Automate and standardize SAP operations using Dell ESI for Storage Integration
SAP landscapes for enterprises can have multiple interrelated instances when you include the nonproduction systems that are used for development, testing, training, and sandbox experimentation. SAP Landscape Management (SAP LaMa) software combined with the Dell Enterprise Storage Integrator (ESI) for SAP LaMa simplifies management of these complex SAP environments using advanced storage-based replication services - local and remote - that are integrated into Dell storage systems.
Dell Technologies offers SAP customers one of the industry’s broadest portfolios of storage array options. ESI for SAP LaMa software supports all the storage systems that are listed in the following table for simplifying landscape management. Customers can choose a solution from N and N-1 PowerStore and PowerMax storage array models, and then purchase integration with SAP LaMa to improve management of their SAP systems. The new PowerStore All-Flash Storage appliance provides a data-centric design and adaptable architecture. PowerMax arrays are larger storage platforms that accelerate applications with end-to-end NVMe flash storage, global deduplication and compression, and data protection.
The following table shows the ESI-supported storage arrays
| NAS/NFS | SAN/Fibre Channel | Unified SAN and NAS |
| PowerStore | PowerMax PowerStore | PowerMax PowerStore |
SAP LaMa is an automation and orchestration solution that replaces manual or scripted processes for creating clones and copies and monitoring activities. Simplified landscape management provides key business benefits including improved service quality and the capability to drive new business innovation. SAP LaMa combined with Dell ESI provides a single pane of glass for operations like SAP system relocation, creating and using snapshots, provisioning processes, and more. This increases manageability and enables business agility by facilitating administration teams to address rapidly changing organizational demands. Dell ESI supports SAP LaMa in physical, virtual, and cloud environments, providing a single pathway to manage most landscape configurations.
Improved operational capabilities with ESI for SAP LaMa include:
- SAP LaMa System Relocation: This operation enables relocation of an SAP system from the original host to another host that is recognized by SAP LaMa. System relocation operations are useful when the primary SAP server system needs scheduled maintenance or an upgrade. The entire relocation operation is automated, with ESI enabling administrators to quickly move the running SAP system from one host to another. All the following configurations are supported:
- Physical-to-physical (P2P) bare-metal to bare-metal
- Physical-to-virtual (P2V) bare-metal to VMware virtual using Raw Device Mapping (RDMs) and conversely
- Virtual-to-virtual (V2V) VMware VMDK discs from one VM to another
- Managed SAP LaMa: The managed snapshots operation enables all source volumes from an SAP system to be “snap copied” using a single API call to maintain storage consistency. Storage snapshots are a low-overhead point-in-time image of source volumes on a storage system that can be used in place of full copies for many management tasks. For example, PowerMax arrays use SnapVX to create a consistent image of SAP system volumes. Snapshots are more efficient than full copies because only the data changes between the source volumes and the images are copied to the “snap copied” volumes. For many SAP landscape management operations, PowerMax snapshots consume only a small fraction of the space that is used on the primary SAP system storage system.
- SAP LaMa system provisioning:
- System Clone: This operation duplicates a currently running system or previously created managed snapshot. The duplicated clone and source systems have identical system IDs. The clone is isolated (fenced) from the network to prevent data transfer to an incorrect system by mistake. The default configuration for all system clones, copies, and refresh processes that are created on Dell storage systems is to use space-efficient snapshots of the source volumes (space-saving copies).
- System Copy:This operation creates a copy of an SAP system with a new unique SAP system ID (SID), hostname, and IP address. A system copy is useful when the business needs a copy of either a production or nonproduction system for quality assurance, development, or testing. The key differences between a system clone and system copy are the creation of a new identity (SID) when using a copy operation, and the use of new storage volumes and full space allocations by the copy. Also, the target system is temporarily fenced until the changes take place.
- System Refresh:This operation refreshes a specified part of an existing system, either complete or used. Three options are enabled by system refresh procedures: system refresh, database refresh (database only), and restore-based refresh. The restore-based system refresh operation integrates with the leading Dell Data Protection solutions, such as PowerProtect Application Direct Database Agents and Data Domain with DDBoost.
Figure 1: Dell ESI integration with SAP Landscape Management
Additional operations such as monitoring, and data protection can be streamlined by enabling Dell integration with SAP LaMa. For example, with data protection integration, customers can perform on-demand and scheduled backups of the SAP source system. Using PowerMax ESI integration, customers can automate most storage system operations for SAP. In addition, the opportunity for increased storage savings using efficient storage snapshots means that SAP customers can have more SAP systems consuming less overall space on their Dell storage systems.
Resources
The SAP Landscape Management website is the ideal place to learn more about the benefits of automation and orchestration and post any questions you may have.
Tags: PowerMax SAP landscapes PowerStore ESI ESI for SAP LaMa
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