SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 01 What’s New: SAP HANA Cockpit –...
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In the last couple of weeks, we have posted new videos to the SAP HANA Academy to show new features and functionality introduced with SAP HANA 2.0 Support Package Stack (SPS) 01.
The topic of this blog is the SAP HANA cockpit 2.0 SP 01 & 02 and it is the last blog of this series.
To avoid showing the same features again in a dedicated video tutorial about cockpit, I will discuss the features below and point to the relevant video tutorial.
There are new features for:
system administration
performance monitoring and analysis
security administration
high availability
backup and recovery
Support Packages (SP)
We have already discussed that as of SAP HANA 2.0, HANA cockpit is no longer provided as delivery unit (DU) included with the database server but now is a stand-alone product with it's own release cycle.
Updates for SAP HANA cockpit are labeled Support Package(SP) and are available independently of the SAP HANA platform Support Package Stacks (SPS). This allows for more innovation.
SAP HANA cockpit SP 02 is included with SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 01 but cockpit SP 01 was released between HANA SPS 00 and SPS 01. In this blog both SP 02 and SP 01 new features will be discussed.
We will add a full playlist about SAP HANA cockpit 2.0 to the SAP HANA Academy, so stay tuned. Remember that you can always subscribe to the SAP HANA Academy to receive information about any updates.
What's New for System Administration
License Management (SP 01)
There is a new app for license management in SAP HANA cockpit. The app allows you to view the details of the installed license(s).
With the License app, you can also:
Request new license (opens up a new window to the SAP Support Portal)
Upload (install) a new license
Delete licenses
Export System Measurement (memory usage data for license auditing purposes)
Cockpit User Roles (SP 02)
As you may recall, the new SAP HANA 2.0 cockpit comprises two different tools:
Cockpit Manager
Cockpit
In the cockpit manager, you register resources (SAP HANA databases), assign them to resource groups, and create cockpit users, which you can then grant access to these groups and resources.
As of SP 02, we now have different cockpit roles to fine-tune cockpit access:
Cockpit Administrator
Cockpit Resource Administrator
Cockpit User
The COCKPIT_ADMIN user, created during the installation process has the Cockpit Administrator assigned. With this role you can access the Manage Users and Cockpit Settings sections of the cockpit manager.
To access Registered Resources and Resource Groups you need the Resource Administrator role.
To open cockpit for a registered resource, you need the Cockpit User Role.
You grant these roles when you create a new cockpit user (or edit an existing one).
You, as cockpit resource administrator, now have the option to enable SSO for a specific resource, and, if desired, to enforce SSO. Enforcing SSO prevents cockpit users from accessing a resource with different database user credentials.
The Analyze Memory Allocation Statistics app has been redesigned and enhanced and now carries the name Memory Analysis.
You can access the app by drilling down through Manage Services.
The app displays in graphs the memory allocation of every service of a selected host during a specified time range making it easier to investigate memory issues, should they occur.
With SP 02 for SAP HANA cockpit, you can now configure host auto-failover for distributed (multi-host) systems, monitor the status of the individual hosts and switch the configured roles of hosts. This will simplify the administration of distributed systems.
Host auto-failover is an SAP HANA high availability feature, which enables the standby hosts to take the place of any active host, should an issue occur.
Add and Remove Services for Tenant Databases (SP 02)
To add or remove a service to a tenant database, you can now use the Manage Services app in the HANA cockpit. To get access to the Add Service and Remove Service menu items, you need to connect to the system database, open the Manage Databases app and then select the tenant database you wish to alter.
What's New for Performance Monitoring and Analysis
SQL Analyzer (SP 01)
SQL analyzer is a new query performance analysis tool for HANA. You can use it to view detailed information on each query in case you need to investigate potential bottlenecks or want to research possible optimizations for your query.
SQL analyzer is accessible from the SAP HANA cockpit from the Monitor Expensive Statements and Plan Trace apps, and also directly from the SQL Prompt in the Database Explorer (F9 - Analyze SQL).
In SP 01, three new views have been added to the SQL Analyzer:
Plan Graph
Timeline
Operator List
These views will make it easier to understand and analyze the execution plan of the select SQL query.
Overview
Plan Graph
Timeline
Operator List
Performance Monitor (SP 01)
Several enhancements have been made to Performance Monitor:
Manual input enabled for the monitored timeframe (no longer obliged to click your way through the calendar).
Create custom charts displaying Host & Services with selected KPIs.
Configure Alerts according to category and priority status
Additionally, customized user parameters are now saved for the next logon.
Performance Monitor
Add Custom Chart
Configure Alerts
Capture and Replay
The Capture and Replay tool was introduced in SAP HANA 1.0 SPS 12. The tool is included with HANA cockpit and SP 02 adds two new features to the Comparison Report: Generate PDF and view statement details by clicking the bar chart.
Generate PDF
Additionally, when replaying preprocessed workloads, you can now turn on Transactional Replay. This will enable result comparison for the replay. The alternative is runtime comparison.
Transactional Replay
Workload Analyzer (SP 01)
The workload analyzer comes in two flavours:
based on engine instrumentation (capture and replay)
based on thread samples
You can now start a trace directly on the Workload List page (capture & replay workload analyzer).
The workload analyzer based on thread samples now displays the number of thread samples next to each legend in the area chart on the lower part of the screen.
Additionally, it is now possible to choose all available services (not only the indexserver, as before) from the host and services combo box.
Manage Statement Hints (SP 02)
The new Manage Statement Hints app allows you to add statement hints to an SQL statement without modifying the actual statement in the application. This will make it easier to evaluate the effect of different hints on the execution plan and response time of select SQL queries.
What's New for Security Administration
Database Role Management (SP 02)
You can now create and edit roles using the SAP HANA cockpit. The same functionality has been available in the SAP HANA studio from the early days, so consider this a catching up feature.
Database User Management (SP 02)
When creating or changing a database user, you can now configure JSON Web token (JWT) as an authentication mechanism. The is similar to SAML and X509 certificate configuration for SSO.
Using the Password Policy editor of the SAP HANA cockpit, you can now enforce the use of a specific number of a particular character type. For example, enforce the use of two digits in a password.
Database User Management (SP 01)
As of SP 01, you can now grant (or revoke) the PUBLIC role and grant (or revoke) authorization to create objects in the user's own schema. This effectively converts a standard database user to a restricted database user and vice versa.
If, for whatever reason, system replication setup was interrupted, it is now possible to continue starting from the last successful step.
Retention Time Estimation (SP 01)
Two new system replication statistics have been added to the System Replication overview page:
log retention time
log full time
Both statistics are estimations and apply to the logreplay and logreplay_readaccess operation modes after a disconnect situation.
Log retention time indicates the time left before full data shipping becomes necessary to get the primary and the secondary systems back in sync.
Log full time indicates the time left before the primary system runs into a log full.
Network Speed Check (SP 01)
In the same System Replication overview page, you can measure the network speed between primary and secondary system with either a ping or by sending 1, 10, 100, 1000 MB packets over the network and measuring the response times.
In the configuration page that you get after selecting Create Backup, an information label now informs you that the backup will be encrypted.
When the backup has been completed, the Backup Details page in the Backup Catalog displays the encryption key hash (indicating that the backup has been encrypted).
You can get the same information by querying the M_BACKUP_CATALOG monitoring view.
Recovery from Storage Snapshot (SP 02)
Starting with SP 02, you can now use the SAP HANA cockpit to recover an SAP HANA system from a storage snapshot. There is one condition: the system needs to be a "single-tenant" system. In other words, this applies to multi-tenant database container (MDC) systems with only a single tenant database. Consider it as a first step. Hopefully, in the future, using snapshots will be enabled for all MDC systems regardless the number of tenant databases.
Backup and Recover Tenant Databases (SP 01)
As of SP 01, you can now both backup and recover tenant databases from the system database.
You access Backup Tenant Database and Recover Tenant Database from the toolbar of the Manage Databases app.
Selecting Backup Tenant Database will openthe backup catalog, displaying the backup history.
For data backups scheduling, you can use the Backup app of the tenant database.
The SAP HANA database explorer 2.0 allows you to execute SQL statements and database procedures, query information about the database, as well as view information about database catalog objects.
This tool is integrated into both the SAP HANA cockpit and SAP Web IDE for SAP HANA.
For the tool to work correctly, you need to configure your browser with a valid and trusted server certificate. Accepting the browser warning about using an invalid or untrusted certificate does not provide the proper security and the SAP Web IDE for SAP HANA does not work correctly in this mode. For how configure a secure connection between the cockpit and your Web browser, see 2373065 - SAP HANA 2.0 Database Explorer Release Notes.
To download SAP HANA cockpit SP's, just navigate to the same area as for other SAP HANA components: SAP HANA PLATFORM EDITION 2.0. > Support Packages and Patches > SAP HANA COCKPIT 2.0.
The SAP HANA Academy provides free online video tutorials for the developers, consultants, partners, and customers of SAP HANA.
Topics range from practical how-to instructions on administration, data loading and modeling, and integration with other SAP solutions, to more conceptual projects to help build out new solutions using mobile applications or predictive analysis.