Enterprise Resource Planning Blogs by Members
Gain new perspectives and knowledge about enterprise resource planning in blog posts from community members. Share your own comments and ERP insights today!
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
former_member642947
Participant
7,675

Introduction


This blog provides step by step guide for Highly Available (HA) File Share cluster on Windows Operating System using SIOS Datakeeper which will provide ‘sapmnt’ and ‘trans’ individual/separate fileshare for multiple SAP environments in the landscape. This will cover all the aspects of single of failure (SPOF) for SAP Application layer. Blog will skip the setup of Database layer of SAP environment.

Purpose


To build HA environment for deploying SAP landscape in Azure we need to have SMB/NFS HA Fileshare environment which will host the common filesystems(like ‘sapmnt’ and ‘trans’) for all the environments. This will help to achieve the availability SLA and optimization of the landscape design. We can either use availability set or availability zone to deploy the Fileshare cluster based on the availability requirements. This blog covers one of the multiple approaches for deploying the fileshare for SAP systems in Windows environment.

System Design


Below is the example scenario design of the Production SAP landscape for an organization. Windows fileshare cluster is the central location for hosting the common filesystems for all/multiple SIDs and they are hosted (and can be maintained) independent of each other.


In this blog, as an example lets us consider that we have four SAP SID in our landscape which have HA setup for ASCS and database. There is one common SMB File share cluster which will hosting four separate SMB fileshare, each of which have separate virtual hostname and separate storage associated with it. Only specific mountpoints can be mounted to the relevant ASCS and application servers.

File share names:

  • \\sapglobalPR1\sapmnt

  • \\sapglobalPR2\sapmnt

  • \\sapglobalC01\sapmnt

  • \\sapglobalC02\sapmnt


Each fileshare will have separate role in WFSC cluster and separate drive for the share. Drives are replicated(sync) between the cluster nodes using SIOS Datakeeper. Internal Load balancers are used to create virtual IPs of the fileshares.

Solution meets the requirements of SAP Fileshare as described in SAP Note 2492395 (example 2) in which it states that we can’t change the name ‘sapmnt’ for SAP Fileshare.

Following the details of the reference setup which are described in the blog:













































Hostname Description OS Version Drive Letters
azwinfileshare1  SMB Fileshare Node1 Windows 2019 I: (PR1), J: (PR2), M: (C01), N: (C02)
azwinfileshare2  SMB Fileshare Node2 Windows 2019 I: (PR1), J: (PR2), M: (C01), N: (C02)
sapglobalPR1 Virtual hostname for PR1 fileshare - -
sapglobalPR2 Virtual hostname for PR2 fileshare - -
sapglobalC01 Virtual hostname for C01 fileshare - -
sapglobalC02 Virtual hostname for C02 fileshare - -

The setup has used Azure Zone features which provides 99.99% of VM availability. Same setup can be used for Availability Set based deployment which provides 99.95% of availability for the cluster VMs.

Solution can be extended to other Azure region for Disaster Recovery(DR) setup by setting up Azure Site Recovery (ASR) of the Fileshare VMs.

Overview of the Installation Steps


Overall steps for the deployment of the Fileshare cluster for SAP Application layer HA setup are :

  • Preform the preparatory steps.

  • Define the Internal Load balancer.

  • Deploy the WFSC Failover Cluster.

  • Setup and configure the SIOS DataKeeper Replication.

  • Setup the Fileshare as Failover Cluster Roles.

  • Setup SAP ASCS/ERS Cluster using Fileshare.

  • Utilize the Fileshare for SAP PAS Installations.

  • Optimization steps for SAP Environment using Fileshare.

  • Test the Cluster Setup


Preparations



  • Read the required Installation Guide, SAP Notes, SAP on Azure docs and download the installation media.

  • Deploy the VM in Availability Zones as per the system architecture and Choose Operating System as Windows Server for Application Layer.

  • Add equal number & size of disks to SMB File share VMs.

  • Join the VMs to the Domain.

  • Define Page File in Temp Disk (D Drive).

  • Check that necessary Ports are open in Windows firewall.

  • Disable the Continuous Availability Feature in Windows using the instructions in this link.


Define the Internal Load Balancer


Create a standard Internal load balancer and define the setup as below:






























Front-end IP Backend Pool Health probe port Load balancing rule


10.20.10.15

(virtual IP for sapglobalPR1)
azwinfileshare1 and azwinfileshare2 62200

Enable HA Port,

Enable Floating IP,

Idle Timeout (30 Minutes)


10.20.10.16

(virtual IP for sapglobalPR2)
62205

Enable HA Port,

Enable Floating IP,

Idle Timeout (30 Minutes)


10.20.10.17

(virtual IP for sapglobalC01)
62210

Enable HA Port,

Enable Floating IP,

Idle Timeout (30 Minutes)


10.20.10.18

(virtual IP for sapglobalC02)
62215

Enable HA Port,

Enable Floating IP,

Idle Timeout (30 Minutes)

In case of using a Basic Load balancer in Availability Set based deployment, load balancing rules needs to created for port 445 and 5985.

Setup Windows Cluster



  • Login to the fileshare VMs as administrator

  • In the Add Role and Features Wizard, Install the .NET Framework 3.5 and Failover Clustering for both the nodes.

  • Set up the failover cluster by using Failover Cluster Manager. In Failover Cluster Manager, select Create Cluster, and then add only the name of the first cluster (node A). Do not add the second node yet; you add the second node in a later step.

  • Enter the network name (virtual host name) of the cluster.

  • Continue with next steps to create the cluster.


Note : If we are using Windows Server 2016, once cluster is created then we need to update the IP of the cluster (which also needs to be defined as A-record in AD/DNS) and then start the cluster.




  • Add Note2 to the cluster


Uncheck ‘Add all eligible storage to the cluster’




  • Continue with the steps to add the Node 2 to the cluster. Once Node2 is successfully added. Check that both the Nodes are showing status as ‘Up’.

  • Configure the cloud share witness by selecting the option to add quorum to cluster.


Enter the storage account details for the cloud witness.




  • Check the status of the cluster and cloud Witness as ‘Online’.

  • Change below cluster parameters thresholds so they adapt failover detection to conditions in Azure.


SameSubNetDelay = 2000


SameSubNetThreshold = 15


RouteHistoryLength = 30


We can see further details about these setting in the link.



Setup SIOS Datakeeper Replication



  • Create Domain User ‘DataKeeperSvc’ and add it in local admin group of both cluster nodes.

  • Use the dism.exe command-line tool on both nodes. For this type of installation, you need to access the SxS directory on the Windows installation media. At an elevated command prompt, enter this command:


Dism /online /enable-feature /featurename:NetFx3 /All /Source:installation_media_drive:\sources\sxs /LimitAccess




  • Start the Installation of the latest version of SIOS Datakeeper in both cluster nodes.

  • Note the information about Ports to be opened for SIOS Datakeeper.

  • Maintain the Service Account details

    • Enter license details of SIOS DataKeeperRestart the fileshare VMs before starting the SIOS Datakeeper configuration.



  • Configure SIOS DataKeeper

    • Open SIOS Datakeeper in Node 1, click on ‘connect’.

    • Enter the IP Address of Fileshare Cluster Node 1

    • Repeat the step to connect to Node 2.

    • Check the server overview which shows four drives on both nodes.

    • Create the Replication Job

    • Select the source server and volume for replication

    • Select the target server and volume

    • Choose the mode of replication as ‘Synchornus’

    • Add the shared volume to Windows cluster.

    • Repeat the above steps to Create jobs for all the volumes.

    • Check the status of replication.

    • Check the shared volume status in the Failover Cluster




Configure Fileshares



  • Create New A Record in AD/DNS for all the virtual hostnames of Fileshare. IP address will be same as its defined as front-end IP of ILB.

  • Create Role in Failover cluster.

  • Select the Role Type as ‘File Server’.

  • Choose ‘File Server for General Use’

  • Define the name same as virtual hostname.

  • Choose the storage volume to be used for this fileshare. ‘sapmnt’ folder needs to be created as folder in this drive.

  • Role creation successfully completed.

  • Update the IP Address and Start the Role.

  • Update the probe port for the Cluster Role

    • Check the current probe port (using powershell command) which will be ‘0’ as its yet to be defined.




Get-ClusterResource "IP Address 10.20.10.15" | Get-ClusterParameter




    • Run the powershell commands to set the probe port




$ClusterNetworkName = “Cluster Network 1"

$IPResourceName = "IP Address 10.20.10.15"

$ILBIP = "10.20.10.15"

Import-Module FailoverClusters

Get-ClusterResource $IPResourceName | Set-ClusterParameter -Multiple @{Address=$ILBIP;ProbePort=62200;SubnetMask="255.255.255.255";Network=$ClusterNetworkName;EnableDhcp=0}




    • Restart the Role to activate configuration

    • Check the ProbePort configuration




Get-ClusterResource "IP Address 10.20.10.15" | Get-ClusterParameter


  • Repeat the above steps to create the Failover cluster roles for other Fileshares.


\\sapglobalPR2\sapmnt

\\sapglobalC01\sapmnt

\\sapglobalC02\sapmnt


  • Check the status of the Roles.

  • Create the ‘sapmnt’ share for each path.


SAP ASCS/ERS HA Setup with Fileshare


Below are the high level steps for setting up SAP ASCS/ERS HA setup on Windows Server using Fileshare. Please refer to reference section for links with more details.

  • Perform all preparations steps as described in the “prepare” section.

  • Create the loadbalancer for ASCS and ERS (e.g. for S/4 HANA).


Create front-end IP, backend-pool, health probe, and loadbalancing rule for ASCS/ERS cluster.


As an example, following will be ILB details for PR1 (which is S/4 HANA environment)























Front-end IP Backend Pool Health probe port Load balancing rule


10.20.10.25

(ASCS Virtual IP)
azwinpr1ascs1 and azwinpr1ascs2 62300

Enable HA Port,

Enable Floating IP,

Idle Timeout (30 Minutes)


10.20.10.26

(ERS Virtual IP)
62302

Enable HA Port,

Enable Floating IP,

Idle Timeout (30 Minutes)

In case of Basic loadbalancer, we need to define load balancing rule for all the allowed ports.


For ASCS : 32xx, 36xx, 39xx, 81xx, 5xx13, 5xx14, 5xx16


For ERS : 33xx, 5xx13, 5xx14, 5xx16


Windows-specific ports for every SAP system: 5985


For SAP Java environment, please refer to port requirement in SAP documentation.




  • Add A-record in AD/DNS for virtual hostname of ASCS and ERS (e.g. for S/4 HANA) virtual hostnames and assign the front-end IP defined in the ILB.

  • Login to ASCS/ERS VMs as administrator user.

  • Add registry entries on both cluster nodes of the SAP ASCS/SCS instance

    • Entry 1




Path : HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

Variable name : KeepAliveTime

Variable type : REG_DWORD (Decimal)

Value : 120000




    • Entry 2




Path : HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters

Variable name : KeepAliveInterval

Variable type : REG_DWORD (Decimal)

Value : 120000


  • In the Add Role and Features Wizard, add “failover clustering” to both cluster nodes.

  • Create the Failover cluster by adding Node1. If OS is Windows 2016, update the IP of the cluster and then start the cluster. IP needs to be defined against the cluster name in the AD/DNS.

  • Add Node2 to the cluster.

  • Add the cloud witness to the cluster.

  • Change cluster thresholds so they adapt failover detection to conditions in Azure.


SameSubNetDelay = 2000


SameSubNetThreshold = 15


RouteHistoryLength = 30


We can see further details about these setting in the link.




  • Start the SWPM to install the ASCS First Cluster Node.

  • While Installing ASCS First Cluster Node, Select the Cluster share configuration as ‘File Share Cluster’

  • Enter the hostname of file share cluster, in this case we use ‘sapglobalPR1’ for PR1 setup.

  • Add following parameters in Instance profile


enque/encni/set_so_keepalive = true

service/ha_check_node = 1


  • Configure the probe port for the Cluster role using the powershell.


Get-ClusterResource "SAP PR1 IP" | Get-ClusterParameter

 

$ClusterNetworkName = “Cluster Network 1”

$IPResourceName = "SAP PR1 IP"

$ILBIP = "<Virtual IP>"

Import-Module FailoverClusters

Get-ClusterResource $IPResourceName | Set-ClusterParameter  -Multiple @{Address=$ILBIP;ProbePort=<probePort>;SubnetMask="255.255.255.255";Network=$ClusterNetworkName;EnableDhcp=0}

 For ERS Role (e.g. in S/4 Hana)



Get-ClusterResource "SAP PR1 ERS IP" | Get-ClusterParameter

 

$ClusterNetworkName = “Cluster Network 1”

$IPResourceName = "SAP PR1 ERS IP"

$ILBIP = "<Virtual IP>"

Import-Module FailoverClusters

Get-ClusterResource $IPResourceName | Set-ClusterParameter  -Multiple @{Address=$ILBIP;ProbePort=<probePort>;SubnetMask="255.255.255.255";Network=$ClusterNetworkName;EnableDhcp=0}

Restart the Cluster Roles to activate the changes.




  • Run SWPM on Node2, to install the ‘Additional Cluster Node’.


Using Fileshare in SAP PAS Setup


Following are the some relevant entries for Fileshare location while installing SAP PAS instance using SWPM.

  • Select the Profile directory which is in the File share cluster

  • Select the Fileshare virtual hostname for transport Directory. Transport directory hostname can be same as ‘sapmnt’ virtual host. Otherwise we can create a separate virtual host, ILB front-end IP, Cluster Role, storage volume for transport host in the Fileshare Cluster.


 

Optimization Steps for SAP Setup using Fileshare


There are several recommendations and SAP Notes available to tune the SAP deployment using fileshare.

  • SAP Note 1823833 - Accessing shares via SMB3.x will result in long waiting times


Make sure Continuous availability is disabled in all the SAP and fileshare VMs as described in the link.




Specially Check the setting of your drives NTFS configuration with "Fsutil 8Dot3Name query" as described in SAP Note 662452




  • SAP Note 1911507 - Background Jobs canceled during failover of (A)SCS instance in windows failover cluster


SMB 3.0 must be active in all the VMs.




Failover Cluster Testing


Failover testing needs to be performed for Fileshare cluster, ASCS Cluster and Database cluster of the SAP environment.

There are mainly 2 kinds of HA testing needs to be performed:

  1. Planned – In case of planned unavailability of the one the node of the cluster pair. This can be tested by stopping the services on the node and verifying that SAP services are available to users.

  2. Unplanned – This can be tested by crashing the VMs and removing the storage from VMs. In windows environment, VM crashing can be achieved by the tool ‘notmyfault’.


 

References


10 Comments
I032156
Explorer
Hi Anjan,

Thanks for another great blog. It gave us clear view of SIOS HA setup.  Well done.
BJarkowski
Active Contributor
Great post!
former_member532047
Discoverer
Hi Anjan,

"Solution can be extended to other Azure region for Disaster Recovery(DR) setup by setting up Azure Site Recovery (ASR) of the Fileshare VMs."

What about setting up a 3rd SIOS node in the DR region instead of using ASR? is it supported? What do you think about the pros/cons of this approach?
former_member642947
Participant
Hi Denny,

We can also use 3rd node of Windows cluster in DR region and have SIOS datakeeper 'async' replication to DR node. It will be bit more expensive in terms of VM and SIOS license cost as compared to ASR.
former_member532047
Discoverer
0 Kudos
Thank you, Anjan.
0 Kudos

Agree with Anjan. Using ASR will be free hence it’s definitely less expensive overall and does the job of DR. The difference is, that’s not a 3 node cluster, so it’s not a fully automated failover-reverse replication-failback process, it does need a few reconfigs to failback. So, it just boils down to how automated you need the DR process to be, and the costs associated with it... both approach works technically.

0 Kudos
Hi Anjan,

Great post, Can we use the same SISO setup outside Azure?

regards

Pradeep
rajarajeswari_kaliyaperum
Active Participant
0 Kudos
Hi Anjan

I have couple of question.Can you help ?

1.If I am using SOFS in primary region (within av.set) for /sapmnt and /usr/sap/trans , will i be able to replicate the same to DR by using ASR for  ASCS,ERS and AAS VMs from primary region ?

2.For Content server/MaxDB , If i enable ASR for these VMs , will that be sufficient as a DR for the same.Or, should i replicate the data and log volumes using SIOS data keeper to DR separately ?

3.If I am not using ASR, and if I replicate the /sapmnt using AZcopy, will this be sufficient to provide DR for this storage ? For HA I am using SOFS for the same .

4.Can we use Windows Snapshot to provide DR for content server along with the data and log volume

Regards

Raji K
former_member642947
Participant
Hi Raji,

Following are my answers :

  1. ASR can replicate SOFS VMs from primary region to DR.

  2. We don't recommend ASR for any type of DB replication. You can refer to my blog Content Server/MaxDB HA setup and use it for DR setup. Only difference is replication will be 'async' in place of 'sync' replication.                                                                                                          SAP On Azure : High-Availability Setup of SAP Content Server 7.53 with MaxDB in Windows Environment ...

  3. You can use Azcopy or Robocopy to replicate the contents of /sapmnt to secondary region. But it will be more manual process.                                                                                    Azcopy target destination should be storage account in DR region then during DR, you need to copy the contents from storage account to Azure Disk. So I would not recommend such a long process.                                                                                                                                With Robocopy, you need a running VM in DR region to perform the copy, which will be additional cost.                                                                                                                               I would recommend you to stick to ASR of SOFS.                                                                                                                                                                                                                             You may send me email for further information.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 thanks & regards,                                                                                                                           Anjan

rajarajeswari_kaliyaperum
Active Participant
0 Kudos
Hi Anjan

 

Thanks much. I do have 2 question on content server DR. I will drop you an email. Thank much!

 

Regards

Raji K
Labels in this area