Creating AWS Resources and
Configuring the Operating System for SAP NetWeaver Installation
In this scenario, we will provision an Amazon EC2 instance for installing SAP as a standard system; i.e., ABAP System Central Services (ASCS) and Primary Application Server (PAS) will run on one host.
Note
In this section, the syntax shown for the AWS CLI and Linux commands is specific to
the scope of this document. Each command supports many additional options. For more
information, use the AWS CLI aws help command or refer to the
documentation.
Step 1. Check the Region Where You
Want to Deploy Your AWS Resources
Display the AWS CLI configuration data.
$aws configure list
In the command output, make sure that the default region that’s listed is the same as the target region where you want to deploy your AWS resources and install SAP NetWeaver.
Step 2. Create a JSON File for
the Amazon EBS Storage
Create a JSON file that contains the storage requirements for SAP Install volumes; for example:
[ { "DeviceName": "/dev/sdh", "Ebs": { "VolumeSize";: 50, "VolumeType";: "gp2";, "DeleteOnTermination": true } }, { "DeviceName": "/dev/sdg", "Ebs": { "VolumeSize": 50, "VolumeType": "gp2", "DeleteOnTermination": true } } ]
Step 3. Launch the Amazon EC2
Instance
Launch the Amazon EC2 instance for the SAP installation in your target region by using the information that you gathered in the preparation phase. You will also be creating the required storage volumes and attaching them to the Amazon EC2 instance for the SAP installation, based on the JSON file that you created in the previous step.
Use the following syntax:
$ aws ec2 run-instances
--image-id AMI-ID
--count number-of-EC2-instances
--instance-type instance-type
--key-name=name-of-key-pair
--security-group-ids security-group-ID
--subnet-id subnet-ID
--block-device-mappings file://C:\Users\file.json
--region region-IDThe JSON file is the storage file that you created in step 2.
When using the command, make sure to place the command and its parameters on a single line; for example:
$aws ec2 run-instances --image-id ami-123456789abcdefgh --count 1 --instance-type m5.large --key-name=my_key --security-group-ids sg-123456789abcdefgh --subnet-id subnet-1234abcd --block-device-mappings file://C:\Users\storage.json
Step 4. Update the
Hostname
Log in to your SAP Instance with Secure Shell (SSH) using the private key pair, and switch to root user to update the hostname along with the domain name according to your requirements. For detailed steps, see the AWS Knowledge Center article for your operating system:
Alternatively, you can edit the /etc/hosts file and manually
add this entry. For SAP systems, the hostname should not exceed 13 characters and
should comply with SAP standards. See SAP OSS Note 611361
Step 5. Install
Prerequisite Packages
Note
Your Amazon EC2 instance should have access to the internet to read and download required packages from the SUSE or Red Hat repository.
As root user, use the following commands to install the Linux packages that are required for SAP installation.
SLES syntax:
To install a package: zypper install
package-name
To remove a package: zypper remove
package-name
RHEL syntax:
To install a package: yum install
package-name
To remove a package: yum remove
package-name
-
Install
nfs-utils, which is required for mounting the Amazon EFS mounts onto the Linux host. -
Install the
nvme-clipackage to view the NVMe device mapping of Amazon EBS volumes. -
Install SSM Agent by following the instructions in the AWS Systems Manager user guide.
-
Install SAP data provider.
#cd /tmp#wget https://s3.amazonaws.com/aws-data-provider/bin/aws-agent_install.sh#chmod ugo+x aws-agent_install.sh#sudo ./aws-agent_install.sh
Step 6. Identify the Amazon EBS
Device from NVMe Block Devices
On Nitro-based instances, device names that are specified in the block
device mapping (step 2) are
renamed as /dev/nvme[0-26]n. Before you proceed with the next step,
ensure that you are using the appropriate device name to create a file system. Refer
to the AWS documentation
to learn how to find the Amazon EBS device on Nitro-based instances.
Step 7. Format Block Devices
for Mounting SAP File Systems
To view the list of volumes attached to your instance and their device names, run
the lsblk command as root user. The command displays the list of
devices that are attached to your instance.
# lsblk
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
nvme1n1 259:0 0 50G 0 disk
nvme0n1 259:1 0 10G 0 disk
└nvme0n1p1 259:2 0 10G 0 part /
nvme2n1 259:3 0 50G 0 disk
# Format the block device for /usr/sap, swap, and other file
systems that are needed to install SAP. As root user, format the Amazon EBS volumes
attached to your instance to store local SAP files. You need to create a label for
the file system as well. This label will be used to mount the file system.
#mkfs.xfs -f /dev/nvme1n1 -L USR_SAP
Tip
NVMe device IDs associated with the volume could change during reboots. To avoid mount errors during instance reboots, you need to create a label for your file systems and mount them by label rather than by the actual NVMe IDs. This will also help in the situation where you need to change your instance type between Nitro-based and non Nitro-based instances.
Step 8. Create Directories
and Mount the File System
As root user, create the directories to mount the file systems required for SAP
installation. Start with the /usr/sap mount, using the syntax
mkdir <directory-path>.
#mkdir /usr/sap
As root user, add entries to the /etc/fstab file and mount
the file systems. Adding entries to /etc/fstab ensures that
your file systems are mounted automatically when your Amazon EC2 instance is restarted.
Add the entries for local SAP file systems to the /etc/fstab
file by using the following commands:
#echo "/dev/disk/by-label/USR_SAP /usr/sap xfs noatime,nodiratime,logbsize=256k 0 0" >> /etc/fstab
To mount the file system that has been added to /etc/fstab,
use the syntax mount -a.
#mount -a#df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on devtmpfs 3.8G 8.0K 3.8G 1% /dev tmpfs 3.8G 0 3.8G 0% /dev/shm tmpfs 3.8G 9.5M 3.8G 1% /run /dev/nvme0n1p1 9.8G 1.4G 7.9G 15% / tmpfs 3.8G 0 3.8G 0% /sys/fs/cgroup tmpfs 769M 0 769M 0% /run/user/1000 /dev/nvme1n1 50G 33M 50G 1% /usr/sap#
Here you can see that /usr/sap is mounted on device
/dev/nvme1n1.
Step 9. Create
Swap for SAP Installation
Linux swap functionality can improve the overall performance of the system and is
a mandatory prerequisite for SAP installation. To determine the value for swap,
follow the recommendations in the SAP Note 1597355
To allocate swap on device /dev/nvme2n1, use the following commands:
#lsblk NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT nvme1n1 259:0 0 50G 0 disk /usr/sap nvme0n1 259:1 0 10G 0 disk └nvme0n1p1 259:2 0 10G 0 part / nvme2n1 259:3 0 50G 0 disk##mkswap -f /dev/nvme2n1 -L SWAP Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 50 GiB (53687087104 bytes) LABEL=SWAP, UUID=07291579-afb6-4e5f-8828-4c1441841f9b#swapon -L SWAP#swapon -s Filename Type Size Used Priority /dev/nvme2n1 partition 52428796 0 -1#
Device /dev/nvme2n1 is now allocated to be used as swap by the SAP
application that will be installed on this host.
Step 10. Creating the Amazon EFS
Mount for /usr/sap/trans and /sapmnt
To create an Amazon EFS file system and mount it on the Amazon EC2 instance, do the following:
-
Create a security group for Amazon EFS.
$aws ec2 create-security-group --group-name efs-sap-sg --description "Amazon EFS for SAP, SG for EFS " --vpc-id vpc-123456789abcdefghMake a note of the security group ID that is displayed in the output.
{ "GroupId": "sg-abc12def " }In the example, the security group ID is
sg-abc12def. -
Create an inbound rule for the security group.
$aws ec2 authorize-security-group-ingress --group-id sg-abc12def --protocol tcp --port 2049 --cidr 0.0.0.0/0 -
Create an Amazon EFS file system.
$aws efs create-file-system --creation-token efsforsapThe command should display the following output:
{ "SizeInBytes": { "Value": 0 }, "CreationToken": "efsforsap", "Encrypted": false, "CreationTime": 1523374253.0, "PerformanceMode": "generalPurpose", "FileSystemId": "fs-abc12def", "NumberOfMountTargets": 0, "LifeCycleState": "creating", "OwnerId": "xxxxxxxxxxxx" }Make a note of the
FileSystemIdvalue. In this example,FileSystemIdisfs-abc12def. -
Create the tag for
FileSystemId.$aws efs create-tags --file-system-idFileSystemIdKey=Name,Value=SomeExampleNameValueIn this example, the key is
usrsapand the value isECC.$aws efs create-tags --file-system-id fs-abc12def --tags Key=usrsap,Value=ECC -
Create the mount target.
$aws efs create-mount-target --file-system-id fs-abc12def --subnet- id subnet-a98c8386 --security-group sg-abc12defThe command should display the following output:
{ "MountTargetId": "fsmt-123abc45", "NetworkInterfaceId": "xxxxxxxxxx", "FileSystemId";: "fs-abc12def ", "LifeCycleState": "creating", "SubnetId": "xxxxxxxxxxx", "OwnerId": "xxxxxxxxxxxx", "IpAddress": "x.x.x.x" }Make a note of the
LifeCycleStatevalue, which iscreatingin the example. -
Wait for a few minutes, and then check the status of creation by using the following command:
$aws efs describe-mount-targets --file-system-id fs-abc12defThe mount target
fsmt-061ab24eis now available.{ "MountTargets": [ { "MountTargetId": "fsmt-061ab24e", "NetworkInterfaceId": " xxxxxxxxxx ", "FileSystemId": "fs-abc12def", ";LifeCycleState": "available", "SubnetId": " xxxxxxxxxxx ", "OwnerId": " xxxxxxxxxxx", "IpAddress": "x.x.x.x" } ] } -
The DNS name for your file system on Amazon EFS should use the following naming convention:
file-system-id.efs.aws-region.amazonaws.com.rproxy.goskope.comIn this example,
us-east-1is the AWS Region.fs-abc12def.efs.us-east-1.amazonaws.com -
Use SSH to connect to your Amazon EC2 instance and create the mount point.
#mkdir /usr/sap/trans -
Mount the Amazon EFS file system. Mounting Amazon EFS using a DNS name is by default deactivated on a VPC. Instead, you can use an IP address to the corresponding file system.
#sudo mount -t nfs -o nfsvers=4.1,rsize=1048576,wsize=1048576,hard,timeo=600,retrans=2ip-address:/trans</usr/sap/trans>This IP address can be found in step 7; for example:
#sudo mount -t nfs -o nfsvers=4.1,rsize=1048576,wsize=1048576,hard,timeo=600,retrans=2 fs-abc12def.efs.us-east-1.amazonaws.com:/trans /usr/sap/trans
Repeat steps 8-9 to create other Amazon EFS mount points for
/sapmnt and any other SAP software that needs to be shared
between the Amazon EC2 instances.
Step 11. Installing SAP on
Amazon EC2
Amazon EC2 is ready for SAP NetWeaver installation. Download the software from the
SAP Support Portal
Note
SAP Software Provisioning Manager (SWPM) Prerequisites Checker validates your installation host for compliance with most of the prerequisites defined in the installation guide. We recommend using this feature for your installations.
