This blog contains experience gained over the years of implementing (and de-implementing) large scale IT applications/software.

Tag: Software

Downloading SAP Download Basket Contents in the Cloud on Linux

Scenario: You’ve made the move to the cloud.  You are about to install some SAP software on a new Linux server hosted in the cloud and you just need to get the installation media uploaded.
Except, you don’t want to have to start X-Windows or setup a specific Windows server just to do this.

You have two options to achieve this, you can either:
Upload the files from your local network using SFTP or SCP (maybe you have ExpressRoute or DirectConnect) and have a fast connection.

or

Why not just download them straight from your SAP download basket into the target server.
What’s the difference between the two?  Well, it depends on whether you’ve already got access to the installation media locally, or if you are intending to first download it locally from SAP, then upload it to your cloud hosted server.
This doesn’t make sense to download then re-upload to the cloud.
Therefore, here’s how you can download straight from your SAP download basket.

What you will need:
– A web browser on your local PC.
– A valid SAP S-user account.
– Disk space on a cloud hosted Linux server (I’m going to show you the Linux way).
– The cloud hosted server will need internet access.

Setup Download Basket:
Before we start downloading, you need to cleanup your download basket.
Go to https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/downloadbasket
Remove everything already in there that is not the items you want to download to the cloud hosted server.
The reason we must do this is because it’s difficult to know which items relate to which files in the download basket (you’ll see in a moment).
Now you can add the specific items you wish to download, into your download basket.
I’ve got two items:

Export Download Basket:
In the download basket click the “Export Links to Text File” button:

This will generate a text document which you can open on your PC called myDownloadBasketFiles.txt.

Open the text file using notepad:

I have 2 lines for the two items in my download basket.  I don’t know which is which.  I can suppose they are in order, but I don’t really know for sure.
Take the first line and log onto your cloud hosted Linux server as your preferred user.
Ping the softwaredownload.sap.com server using the Linux utility wget to make sure you can see the server.

> wget https://softwaredownloads.sap.com

A successful ping will show a HTTP error 401 and “Authorization failed“:

We have confirmed that our cloud hosted Linux server can see the SAP download server.
Switch to your target download directory (somewhere with disk space):

> cd mydownloadsdirectory

We now call wget again and pass the first item to download:

> wget –http-user=”[your s-user]” –http-password=”[your password]” [the first url] –output-document=1file.SAR

Adjust the command line above to put in your S-user account name and password.
You should also change the last parameter to give your file a name.

We have to guess that it is a SAR file.  Once it’s downloaded you can always re-name and test the extraction using “SAPCAR -tvf thefile.SAR”.

The wget utility will save the file in the current directory.
Repeat the same command line, changing the URL and the output document file, for each of the remaining items in the notepad text file of your download basket.

As you can see, using wget will allow you to script the download process so that you could schedule an overnight download of software.

SAP Software Provisioning Manager System Copy

From NetWeaver 7.0 onwards, you now need to use the SAP Software Provisioning Manager (SWPM) to perform system copies.
As an example, a production MS SQL Server database PX1 is restored from backup onto a training system database server.
After the restore is completed, you now have your TX1 database refreshed, but the schema inside the database is still the source system schema and there are post-copy tasks to perform.
What media is needed?
You will need the following media:

  • SWPM SAR file.
  • The 700 and 720 SL-Controller file updates are not needed for system copies (unless you are installing/re-installing a Java AS).
  • You need both the 720_EXT unicode and non-unicode Kernels for SWPM (they are specific Kernels located in the SWDC under the NetWeaver download location.  They specifically say “… for SWPM“).  You will need the UC kernel even if your system is NUC!

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Any GOTCHAS?

  • You need the source system DDIC password for 000.
  • You need the password for the <sid>adm user.
  • You need the password for the SAPService<SID> (Windows) user.
  • The software media is around 4GB in size!

The SWPM performs approximately  the following tasks (I’ve added my own comments) taken from the detailed timings report at the end of a run.
I thought this might be useful to anyone new to the process:

  • Update System DLLs (not sure what DLLs, maybe VC++ Redist)
  • Re-Create users for SAP system (in database?)
  • Re-Install common system files (maybe SAPMMC files, HostAgent)
  • Configure database client (SNAC is already installed? maybe install MS JAVA JDBC JARs)
  • Cleanup of temp database objects.
  • Create/modify system database schema.
  • Migrate objects to new schema.
  • Delete old schema.
  • Set compatibility level for databases (sets to compatibility 100 for DB, tempdb, model, master)
  • Create SAP stored procedures.
  • Any MS SQL Server specific tasks (set PAGE_VERIFY to CHECKSUM, set AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS_ASYNC to ON, set ANSI_NULLS to ON, set AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS to ON, set AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS to ON, configures FILESTREAM, reconfigures parallelism and min and max memory settings, enables xp_cmdshell.
  • Grant database access for the <sid>adm user,  SAPService<sid> user and SAP_<SID>_LocalAdmin group.
  • Configure database parameters.
  • Perform post-load activities.
  • Check DDIC password (client 000, if you don’t have it right it prompts you to re-enter it here).
  • Run ABAP reports (RSWBOINS, RUTCSADAPT, RADDBDIF, RUTTYPSET, UMG_POOL_TABLE, DEL_DBCONUSR_ENTRY_SDB, DEL_DBCON_ENTRY_SDB, INS_DBCONUSR_ENTRY_SDB, INS_DBCON_ENTRY_SDB, DEL_DBCON_ENTRY_HDB, INS_DBCON_ENTRY_HDB).
  • Perform table depooling (RUTPOADAPT)
  • Activate HANA Content (SNHI_DELIVERY_UNIT_MIGRATION)
  • Activate SQLScript Proxies (DBPROC_ACTIVATE_PROXIES)
  • Create DDL Views (RUTDDLSCREATE)
  • Restart instance.

At the end of the process, the schema is migrated and the system is ready to use.
There are some additional database specific tasks to perform, you need to check the SAP notes for your specific database instance.
See SAP Note 888210 – “NW 7.**: System copy (supplementary note)“

SWPM System Copy rdisp/msserv

Scenario: During a SAP NW731 system copy, the SWPM prompts you to set the rdisp/msserv and rdisp/msserv_internal parameters in the SCS instance profile.

image

The problem is, these are already set in the SCS instance profile.  You can clearly see them there.

The solution is to ensure that the same parameters and values are also set in the DEFAULT.pfl profile file too.  This is not so clear, but it is mentioned in SAP note 1421005.

SAP SWPM Checks Windows Virtual Hostname Setup

When you come to use SWPM for the first time to copy a SAP system which has a virtual hostname defined and used, be aware that the SWPM has in-built checks to ensure that the Windows registry is correctly configured according to SAP note 1564275.

If you’ve not fully implemented the note configuration in the Windows registry, even if you’re using the “SAPINST_USE_HOSTNAME=<hostname>” SAPInst.exe parameter, the SWPM will show an error and exit.

My specific setup was missing the DisableStrictNameChecking setting.  After adding this into the registry, I was able to launch SWPM.