AWS Launch Wizard for SAP

AWS Launch Wizard for SAP is a service that guides you through the sizing, configuration, and deployment of SAP applications on AWS, and follows AWS cloud application best practices.

AWS Launch Wizard reduces the time it takes to deploy SAP applications on AWS. You input your application requirements, including the database (SAP HANA or SAP ASE) settings, SAP landscape settings, and deployment details on the service console, and Launch Wizard identifies the appropriate AWS resources to deploy and run your SAP application. Launch Wizard provides an estimated cost of deployment, which allows you to modify your resources and instantly view the updated cost. When you finalize your settings, Launch Wizard provisions and configures the selected resources. It then optionally installs SAP application/database software using customer-provided software.

You can create deployments from the Launch Wizard console or AWS Launch Wizard APIs. For more information, see Get started with AWS Launch Wizard for SAP.

After you deploy an SAP application, you can access it from the Amazon EC2 console. You can manage your SAP applications with AWS Systems Manager.

Supported deployments and features of AWS Launch Wizard

Supported deployments

AWS Launch Wizard currently supports the deployment of AWS resources for the following SAP systems and patterns. SAP HANA database software and supported SAP application software are optionally installed and provided by the customer.

Instance selection and configuration

When you input the application requirements, Launch Wizard deploys the necessary AWS resources for a production-ready application. This means that you do not have to figure out how to select the right instances and configure them to run supported SAP applications.

AWS resource selection

Launch Wizard considers CPU/Memory or SAPS requirements that you provide to determine the most appropriate instance types and other resources for your SAP application. You can modify the recommended defaults.

Cost estimation

Launch Wizard provides a cost estimate for the complete deployment that is itemized for each individual resource being deployed. The estimated cost automatically updates each time you change a resource type configuration in the wizard. The provided estimates are only for general comparisons. They are based on On-Demand Instance costs. Actual costs may be lower.

Reusable infrastructure settings

You can save the settings for your AWS infrastructure for the SAP landscape to reuse when you want to deploy SAP systems that function similarly within a landscape. For example, a development configuration can be created for the first development instance, which can later be reused to deploy other development systems.

Some example scenarios for which DevOps and SAP architecture teams can create templates include:

SNS notification

You can provide an SNS topic so that Launch Wizard will send you notifications and alerts about the status of a deployment.

Application resource groups

Launch Wizard creates a resource group for all of the AWS resources created for your SAP system. You can manage the resources through the Amazon EC2 console or by using Systems Manager.

AWS Data Provider for SAP

Deploying and running the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Data Provider for SAP is a prerequisite for running SAP systems on AWS. Launch Wizard automatically deploys AWS Data Provider for SAP on every Amazon EC2 instance that it launches. AWS Data Provider for SAP is a tool that collects performance-related data from AWS services. It makes this data available to SAP applications to help monitor and improve the performance of business transactions. AWS Data Provider for SAP uses operating system, network, and storage data that is most relevant to the operation of the SAP infrastructure. Its data sources include Amazon EC2 and Amazon CloudWatch.

AWS Backint Agent for SAP HANA

Launch Wizard deploys and configures AWS Backint Agent for SAP HANA, an SAP-certified backup and restore application for SAP HANA workloads running on Amazon EC2 instances in the cloud. Launch Wizard supports the deployment and configuration of Backint Agent for single-node, multi-node, and high availability deployments for supported SAP HANA and SAP NetWeaver on SAP HANA applications.

You have the option to choose fully-managed backup or self-managed backup when deploying SAP applications using Launch Wizard for SAP workflow. Launch Wizard for SAP deploys AWS Backint agent for AWS Backup if fully-managed backup is selected or AWS Backint agent for Amazon S3 if self-managed backup is selected as your backup method.

Once the deployment is complete, you must maintain AWS Backint Agent for SAP HANA with latest releases and updated configurations. For more information, see AWS Backint Agent for SAP HANA.

Custom deployment configuration scripts

You can provide custom pre-deployment and post-deployment configuration scripts that can run on various instance tiers, such as SAP HANA Database, Primary Application Server, and Enqueue Replication Server during the pre-deployment and post-deployment configuration phases. Launch Wizard uses a standalone component manager application (AWSTOE) to run the scripts. For more information, see Custom deployment configuration scripts.

Application software installation

Launch Wizard can install SAP application software that you have made available on Amazon S3, including SAP NetWeaver ABAP on SAP HANA and SAP ASE databases, SAP NetWeaver JAVA on SAP HANA and SAP ASE databases, SAP Solution Manager on SAP HANA and SAP ASE databases, SAP S/4HANA, and SAP BW/4HANA. For more details about which operating systems and database versions are supported for each deployment pattern, see SAP applications. For supported software versions and installation details, see Make SAP application software available for AWS Launch Wizard to deploy SAP.

Creation of AWS Service Catalog products

AWS Launch Wizard can create AWS Service Catalog products from successful deployments. The AWS Service Catalog products contain AWS CloudFormation templates and associated application configuration scripts, which are stored in Amazon S3. You can use the AWS Service Catalog products, along with integrations offered by AWS Service Catalog, with third-party products, such as ServiceNow, Jira, or Terraform. Or, you can use the AWS CloudFormation templates and application configuration scripts saved in Amazon S3 to deploy SAP applications that meet the requirements of organizational deployment and governance policies.

In addition to supporting deployments using AWS CloudFormation templates, AWS Service Catalog, and multiple deployment tools supported by AWS Service Catalog, AWS Launch Wizard creates a point-in-time snapshot of the code used to deploy and configure SAP applications at the time of the deployment. You can use the code in its current form for consistent repeated deployments, or you can use the code as a baseline and update it to meet specific application requirements.

AWS Systems Manager for SAP

You can register SAP HANA databases and SAP applications based on SAP HANA database with AWS Systems Manager for SAP. It enables you to configure managed backups with AWS Backup for SAP HANA at the time of deployment with AWS Launch Wizard for SAP. These newly deployed applications have access to the management and operational capability that offered by AWS Systems Manager for SAP.

AWS Regions

Launch Wizard uses various AWS services during the provisioning of the application's environment. Not every workload is supported in all AWS Regions. For a current list of Regions where the workload can be provisioned, see AWS Launch Wizard workload availability.

Components

An SAP application deployed with Launch Wizard includes the following components.

Security groups

Launch Wizard creates optional security groups to ensure that all of the systems sharing the same configuration template can communicate with each other and with systems and end users who access the SAP systems from an IP CIDR range, an external IP address, or security groups. For more information about how Launch Wizard creates security groups and how they are configured, see Security groups in AWS Launch Wizard for SAP.

SAP transport group configuration

You can create an SAP transport file system, or attach an existing transport file system that was created as part of a previous deployment with AWS Launch Wizard. Transport file systems are created with Amazon Elastic File System. For more information, see Amazon Elastic File System setup for transport directory.

Related services

The following AWS services are used when you deploy an SAP application with AWS Launch Wizard.

AWS CloudFormation

AWS CloudFormation is a service that helps you model and set up your AWS resources, and lets you spend more time focusing on your applications that run in AWS. You create a template that describes all of the AWS resources that you want (for example, Amazon EC2 instances or Amazon RDS DB instances), and AWS CloudFormation takes care of provisioning and configuring those resources for you. With AWS Launch Wizard for SAP, you don’t need to build AWS CloudFormation templates to deploy your application. Instead, AWS Launch Wizard combines infrastructure provisioning and application configuration (code that runs on EC2 instances to configure the application) into a unified AWS CloudFormation template. The AWS CloudFormation template is then invoked by AWS Launch Wizard’s backend service to provision an application in your account.

Amazon Virtual Private Cloud security groups

Amazon Virtual Private Cloud security groups act as a virtual firewall for your instance to control inbound and outbound traffic. When you launch an instance in a VPC, you can assign up to five security groups to the instances. AWS Launch Wizard displays the security groups that will be assigned to the EC2 instances that run the SAP applications. This allows the components to communicate.

Amazon Elastic File System

Amazon EFS provides file storage in the AWS Cloud. With Amazon EFS, you can create a file system, mount the file system on an Amazon EC2 instance, and then read and write data to and from your file system. For more information, see Amazon Elastic File System setup for transport directory.

AWS Systems Manager

AWS Systems Manager is an AWS service that you can use to view and control your infrastructure on AWS. Using the AWS Systems Manager console, you can view operational data from multiple AWS services and automate operational tasks across your AWS resources. Systems Manager helps you maintain security and compliance by scanning your managed instances and reporting on, or taking corrective action on, any policy violations that it detects.

Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)

Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS) is a highly available, durable, secure, fully managed pub/sub messaging service that provides topics for high-throughput, push-based, many-to-many messaging. Using Amazon SNS topics, your publisher systems can fan out messages to a large number of subscriber endpoints and send notifications to end users using mobile push, SMS, and email. You can use SNS topics for your Launch Wizard deployments to stay up-to-date on deployment progress. For more information, see the Amazon Simple Notification Service Developer Guide.

Amazon Route 53

Amazon Route 53 is a highly available and scalable Domain Name System (DNS) web service. You can use Route 53 to perform three main functions in any combination: domain registration, DNS routing, and health checking. Launch Wizard integrates with Route 53 hosted zones, which are containers for records. The records contain information about how you want to route traffic for a specific domain, such as example.com, and its subdomains (acme.example.com, zenith.example.com). There are two types of hosted zones: public and private hosted zones. We recommend that you use private hosted zones for SAP applications unless an application must be directly accessible from the internet.

AWS Backint Agent for SAP HANA

AWS Backint Agent for SAP HANA is an SAP-certified backup and restore application for SAP HANA workloads running on Amazon EC2 instances in the cloud. AWS Backint Agent runs as a standalone application that integrates with your existing workflows to back up your SAP HANA database to Amazon S3 and to restore it using SAP HANA Cockpit, SAP HANA Studio, and SQL commands. AWS Backint Agent supports full, incremental, and differential backup of SAP HANA databases. Additionally, you can back up log files and catalogs to Amazon S3. AWS Backint Agent runs on an SAP HANA database server, where backups and catalogs are transferred from the SAP HANA database to the AWS Backint Agent. The AWS Backint Agent stores your files in the S3 bucket that is specified in the agent configuration file. To restore your SAP HANA database server, SAP HANA reads the catalog files stored in your S3 bucket using the AWS Backint Agent. It then initiates a request to restore the required files from S3.

AWS Task Orchestrator and Executor

AWS Task Orchestrator and Executor is component management application used to orchestrate complex workflows, modify system configurations, and test your systems without writing code. This application uses a declarative document schema. As a standalone application it does not require additional server setup. It can run on any cloud infrastructure and on premises. AWS Launch Wizard uses this application to orchestrate the download of the pre- and post-configuration scripts, and to run them.

Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP

Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP is a fully managed service that provides highly reliable, scalable, high-performing, and feature-rich file storage built on NetApp's popular ONTAP file system. You can now deploy and operate SAP HANA on AWS with Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP. For more information, see Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP.

Elastic Load Balancing

Elastic Load Balancing can be deployed as an optional component to load balance internet or intranet traffic between one or more instances. Launch Wizard for SAP supports both Application Load Balancer and Network Load Balancer resources. For more information, see What is Elastic Load Balancing? in the Elastic Load Balancing User Guide.

AWS Systems Manager for SAP

AWS Systems Manager for SAP is a secure end-to-end management solution for resources on AWS. It provides automation capabilities to help you manage and operate your SAP applications on AWS more efficiently with features such as as managed backups with AWS Backup for SAP HANA and graceful start/stop of SAP HANA.