Use of Virtual/Secondary host name with SAP HANA

There are scenarios where you do not connect to SAP HANA database instance directly via Host IP address or Physical hostname but via a Virtual IP or NAT address.

The main connection between NAT and the IP is established via DNS or a local entry in local host file.

But internally SAP HANA tries to make a connection to the Tenant DB using physical IP by default. Same has been depicted below with an example of SAP HANA Studio.

If you check the properties of a tenant database from studio you will see the following:

Even though you connect to DB using NAT IP (10.253.80.9) it is internally redirected to original IP (10.249.28.20) to make additional connections.

In this case when you try to make connection to a tenant database via webdispatcher or sql clients you will not be able to communicate to tenant DB.

You can also verify the same by querying M_HOST_INFORMATION.

This behaviour is controlled by parameter “public_hostname_resolution” under global.ini.

To change the behaviour you will have to change the parameter to “no” so that system is not forced anymore to use IP address of the Network interface. Instead you can map the hostname to required IP address as required.

Note: This change does not required a DB restart.

Now you can map the hostname with required IP address on client machine to connect to the database:

Changes can be observed again with studio again.

 

 

SAP HANA Cockpit 2.0 – Installation and configuration

SAP HANA Cockpit is a Web-Based  tool for administration, monitoring and maintenance of SAP HANA systems.

Below we discuss installation steps and some key points with respect to cockpit:

1. Download the required SAP file from SAP Market Place.
2. Extract the SAR file and trigger installation using hdblcm.
   Note that installer installs a HANA instance (Express edition) of its own.
   More details here
3. Verify the details, enter the password and continue. Like any HANA installation user SYSTEM is created on the DB which will be used to login to Cockpit also.
   Along with SYSTEM, the other key user created is COCKPIT_ADMIN.
   Note that 51021 and 51023 are the default ports for Cockpit and Cockpit manager respectively.
4. First it is required to login to Cockpit manager to assign yourself required roles using user COCKPIT_ADMIN.
   
   
5. Now you are ready to login to the HANA Cockpit.
   
6. If you want to add additional users or resources (HANA systems) to cockpit, you can do so via SAP HANA Cockpit manager.
   
   

 

Important SAP Notes:

2496215 – You’re not authorized to open the SAP HANA Cockpit

2618617 – Launching SAP HANA Cockpit 2.5.5 in Firefox

2496215 – You’re not authorized to open the SAP HANA Cockpit

2185556 – FAQ: SAP HANA Cockpit

2595496 – Register a Resource in HANA Cockpit

2149157 – Unable to access the SAP HANA Cockpit due to error “Failure – Unable to load groups”.

 

Starting Sybase ASE Database (Linux)

Make sure you are logged in with user syb<sid>.

From the environment variables find you Sybase ASE install Directory:

Travesrse to the install path:

Here you see the configuration files (Runserver) RUN_<SID> (Database server) and RUN_<SID>_BS (Backup server).

Use command startserver to start each server process.

You can either start them individually or together.

• -f runserverfile – specifies the relative path name of a runserver file, which is used as a reference each time you start an SAP ASE server or Backup Server. By default, the runserver file is in the current directory and is named RUN_servername. If you start a second SAP ASE server on the same machine, startserver creates a new runserver file named RUN_servername.
• -m – starts an SAP ASE server in single-user mode, allowing only one system administrator to log in, and turns the allow updates to system tables configuration parameter on. Use this mode to restore the master database. The system administrator can use thedbo use only parameter of sp_dboption for system administration activities that require more than one process, such as bulk copying or using the data dictionary. startserver normally starts up only one server per node.The -m parameter creates an m_RUNSERVER file and overwrites any existing m_RUNSERVER file.

After both the processes are started the control is not returned back until you hit a key.

Now you can check the status of server using command showserver.

 

2570084 – How to start Backup Server manually – SAP ASE

2307016 – How to manually configure and start ASE Cockpit for an existing ASE server – ASE 16.0 SP02 PL02

2581558 – Starting SAP ASE Backup Server as windows service reporting error “The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion”support-grace , support grace, Application version, License version, lic, Sysam, grace period, ASEServer, SAPASE, .lic, FLEXnet Licensing error, key, old license file, datestamp, support renewal date, sybase license , KBA , BC-SYB-ASE , Sybase ASE Database Platform (non Business Suite) , Problem

Client Copy – Performance improvement

Remote client copy from Production client to Quality? Not a good idea!

If you want to know why it is not a good idea, refer to SAP Note “489690 – CC INFO: Copying large production clients”.

But sometimes it is required to fulfill the requirement.

Lets see below some points that can help improve the performance of Copies.

Some other important notes below:

541311 – CC-INFO: Parallel processes FAQ

24853 – CC-INFO: Client copy, functionality

557132 – CC-TOPIC: Remote client copy

Its best to lock the source and target clients until the activities are done But again, “if it is Production”!

If the production client cannot be locked choose a low usage time frame.

1. Empty the largest/time taking tables individually.

This saves lot of time during client delete. You should know these tables already from large table list of previous client copy logs.

Do not bother about these if you are planning to skip these from the copy.

SE14 –> Table Name

You can run deletion of multiple tables together.

Monitor the progress using SM37.

2. Settings for Client Delete/Copy.

Below are generic settings for client delete and also the Client Copy.

SCC5/SCCL/SCC8/SCC9 à Expert Settings

Skip Empty tables:

Mark your big tables. Save the Biggest one for next step:

Add the biggest one in here:

Exclude the tables that you do not want to be Deleted or Copied here

Ensure to provide maximum number for parallel processes for the copy.

3. Delete the Source Client.

SCC5

Make sure you are logged in to the client you want to delete:

Monitor the progress from SCC3.

4 Perform Local/Remote Client copy or Export/Import.