Demystifying SAP HANA Administration

This is the first in a series of blogs by SAP instructors, designed to “demystify” some of the hottest topics in SAP technology. We’ll also provide links to information that can help you expand your knowledge. If you have a topic you’d like us to discuss, post a reply to this blog. And of course, we encourage you to comment or ask questions.  We’re here to help each other learn!

Since its release, SAP HANA represented a radical change in the direction of SAP’s product architecture. As an SAP Instructor, I’ve been wondering how easy it would be to manage the new SAP HANA platform. Can I use platform and administration tools that are currently in place? Or, do I need to learn a new set of gadgets?

After reading through some of the documentation available in SAP Learning Hub, and reviewing SAP courses such as SAP HANA Introduction (HA100), SAP HANA – Operations & Administration (HA200), and SAP HANA Implementation and Modeling (HA300), I realized that the learning curve is quite easy – if you get some guidance up-front. That’s why I’m here! This blog will demystify SAP HANA administration by listing tools you can use to handle periodic administrative tasks, and by explaining the key capabilities of each and when to use them.

If you’re an SAP System Administrator (BASIS Administrator) or Database Administrator, you may be surprised to learn that although there are new tools to manage SAP HANA, some of the old SAP BASIS tools will also help you get the job done. These are the five major SAP HANA administration tools:

• SAP HANA studio
• SAP HANA cockpit
• SAP DB Control Center
• SAP Solution Manager/DBA Cockpit
• Command Line (HDBSQL)

Please note that all diagrams are courtesy of SAP Education and are from the course HA200.

The following figure summarizes the role of each tool.

Tool #1 – SAP HANA studio

Administrators use SAP HANA studio to start and stop services, monitor the system, configure system settings, perform backup/recovery, and manage users and authorizations.

Tool #2 – SAP HANA cockpit

SAP HANA cockpit is an SAP Fiori Launchpad application that provides single point-of-access to a range of web-based applications for the administration of SAP HANA. It’s installed automatically with SAP HANA and displays the content as tiles arranged in groups that can be customized. Additionally, the cockpit provides a role-based concept that enables you to control which tiles/apps from the tiles catalog can be accessed by which administrator.

Tool #3 – SAP DB Control Center

SAP DB Control Center is SAP’s new generation of enterprise-class systems management solutions that enables DBAs to administer and monitor a variety of SAP database products in one graphical user interface, either locally or remotely.

It was first available with SAP HANA SPS 09, and it’s added as a delivery unit that can be downloaded from the SAP Support Portal – Software Downloads.

Tool #4 – SAP Solution Manager/DBACOCKPIT

DBACOCKPIT is an ABAP based database management tool available in SAP NetWeaver ABAP systems such as SAP Solution Manager. It supports SAP HANA as well as other databases.

The transaction code DBACOCKPIT enables you to monitor and administer SAP HANA remotely. Additionally, it provides quick access to a range of analysis information, for example, performance monitoring, space management, and job scheduling.

Tool #5 – HDBSQL – Command Line Tool

SAP HANA HDBSQL is a command line tool for entering and executing SQL statements, executing database procedures, and querying information about SAP HANA databases.

If you liked this blog please leave you rating and feedback.

Thanks,

Fabio Souza