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SilviaPedroso
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
3,681

An Instance sharing feature is now available on Object Store for customers who would like to leverage capabilities to reuse computing resources, exchange data and reduce costs. This new feature is available for all hyperscaler options for the new ‘standard’ plan, for more information on the available service plans please visit SAP Discovery Center.

Sharing a service instance among multiple spaces and across orgs allows apps to share databases, messaging queues, and other types of services. Instance sharing eliminates the need to use service bindings as keys, user-provided services, or other means of maintaining credentials of instances that were provisioned in another scope of the subaccount.

Object Store on SAP BTP lets you store and manage objects involving creation, upload, download, and deletion. This service is specific to the IaaS layer such as Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud Platform via AWS S3 buckets, Azure Blob container or Google Cloud Storage buckets.

To set up instance sharing please consider the following prerequisites:

How to set up instance sharing in a Cloud Foundry Environment

Create a space

Within SAP BTP Cockpit, access your subaccount and navigate to the cloud foundry environment tab. Create a space by selecting ‘Create Space’.

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Give your space a name and save it. You have successfully created a new space.

Create an instance

Within your subaccount go to ‘instances and subscriptions’, and select ‘Create’.

ℹ️Please consider that in order to use the share instance functionality, the service plan available is ‘standard’, thus if you are using the older service plans please upgrade to standard plan first (for more information please access the following documentation)

Enter the details for your new instance, including the below fields and select 'Create':

FieldDescriptionExample
Servicewhich service instance you wish to createObject Store
Planwhich service plan is relevant for this instance, keep in mind 'standard' service plan is where shared instance functionality is enabled.standard
Runtime EnvironmentChose your runtime environmentCloud Foundry
SpaceSelect your space nameInstance-Sharing-Space-1
Instance NameSelect a name for your new instanceinstance-sharing-cf-instance-1

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You have created your instance successfully. To use this instance for sharing, select the actions button (…) followed by ‘Share Instance’. This instance will be your reference-instance.

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Once the successful message is displayed a new service plan named ‘reference-instance’ is automatically created by Service Manager in the background.

How to use your shared instance in a new space

Navigate to your subaccount and select your second space (or follow steps above to create a second space), then navigate to instances, and select ‘Create’. Select ‘Object Store’ as your service and select your newly created service plan ‘reference-instance’ as your plan. Then enter a name for your new instance and select next.

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Find your shared instance by entering one of the following fields:

  • Shared Instance ID = GUID of your shared instance i.e.f63014b5-ff49-4c0b-b4f2-cb3d2bd87b48
  • Instance Name = The name of your shared instance i.e.instance-sharing-cf-instance-1
  • Plan Name = The service plan name of your shared instance i.e.reference-instance 
  • Labels = labels you used on your shared instance

Select 'Next', followed by 'Create'. 

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You have successfully created a new instance with reference to a shared instance. In order to validate you can enter into your instance and validate that the ‘Plan’ used is ‘reference-instance’.

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ℹ️If when you create an instance you do not see a ‘reference-instance’ plan to use, you do not have a shareable instance, please revisit the enable instance sharing section. As at least one of your instances must be in ‘shareable’ status. Additionally, only 5 bindings can be made within your subaccount.

Using a reference instance using Kyma Environment

Prerequisites:

Within BTP Cockpit navigate to your subaccount, select the kyma environment tab and click on the 'link to dashboard' link to open the kyma dashboard. 

In the Kyma dashboard select your kyma namespace, then select on the left hand menu 'Service Management' followed by 'Service Instance'.

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Enter a name for your new instance together with the following information:

  • Offering name = objectstore
  • Plan name = reference-instance
  • External name = your desired instance name

Also enter the following parameters, including your shared instance ID guid or name:

 

 

{
  "referenced_instance_id": "",
  "selectors": {
    "instance_name_selector": "instance-sharing-cf-instance-1",
    "plan_name_selector": "",
    "instance_label_selector": []
  }
}

 

 

Select 'Create', you should receive a provisioned status. Indicating your instance was created successfully.

If you navigate back to your SAP BTP Cockpit, you should also see a new instance created using the reference-instance.

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Create a service binding in Kyma

Navigate back to your Kyma dashboard > namespace > instance.

In BTP service binding section, select 'Create'.

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Enter a name and select your service instance name from the drop down, followed by 'Create'.

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In order to see the credentials for this service binding within Kyma dashboard access your service binding and select its name hyperlink next to the 'Secret Name' field. 

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In order to decode the data shown, select 'decode':

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You have successfully created a service binding, if you navigate back to SAP BTP cockpit, your instance will now have a service binding visible.

How to disable instance sharing

Prerequisites:

  • Successfully delete service keys/service bindings that are used within shared instances
  • Successfully delete all instances that are using your shared instance.

In the SAP BTP Cockpit, within your subaccount, navigate to your shared instance and select it. The instance will have an identification 'Shared' and there will be a new tab 'Reference Instances'. 

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Select the reference instance one by one and delete any bindings you have created. Start by selecting your instance and deleting any service keys. Select the actions button '...' and select 'Delete'. Do the same for the instance. 

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If you have a reference instance created in Kyma, you need to access the Kyma dashboard, select your namespace > instance > service binding. Delete your service binding first followed by your instance. 

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Once you have deleted your binding and your service instance in the kyma dashboard, navigate back to the SAP BTP Cockpit. Your shared instance will no longer have the reference instance associated. 

Once you have deleted all the instances that are using your reference instance, within your subaccount access the actions button (…) and select ‘Unshare Instance’.

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A successful message will be displayed, your instance is no longer available for sharing.

If you wish to carry out these steps via CLI please follow the Cloud Foundry documentation.

Congratulations! You have now successfully set up instance sharing on Object Store!

Relevant sources of information:

  • For detailed information on Object Store on SAP BTP, hyperscaler option service, please check SAP Help.
  • For information on Object Store pricing and commercial options and regions, please check SAP Discovery Center.
  • For more information on instance sharing, please check our SAP Help Instance Sharing document.
  • For additional details on Kyma set-ups please access the SAP Help portal and also have a look at the video series provided in the following Kyma blog.
  • If any Object Store errors occur, please open a ticket in the component BC-CP-CF-OSAAS, if an error occurs during instance sharing, please open a ticket for Service Manager component BC-NEO-SVCMGR.

Thank you,

SAP BTP Backing Services – Product Management

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