and or systems that can be exported to be used in other datacenters.

8. Choose the Guest Customization specification.

a. Guest customization specifications are created in the vCenter Server and are made available via the VMware Adapter for SAP LVM. You will need a guest customization specification in order to clone a system.

b. Please work with your VMware Administrator to create Guest Customization specifications if none are present in SAP LVM.

9. Press next to move to the next step

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10. There is no input required for the Host Names step, press next to continue

11. Review the settings chosen and press the define button to finish defining the new virtual host settings

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12. Press next to proceed

13. At this step you may choose a different network for each component of the target SAP System

Note: If the host is not configured as an adaptive instance you will see these warnings and you will need to ignore them by pressing the Ignore Warnings for this Step button.

14. Press the next button to proceed

15. At this step choose the database consistency method. Depending on what state the database is in you can choose one of the following options.

a. Online: Backup Suspend IO Mode and a timeout value – Used typically for cloning production systems to prevent system outages. A timeout value is provides to ensure consistency is done in a timely manner.

b. Offline: Stop and Restart System – SAP LVM will stop the system take the clone and restart after it completes.

c. Offline: Database already stopped. – Used when the database is already stopped.

d. Database was stopped during system snapshot – used when the database has already been snapshotted prior to this process starting.

e. There is also an option to schedule the cloning operation from here so as to not further impact system activity. Here you can input values for date and time.

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17. In this step you can chose to isolate the new target system, this will prevent it from accidentally communicating as the source system.

19. Review the settings chosen and then press the Start System Cloning button

20. To monitor the system cloning progress, switch to the Monitoring section Activities tab. Each activity has a corresponding line item and each item has a log entry. Click on the operation line item to read its log entry for more details

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Copy System

To copy a system is to create a copy of the source system as a new target system. The most common use case is to take a source production system and create a copy of that system for quality assurance or project work. Other use cases may apply.

To begin login in to SAP LVM’s administrative console and navigate to the Provisioning section Systems and AS Provisioning tab.

1. Select the source host you wish to copy, press the Copy System button to start the process to define the copy

2. A new copy definition dialog window will appear

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3. Enter a new System ID

4. Provide a new system password 5. Press next to proceed

6. Press the edit button to create the new virtual host settings, a new dial window will appear

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7. Select a target resource pool or ESXi Host. The dialog presents useful information like utilization levels for either the resource pool or host, allowing for an informed decision

8. Select a target datastore. The dialog presents useful information like size and utilization levels for datastore, allowing for an informed decision.

Note: Linked copies can only use the same datastore as the source system

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9. Choose either a linked copy or a full copy

a. A linked copy creates a target system that has a file link to the original system. This reduces utilized storage for the target system. It is most commonly used in development or sandbox systems. Linked copies complete substantially faster than full copies b. A full copy creates a target system that has the same disk structure and size as the

source system. There is no link between source and target. Full copies are most often used to create production systems and or systems that can be exported to be used in other datacenters

10. Choose the Guest Customization specification

c. Guest customization specifications are created in the vCenter Server and are made available via the VMware Adapter for SAP LVM. You will need a guest customization specification in order to clone a system

d. Please work with your VMware Administrator to create Guest Customization specifications if none are present in SAP LVM

11. Press next to move to the next step

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12. There is no input required for the Host Names step. Press next to continue to the next step

13. Review the settings chosen and when ready press the define button to finish defining the new virtual host settings

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15. At this step you may choose a different network for each component of the target SAP System

Note: If host is not configured as adaptive instance you will see the warning and need to ignore them by pressing Ignore Warnings for this Step button.

16. Press the next button to proceed to the next step

17. At this step choose the database consistency method. Depending on what state the database is in you can choose one of the following options.

a. Online: Backup Suspend IO Mode and a timeout value – Used typically for cloning production systems to prevent system outages. A timeout value is provides to ensure consistency is done in a timely manner.

b. Offline: Stop and Restart System – SAP LVM will stop the system take the clone and restart after it completes.

c. Offline: Database already stopped. – Used when the database is already stopped.

d. Database was stopped during system snapshot – used when the database has already been snapshotted prior to this process starting.

e. There is also an option to schedule the cloning operation from here so as to further not impact system activity. Here you can input values for date and time.

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19. Review the new users that will be created, for the copy process SAP LVM copies the users from the source over to the target changing them to match the new System ID

21. In this step we see the target system naming conventions, again LVM takes the source system ID and swaps it out for the new target system ID

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22. In this step you can chose to isolate the new target system, this will prevent it from accidentally communicating as the source system

24. In this step we choose whether to enact ABAP PCA (Post Copy Automation) or to by-pass it. If you plan to use PCA choose which parameters to apply. If no PCA will be used then you must uncheck that option and further press the Ignore Warnings for this Step button to proceed

25. Review the settings chosen and when ready press the Start System Copy button

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26. To monitor the system cloning progress switch to the Monitoring Section Activities tab. Each activity has a corresponding line item and each item has a log entry. Click on the operation line item to read its log entry for more details

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Troubleshooting

Log Locations

Log File Name Log File Location

vLA application log /usr/share/apache-tomcat/logs/vla.log

Tomcat server log /usr/share/apache-tomcat/logs/catalina.out

Tomcat access log /usr/share/apache-tomcat/logs/access.log

Log Configuration

Log configuration menu is available in SAP NetWeaver administrator:

“Troubleshooting -> Logs and Traces -> Log Configuration”.

You can also navigate to “Related Links & Help->Log Viewer”

In log configuration menu there are two configurations “Logging categories” and “Tracing location”.

• Log level is configured at “Logging categories”

• Trace level is configured at “Tracing location”

In “Logging categories” there is configuration for the whole adapter.

• Located in “Applications/LVM/InfrastructPlugins”.

In “Tracing location” trace level is configured for each package separately.

• For the VMware Adapter for SAP LVM it is “com.vmware.vlvma.*”

VMware Adapter for SAP LVM log and trace messages begin with prefix “VLVMA”, they can be easily filtered in LVM Log Viewer.

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Existing limitations

Provisioning

• A linked clone of SAP system can be performed to the same data storage only

• SAP System can be cloned to a DRS cluster only

• Only Customization specs having the same Guest OS type and the number of network adapters as a source Virtual Host are available for SAP system cloning

• For provisioning from virtual host template a cloned system hostname must be resolvable to an IP address before executing the operation

Migrate

• Virtual host can be migrated between DRS clusters only

• Virtual host can be migrated inside one vCenter Server only

Known Issues

• On huge infrastructure during execution of mass operation LVM may hang o Solution: Increase memory for LVM JVM

(https://help.sap.com/saphelp_nwce10/helpdata/en/43/73949862c16fcbe10000000a1553f 6/content.htm)

• During a SAP system cloning operation the LVM UI does not allow specifying hostname and IP address for additional physical interfaces as per selected customization spec. The number of additional physical interfaces for which hostname and IP address can be set is limited to one network adapter. Using customization specs with three or more network adapters result in an execution error

o Solution: Not available at this time

• Provisioning from virtual host template fails either at the “Waiting for host” step or at the “Adding resources” step due to LVM exception

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o Solution: Not available at this time

• After system cloning validation errors may appear for a cloned SAP system:

o Error “HNMissmatch” may be detected for a SAP host during validation

o Error “CloneHnChn” may be detected for a SAP sub-system during validation

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o Solution: SAP Note 1366742

• Occasionally the SAP system cloning fails at the “Prepare VM clone” step if the SAP system has several network interfaces and the “Auto IP address” option is set for additional network interfaces in the “Host names” dialog

o Solution: Not available. The issue is caused by incorrect dialog context which is provided by LVM

• VLVMA adapter cannot be added with the “Trusted server” option enabled because of the “File Not Found” and “Permission denied” faults

o Solution: Make sure that the cacerts file in directory /usr/sap/<LVM instance ID>/J00/exe/sapjvm_6/jre/lib/security/ has proper access rights (permissions).

• After cloning a SAP JAVA system the status of AS instance of the cloned system is changed to the

“Error” state

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o Solution: The issue is caused by a missing license. HW Key of the cloned system doesn't match the installed license. In a SAP JAVA system, the instance is shut down after 30 minutes if the license is missing. In a SAP ABAP system, the instance keeps running if a license is missing but only the user sap* can login. All other users are locked. In addition, the system copy/clone functionality will not be present.

• If a Clone or Copy operation was not finished successfully, the Virtual Machine will not be deleted from vCenter Server during Destroy operation.

o Solution: Delete VM in vCenter Server manually

Possible misconfigurations / issues

• Error: peer not authenticated [SSLPeerUnverifiedException], this could occur during a connection test or infrastructure retrieval.

Possible reasons are invalid vLA server certificate, disabled Trusted Server option or a certificate that was changed after adapter configuration.

• Error: Could not execute operation ***.

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Possible reasons are:

1. vCenter Orchestrator is unavailable

a. Check state of the vCenter Orchestrator server 2. An overloaded vCenter Orchestrator

a. Check CPU and Memory load for the vCenter Orchestrator server

• Error: Could not execute operation ***. Workflow not found.

Possible reason - workflow unavailable on vCenter Orchestrator.

1. Check workflow status in the vLa dashboard - https://<vla_hostname>:8443/vla/dashboard 2. Check Workflow ID for operation in file /etc/vla/systemproperties.xml

3. Check workflow availability on vCenter Orchestrator

4. Reinstall vCenter Orchestrator package or correct vLA config file

• All actions are unavailable for Virtual Host in Operations / Virtualization, Virtual Host have a status disconnected in Details property

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Possible reason: ESXi host unavailable

o Solution: Check ESXi host status on vCenter Server Make it available for vCenter Server

• vCenter Server is not displaying in LVM adapter

Possible reason: vCenter Server unavailable for vLA

o Solution: check state of the vCenter Server in vLA dashboard. Make vCenter Server available for vLA.

“Not connected/Not ready” means that vLA can not connect to vCenter Server or is unable to fetch inventory data or the inventory data retrieval is in progress.

“Configuration … is missing” means that no credentials was found in the credential store for specified server.

Credentials can be added by the Credentials_add.sh command on the vLA .

• Error: HTTP Status code: 401

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Possible reasons: The adapter was configured with the wrong credentials (username or password) or hostname.

Password on the vLA server was changed on the vLA after adapter configuration.

o Solution: Correct the password to the application server, or reset it to a known password on the vLA with the “vla_user.sh” command.

User Guide for VMware Adapter for SAP LVM VERSION 1.2