Ansible Playbooks for SAP

Description

This repository contains Ansible Playbooks for deployment of various SAP Software solution scenarios onto different Hyperscaler Cloud Service Providers and Hypervisors platforms.

Benefits of Ansible Playbooks for SAP

The Ansible Playbooks for SAP offer several key benefits:

• Ease of Use: The playbooks are designed with simplicity in mind, making them accessible for users with varying levels of Ansible experience.
• Highly Adaptable: They are easily reconfigurable and extendable, allowing you to tailor deployments to your specific needs.
  • For example, you can customize them for specific SAP versions, integrate with monitoring tools, or adapt them to different network topologies.
• Scenario-Specific and Self-Contained: Each playbook encapsulates a complete deployment scenario, ensuring consistency and reducing complexity.
• Consistent Across Platforms: Deploy the same SAP solution across diverse infrastructure platforms (Hyperscaler Cloud Service Providers and Hypervisor platforms) with predictable results.
• Infrastructure Flexibility: Choose between Ansible or Terraform for infrastructure provisioning, providing flexibility in your deployment approach.
• Corporate-Ready: Licensed for corporate use by SAP Customers, SAP Service Partners, and SAP Technology Partners.

Supported Configurations

Supported Operating Systems

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications (SLES4SAP)
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for SAP (RHEL4SAP)

Supported Infrastructure Platforms

• AWS EC2 Virtual Server instances
• Google Cloud Compute Engine Virtual Machines
• IBM Cloud, Intel Virtual Servers
• IBM Cloud, Power Virtual Servers
• Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines
• IBM PowerVM Virtual Machines (LPARs)
• OVirt (e.g. Red Hat Enterprise Linux KVM)
• KubeVirt (e.g. Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization, SUSE Rancher with Harvester HCI) [Experimental]
• VMware vSphere Virtual Machines [Beta]
• Existing hosts without provisioning

Supported Deployment Scenarios

SAP Product	Versions	Deployment Topology	Database
SAP HANA	2.0 SPS 08 2.0 SPS 07 2.0 SPS 06	Sandbox Scale-Out Scale-Up High Availability	SAP HANA
SAP BW/4HANA	2023 2021	Sandbox Scale-Out	SAP HANA
SAP S/4HANA	2023 2022 2021 2020	Sandbox Standard Distributed Distributed with High Availability	SAP HANA
SAP S/4HANA Maintenance Plan	Any version - Defined by Maintenance Plan Includes latest FPS and security patches	Sandbox Standard Distributed Distributed with High Availability	SAP HANA
SAP S/4HANA Foundation	2023 2022 2021	Sandbox Standard	SAP HANA
SAP Landscape for SAP S/4HANA	2023 2022 2021 2020	3-System Standard	SAP HANA
SAP Landscape for SAP S/4HANA Maintenance Plan	Any version - Defined by Maintenance Plan Includes latest FPS and security patches	3-System Standard	SAP HANA
SAP Business Suite (ECC)	EHP 8 EHP 7	Sandbox	SAP HANA
SAP Business Suite (ECC)	EHP 8	Sandbox Distributed (IBM Db2)	IBM Db2 Oracle DB SAP ASE SAP MaxDB
SAP IDES for ECC	EHP 8	Sandbox	SAP HANA, IBM Db2
SAP NetWeaver ABAP	7.52 SP00 7.50 SP00	Sandbox	SAP HANA IBM Db2 Oracle DB SAP ASE SAP MaxDB
SAP NetWeaver JAVA	7.50 SP22	Sandbox	IBM Db2 SAP ASE
SAP Solution Manager ABAP/JAVA	7.2 SR2	Sandbox	SAP HANA SAP ASE

_{Note: Additional SAP Product versions can be added by customizing extra vars file.}

The explanation of Deployment Topologies:

Deployment Topology	Definition
Sandbox	A single-host system, that consolidates all SAP Database and SAP ABAP Platform instances onto a single host
Standard	A standard system, that consists of the SAP Application running on a dedicated host, and an SAP Database server running on another dedicated host
Distributed	A distributed SAP system, that separates the SAP Application components from the database server, placing them on distinct hosts
Distributed with High Availability	A distributed SAP system with High Availability (HA), that separates the SAP Application components from the database server, placing them on distinct hosts
Scale-Out	An Scale-Out system, that consists of an SAP Application instances running on a dedicated host, and an SAP HANA database server running as a scale-out cluster across multiple hosts.

Supported Special Playbooks

• SAP Web Dispatcher, Standalone (with SAP Kernel Part II for SAP HANA)
• SAP SolMan Diagnostics Agent (SDA) [Experimental]
• Download SAP Software installation media
• System Copy Export, IBM Db2 [Experimental]
• System Copy Restore (SAP ECC on HANA or SAP S/4HANA), Sandbox [Experimental]
• SAP ASCS/ERS Cluster Installation

How to get started

Before running the playbook, please read the full documentation for how-to guidance, requirements, and all other details.

• Ensure that the password variables are defined following Prepare the Password Variables.
• Ensure that the variables with placeholder values are correctly defined. Placeholder value can be recognized as ENTER_STRING_VALUE_HERE.

The playbooks can be executed with one of following methods.

Ansible with existing host(s)

This method is used to install the SAP system on an existing host(s).

• Interactive Prompts: Yes ✅
• Provisioning: No ❌
• SAP Installation: Yes ✅
• Required Variables:
  • sap_vm_provision_iac_type: ansible
  • sap_vm_provision_iac_platform: existing_hosts
• Host definition: The existing hosts are defined using:
  • Ansible inventory file (e.g. optional/ansible_inventory_noninteractive.yml).
  • The sap_vm_provision_existing_hosts_host_specifications_dictionary variable defined in optional/ansible_extravars_existing_hosts.yml file.

Prerequisites for existing host(s)

Control Node:

• The .ssh/known_hosts file on the Ansible Control Node (under the execution user's home directory) must contain entries for the existing hosts.
  • Ensure ssh-keyscan has been executed for the IP address or alias that corresponds to the host parameter defined in your Ansible inventory file. This ensures the control node can securely identify the managed hosts.

Managed Nodes (existing hosts):

• The firewall on the managed node must allow incoming SSH communication (typically TCP port 22) from the Ansible Control Node.
• The /root/.ssh/authorized_keys file must be correctly configured to allow SSH access from the Ansible Control Node.
  • The public SSH key from the Ansible Control Node must be added to the /root/.ssh/authorized_keys file on the managed node.
• The /etc/hosts file must contain host's fully qualified domain hostname to determine ansible_domain, or set through sap_domain variable.
• The /etc/hosts file must contain Virtual IP address for High Availability scenarios for SWPM execution (sap_swpm role).

Ansible provisions host(s)

This method provisions a new host(s) and installs the SAP system.

• Interactive Prompts: Yes ✅
• Provisioning: Yes ✅
• SAP Installation: Yes ✅
• Required Variables:
  • sap_vm_provision_iac_type: ansible
  • sap_vm_provision_iac_platform for your selected Infrastructure Platform (e.g. aws_ec2_vs for AWS).
• Host definition: The provisioned hosts are defined using:
  • host_specifications_dictionary variable defined in extra vars file.
  • Example for AWS: sap_vm_provision_aws_ec2_vs_host_specifications_dictionary variable in ansible_extravars_aws_ec2_vs.yml file.

Ansible uses Terraform to provision minimal landing zone and host(s)

This method provisions a minimal landing zone and a new host(s) using Terraform and installs the SAP system using Ansible.

• Interactive Prompts: Yes ✅ [Experimental] (Limited support for Terraform variables)
• Provisioning: Yes ✅
• SAP Installation: Yes ✅
• Required Variables:
  • sap_vm_provision_iac_type: ansible_to_terraform
  • sap_vm_provision_iac_platform for your selected Infrastructure Platform (e.g. aws_ec2_vs for AWS).
• Host definition: The provisioned hosts are defined using:
  • The host_specifications_dictionary variable defined in extra vars file.
  • Example for AWS: sap_vm_provision_aws_ec2_vs_host_specifications_dictionary variable in ansible_extravars_aws_ec2_vs.yml file.

_{Note: Ansible Playbooks for SAP optionally use Ansible > Terraform. To instead use Terraform > Ansible, see Terraform Templates for SAP}

Interactive Prompts

Interactive prompts are available for most of the deployment playbooks.

Exceptions include: S4/HANA Landscape and Solution Manager.

This mode is recommended if you need help entering all required variables in extra vars files.

• It will prompt for all undefined variables.
• It will validate all defined variables and those obtained from prompts.

How to execute Interactive Prompts mode:

1. Prepare the optional/ansible_extravars_interactive.yml file: This file contains the essential set of variables for initiating Interactive Prompts.
2. Execute the playbook: Run the following command ansible-playbook ansible_playbook.yml --extra-vars "@./optional/ansible_extravars_interactive.yml"

Workflow diagram of playbook execution

Disclaimer

These Ansible Playbooks for SAP provide Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) and Configuration-as-Code (CaC) automation for common SAP software solution scenarios. They offer a codified approach to streamline and standardize deployments, which can be extended to meet specific requirements.

These playbooks are not intended to replicate every possible SAP software deployment scenario, nor do they replace existing SAP installation procedures detailed in the SAP Help Portal or SAP Notes on SAP ONE Support. While the Ansible Role for SAP SWPM enables the installation of any SAP software supported by SAP Software Provisioning Manager (SWPM 1.0/2.0), always refer to official SAP documentation for the most accurate and up-to-date guidance.

These playbooks are valuable for accelerating tasks such as rapid provisioning and testing (e.g., evaluating the latest software releases, applying patches, or performing system copy restores in cloud environments). They can be adapted to suit these needs.

For comprehensive lifecycle management of SAP systems, consider SAP Landscape Management Enterprise Edition.

For evaluating SAP software business functionality, SAP Cloud Appliance Library offers a convenient platform.

Pseudo-Idempotency

Idempotency ensures that applying the playbook multiple times results in the same system state as applying it once.
While these playbooks strive for idempotency, certain limitations exist.

Potential issues:

1. NFS Mounts:
   • The playbooks mount NFS shares but do not currently validate or purge existing mounts.
   • Re-running the playbook without cleaning up previous NFS mounts may lead to SAP Software Provisioning Manager (SWPM) failures or unexpected behavior due to the presence of existing SAP directories.
2. SAP System Detection:
   • The sap_swpm Ansible role, used for SAP software installation, may fail or produce inconsistent results if it detects an existing SAP system on the target host.
   • To avoid issues, use the playbooks on fresh systems or ensure thorough cleanup of any previous SAP installations.

License

Apache 2.0

Contributors

Key contributors are shown within the contributors file.

Contributing

You can find more information about ways you can contribute at How to contribute.