SAP NetWeaver
Adaptive Computing Controller Experiences
Tim Arp
SAP Architecture
John Deere
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SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller 7.3 Experiences
John Deere Today – An American icon founded in 1837
and growing outside the United States for more than 50 years
– A world leader in providing
advanced products and services for
agriculture, forestry, construction,
lawn and turf care, landscaping and
irrigation.
– A leading worldwide manufacturer
of off-highway diesel engines
– One of the largest equipment
finance companies in the U.S.
– Key investor in alternative
energy sources
– Exciting new entities: John Deere
Intelligent Solutions Group,
Landscapes, and Water
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SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller 7.3 Experiences
Tim Arp
SAP Architecture
John Deere
Telecommunications
•Visual Basic Software Development
Internet Services
•Web Application Administrator
•Network Administrator
•Design and Architecture web hosting framework with F5 BigIPs
•Developed Automated Web Inventory
SAP Basis
•Developed SAP inventory script
•Automated and streamlined many procedures
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SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller 7.3 Experiences
SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing
Controller Experiences
THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS PRESENTATION IS
PROVIDED FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. WHILE
EFFORTS WERE MADE TO VERIFY THE COMPLETENESS AND
ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS
PRESENTATION, IT IS PROVIDED AS IS WITHOUT WARRANTY
OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED.
The material in this presentation is based on our experience at
John Deere. This may or may not be indicative of what you will
experience in your shop.
SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing
Controller Experiences
•John Deere SAP Environment
•Deere SAP Scripting Environment
•Introduction to ACC
•Preparing for ACC
•Initial Configuration
•Usage of ACC
•Next steps
John Deere SAP Environment
Deere has used SAP software for close to 30 years
– R2 in Europe
– R3 purchase in 1996
Landscapes
– 8 SAP ERP 2005
– 7 SAP NetWeaver 7.0
– SAP CRM 5.0
– SAP SCM 5.0
– SAP SRM 7.0
– SAP Content Server
– SAP Solution Manager
– SAP NetWeaver 7.1
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SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller 7.3 Experiences
John Deere SAP Environment
Application Servers
– IBM P series, AIX 6.1
– Windows Server 2003,2008
Databases
– DB2 OS390
– DB2 AIX
– Maxdb
117 SIDs
257 Servers/LPARs (Logical Partition)
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SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller 7.3 Experiences
SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing
Controller Experiences
•John Deere SAP Environment
•Deere SAP Scripting Environment
•Introduction to ACC
•Preparing for ACC
•Initial Configuration
•Usage of ACC
•Next steps
Deere SAP Scripting Environment
Goals
– Automated inventory of SAP and non-SAP components
– Mass Stop/Start of SAP systems
– Dashboard for Availability and basic properties
Results
– Scripts that run every 10 minutes on all servers gathering their
configurations and installed components
– Command line scripts to stop/start one or many different sids in
parallel
– Dynamic web page showing current status, member servers,
locations, instance type and kernel levels
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SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller 7.3 Experiences
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SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller 7.3 Experiences
Deere SAP Scripting Environment
Problems
– Code has grown complex and supported by myself and one other
person
– Stopping /Starting from the command line is not user friendly
– Only written to work on our AIX servers
Needed features
– Easier to schedule and conduct mass stops and starts
– Ability to move instances from one server to another
– Simpler configurations
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SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller 7.3 Experiences
SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing
Controller Experiences
•John Deere SAP Environment
•Deere SAP Scripting Environment
•Introduction to ACC
•Preparing for ACC
•Initial Configuration
•Usage of ACC
•Next steps
Use Cases for Adaptive Computing
Virtualization
Easy management of SAP System growth:
Start with small servers and relocate to bigger ones with growing requirements.
System parking lot:
Stop idle SAP Systems and “wake them up” whenever they are needed.
Easy and fast hardware replacement:
Easy and fast replacement of servers in the AC landscape.
Mass Operations for hardware maintenance weekend:
Shutdown and startup of all systems with a few clicks in the ACC.
Adapt to growing demand during upgrades and conversions:
Use the most powerful server for upgrade or conversion procedures.
Schedule operations tasks:
Schedule planned SAP system start/stop, and moving systems.
Balance performance peaks:
Provide the required performance for dedicated systems.
Relocate SAP systems and instances
Across physical and virtual servers with AC application virtualization.
Real-time migration across servers without downtime.
© SAP AG 2010. All rights reserved. / Page 13
Application Virtualization
with Adaptive Computing
Any Service, Any time on
Any server
SAP
Application
SAP
Application
SAP
Application
SAP
Application
Adaptive Computing Application Virtualization
IT Infrastructure
Adaptive Computing Controller
Computing
(physical and virtual
servers)
© SAP AG 2010. All rights reserved. / Page 14
Storage
Network
operation of SAP systems,
increases flexibility and reduces
complexity
dynamic assignment of resources
to SAP systems
SAP System Management
Resource Management
Operation
Control
Mass Operations
Adaptive Computing Controller
Current Status
Features and Functions
SAP Applications
(Coupled with OS, Decoupled from OS)
SAP System management (start / stop /
relocate application services)
Mass operations
Relocate virtual machines (with
integrated partner technology)
Resource management of physical and
virtual servers
Monitoring
Managed Landscape
© SAP AG 2010. All rights reserved. / Page 15
Supports releases from 4.6C (4.6D
Kernel) up to the most current release.
Operates on physical and virtual server
technology.
Adaptive Computing Options
SAP Application Coupled with OS
Application
Without
Partner
Virtualization
Technology
Operating System
Single Instance
Start / Stop
Mass Operations
Start / Stop
Hardware
Application
With Partner
Virtualization
Technology
Hardware
© SAP AG 2010. All rights reserved. / Page 16
Application
Single Instance
Start / Stop /
Relocate
Mass Operations
Start / Stop /
Relocate
Application Virtualization
Operating System
Hardware
Single Instance
Start / Stop
Mass Operations
Start / Stop
Operating System
Server Virtualization
SAP Application Decoupled from OS
VM relocate
Application
Application Virtualization
Single Instance
Start / Stop /
Relocate
Mass Operations
Start / Stop /
Relocate
VM relocate
Operating System
Server Virtualization
Hardware
SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing
Controller Experiences
•John
Deere SAP Environment
•Deere SAP Scripting Environment
•Introduction to ACC
•Preparing for ACC
•Initial Configuration
•Usage of ACC
•Next steps
Preparing for ACC
Increasing Availability
– Moving Central Instances to Standalone Enqueue
Simplifying Application Servers
– Moved shared filesystems (sapmnt,trans,etc…) to NetApp NAS filer
– Converting instances to Virtual Hostnames
• ABAP systems worked well just modifying profiles and executing a handful
of trans
• JAVA systems needed to be done via the export/import process
– Installing SAP Host Agents
• Versioning of Host Agent, current release 720.
• Many of the systems had been around for a long time, the profiles needed
to be updated and standardized.
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SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller 7.3 Experiences
Preparing for ACC
Server Layout
– Virtual host as IP Alias on primary adapter
– /sapmnt/<SID>, /usr/sap/trans being served by NetApp NFS
– /usr/sap local filesystem on SAN disk
– /home/<sid>adm, automounted from NetApp NFS
– SAP Host Agent installed
• Created custom script to restart the Host Agent due to reliability problems
• Saposcol doesn’t release shared memory, without running ipcclean
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SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller 7.3 Experiences
SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing
Controller Experiences
•John Deere SAP Environment
•Deere SAP Scripting Environment
•Introduction to ACC
•Preparing for ACC
•Initial Configuration
•Usage of ACC
•Next steps
Initial Configuration
ACC Installation
– Standard NW 7.2 CE java install, ACC is just an additional
application
– Originally started on ACC 7.1, upgraded to 7.2 then 7.3
• Configuration is easily exportable as an XML file.
– Didn’t use SLD to load systems
– Initial systems, used the manual system scan
ACC Dashboard
– Many systems showing up with problems
• SE or CO processes not running
• Errors in profiles
• DNS issues with our windows servers
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SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller 7.3 Experiences
Initial Configuration
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SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller 7.3 Experiences
SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing
Controller Experiences
•John Deere SAP Environment
•Deere SAP Scripting Environment
•Introduction to ACC
•Preparing for ACC
•Initial Configuration
•Usage of ACC
•Next steps
Usage of ACC
Mass stops and starts
– Detailed logging is available
– Many different people can view this, historical view with logs is good
– Dashboard to verify system availability is a plus
– ACC 7.3 this works much better
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SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller 7.3 Experiences
Usage of ACC
System Relocation
– Currently in our environment SAN Disk is not accessible on all servers
– Used a common NFS mounted filesystem to sync
/usr/sap/<SID>/<instance> when prepared or unprepared
– Would it be better to just to have SAN disk available on all servers?
• Simplicity for current operations
• Deployment time
• AIX Live partition mobility isn’t ready in our environment.
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SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller 7.3 Experiences
Usage of ACC
User Exits
– Very easy to configure
– Created one script, ACCHook.pl that would take a few parameters
based on the event called.
– Usage: ACCHook.pl $Event $VirtualHost $Sid $SysNum
User exit events
– PreStopInstance Call to custom script Disable 3rd party Monitoring
– PostStartInstance Call to custom script Enable 3rd party Monitoring
– PreRegisterInstanceService Rsync from the network to the local
/usr/sap/<SID>/<instance>
– PostUnregisterInstanceService Rsync to the network from the local
/usr/sap/<SID>/<instance>
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SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller 7.3 Experiences
Moving Dialog Instance
Stop and Unprepare issued to ACC
Start and Prepare on Server B
ACC
stops
Unprepares
instance
instance
ACCraises
raisesPostUnregisterInstanceService
PreStopInstance
ACC
ACC
Prepares
starts
PreRegisterInstanceService
instance
instance
ACCraises
raises
PostStartInstance
Server A
System
Monitoring
SAP Instance
Moved
Move CAD
CADfrom
from
Server A to Server B
NetApp
NFS Server
/sapmnt/CAD
/usr/sap/trans
/basis/ACC/Sync/CAD_aconf
Sync
adconf
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SAP Instance
from Network
/usr/sap
NFS Mounts
Virtualhost
System
Monitoring
Sync
to Network
/usr/sap
/sapmnt/CAD
/usr/sap/trans
Server B
NFS Mounts
OS390
DB2
SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller 7.3 Experiences
/sapmnt/CAD
/usr/sap/trans
Virtualhost
adconf
High Availability
Deere is using IBM’s HACMP (PowerHA)
– Maintain HA clusters for production systems
– Automatic failover of server hardware
– Fault tolerance with redundant network/disk adapters
Current challenges
– Complexity of maintaining clusters across servers
– Redundant networks and disk infrastructure
– Training and support problems
– Extra downtime required to maintain, update, and test HACMP
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SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller 7.3 Experiences
High Availability
Is ACC a solution for High Availability?
– ACC allows for moving an instance
– Failover would be manual, we have a 24x7 operations staff that
could do this.
– Simplify configuration
•
•
•
•
•
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Eliminate the cluster software
Eliminate cluster infrastructure requirement
Standardize across landscapes
Eliminating extra scripting for cluster
Training, documentation, and support.
SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller 7.3 Experiences
SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing
Controller Experiences
•John Deere SAP Environment
•Deere SAP Scripting Environment
•Introduction to ACC
•Preparing for ACC
•Initial Configuration
•Usage of ACC
•Next steps
Next Steps
•Check out automatic system provisioning
•Manage all SAP systems via ACC
•Can ACC replace the Deere Scripting Environment?
•ACC a solution for high availability?
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SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller 7.3 Experiences
Questions?
ArpTimothyP@JohnDeere.com
http://www.deere.com
http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/adaptive
http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/virtualization
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SAP NetWeaver Adaptive Computing Controller 7.3 Experiences
