How to check your HANA Devices Health with HWCCT Tool and MiniChecks

[yakcinar]

There are two tools, SAP HANA HW Configuration Check Tool (HWCCT) and Minichecks, for checking the health of SAP HANA System.

There could be more than these two tools but I want to mention about HWCCT and Minichecks in my document and give the detailed how to guides of these tools.

Notes and links that needs to be read;

1943937 - Hardware Configuration Check Tool - Central Note

Install the SAP HANA HW Configuration Check Tool

CERTIFIED SAP HANA® HARDWARE DIRECTORY

1969700 - SQL statement collection for SAP HANA

1999993 - How-To: Interpreting SAP HANA Mini Check Results

How to use Hardware Configuration Check Tool (HWCCT);

There is an attachment in note 1943937 named SAP_HANA_Hardware_Configuration_Check_Tool_1.8.pdf. You can find general info, detailed configuration and usage of the tool in this note and document.

There is a section (2.9.1 Install the SAP HANA HW Configuration Check Tool) in SAP HANA Administration Guide for the tool, too.

Below you can find the practice of this tool on our scale up HANA System.

1- Determine the right tool for your hardware

You should find your appliance on CERTIFIED SAP HANA® HARDWARE DIRECTORY and go to the details. Find your hardware's certified scenario like the one in below picture. Then check the note 1943937 to find the right tool. Eg: "All HWCCT tests of appliances (compute servers) certified with scenario HANA-HWC-AP SU 1.1 or HANA-HWC-AP RH 1.1 must use HWCCT of SAP HANA SPS10 or higher or a related SAP HANA revision".

2- Download the determined tool, copy to the server and install it

From swdc you can find the tool "SAP HANA HW CONFIG CHECK 1.0" under SAP HANA PLATFORM EDIT. 1.0 and download it.

Install with SAPCAR -xf HWCCT_112_xxxx.SAR

3- Prepare the test_config.json file

There are 3 test modules; Landscape Test Module, File System Test Module, NetworkTest Module.

There is a Caution for File System and NetworkTest Modules in the document that " The test should only be used before going into production. It should only be used on production machines when this has first been requested by SAP Support"

Preperation of the json file is described in detail and templates are given for all test modules. I prepared mine like below. By checking the caution above you can use either test id 1 or all of them according to your scenarios. I also attached the json file to the document.

4- Run the tool and the result

Login to your HANADB host system

Change directory to the folder hwcct

hanaprd:/hana/shared/hwcct112 # source envprofile.sh

hanaprd:/hana/shared/hwcct112 # ./hwval -f test_config.json

And the result will be like this;

Could be like this also;

How to use Minichecks

The other tool for healthcheck is Minichecks that are coming with the note 1969700 - SQL statement collection for SAP HANA as attachments.

This tool is explained in detail in the document Keeping your HANA system healthy with Mini Checks by r.konijnenburg

This is how I applied the tools.

Regards,

Yuksel AKCINAR

[lbreddemann]

Thanks for this really good example of how good knowledge sharing documents can look like. Well written and structured, no 'loose end' links or sentences and a topic that hasn't been covered all that often so far.

This is added benefit for the reader in a page.

Good job!

[#3]

Very useful information!

Do you have more details about the CAUTION of running File System and NetworkTest Modules in production machines?

I understand could be performance issues, but what kind of risk could be arise with the test?

Thank you!

[#4]

Very useful information!

Do you have more details about the CAUTION of running File System and NetworkTest Modules in production machines?

I understand could be performance issues, but what kind of risk could be arise with the test?

Thank you!

[yakcinar]

Hello Mauricio,

I did not encounter any performance effect on our 3 TB and 1 TB HANA production systems.

Did not read any note about performance impact, either.

Of course this does not mean that you will not encounter performance issue.

Try to read documents and not to run scripts in peak hours.

Regards,

Yuksel AKCINAR

[#6]

Hello Yuksel,

Thank you for your feedback! I performed it too without any impact. However is good to know the behavior in more detail.

Thank you

[former_member413873]

Hi,

Would you be required to run the HWCCT tool on all nodes in a scale out setup?

 

[yakcinar]

Hello Dipen,

I have no experience about scale-out systems but there are config templates attached to the note 1943937 - Hardware Configuration Check Tool - Central Note

You can use those templates for multinode systems.

 

Regards,

Yuksel AKCINAR

[charlie_gil]

This is a great article and thank you very much.

I have a quick question in this.

In section 1.1, there is an expiration date of certification scenario. Can it be extended by the storage vendor or it has to be extended by SAP or it cannot even be extended once expired?

How does it work?

Thanks.

[Former Member]

During a test the following error might be returned:

"Please prepare host <hostname> for passwordless ssh connection. Exception SystemExit in <module 'threading' from '<home_DIR/HWCCT/hwcct/lib/Python/lib/python2.7/threading.pyc'> ignored"

 

Followed 2212741 - HWCCT known issues and possible root causes Issue 2: Resolution

Still face the same issue.

Anyone with similar issue.

 

[symon_braunbaer]

Hello,

the explanation is nice, however you have A LOT of errors:

1) I tried using your .json file. It DOES NOT work !! It gives a VERY long error. I found a note for this error – it simply says – wrong syntax. It cost me HOURS to get it working properly !!

2) You have a TYPO !!! Correct is “EvalOS” and not “EvalOs” as you wrote !! Using “EvalOs” triggers an error and the test is NOT executed !!!

And a question... The output files are in terrible format !! Nearly impossible to read...
Does anyone have an idea how to get them in a human-readable format ? Thanks !!

[yakcinar]

Hello Symon,

Sorry for the lost time. But I believe that every problem is an oportunity.

This document is 2 years old. As I said "Find your hardware’s certified scenario like the one in below picture. Then check the note 1943937 to find the right tool." you should have checked the latest version of the note.

And I also practiced this json and put the result as picture in the blog.

HWCCT has changed. Last time I did this check I used hwcct program instead of hvval.

 

Regards,

Yuksel AKCINAR

 

[#13]

Hello Yuksel,

Thank you for your feedback! I performed it too without any impact. However is good to know the behavior in more detail.

Thank you