Hana in three steps
In 2025, mainstream support for the SAP Business Suite will end on every database. There still seems to be plenty of time until then, but there are numerous challenges to consider when migrating to Hana, from the infrastructure to the individualized applications.
The more complex the desired target environment is, the easier it is for errors to creep in during configuration and deployment.
At the same time, Hana offers numerous new functionalities. These enable new applications such as big data scenarios in particular, which can be set up with Apache Hadoop.
This free framework for scalable, distributed software, written in Java, makes it possible to carry out computationally intensive processes with large, unstructured data volumes on computer clusters.
Many companies also need to expand and update their infrastructure for the installation of Hana. Double migration effort must be avoided.
Once the basic technical and organizational preparations have been made, the hardware must be set up for each server and each environment, the operating system and Hana installed and configured, the solution validated and adapted, and maintenance and servicing ensured during operation.
As these processes are also very time-consuming, any simplification is welcome. Computacenter achieves this with the Hana-o-Mat, an automation solution for the configuration, installation and validation of Hana instances, which significantly reduces the time and effort required for these steps.
These are methods used by open source tools that independently configure and deploy Hana instances based on completed Excel files, the preflight sheets. Companies only have to complete three process steps.
Step 1: The individual IT landscape
In the first step, the customer works with Computacenter's experts to develop an individual SAP landscape for their own company. This future-oriented environment should optimally fulfill the respective requirements.
In doing so, the consultants point out possibilities for the automation of services. This also includes a possible renewal of the IT infrastructure, for example by switching to the public cloud, which is also taken into consideration. A comprehensive overview is necessary for these considerations and plans in order to be able to map big data topics with Hadoop, for example, in addition to the pure SAP environment in the future.
Here Computacenter can take over the design of the complex overall environment on request.
Step 2: Configuration as required
In step two, the relevant specifications of all existing Hana environments are recorded in a ready-made preflight sheet. The customer must enter all the required parameters; known data is added automatically.
These parameters include, for example, SAP system name and number, desired components, usage type and IP addresses of the servers. When filling in the Excel sheets for the first time, the consultants can provide support if required, but after a few repetitions this usually works independently without any problems.
Step 3: Fully automated deployment
Based on the completed preflight sheets, the Hana-o-Mat, an algorithm developed by Computacenter, creates the desired configuration fully automatically. The solution takes care of the complete installation, configuration and validation of the Hana instances.
This guarantees a consistent, transparent result across all environments and significantly reduces the risk of human error.
Added value of automation
This automated solution allows companies to benefit from numerous advantages. Above all, these include time savings, cost reductions, simpler, more efficient management and fewer errors.
Scalability is also significantly optimized, as entire environments can now be configured and installed with just a few entries instead of individual servers. This also gives companies guaranteed quality.
As it is no longer necessary to make changes to individual servers, they are always set up in the same way and function identically. This eliminates the need to search for individual errors on individual servers due to incorrect settings.
The installation is automated and verified and allows new machines to be added dynamically. The more complex the environment, the greater the benefits.
With completed preflight sheets, for example, 24 machines can be set up in just four hours. Accordingly, companies can achieve full scalability of the IT environment with scale-up or scale-out architectures, Hana system replication or high-availability solutions.
This not only facilitates configuration management during operation, but also the creation of development and test environments.
This applies regardless of hardware types and operating models. The solution therefore also works in the public cloud based on AWS or Azure, in the private cloud with OpenStack, in hybrid scenarios and on premise with x-86 (64-bit), VMware and IBM Power environments on Linux versions of Suse and RedHat.
The Computacenter Hana-o-Mat modules are mapped in the system configuration and orchestration tools Puppet or Ansible. If companies want to use a different hardware or software environment for Hana or want different architectures, changes can be made with just a few adjustments.
The configuration solution is even expected to be available as open source in the near future.
The solution also offers a major advantage for the use of big data scenarios based on Hana and Hadoop, as the Hana-o-Mat can also be used to automate Hadoop deployment in addition to Hana deployment.
Conclusion
Computacenter Hana-o-Mat provides companies with a largely automated solution for the configuration, installation and validation management of Hana instances. This ranges from development, testing and deployment to productive use.
This solution can also be used in other scenarios. For example, the solution is already improving the setup of complex big data scenarios with Hadoop and Hana. This allows big data processes to be executed efficiently on a shared database of Hana and Hadoop clusters.
In the future, it should also be possible to deploy SAP IQ and SAP Application Server at the touch of a button.
