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nageshcaparthy
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
SAP, along with the BTP Onboarding Team have been talking a lot about the Multi-Cloud Foundation. However, we recognize that SAP still has customers running in the SAP Neo Environment and we want to be diligent and comprehensive in our blog series so with that in mind this blog will provide  (Feature Set A)  a small technical overview of SAP Neo subaccount similar to our previous blogs –

[SAP BTP Onboarding Series] SAP BTP Cockpit – Global Account Technical Overview

[SAP BTP Onboarding Series] SAP BTP Subaccount Technical Overview

[SAP BTP Onboarding Series] SAP BTP Directories – Entitlement and User Management

The SAP Neo Environment is SAP’s exclusive Enterprise Platform as a Service offering that helps you to build, extend, and integrate your business applications in the cloud.

[Attention: SAP maintains our recommendation that customers should approach BTP with a  Multi-Cloud first mindset where applicable.]

1. First things first –

We have observed multiple questions from customers, partners, and consultants wondering why they see the option to create Directories in some BTP Global Accounts but not in others? The answer can be traced back to which Cloud Management Tool (Feature set A and Feature set B) version you are using. Feature Set B is the new version and Directories is a new feature included with this version.  However, if your Global Account is migrated to Feature Set B, you can create subaccounts in either Neo or Multi-Cloud environments as per need and assign them to Directories. To check your Cloud Management Features, log in to your BTP Global Account, click on your Login ID/Name and select About.


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Note: Most of the Global Account are/is migrated to Feature Set B. You can check your Global Account feature set tools - Cloud Management Tools — Feature Set Overview and refer to SAP Note: 3027721 for more details.

2. The difference while creating Neo vs Multi-Cloud subaccounts

  • While creating a Multi-Cloud subaccount you have options either with AWS, Azure, or GCP. With the Neo, you can see all the data centers are owned by SAP at multiple locations

  • You will also notice that while creating a Neo Subaccount, you do not have an option to edit/modify subdomain details it will be disabled/grayed (this is provided as a feature to configure-custom-domain)


If your Global Account is in feature set B, you have options to assign the Neo subaccount to different Directory, Label them, mark them for productive use, and enable beta features


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3. Once your Subaccount is created, you should be able to see such options. I have divided them into 3 sections and will explain them in detail.


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a. This section gives you the details of the Subaccount Overview, starting with the Subaccount Name, in our case it is “subaccountoverview”. Next, some difference between Neo and Multi-Cloud subaccounts is that with Neo you get an option to delete (button) “Delete Subaccount” inside the subaccount whereas in Multi-Cloud you have to be in the Global Account screen to delete them.


Next, you can observe the Info section which holds the following details






    • Display Name: which is given by the user

    • Subaccount Name: this can be referred to as a Technical Name, or a unique identifier of the subaccount on SAP BTP that is generated when the subaccount is created

    • Environment: confirms the type if its Neo or Multi-Cloud

    • Members: this helps to identify the number of members in this sub-account with authorizations

    • Subscriptions: helps to identify the number of subscriptions in this sub-account either running JAVA, HTML5 applications, HANA XS applications, etc…

    • Available Services: it lists the services depending on the type of licenses to your subaccount. We shall take a look at them while exploring the option with Entitlements and Services




b. The Service Usage section helps us to understand the consumption of the services. SAP Neo Subaccounts mainly support services related to JAVA, HTML5, and Database Services, which can be tracked or monitored from this section. You will be able to filter based on service type, and the required duration for analysis. Since this is a new subaccount there are no usage metrics yet(Image 3).


c. All the access and navigations to the required services are listed in this section. We shall take a look at each of these options.


i. Overview gets to the default screen of the Subaccount with the account information previously reviewed.


ii. SAP BTP Neo environment offers to run Applications, these services are supported with JAVA, HTML5, and HANA XS; additionally, you can also see the number of subscriptions related to JAVA and HTML5 applications



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      • JAVA Applications can help you deploy the JAVA WAR file with the help of additional parameters such as Supported Runtime, JVM version, Max Threads, Connection Timeout, etc… Once deployed, you should be able to see the state of the application, name of it, Start Time and actions which can help you to start, stop, etc… More details on Developing Java in the Neo Environment can be found here.





      • HTML5 Applications consist of static resources that can connect to on-premise or on-demand REST Services. You can find the developer's guide here.





      • HANA XS Applications - can use HANA development tools to create comprehensive analytical models and build applications with SAP HANA’s programmatic interfaces and integrated development environment. To get started, you can create your HANA Instance, Install HANA tools for Eclipse, or you can use a web-based development workbench. There are multiple options to support your development needs, you can refer to the details here.





      • The Subscriptions tab details the information of applications that are subscribed to your account and displays the information of possible states of the subscriptions like started, stopped, in maintenance, error, failed, versions, etc… These subscriptions are ideally developed by SAP Partners, and the developed applications are sold to the SAP Customers who want to make use of it. The platform provides multitenant functionality, which allows providers (SAP Partners) to own, deploy, and operate an application for multiple consumers with reduced costs. The SAP Neo Environment currently supports JAVA and HTML5 Subscriptions. You can find the complete details on subscription services here.






iii. Services - these are the suite of services that are offered to the customer to achieve the development use-case. In my subaccount overview, I can see that 34 services are listed as a part of my license type. If you have a subscription license, you could see fewer services listed. In the case of CPEA licenses, you will see all 34 services grouped into their respective area of service as below:








      • Extension Suite – Development Efficiency

      • Extension Suite – Digital Experience

      • Extension Suite – Digital Process Automation

      • Integration Suite







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While using both Neo and Multi-Cloud services, a common question is why are there only 34 Neo services when compared to 90+ services in Multi-Cloud? The answer is to meet the customer demands, and technology demands, and to get the benefits of SAP Business Technology Platform on their cloud infrastructure of choice. If you have similar questions, I would recommend reading SAP Business Technology Platform Multi-Cloud Strategy FAQs. I also want to share this Service mapping of SAP Business Technology Platform Neo and Cloud Foundry Environments which has a neat mapping between the services available in Neo vs Cloud Foundry(multi-cloud) environment.


iv. Solutions – You can create Multitarget Application (MTA) with your Neo Environment that can use different technologies and can be deployed to different runtimes with a common lifecycle. This is one of the more popular approaches to application development. More information can be found here. The solutions section helps to Deploy the developed applications with solution status such as OK, Pending, Waring, Error, and Loading. The Export button helps to package previously deployed content into a Solution. You can find more details here. If you want to get familiar with MTA hands-on, you can refer to our Deploy Your Multi-Target Application (MTA) scenarios.


v. SAP HANA / SAP ASE








      • Database Systems – SAP BTP Neo services offer you the capability to create database instances like SAP HANA and SAP ASE. Both of these databases can be administered and offer different types of Database System Types such as HANA MDC, HANA XS, ASE, and HANA (shared) instanced. The Database Systems options help you to create your Database (HANA MDC/ASE) and you can see all the database systems that have been installed in the subaccount, and you can access the systems and their tenant databases from here. I would recommend reading the details on Administration for SAP HANA Database Systems and SAP ASE Database Systems.







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      • Databases and Schemas – depending on the database systems created in your subaccount you can create databases related to SAP HANA tenant database systems (HANA MDC), Databases on SAP ASE database systems (ASE), and Schemas on shared SAP HANA database systems (HANA (<shared>)) with the help of the button “New”. You can only create a certain number of Databases and once the limit is reached an error will pop up on your screen if you create any further. You may read more on the topic Creating SAP HANA Databases, Creating SAP ASE Databases, and Creating Schemas.





      • Service Requests – in some cases you may need to restore the database system or database. You can create a “New Request” to restore a database or database system. If a service request has been successfully created, it gets an ID. You then have to open a support ticket on the component BC-NEO-PERS and include the request ID. You find the request ID under View request details.






  • vi. Monitoring – SAP BTP offers monitoring services to get notifications to subscribed events. You can create events with:





      • Java Custom Checks - You can configure custom metrics, thresholds, and alerts using the BTP Console, or a REST API to manage monitoring data. It's an out-of-the-box monitoring solution that can be used directly for Java apps and database systems, and with a few configurations for HTML5 and HANA XS apps. It also supports technology-specific features related to JAVA apps, HTML5 apps, SAP HANA XS apps, and Database systems. You can check the complete list of features and their benefits here.

      • Alert Channels - these can help you to receive email notifications for your applications (JAVA, HTML5, HANA XS) and if databases are in a problematic state or if they have recovered from such a state. It can help you to trigger emails based on custom checks like CRITICAL, WARNING, and OK.  Alert channels use Alert Webhooks and Alert Email mechanisms to support the features. You can find the configuration details here.






vii. Connectivity – this is one of the services which is most widely used and included free of charge with your SAP BTP agreement. This helps you connect to a remote system either on the Internet or to on-premise systems. The connectivity services support multiple protocols and scenarios such as HTTP(s), RFC, TCP, LDAP, ... etc.



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To achieve the above-said scenarios, connectivity offers the following:








      • Destinations – important topic as they are the connection setting that helps to establish an outbound communication of a cloud application to a remote system using the respective protocols and connection information. As seen above, we can create destinations using HTTP Destinations, RFC Destinations, LDAP Destinations, and Mail Destinations. All of these above communication mechanisms come in a variety of roles, authentication types, and scenarios. You can create New Destinations, or in the case of existing destinations, you may import them, and also have certificates for your connectivity destinations. We recommend looking at each of the sections while working on Destinations.







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      • Cloud Connector -  this setup serves as a link between the SAP BTP applications and your on-premise systems. It requires an installation and configurations task where IT Administrations, Global/Sub-Account Administrators, and Corporate Security (DMZ) teams may be required to allow communications ports that will be exposed to the SAP BTP for connection purposes.







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We recommend following the official guides for Cloud-Connector setup information which includes Installation, Configurations, Security topics, and Administration.


viii. Security – This section allows you to configure your identity providers, authorization management, and OAuth scenarios.








      • Trust – Trust Management provides us an option to change the Application Identity Provider (IDP). By default, your Global Account and Subaccount are using SAP ID Services where all the user roles are stored. If you chose to use a different IDP, you can configure it by choosing the options – Local Service Provider and Application Identity Provider.







Image 10








      • Authorization Management – helps to Configure the authorizations for users, based on roles, groups, and OAuth access tokens.






a. Users – assigns web roles and Groups to individual users


b. Groups –are the collections of roles that allow the definition of business-level functions within your subaccount. They are similar to the actual business roles existing in an organization, such as "manager", "employee", "external" and so on.


c. Token – helps to configure applications with OAuth 2.0 access token that can provide temporary access to a particular OAuth-protected resource.








      • OAuth -  Perform OAuth 2.0 configuration tasks for OAuth-protected applications or APIs. Register clients, manage access tokens, and configure scopes. The branding tab also gives options to customize the look and feel of the authorization page displayed to end users with your corporate, the Client Registrations tab helps to authorize devices to access an OAuth-protected application, and the last tab - Platform API(s) are protected with OAuth 2.0 client credentials. This feature helps obtain an access token to call the API methods.






ix. Repositories – as the name suggests it gives us the option to store information in the subaccount. It supports two features Document Repository and Git Repository.








      • Document Repository can store and manage all your documents and it is based on OASIS industry-standard CMIS and offers versioning, hierarchies, access control, and document management capabilities.

      • Git Repository helps to store and manage version control of source code. It is based on the open-source system and can be used with a standard Git client to connect to the SAP Git service.






x. Integration Token – helps to create and manage your extension scenario between your subaccount and the SAP SuccessFactors system. The integration token determines the subaccount that will be integrated with your SFSF System.


xi. Usage Analytics – similar to my previous blogs, this section helps to analyze the usage of the services with multiple filter options.


xii. Entitlements – this section provides information about the services which your subaccount can use. Global Administrators can make any changes to the entitlements and the quotas required for the subaccount.


xiii. Members – this page helps an administrator to add(with S-User ID) or delete users to the group and assign a role to them such as – Administrator, Developer, Member, Support User, Application User Admin, Cloud Connector Admin, etc… It also provides options to check the history of user/modifications related to a subaccount.


xiv. Platform Roles – The roles that are defined in the Members topic are predefined and cater to a specific scope. Subaccount administrators can define custom new platform roles and assign them to the members of their subaccounts.


xv. Notifications – page notifies about different operations and events in the cockpit.


Hope this blog has been useful for SAP Neo Subaccount users.

Cheers,

Nagesh

SAP BTP Onboarding Team

 

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