community.sap_install Ansible Collection

This Ansible Collection executes various SAP Software installations and configuration tasks for running SAP software on Linux operating systems; with handlers for SAP HANA database lifecycle manager (HDBLCM) and SAP Software Provisioning Manager (SWPM) for programmatic deployment of any SAP solution scenario.

This can be combined with other Ansible Collections to provide end-to-end automation, from download of SAP software installation media through to technical configuration and burstable SAP NetWeaver application servers (start/stop).

Available Scenarios and Infrastructure Platforms

Operating Systems (target machines)

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for SAP Solutions¹
  • RHEL 8.2, 8.4 and later

Scenario	Description	Infrastructure Platform
SAP HANA single node installation	Installation of a SAP HANA Database Server to a single machine	✔️ AWS EC2 ⚠️ GCP VM ⚠️ IBM Cloud, Intel VS ⚠️ IBM Cloud, Power VS ⚠️ Microsoft Azure ✔️ IBM PowerVM LPAR ✔️ OVirt VM ⚠️ VMware vSphere VM
SAP HANA 2-node pacemaker cluster	Installation of a SAP HANA Database Server with HANA System Replication (HSR) in a basic 2-node Pacemaker Cluster configuration	⚠️ AWS EC2 ⚠️ GCP VM ⚠️ IBM Cloud, Intel VS ⚠️ IBM Cloud, Power VS ⚠️ Microsoft Azure ⚠️ IBM PowerVM LPAR ✔️ OVirt VM ⚠️ VMware vSphere VM

Key:

• ✔️ Verified compatibility
• ⚠️ Unverified and untested, expected to be compatible
• ❌ Not compatible

Out of Scope

• AWS Classic environment
• Azure Classic environment using Azure Service Manager (ASM)
• IBM Cloud Classic Infrastructure environment

Functionality

This Ansible Collection executes various SAP Software installations for different SAP solution scenarios, including:

• SAP HANA installations via SAP HANA database lifecycle manager (HDBLCM)

  • Install SAP HANA database server, with any SAP HANA Component (e.g. Live Cache Apps, Application Function Library etc.)
  • Configure Firewall rules and Hosts file for SAP HANA database server instance/s
  • Apply license to SAP HANA
  • Configure storage layout for SAP HANA mount points (i.e. /hana/data, /hana/log, /hana/shared)
  • Install SAP Host Agent
  • Install Linux Pacemaker, configure Pacemaker Fencing Agents and Pacemaker Resource Agents
  • Install SAP HANA System Replication
  • Set HA/DR for SAP HANA System Replication

• Every SAP Software installation via SAP Software Provisioning Manager (SWPM)

  • Run software install tasks using easy Ansible Variable to generate SWPM Unattended installations (sap_swpm Ansible Role default mode).
    • Optional use of templating definitions for repeated installations (sap_swpm Ansible Role default templates mode).
  • Run software install tasks with Ansible Variables one-to-one matched to SWPM Unattended Inifile parameters to generate bespoke SWPM Unattended installations (sap_swpm Ansible Role advanced mode).
    • Optional use of templating definitions for repeated installations (sap_swpm Ansible Role advanced templates mode).
  • Run previously-defined installations with an existing SWPM Unattended inifile.params (sap_swpm Ansible Role inifile_reuse mode)
  • Install Linux Pacemaker, configure Pacemaker Fencing Agents and Pacemaker Resource Agents
  • Set HA/DR with distributed SAP System installations (i.e. ERS)

Contents

An Ansible Playbook can call either an Ansible Role, or the individual Ansible Modules:

• Ansible Roles (runs multiple Ansible Modules)
• Ansible Modules (and adjoining Python/Bash Functions)

For further information regarding the development, code structure and execution workflow please read the Development documentation.

Within this Ansible Collection, there are various Ansible Roles and no custom Ansible Modules.

Ansible Roles

Name	Summary
sap_general_preconfigure	configure general settings for SAP software
sap_netweaver_preconfigure	configure settings for SAP NetWeaver application server
sap_hana_preconfigure	configure settings for SAP HANA database server
sap_hana_install	install SAP HANA via HDBLCM
sap_swpm	install SAP Software via SWPM
sap_ha_install_hana_hsr	install SAP HANA System Replication
sap_ha_prepare_pacemaker	prepare for Linux Pacemaker installation
sap_ha_install_pacemaker	install and configure Linux Pacemaker
sap_ha_set_hana	configure HA/DR for SAP HANA
sap_ha_set_netweaver	configure HA/DR for SAP NetWeaver
sap_hostagent	install SAP Host Agent
sap_storage	configure storage for SAP HANA, with LVM partitions and XFS filesystem
sap_install_media_detect	detect and extract SAP Software installation media

Notes:

In general the "preconfigure" and "prepare" roles are prerequisites for the corresponding installation roles. The logic has been separated to support a flexible execution of the different steps.

Ansible Roles Lint Status

Role Name	Ansible Lint Status
sap_general_preconfigure
sap_netweaver_preconfigure
sap_hana_preconfigure
sap_hana_install

Notes:

• Ansible Playbook localhost executions may have limitations on SAP Software installations
• Ansible Roles for HA/DR are all designed for execution with Terraform

Execution examples

There are various methods to execute the Ansible Collection, dependant on the use case. For more information, see Execution examples with code samples and the summary below:

Execution Scenario	Use Case	Target
Ansible Playbook -> source Ansible Collection -> execute Ansible Task --> run Ansible Role ---> run Ansible Module for Shell (built-in) ---> ...	Complex executions with various interlinked activities; run in parallel or sequentially	Localhost or Remote

Requirements, Dependencies and Testing

Operating System requirements

Designed for Linux operating systems, e.g. RHEL (7.x and 8.x) and SLES (15.x).

This Ansible Collection has not been tested and amended for SAP NetWeaver Application Server instantiations on IBM AIX or Windows Server.

Assumptions for executing the Ansible Roles from this Ansible Collection include:

• Registered OS
• OS Package repositories are available (from the relevant content delivery network of the OS vendor)

N.B. The Ansible Collection works with SLES from version 15 SP3 and upwards, for the following reasons:

• firewalld is used within the Ansible Collection. In SLES 15 SP3, firewalld became the replacement for nftables. See changelog SLE-16300
• SELinux is used within the Ansible Collection. While introduced earlier with community support, full support for SELinux was provided as of SLES 15 SP3. See changelog SLE-17307

Python requirements

Python 3 from the execution/controller host.

Testing on execution/controller host

Tests with Ansible Core release versions:

• Ansible Core 2.11.5 community edition

Tests with Python release versions:

• Python 3.9.7 (i.e. CPython distribution)

Tests with Operating System release versions:

• RHEL 8.4
• macOS 11.6 (Big Sur), with Homebrew used for Python 3.x via PyEnv

Testing with SAP Software Provisioning Manager (SWPM)

SAP SWPM Catalog Products which have been tested:

• SAP S/4HANA AnyPremise 1809, 1909, 2020, 2021
  • One Host installation
  • Dual Host installation
  • Distributed installation
  • High Availability installation
  • System Copy (Homogeneous with SAP HANA Backup / Recovery) installation
  • System Rename
• SAP B/4HANA
• SAP Solution Manager 7.2
• SAP Business Suite (i.e. ECC)
• SAP NetWeaver applications (e.g. GRC)
• SAP Web Dispatcher

References

• Azure:

  • Azure Pacemaker Setup Guide

• AWS:

  • Configuring SAP HANA Scale-Up System Replication with the RHEL HA Add-On on Amazon Web Services (AWS)

• Google Cloud:

  • HA cluster configuration guide for SAP HANA on RHEL

• IBM Cloud:

  • IBM Cloud for SAP portfolio - IBM Cloud Docs

• RHEL:

  • Overview of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux for SAP Solutions subscription
  • Automating SAP HANA Scale-Up System Replication using the RHEL HA Add-On

License

• Apache 2.0

Contributors

Contributors to the Ansible Roles within this Ansible Collection, are shown within /docs/contributors.

Footnotes

1. Overview of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux for SAP Solutions subscription ↩