SAP Landscape Management (LaMa) Adapter/Connector for Azure

Update September, 2021: Revised Whitepaper for LaMa and Azure Connector

Introduction

This post acts as the entry point for documentation related to the use of SAP Landscape Management (LaMa) Connector for Azure. This may also be referred to as the LaMa Adapter for Azure. Audience of the guide are LaMa Administrators, Consultants and Customers who are already familiar with LaMa and want to use the Microsoft Azure Connector for LaMa to manage SAP landscapes deployed to the Azure Cloud.

Since SAP LaMa 3.0 SP05, the connector to Azure is shipped by default. You can use this connector to deallocate and start virtual machines, copy and relocate managed disks, and delete managed disks. With these basic operations, you can relocate, copy, clone, and refresh SAP systems using SAP LaMa.

Azure Connector/Adapter

In a nutshell, the LaMa Connector for Azure provides the following benefits:

• Greater operational continuity through centralized management, visibility and control of your entire SAP landscape residing in Microsoft Azure Cloud using a single console.
• Reduced time, effort and cost to manage and operate your SAP systems through automation of time-consuming SAP Basis administration tasks.
• Increased operational agility through acceleration of application lifecycle management operations and fast response to workload fluctuations.
• Additional Connector functionality in Microsoft Azure including:
  • Start/Stop Virtual Machine
  • Virtual Machine Discovery
  • Relocate
  • Azure Template Deployment
  • Virtual Machine destruction
  • Virtual Machine Activate/Deactivate (Power Off — includes de-allocation)
  • Virtual Machine Discovery (Disk Type: Managed Disks)
  • SAP System Copy (Source VM: Linux/Windows; Target VM: Pre-existing VM or Azure Template Deployment)
  • SAP System Clone (Source VM: Linux/Windows; Target VM: Pre-existing VM or Azure Template Deployment)
  • SAP System Refresh (Linux/Windows)
  • Switch Azure Managed Disks from Ultra/Premium to Standard during Snoozing for cost saving
  • Support for Azure Netapp Files (ANF)
  • Cross Azure Subscription System Copy supported (within same Azure Region)
  • Cross Azure Availability Zone System Copy supported (within same Azure Region)

Many SAP customers are running SAP workloads in Microsoft Azure. This can be done by running the application components on Azure virtual machines. In this scenario, customers have the option of running their SAP applications on Windows or Linux operating systems. The SAP Product Availability Matrix (PAM) should be consulted to find out what operating systems are supported in Microsoft Azure for their SAP application and what SAP Note is needed.

Another scenario is when customers have large SAP HANA requirements. In this case SAP HANA Large Instances in Azure Cloud are used. These are physical servers dedicated to running of large SAP HANA instances. Other application components such as application servers continue to run on Azure virtual machines.

Diagram below illustrates the concept of using SAP LaMa and Azure Connector to manage the entire landscape.

LaMa and Azure Connector

Conclusion

The above briefly covers the capabilities of the Microsoft Azure Adapter/Connector for SAP Landscape Management (LaMa).

For a more detailed overview of the LaMa Connector for Azure, please read the whitepaper:

• https://www.sap.com/documents/2017/12/902a613b-e57c-0010-82c7-eda71af511fa.html

For up to date information on the connector refer to the SAP Note:

• https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2343511

Installation How-to Guide provides detailed steps on setting up the Connector. It describes how to set up the Azure connector for SAP LaMa, create virtual machines that can be used to install adaptive SAP systems and how to configure them:

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/lama-installation

Subsections of the above guide for quick reference:

• Set up Azure connector for SAP LaMa
• Provision a new adaptive SAP system
• Troubleshooting

Other resources for LaMa:

• Whitepaper
• https://help.sap.com/viewer/p/SAP_LANDSCAPE_MANAGEMENT_ENTERPRISE
• https://www.sap.com/community/topics/landscape-management.html
• https://www.sap.com/products/landscape-management.html
• Certified IaaS Platforms for SAP HANA: https://www.sap.com/dmc/exp/2014-09-02-hana-hardware/enEN/iaas.html#recordid=1819
• SAP Landscape Management – Provisioning and Adaptive Design Principles
• SAP Product Availability Matrix: https://apps.support.sap.com/sap/support/pam

Additional Microsoft resources for SAP on Azure:

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/get-started
• Microsoft Azure Documentation: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/
• SAP on Microsoft Azure: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/solutions/sap/
• SAP on Microsoft Azure (SAP Wiki): https://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/VIRTUALIZATION/SAP+on+Microsoft+Azure
• SAP HANA on Microsoft Azure: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/workloads/sap/get-started

Other Blogs:

• https://blogs.sap.com/2019/07/22/sap-landscape-management-on-microsoft-azure-part-1/
• https://blogs.sap.com/2019/08/02/sap-landscape-management-on-microsoft-azure-part-2/
• Blog (HANA refresh in Azure across regions/subscriptions)
• Blog (HANA single-tenant refresh between Azure and AWS – simulates on-premise to cloud)