Step by Step Guide to Install & Configure SAP Data Services Agent on Linux OS

Introduction

This blog post is targeted for first time users who install CPI-DS agent on Linux OS. In this blog post we are going to see the steps to install, configure CPI-DS agent with screen shots.

We shall understand the following details with screen shots in this blog post.

• Introduction to CPI-DS.
• Advantage of installing SAP Data Services agent in Linux than in Windows.
• Prerequisite in Linux for installing CPI-DS agent.
• Installation of CPI-DS agent on Linux.
• Configure SAP Data Services agent with AgentConfig.txt file.
• Starting and Stopping CPI-DS agent on Linux.
• Log directory of CPI-DS Agent.

Introduction to CPI-DS

SAP Cloud Platform Integration for Data Services (CPI-DS) is a light weight cloud-based integration tool offered by SAP for batch & scheduled data integration between on-premise applications and the SAP cloud platform. (This CPI-DS is formerly called as HCI-DS)

The SAP Data Services Agent (CPI-DS agent) plays an important role in connecting on-premise system to CPI-DS, the CPI-DS agent provides secure connectivity between on-premise system in your landscape and CPI-DS.

We can install CPI-DS agent in Windows and Linux Operating System.

The architecture diagram of CPI-DS below explains that the CPI-DS agent must be installed in on-premise machine. CPI-DS communicates with CPI-DS agent using secured communication modes like HTTPS protocol and CPI-DS agent communicated with on-premise SAP landscape using RFC.

Advantage of installing CPI-DS agent on Linux than on Windows

• The windows Operating System support installing only one CPI-DS agent. But Linux operating system support installing multiple agent, but each agent must be run by different operating system users and port numbers used by the agent must be different from each other.
• The CPI-DS agent cannot be installed on a host system where SAP Data Services or Data Provisioning Agent (DP agent) used for SAP HANA Smart Data Integration (SDI) has already been installed. This restriction does not apply to Linux Operating System.

Ref: 2598458 – Can multiple agents be installed on the same server? – SAP Cloud Platform Integration for data services

Installation of SAP Data Services agent on Linux

Step 1: User Creation in Linux Machine

CPI-DS agent should not be installed with root user. Its best to install and run Each and every CPI-DS agent by a unique Linux user (CPI-DS Agent Admin).

• The command useradd -m creates user cpids_admin  along with home directory for the user. Eg. Useradd -m cpids_admin
• The command passwd used to define or reset the password of the user.                               Eg. passwd cpids_admin

Step 2:  Prerequisite for installing CPI-DS agent

2.1)  Please make sure that you have the below listed package installed on your Linux machine. If not do install these packages before installing CPI-DS agent.

• X Window
• OpenGL libraries
• libgtk-2_0-0
• KornShell

If SUSE Linux use YaST or zypper command to install in the package. If RedHat Linux use yum command to install the package.

2.2)  Make sure you install X server GUI software in the desktop from where you access Linux Server using putty.

The X server installation is mandatory to launch installation and configuration of CPI-DS Agent. In this example I have installed Xming software.

Run XLaunch.exe in desktop machine and follow the below steps (in below screen shot) to setup XLaunch application.

STEP 1: Select Multiple Windows and type the number 0 for Display number. Click Next.

STEP 2: Select Start no client then click Next.

STEP 3: Click Next. Do not change anything.

STEP 4: Click on Save Configuration and click Finish, a config.launch file gets created in the directory.

Please find below the screenshot of configuring X Launch.

Step 3: Download the CPI-DS Agent file from SAP Market Place.

3.1) To download the CPI-DS agent from SAP Market place, login to CPI-DS -> Switch to Agents tab -> Click “Download Agent Package”  from where you can download the agent for Linux OS.

3.2) Please find below the URL to download CPI-DS agent

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/softwarecenter/template/products/%20_APP=00200682500000001943&_EVENT=DISPHIER&HEADER=Y&FUNCTIONBAR=N&EVENT=TREE&NE=NAVIGATE&ENR=67838200100200019515&V=MAINT&TA=ACTUAL&PAGE=SEARCH/SAP%20DATA%20SERVICES%20OD%20AGENT

3.3) Extract the downloaded .TGZ file in your local desktop and move the media file to Linux server using WinSCP.

Step 4: Installation of CPI-DS on Linux

4.1) Login to Linux server using putty make sure you configure X11 Forwarding as shown in below screens shot.

4.2) Login Linux system with CPI-DS Agent Admin user (user created in Step 1.1)

4.3) Navigate to the directory of the CPI-DS media file and run DataServices-Agent-Installer.bin. (Do not install as root user)

4.4) You will get the below pop-up screen, if the Xserver GUI is not properly configured you will not get the below screen.

The installation path & port numbers displayed in the below screen shot is the default values, NO need to change the values. By default, CPI-DS agent is installed in home directory of CPI-DS Agent Admin user.

If you are installing multiple DS agent on same server, make sure you install in different path, use different admin user & define different set of port numbers.

4.5) On clicking Install, the repositories, job server, adapters etc. start getting installed.

4.6) Click Finish upon completion.

You can see the CPI-DS agent getting installed successfully. In case of any issues in installation the error gets displayed in summary.

Detailed installation log can be found in the file Install_<date>.log in the directory /home/cpids_admin/DataServicesAgent/log

STEP 5: Configure SAP Data Services agent with AgentConfig.txt file

Now we need to configure the installed CPI-DS agent with corresponding AgentConfig.txt file.

5.1) To create a New Agent in CPI-DS, login to CPI-DS using S-user id and navigate to agent tab and click New Agent.

5.2) Provide the name of the Agent and Name of the Agent Group and Click next.

5.3) In the next screen download the configuration file from the configuration file hyper link, then click save and close. Now you will find the created agent with status Red.

5.4) You can also download the config file by selecting agent -> Actions -> Download Configuration File as shown in below screenshot.

5.5) Now move the downloaded AgentConfig.txt file to Linux server.

5.6) Navigate to directory $HOME/DataServicesAgent and run configureAgent.sh, run this file with CPI-DS admin user created in Step 1.1.

5.7) The below screen pops up where we must provide the below details in Setup Agent tab.

Administrative User Name: email address of CPI-DS Administrator User.

Administrator Password    : Password of Admin User.

Navigate to the directory where AgentConfig.txt is placed, select it & Click Upload.

5.8) You will get a pop-up saying Agent Service will be stopped, do you want to continue, Click OK.

5.9) Click Configure Directory Tab, by clicking ADD you can specify the directory where CPI-DS can access files. Then Click Exit. You will get a pop-up requesting to restart agent service, click Yes.

Click OK.

5.10) Now Switch to CPI-DS Application, refresh the application, in agent tab we can see the status of CPI-DS agent turned green.

5.11) Thus, the CPI-DS agent has been installed successfully. Now you can start configuring Datastores and Projects.

Step 6: Starting and Stopping CPI-DS agent on Linux

6.1) Steps to Stop CPI-DS Admin.

Make sure that you logged in server with CPI-DS Agent Admin user.

To Stop CPI-DS Agent on Linux execute the command dsod_stop.sh.

6.2) Steps to Stop CPI-DS Admin.

Make sure that you logged in server with CPI-DS Agent Admin user.

To Stop CPI-DS Agent on Linux execute the command dsod_start.sh.

To Check the status of agent in Linux use grep command

ps -ef | grep <Agent Admin User>

Log directory of CPI-DS Agent

In this example I have installed CPI-DS agent in the home directory of CPI-DS agent admin user, based on which I have shared the log directory details below. Based on project requirement if we install CPI-DS agent in different directory replace <$HOME> with <Link Directory> in below listed logs.

Home Dir. of CPI-DS Agent  :  $HOME/DataServicesAgent

CPI-DS agent configuration :  $HOME/DataServicesAgent/conf

Agent Installation log     :  $HOME/DataServicesAgent/log/Install_<timestamp>.log

Agent Configuration log    :  $HOME/DataServicesAgent/log/Config_<timestamp>.log

DS Agent log               :  $HOME/DataServicesAgent/log/DSoD/DSonPremiseAgent_<timestamp>.log

Server Event logs          :  $HOME/DataServicesAgent/log/JobServer_DSoD_Agent/server_eventlog_*.txt

Metadata Service Log       :  $HOME/DataServicesAgent/log/MetadataService/*

Adapter Logs               :  $HOME/DataServicesAgent/adapters/log/

Execution Logs – Sandbox   :  $HOME/DataServicesAgent/log/JobServer_DSoD_Agent/dsod_agent_repo__sandbox/*

Execution Logs – Prod.     :  $HOME/DataServicesAgent/log/JobServer_DSoD_Agent/dsod_agent_repo__prod/*

Ref: 2411639 – Where to find CPI-DS agent logs

Conclusion:

In this blog post i have explained in detail about installing and configuring SAP Data Services Agent on Linux with relevant screen shots of the same. I would conclude this blog by highlighting an important fact that one Agent Manager in CPI-DS can connect with only one Data Service Agent installed on-premise using AgentConfig.txt file.

Reference:

SAP Data Services Agent Guide: https://help.sap.com/doc/8f67cc54400d42fb9074f57797cad5e9/Cloud/en-US/hci10_agent_en.pdf