microsoft technical training -...

Microsoft Technical Training11 March 2015

Renaissance Kuala Lumpur Hotel

SAP on Microsoft Azure

Planning and Implementing SAP on Microsoft Azure March 2015

Introductions ½ hour

Cloud Computing Overview ½ hour

Microsoft Azure ½ hour

Microsoft Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) ½ hour

SAP on Microsoft Azure 2 hours

Lunch 1 hour

SQL Server for SAP on Microsoft Azure 2 hours

Azure IaaS Virtual Machines 1.5 hours

Monitoring Extensions for SAP on Azure ½ hour

An overview of Cloud Computing

• Cloud Computing originated from the simple model of leasing out excess

computing capacity

• The progression from physical computing evolved to virtualization, on-premise,

private clouds, and most recently to 3 classes of cloud computing:

• IaaS – Infrastructure as a Service

• PaaS – Platform as a Service

• SaaS – Software as a Service

• Modern cloud services are highly tuned and highly scalable, enabling instant

access to computing capacity, on demand

Hosting & Cloud

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Microsoft Azure Global Presence

US North Central

Asia Pacific Southeast

Asia Pacific East

Europe North

Europe West

US South Central

US EastUS West

Major datacenter

CDN node

Japan West

Japan East

Brazil South

Australia East and

Australia West

Current as at August 2014

China East and China

West*

*partner datacenter

Microsoft Azure by the numbers

• 1989: The year Microsoft opened its first datacenter on its Redmond, Washington campus

• 1 billion customers, 20 million businesses: The number of customers and businesses in more than 90 countries that use the Microsoft

cloud

• 90: The number of marketplaces that our cloud services are available in today

• 200+: The number of online services delivered by Microsoft’s datacenters 24x7x365

• $15 billion+: Microsoft’s investment in building our huge cloud infrastructure

• 1 million+: The number of servers hosted in our datacenters

• 100+: The number of datacenters Microsoft has in its global cloud infrastructure portfolio

• 15 trillion+: The number of data objects we store in our datacenters

• 1.5 million+: The average number of requests our networks process per second

• 3: The number of times Microsoft’s fiber optic network, one of North America’s largest, could stretch to the moon and back

• 1.125: Microsoft’s average PUE for its new datacenters. Power usage effectiveness (PUE) is a metric of datacenter energy efficiency and is

the ratio of the power and cooling overhead required to support our server load. The industry average is 1.8

• 2.3 billion kWh: The amount of green power purchased by Microsoft as part of our carbon-neutral goal — ranking as the third most

purchased by any U.S. company, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

• 16: The number of carbon offset projects Microsoft has invested in, including projects in Brazil, Cambodia, China, Guatemala, India, Kenya,

Mongolia, Peru, Turkey and the United States (including Keechi Wind Power investment announced November 4, 2013)

• 100%: The percentage of our servers and electronic equipment that we send to a third-party vendor for recycling and/or reselling after it

has been securely decommissioned

• 2007: The year Microsoft began sharing its best practices for cloud infrastructure with the industry. Download our latest Top Ten Best

Business Practices for Environmentally Sustainable Datacenters white paper

Source: Microsoft’s Cloud Infrastructure Datacenters and Network Fact Sheet, June 2014

http://cdn.globalfoundationservices.com/documents/Datacenter_and_Network_Facts_June_2014.pdf

http://cdn.globalfoundationservices.com/documents/Datacenter_and_Network_Facts_June_2014.pdf

Azure Services and Management

Microsoft Azure Management Portal (Web and REST API)

Microsoft Azure Preview Portal

Microsoft Azure IaaS – What is it?

Microsoft Azure Infrastructure as a Service consists of several key components equating to the common

components found in todays datacenters; as well as additional facilities designed to further take advantage of

Microsoft Azure capabilities, though drastically reducing the infrastructure planning and expense obligations

from the customer.

Virtual Machines – Units of CPU and RAM, deployed to run an Operating System (Windows or Linux) Includes OS license.

Microsoft Azure BLOB Storage – Highly scalable storage, providing Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) and native large

data file storage (e.g. SQL Data and Log files)

Network Services – designed to connect Azure Virtual Machines and customer WAN

Affinity Groups – logical grouping of Azure Services to ensure colocation and optimized performance (5)

Availability Sets – Categorization of Azure VM’s to ensure deployment across Fault Domains and availability

Cloud Services – Designed to assist in management of network resources

Virtual Networks – Networks created within Microsoft Azure to link Virtual Machines together

VPN & ExpressRoute – Connectivity options for on-premises networks; VPN offering point-to-site and site-to-

site connectivity through common device configuration scripts and Windows Server; and ExpressRoute with

increasing degrees of bandwidth and latency over VPN

Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines

Microsoft Azure IaaS Single Virtual Machine components

Microsoft Azure

Azure BLOB Storage

VHD1

Operating

System

(Windows/Linux)

VHD2

Data1

VHD…

Data…

Azure

Compute

Node

Azure

Virtual

Machine

Temporary

Storage Disk

Azure Compute

Node

Azure Compute

Node

Azure BLOB Storage

Microsoft Azure VMs in a Virtual NetworkMicrosoft Azure IaaS Virtual Machine components deployed across Microsoft Azure and connected to the customer network

VHD1

OS

VHD2

Data1

VHD…

Data…

VM

Temp

Microsoft Azure

VHD1

OS

VHD2

Data1

VHD…

Data…

VM

Temp

VHD1

OS

VHD2

Data1

VHD…

Data…

VM

Temp

Azure Virtual Network

Internet VPN

ExpressRoute Services

Customer Network

Microsoft Azure IaaS Virtual Machine Types (Standard Tier)

VM Name CPU Cores Memory # Data

Disks

G1 2 24 2

G2 4 56 4

G3 8 112 8

G4 16 224 16

G5 32 448 32

G-Series – Largest VM sizes (coming very soon)

Memory Intensive Instances

VM Name CPU Cores Memory # Data Disks IOPS SSD (D-series)

A5 / D11 * 2 14 GB 4 4 x 500 100

A6 / D12 * 4 28 Gb 8 8 x 500 200

A7 / D13 * 8 56 GB 16 16 x 500 400

Compute Intensive Instances

VM Size CPU Cores Memory # Data Disks IOPS SSD (D-series)

A8 / D13 * 8 56 GB 16 16 x 500 400

A9 / D14 * 16 112 Gb 16 16 x 500 800Current as at October 2014

D-Series VMs, SSD D: drive and

Microsoft Azure IaaS Virtual Machine Types (Standard Tier)

VM Name CPU Cores Memory # Data Disks SAPS

G1 2 24 2 2,200

G2 4 56 4 4,400

G3 8 112 8 8,800

G4 16 224 16 17,600

G5 32 448 32 36,000

G-Series – Largest VM sizes (coming very soon)

Memory Intensive Instances

VM Name CPU Cores Memory # Data Disks IOPS SSD (D-series)

A5 / D11 * 2 14 GB 4 4 x 500 100

A6 / D12 * 4 28 Gb 8 8 x 500 200

A7 / D13 * 8 56 GB 16 16 x 500 400

Compute Intensive Instances

VM Size CPU Cores Memory # Data Disks IOPS SSD (D-series)

A8 / D13 * 8 56 GB 16 16 x 500 400

A9 / D14 * 16 112 Gb 16 16 x 500 800Current as at October 2014

D-Series VMs, SSD D: drive and

Azure Blob Storage concepts

Persistent Virtual Machine VHDs are stored in Azure Blob Storage, attached at VM configuration time and

exist through start/stop/restart and allocation/de-allocation of Virtual Machines to Compute Nodes.

Azure Storage accounts are allocated to Azure subscriptions (multiple storage accounts can exist within a

subscription) and are organized in a hierarchical fashion, with VHD’s being stored in individual containers

within the storage account. Each Azure subscription can have up to 50 Azure Storage Accounts.

VHD’s are “Page BLOB” objects (optimized for frequent

read/write) are up to 1 TB in size, provide up to 500 IOPS each,

need to be fixed (i.e. not dynamic) and are the location

where you install the OS, applications or databases and

store data.

Azure Storage accounts have a 20,000 IOPS limit per account,

so it is important to manage your SAP system deployments

across storage accounts to achieve optimal performance.

Note: VHDX format hard drives are not supported on Microsoft Azure IaaS

Microsoft Azure Page Blob Storage and Data Disks

Microsoft Azure Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Virtual Machines have access to two types of storage:

• 1 x Temporary, non-persistent storage disk

• Multiple, persistent VHD’s stored in Azure Page Blob Storage

Temporary storage exists on the compute nodes that the Virtual Machines are allocated to and can be used

for non-permanent data, like the OS Pagefile. It does not persist through VM de-allocation. This is commonly

the “D:” Drive, but can be changed from within the VM.

The VHD’s attached to your IaaS Virtual Machines are stored in BLOB Storage, are triple redundant (at a

minimum with LRS), optimized for frequent read/write and are the cornerstone to build your Virtual Machines.

The Operating System is installed to the first disk, and subsequent disks are available from within the operating

system for various uses.

VHDs are created or uploaded as “Disks” within Blob storage. “Images” are either supplied from the VM depot

or created from existing Disks, and used as a template to create a new VM.

Larger Virtual Machine types allow more VHD’s to be attached than smaller Virtual Machine Types. (e.g. A0 = 1

VHD; A9 = up to 16 VHD’s)

Affinity Groups

Within Microsoft Azure’s global datacenter network, selecting the Azure region to deploy Virtual

Machines provides a coarse granularity of control over the VM deployment location and little

guarantee of networking communication performance, across hundreds of thousands of compute

nodes within the datacenter.

Affinity Groups are an Azure Virtual Machine attribute indicating to Microsoft Azure to co-locate

specific Azure Virtual Machines to ensure optimal communication between compute and storage

clusters and store the VHDs as close to their respective VMs as possible.

It is ideal to have all the Cloud Services within one region assigned to a single Affinity Group in

order to optimize low-latency system-to-system communication (ex. ECC to BW.)

Availability Sets

Within Microsoft Azure’s datacenters, compute nodes are divided into Fault Domains and Upgrade

Domains, in order to safeguard against, respectively, localized hardware failure (Server, rack,

network, power) and to allow for orderly maintenance of the computer nodes.

Availability Sets are an Azure Virtual Machine attribute indicating to Microsoft Azure to NOT co-

locate specific Azure Virtual Machines on the same compute nodes, in order to ensure availability

and manage VM planned maintenance through a mechanism that allows for service continuity.

These Availability Sets can safely protect a maximum of 5 Virtual Machines at a time. In the case of

a 6th VM being placed in an Availability Set, there is a chance that it is collocated with another VM

in the same Availability Set, thereby reducing the protection offered.

It is recommended to collocate VMs hosting similar services within Availability Sets to ensure

Service Continuity. In the case of SAP, this means Application Servers and Database Servers

separated, each within their own Availability Set.

Availability Sets I: Fault DomainsPlanning for resilient Virtual Machine Availability

When you deploy multiple Virtual Machines, there are steps that can be taken to ensure that potential outages

limit the impact on running applications. Availability Sets ensure that Virtual Machines within them do not get

deployed within the same fault or upgrade domains, thereby limiting the impact of hardware/server/rack

failures.


Azure Compute Node

Microsoft Azure

Azure Compute Node

Azure BLOB Storage

VHD VHD VHD VHD

VHD VHD VHD VHD

VHD VHD VHD VHD

Azure Compute Node

Loss of Compute Node

Availability Set 1

Availability Set 2

Availability Sets II: Upgrade DomainsPlanned Azure Infrastructure Maintenance

Similar to the potential for Single Points of Failure (SPOFs) with servers, racks and hardware; planned

maintenance of Azure Infrastructure can disrupt Virtual Machine Availability.

Azure Maintenance awareness is typically advertised via email and RSS feed with sufficient advance notice to

plan around outages, and normally outside of typical business hours for the regional datacenter.


Azure Compute Node

Microsoft Azure

Azure Compute Node

Azure BLOB Storage

VHD VHD VHD VHD

VHD VHD VHD VHD

VHD VHD VHD VHD

Azure Compute Node

Loss of Compute Node

Availability Set 1

Availability Set 2

Microsoft Azure Virtual Networks

One of the most important aspects of deploying SAP on Microsoft Azure is a robust network

architecture that will support your SAP deployments requirements, either entirely in Azure, or in the

Hybrid-IT scenario.

It is also important to recognize one of the main impacting factors in cloud deployments;

bandwidth and latency in network communications within Azure, within your network and between

the Azure and your network sites.

Some important features of the Azure network deployments that are not common to on-premises

deployments:

• Cloud Services – An efficient method for deploying private network resources like DHCP,

gateway, and Azure DNS. 1 Cloud Service to many VM relationship.

• Virtual Networks – A self-contained virtual network that you can deploy. 1 Virtual Network to

many VM relationship.

• Virtual Machine Endpoints – TCP Ports exposed on each Virtual Machine to allow

applications/services communication, by default on the *.cloudapp.net domain, or alternately

on the customer-specified domain.

Microsoft Azure Virtual Network planning

IP Addressing & Sub-netting

• Virtual Machines in Azure are, by default, allocated dynamic IP addresses through DHCP which

persist through the existence of the VM deployment. Once deallocated from Azure that IP

address may change when allocated again. Static IP addresses can also be assigned to specific

VMs, at creation or afterwards.

• Proper allocation of subnets to allow sufficient IP addresses is an important consideration when

structuring Azure Virtual Networks.

Active Directory

• Traditional on-premise Active Directory is supplemented by the directory services in Microsoft

Azure, and the two can be synced to extend the on-premise identity management to Azure

through the use of the Windows Azure Directory Sync Tool. Active Directory can also be

deployed within an Azure Virtual Machine, for either Azure-only, or Hybrid-IT scenarios,

Network Name/IP Resolution Services (i.e. DNS) can be offered through a customer-deployed DNS

Virtual Machine, or through the Azure DNS capabilities

Microsoft Azure Virtual Private Networks & ExpressRoute

Utilizing VPN negates the requirement to expose specific TCP ports on Virtual Machines to the

Internet, resulting in a more secure deployment and reducing potential attack surfaces

Point-to-Site VPN – used to set up secure VPN connections between specific computers using

Secure Sockets Tunneling Protocol (SSTP)

Site-to-Site VPN – The most

Common deployment pattern

In SAP Landscapes, site-to-site

VPN allows for a ‘flat’ or

‘transparent’ network between

On-premise and Azure,

enabling printing, monitoring,

SAP transports and other

common network traffic

SAP on Azure CertificationProduction-certified May 2014

Note 1928533 - SAP Applications on Azure: Supported Products and Azure VM types

1. SAP ABAP or Java Applications on SAP NetWeaver 7.0 or higher (Kernel ≥ 7.21 pl. 218 /7.21 EXT pl. 23)

• Operating Systems: Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012 & Windows Server 2012 R2

• Databases: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and later, Oracle 11.2.0.4 and later, SAP ASE 16.0 PL02 or later

SAP Product Guest Operating System RDBMS

SAP Business Suite Software 1 Windows SQL Server \ Oracle \ SAP ASE

SAP Business All-in-One Windows SQL Server \ Oracle \ SAP ASE

SAP NetWeaver Application Server ABAP/Java 1 Windows SQL Server \ Oracle \ SAP ASE

SAP HANA Developer Edition (including the HANA

Client software comprised of SQLDBC, ODBO (Windows

only), ODBC, AND JDBC drivers), HANA Studio, and

HANA Database)

SUSE, Linux N/A

http://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1928533

ScenariosRecommended scenarios for running SAP on Azure

There are two scenarios that customers can use to take advantage of the nature of Microsoft Azure to be a

very flexible, low-cost platform for deploying SAP, although the difference is not one that most customers will

have encountered in traditional datacenters.

Azure-Only – SAP Virtual Machines on Azure, without connectivity back to the customer network or systems

Hybrid IT – SAP Virtual Machines on Azure with persistent connectivity back to the customer network

Disaster Recovery – Utilizing Microsoft Azure storage and Virtual Machines as a Disaster Recovery target

datacenter, failing over to Azure Infrastructure as a Service in the event disaster strikes.

In the past, customers have adapted Technology infrastructure (Servers, networks, storage, CPU, memory) to

meet the requirements of their SAP and surrounding systems deployed at their datacenters or colo facilities.

With the adoption of the Azure Cloud computing platform, the technology infrastructure is abstracted in such

a way as to simplify the deployment of that infrastructure as a commodity platform, to meet the requirements

of the SAP application.

VPN

Hybrid IT Scenario SAP Virtual Machines on Azure with persistent connectivity back to the customer network.

Microsoft Azure


Azure Compute Node

Azure Compute Node

Azure BLOB Storage

VHD VHD VHD VHD

VHD VHD VHD VHD

VHD VHD VHD VHD

Azure Compute Node

Customer

Network

Customers connect to the Virtual Machines through site-to-site VPN or ExpressRoute, accessing Azure as a

persistent part of their network (RFC, Printing, SAP GUI, HTTP). Typically Dev, QA, Production systems. Only

supported scenario for Productive SAP systems.

ExpressRoute

Support RequirementsNote 2015553 – SAP on Microsoft Azure Support Prerequisites

To ensure support from both Microsoft and SAP specific prerequisites.

• Azure Enhanced Monitoring Extensions for SAP are deployed correctly to every instance of SAP on Azure

• Deployment according to the technical prerequisites outlined in the 3 documents at

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/dn745892.aspx :

• SAP NetWeaver on Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine Services – Planning and Implementation Guide

• SAP NetWeaver on Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine Services – Deployment Guide

• DBMS Deployment Guide for SAP on Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine Services

• Azure site-to-site or ExpressRoute connectivity from customer network to Azure Virtual Networks

• SAP 3-tier deployments cannot be split across Azure and customer network, Application Servers and DBMS

Servers must exist in Azure OR on-premise

• SAP Application Servers and DBMS Servers must exist within the same Affinity Group and Virtual Network

• All VHDs for a VM must exist within the same Storage Account

• Microsoft Premier Support customer

Not required, however general recommendation:

• Use the closest regional datacenter in order to minimize network latency



http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/dn745892.aspx


ComponentsImportant aspects related to SAP deployments

Active Directory – used to authenticate and protect Windows Administrators, Database users and

SAP Service Users

VPN / ExpressRoute– Required to connect customer and Azure networks to allow transfer of typical

SAP System traffic; SAP GUI, HTTP, SAP Transports (STMS), Remote Function Call (RFC), System

Monitoring, System Center communication etc

VHD’s & Azure BLOB Storage – An important aspect of the Database performance is the layout of

the underlying filesystem for data file storage

Virtual Machine Type – Provides scalable compute resources, allowing a fine degree of

performance control

SAP 2 Tier Configuration

Azure Compute

Node

Azure BLOB Storage

Microsoft Azure


VHD1 VHD2 VHD3 VHD4

A5 VM

2 Core

14 GB

Disk 1

OS

C:\

SQL

Exec;

/usr/sap

/<SID>

Disk2

SQL

DATA

FILE 1

TempDB

1

Disk 3

SQL

DATA

FILE 2

TempDB

2

Disk 4

TempDB

Log

SQL Log

File

Temp;

Page

File

2 Tier - Virtual Machine Type A5 – 2 CPU Core; 14 GB RAM; 4 VHDs

SAP 2 Tier Configuration

Azure Compute

Node

Azure BLOB Storage

Microsoft Azure


VHD1 VHD2 VHD3 VHD4 VHD5 VHD6 VHD7 VHD8

A6 VM

4 Core

28 GB

Disk 1

OS

C:\

SQL

Exec;

/usr/sap

/<SID>

Disk2

SQL

DATA

FILE 1

TempDB

1

Disk 3

SQL

DATA

FILE 2

TempDB

2

Disk 4

SQL

DATA

FILE 3

TempDB

3

Disk 5

SQL

DATA

FILE 4

TempDB

4

Disk 7

(Striped)

SQL Log File

TempDB Log

Temp;

Page

File

2 Tier - Virtual Machine Type A6 – 4 CPU Core; 28 GB RAM; 8 VHDs

SAP 3 Tier Configuration3 Tier - Virtual Machine Types A5 – 4 CPU Core; 28 GB RAM; 4 VHDs

Azure Compute

Node

Azure BLOB Storage

Microsoft Azure


VHD1 VHD2 VHD3 VHD4

A5 VM

2 Core

14 GB

Disk 1

OS

C:\

SQL

Exec

Disk2

SQL

DATA

FILE 1

TempDB

1

Disk 3

SQL

DATA

FILE 2

TempDB

2

Disk 4

SQL

DATA

FILE 3

SQL Log

File

TempDB

Log

Temp;

Page

File

Azure Compute

Node

CI

A5 VM

Azure Compute

Node

App 1

A5 VM

App 2

A5 VM

VHD1/usr/sap

/<SID>

VHD1/usr/sap

/<SID>

VHD1/usr/sap

/<SID>

Azure BLOB Storage

SAP Systems with SQL Data Files directly in Azure Blob Storage

Azure Compute

Node

Microsoft Azure


A5 VM

2 Core

14 GB

Temp;

Page

File

2 Tier example illustrating SQL Server database layout directly in Azure

VHD1

Disk 1

OS

C:\

SQL

Exec;

/usr/sap

/<SID>

TEMPDB

DB & Log Files

.mdf

.ndf

.ldf

http://contoso.blob.core.windows.net/ECD/ECDDATA1.mdf

SAP <SID>

DB & Log Files

.mdf

.ndf

.ldf

Customer

Network

Internet

High-AvailabilitySAP High Availability concepts

There are 2 Single Points of Failure (SPOF) in an SAP system that require protection in the event of localized

hardware failure:

• SAP Central Services - SAP Message Server and SAP Enqueue Server

• SAP Database – SQL Server 2008/2012/2014 Enterprise

In a conventional datacenter, the SAP SCS is protected with Windows FailOver Clustering Services (WFCS)

providing a failover node that hosts standby services for the Message Server and Enqueue Server, as well as a

replicated Enqueue table, holding the logical SAP Locks in the SAP system, allowing failover within seconds,

often times without an interruption in services.

SQL Server protects SAP data through its Log shipping, database mirroring or AlwaysOn capabilities, hosting

database copies with manual or automatic failover.

High-AvailabilitySAP High Availability within Microsoft Azure

When protecting these two SPOF components within Microsoft Azure, you need to take into account the

capabilities that Azure brings to address availability (Availability Sets), and the differences between on-premise

and Azure.

SCS

In Azure, Virtual Machines cannot share disks, as they do in an SAP HA WFCS cluster, so there is no capability

to protect the SCS in an automatic HA capability.

The SLA for the various components that make up a Virtual Machine are as such:

- Cloud service 99.95 % -> 21.6 min

- Virtual Network 99.9 % -> 43.2 min

- Storage 99.9% -> 43.2 min

- Single VM estimate 99.9% -> 43,2 min

Taken as a cumulative risk, this arrives at 99.65% total availability for a Virtual Machine and therefore the SAP

system.

40

High-AvailabilityDatabase High Availability within Microsoft Azure

Database

Azure Virtual Machines do not support shared VHDs, so SQL Server clustered databases are not a possibility

in Azure, however SQL Server still offers several methods for protecting databases from localized failure:

• SQL Server Log Shipping

• Database Mirroring

• SQL Server AlwaysOn

The Microsoft Azure Portal gallery offers a SQL Server AlwaysOn template that fully automates the

configuration and deployment of an AlwaysOn Availability Group that can then be used to protect an SAP

System database.

http://blogs.technet.com/b/dataplatforminsider/archive/2014/08/25/sql-server-alwayson-offering-in-

microsoft-azure-portal-gallery.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/dataplatforminsider/archive/2014/08/25/sql-server-alwayson-offering-in-microsoft-azure-portal-gallery.aspx

Disaster Recovery

The goals and expectations for Disaster Recovery are different than in a High Availability event,

where we expect all capability of the Primary Region to be unavailable and we look to protect the

important data and then resume service out of a secondary region, separated by a considerable

distance.

For SAP Service Disaster Recovery, it would be important to plan to have duplicate Application Tier

(CI, App servers) VMs prepared to be deployed in the case of a Disaster. This would mean that, at

the declaration of a Disaster event, the de-allocated SAP App VMs are deployed in the secondary

Azure region.

The SQL Server Database would be protected through Log Shipping, Database Mirroring or

AlwaysOn Availability Groups with an allocated and running Virtual Machine in the secondary

datacenter that would become the active SAP Database.

Azure Site Recovery Services offers another, less intensive option for ensuring SAP service in a

disaster.

Disaster Recovery II

Microsoft Azure Recovery Services

http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/site-recovery/

• Automated protection and replication of VMs

• Integrated with System Center, SQL Server and Hyper-V Replica

• Policy driven, orchestrated recovery

• Customizable recovery plans

• On-premise to on-premise or on-premise to Azure recovery

• Replication and Recovery to Azure

Microsoft recently acquired the cloud-based business continuity company InMage to enhance the

Virtual Machine replication capabilities. InMage provides hybrid cloud business continuity across

almost any platform; Windows or Linux, physical or virtual, Hyper-V or VMWare, and is now part of

the Azure Recovery Services portfolio.

http://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2014/07/11/microsoft-acquires-inmage-better-business-continuity-

with-azure/

http://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2014/07/11/microsoft-acquires-inmage-better-business-continuity-with-azure/

Backup and RestoreOptions for backing up SAP Systems running in Azure

43

• Offline vs. Online

• Virtual Machine Backups

• Optimizing backup performance

• Traditional SQL database backups to local disk, in this case a VHD

attached to the Virtual Machine

• SQL Database backups natively to Azure Blob Storage

Installing new SAP systems for Azure

The installation of new systems that will run in Azure should be done in such a way that they are

optimized for Azure at the outset:

• The Virtual Machine specs (CPU/RAM) should closely align with the targeted VM type in Azure

(e.g. A5; A7 etc.) to ensure deterministic performance.

• The Windows and SQL Server releases should be supported versions in Azure

• File system layout should be optimized to ensure proper performance once running in Azure.

SQL Server Data & Log Files should be evenly spread across smaller VHD’s to ensure sufficient

IOPS during operation.

• VHDs must be type ‘fixed’ (not dynamically growing) so plan accordingly for space.

• Installation should be done in a VM on Microsoft Hyper-V to avoid a complicated conversion

process.

• If VMWare is the hypervisor of choice on-premise, Microsoft Tools such as System Center Virtual

Machine Manager or the Microsoft Virtual Machine Converter 2.0 Solution Accelerator can be

utilized to convert the Virtual Machine once installation is complete.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=42497

Installing systems on-premise


Installing new SAP systems for Azure

The installation of systems directly in Azure simplifies new installs:

• The Virtual Machine size can be chosen initially and then adapted subsequently if the need

changes. Ensure to tune SAP Profiles and the SQL Server database parameters (initial/max

memory) accordingly

• Customer Images, or Azure provided images can be used

• File system layout should be set up initially to ensure proper performance at peak load. SQL

Server Data & Log Files should be evenly spread across smaller VHD’s to ensure sufficient IOPS

during operation

• SQL Server’s Proportional Fill algorithm, as described in SAP Note 1238993 - Proportional File

Auto-Growth with SQL Server 2008 can be used to distribute the SAP System I/O evenly across

the database data files, ensuring consistent performance.

• VHDs will be allocated properly initially, however this may not be sufficient over the life span of

your SAP system. Plan space properly for future growth.

Installing directly in Azure


Migrating SAP systems to Azure

Assessing a customer SAP landscape for migration to Azure has several dimensions.

What is the motivation for moving to Azure? Simplicity? Flexibility? Cost?

Which of the SAP landscapes are desired to be moved? (SBX/DEV/QA/TST/TRN/PRE/PRD)

What is the current customer situation?

Current SAP datacenter / hosting arrangements?

SAP Services agreements (infrastructure / basis / functional support?)

SAP systems platform? Hypervisor?

SAP release versions, both technical & functional?

SAP peak processing requirements? SAPS? IOPS?

SQL Server for SAP in AzurePlatform for Hybrid Cloud

SQL Server has been enhanced over several generations and has increasing capabilities that

provide significant value in an IaaS Cloud deployment in Microsoft Azure.

• SQL Server Data Files can reside natively in Azure Blob Storage

• SQL Server can backup and restore directly to/from Azure Blob Storage

• Microsoft Azure offers several Images in the Azure Gallery with SQL pre-deployed

• SQL Server Virtual Machines can be deployed that include both the Windows Server and SQL

Server licenses in their hourly cost

• SQL Server licenses through Software Assurance enjoy full mobility to be run in Azure or on-

premise

It is important to note that in the context of SAP on Azure, we are referring to SQL Server

Enterprise deployed in an IaaS Virtual Machine, as opposed to Azure SQL Database, which is a

SaaS Service and not supported for SAP deployments

SQL Server in AzureSupported Versions

49

SQL Server is supported in several different versions for use with SAP in Azure:

• SQL Server 2008 R2

• SQL Server 2012

• SQL Server 2014

While earlier SQL versions are supported by Microsoft, for SAP deployments it was decided to

support SQL Server 2008 R2 as a minimum due to it’s significant SAP-related functionality. It is

recommended to use the latest supported version of SQL Server due to the increasing integration

capabilities (like native Azure backup and data/log file storage.)

Restrictions

• SQL Server Failover Clustering is not supported in Azure

• SQL Server images in the Azure gallery are the incorrect collation for use with SAP. The collation

must be changed prior to using these images

SQL Server Sizing and Performance recommendationsConfiguration Guidelines for performant SAP on Azure systems

Install the SQL Server Executables on the same VHD as the OS

The master, msdb and model databases can all also be located on the C:\

Locate the TempDB data and log files on the same set of VHDs as the SAP database

Place SQL Server data and log files directly on Azure BLOB Storage if possible, for both the SAP

Database, and TempDB

Do NOT put TempDB on the temporary Azure partition (initially Drive D:\) – Relates to A series VMs

VHD’s containing SQL Data/Log files should have an NTFS block size of 64K

The SQL Server Service User should have the ‘Perform volume maintenance tasks’ user right

SQL Server UCS2 Page Compression is strongly recommended

SQL Server’s Proportional Fill algorithm, carefully managed data file free space and SQL Trace file

1117 should be used to strive for homogenous IO performance across the SQL Data Files of the SAP

Database

Use SQL Server to backup to native Azure Blob Storage rather than to a VHD to avoid impacting

the overall system IOPS. Store backup files in separate Storage Account from SAP VHDs.

Create a unique naming convention for backups to Azure Blob Storage to avoid mistakes in

managing backups

SQL Server Sizing and PerformanceSample file system layout for 2-tier SAP on SQL in Microsoft Azure

51

Azure Compute

Node

Azure BLOB Storage

Microsoft Azure


VHD5 VHD6 VHD7

A8 VM

8 Core

56 GB

(Striped)

SQL Log File

TempDB Log

Temp;

Page

File

VHD1 VHD2 VHD3 VHD4 VHD5 VHD6 VHD7 VHD8 VHD9

OS

C:\

SQL

Exec;

/usr/sa

p/<SID

>

SQL

DATA

FILE 1

TempD

B1

SQL

DATA

FILE 2

TempD

B2

SQL

DATA

FILE 3

TempD

B3

SQL

DATA

FILE 4

TempD

B4

SQL

DATA

FILE 4

TempD

B5

SQL

DATA

FILE 4

TempD

B6

SQL

DATA

FILE 4

TempD

B7

SQL

DATA

FILE 4

TempD

B8

High-AvailabilityGeneral recommendations

• Place the Database tier (primary & secondary's) of the SAP System into one Availability Set

• Place the Application Tier of the SAP system (CI, App Server 1, App Server 2… etc.) into a

separate Availability Set

• Different Availability Sets can be used even with all the VMs part of one Cloud Service, Affinity

Group and Virtual Network. Please note that there is a risk that putting more than 5 VMs into

one Availability Set will mean that 2 VMs may go down at one time.

• Static IP addresses are now available within Azure to be assigned to VMs at creation or

afterwards, and are a good idea for SAP systems to ensure that operations are not affected by

the case where IP addresses for a VM may change when allocated/deallocated

• While Static IP addresses are recommended, name resolution should still always utilize FQDN

High-AvailabilitySQL Server High Availability within Microsoft Azure

No support at present for Clustered SQL Databases in Azure.

• SQL Server Log Shipping

• Provide fine grain control over restore timeframe allowing time lag in DB state, protecting against logical

errors.

• Database Mirroring

• Failover partner defined in SAP connection string

• SQL Server AlwaysOn

SQL Server’s AlwaysOn capabilities (or database mirroring in SQL Server 2008 R2) allow synchronous or

asynchronous database replicas to be mirrored much the same as on premise, however the means to

implement AlwaysOn are slightly different in Microsoft Azure.

• AlwaysOn Availability Group can be deployed from the Microsoft Azure Portal Gallery (Recommended):

• http://blogs.technet.com/b/dataplatforminsider/archive/2014/08/25/sql-server-alwayson-offering-in-microsoft-azure-portal-

gallery.aspx

• AlwaysOn Availability Group (AG) Listener Manual creation needs to be created through specific steps, differing from

on-premises

• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn425027.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/dataplatforminsider/archive/2014/08/25/sql-server-alwayson-offering-in-microsoft-azure-portal-gallery.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn425027.aspx

Azure Image GalleryChanging the SQL Server Collation

54

In order to use an image from the Azure Image Gallery, you must first change the default collation

to match SAP’s requirements.

Open a CMD Prompt as Administrator, change to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Setup

Bootstrap\SQLServer2012

Setup.exe /QUIET /ACTION=REBUILDDATABASE /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER

/SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS=Administrator /SQLCOLLATION=SQL_Latin1_General_Cp850_BIN2

Execute the sp_helpsort Stored procedure against the master database to verify the change.

Native Azure Data & Log File storageAzure storage as the data file/log file host

Backup and RestoreSAP Database backups in Microsoft Azure – Backup to VM local disk

Traditional SQL Server backup to disk – Backup the database to a backup file on a VHD attached to

the VM, residing on BLOB Storage. Addressed through drive letter and path, much like any other

SQL Server backup.

This VHD can then be detached and stored

for the desired retention period, in the desired

Azure regional datacenter, or even in

geo-redundant storage.

Native Azure Backups

57

Azure Storage as a backup location

BACKUP DATABASE[NW1] TO URL = ‘https://<StorageAccount>.blob.core.windows.net/sqlbackups/NW1_Feb4_2014-2.bak' WITH CREDENTIAL = 'mycredential', STATS = 5, COMPRESSION;GO ;

Backup and RestoreSAP Database backups in Microsoft Azure – Backup natively to Azure Blob Storage

SQL Server backup directly to Azure Blob storage – SQL Server 2012 CU4 and later can read and write natively to Azure

Blob Storage allowing the SQL backup and restore operations to address a backup file by URL and bypass the VHD on Blob

storage convention.

Prior SQL Server releases (starting with SQL

Server 2005) can leverage the Microsoft SQL Server

Backup to Microsoft Windows Azure Tool to encrypt,

compress and redirect the backup to Azure Blob

Storage.


This backup strategy can provide a low-cost, highly-available,

geographically redundant storage for backups.


How to get started with SAP on Azure

60

Individuals receive a free one-month azure trial with $200 of credit. Visit http://azure.microsoft.com

for more details.

MSDN Subscriptions receive up to $150/month in Azure credit, including a 33% discount on rates

for Virtual Machines and 25% discount on several other Azure Services.

http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/member-offers/msdn-benefits-details/

Requires a Microsoft Account (e.g. [email protected]; [email protected])

http://azure.microsoft.com/

http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/pricing/member-offers/msdn-benefits-details/

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Microsoft Azure Virtual MachinesAzure Management Portal View

61

https://manage.windowsazure.com

https://portal.azure.com/

Microsoft Azure Virtual MachinesCreating your first IaaS Virtual Machine

62

From the Azure Management Portal, go to Virtual Machines New

Compute Virtual Machines Quick Create

Microsoft Azure Virtual MachinesCreating your first IaaS Virtual Machine

63

Once the Virtual Machine is created, provisioned and started, you can view it’s status, properties and

performance metrics through the portal, configure network endpoints or VM type.

You can also connect to it through

Remote Desktop, attach Virtual

Hard Disks, Shutdown (de-allocate,)

capture an image (for redeployment)

or delete it.

Virtual Machine VHD’s in Azure Blob Storage

64

How to Create or Upload your SAP systems I

65

Use the Azure PowerShell Module to upload VHD Add-AzureVHD

Add-AzureVhd [-Destination] <Uri> [[-BaseImageUriToPatch] <Uri>] [[-OverWrite]] [-LocalFilePath <FileInfo>] [-NumberOfThreads <int>]

Example:

C:\>Add-AzureVhd -Destination http://testaccount.blob.core.windows.net/vhds/win7image.vhd -LocalFilePath C:\vhd\Win7.vhd -

NumberOfThreads 32



How to Create or Upload your SAP systems II

66

3rd party software (Ex. CloudXplorer by ClumsyLeaf Software)

Full list: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazurestorage/archive/2010/04/17/windows-azure-storage-explorers.aspx

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/windowsazurestorage/archive/2010/04/17/windows-azure-storage-explorers.aspx

SQL Server Management StudioNative access to Azure Blob Storage

67

Virtual Machine Backup and Restore

68

Differing from database backups, there is often the need to backup the central SAP System objects on

the SAP global directory file system (Profiles, transports, logs, scripts, etc.) Dialog Instances are usually

quicker to simply reinstall.

Online

The Windows Server Backup feature is a native utility in Windows (needs to be added in 2008 R2;

installed by default in 2012/R2) that allows the backup of Server contents. In Server 2008 R2, you would

attach a VHD as a backup target; in Server 2012/(R2) you can do the same things, or it is able to

backup natively to Azure Blob storage. This involves the Microsoft Azure Recovery Service.

Offline

There is sometimes the need to backup the entire VM as a singular unit, in a consistent state. To

achieve this, the simplest method is simply to Shutdown the Virtual machine, and make a copy of the

underlying VHD’s to another location in Blob Storage.

Restoring the VM would consist of the reverse steps; shutting down the VM, deleting the current VHD’s

and copying the VHD’s back from the alternative location and starting the VM up again.

Reasons and Prerequisites

70

Azure Enhanced Monitoring for SAP

As a prerequisite for support from Microsoft and SAP, the Azure Enhanced

Monitoring for SAP needs to be deployed on every SAP Virtual Machine running

in Azure Infrastructure as a Service.

Microsoft’s Azure VM Agent and Extension framework was developed in order to

allow the specialized deployment of specific capabilities, with Virtual Machines

after they had been deployed to Microsoft Azure.

The VM Agent framework is used in conjunction with a delivered PowerShell script

to install the Enhanced Monitoring components and start the communication

between the SAP Kernel components (SAPOSCOL / SAP HostControl) and the

Microsoft Azure Diagnostics Extension

Azure Monitoring Extension for SAPCommunication Flow

71

Azure Enhanced Monitoring for SAP

Virtual Machines deployed out of the Azure gallery since Feb 2014 will have the VM Agent installed on them,

VMs uploaded or already deployed will need to download and install the VM Agent.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=397964

Details can be found at: Note 1409604 - Virtualization on Windows: Enhanced monitoring

Once that is completed, the customer will need

to download and import the PowerShell Module

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9811175&clcid=0x409

then run the PowerShell script

Update-WMConfigForSAP_GUI

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?LinkId=397964


http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9811175&clcid=0x409

Partnering for success – data platform/hybrid cloud

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