POWER LPAR Configuration for SAP HANA and SAP NetWeaver using Ansible

Introduction

This ansible collection simplifies PowerVS LPAR configuration for installing SAP HANA and SAP Netweaver on SLES and RHEL environments. It doesn't install SAP HANA or NETWEAVER applications but, prepares the OS with correct configurations for HANA/Netweaver installations for best performance. They can be executed on same LPAR or different LPARs.

This collection has 3 modules, which are independent of each other and can be run individually.

1. Preparing Operating System for SAP installations.
2. Creating Filesystems for SAP installations.
3. Configuring SWAP spaces.

Ansible Roles Summary

Name	Input Variable Name	Mandatory or Optional	Variable description	Variable Values
powervs_prepare_sles_sap	1. sap_solution	Mandatory	Saptune is executed based on this value	HANA or NETWEAVER or NETWEAVER+HANA
	2. host_ip	Optional	If this variable is included then mtu 9000 will not be set for this interface IP.	e.g.: 192.168.1.1
	3. suse_subscription : { username:"", key:"", release:"" }	Optional	SUSE subscription information. It is a dictionary. Should be set only if subscription is not already set or subscription has to be updated	e.g.: { username:"XYZ", key:"ABC" , release:"12" }
powervs_prepare_rhel_sap	1. sap_solution	Mandatory	RHEL community roles for HANA or NETWEAVER will be executed	HANA or NETWEAVER
	2. host_ip	Mandatory	If this variable is included then mtu 9000 will not be set for this interface IP.	e.g.: 192.168.1.1
	3. sap_domain	Mandatory	sap domain name	e.g.: xyz.com
	4. rhel_subscription : { username:"", password:"" , release:"" }	Optional	RHEL subscription information. It is a dictionary. Should be set only if subscription is not already set or subscription has to be updated	e.g.: { username:"XYZ", password:"ABC" , release:"8.2" }
powervs_fs_creation	1.a. disks_configuration: { counts: [ ], names: [ ],paths: [ ],wwns: [ ] } 1.b. disks_configuration: [ { name: "", path:"", wwns: }...]	Mandatory	Disks configuration value to create and mount filesystems. Supports 2 data structures. First data structure is a single dictionary. Second data structure is a list of dictionaries.	see example A and example B below
	2. stripe_size	Optional	stripe size for disks	Default is 64K
powervs_swap_creation	swap_disk_wwn	Mandatory	wwn id of swap disk	wwn value

Roles Description

1. Preparing Operating System for SAP installations

This module is different for SLES and RHEL and hence should be selected as per operating system in use.

1.1 powervs_prepare_sles_sap:

This role performs the following tasks:

• Enables multipathd daemon
• Enables NFS Service
• Enables rpcbind daemon
• Sets MTU value to 9000 for SAP network interfaces
• TSO is enabled for SAP network interfaces
• SAPTUNE SOLUTION for HANA or NETWEAVER or NETWEAVER+HANA is applied based on parameter passed.
• Activates SuSE subscription

All settings applied remain persistent across reboot.

1.2 powervs_prepare_rhel_sap:

This role performs the following tasks:

• Enables multipathd daemon
• Enables NFS Service
• Enables rpcbind daemon
• Sets MTU value to 9000 for SAP network interfaces
• TSO is enabled for SAP network interfaces
• Activates RHEL subscription

This role is followed by execution of following community roles

• sap-preconfigure
• sap-hana-preconfigure
• sap-netweaver-preconfigure

All settings applied remain persistent across reboot.

Note: Ansible playbook may report Failure/Warning, if scripts analyse reboot is required for settings applied by it. User should reboot thier LPAR, in that case.

2. Creating Filesystems for SAP installations

This module is same for both SLES and RHEL.

2.1 powervs_fs_creation:

This role performs the following tasks:

• Creates filesystems with user defined stripe size using ansible builtin LVM logical volumes modules.
• Mounts the filesystems on provided mount points
• Adds an entry to /etc/fstab for automount on reboot.
• Optional :Converts the input data structure from terraform to a general data structure (Terraform output support)

A separate task called terraform-wrapper.yml is used to handle the variable values passed from terraform output to execute this role, via terraform.

The input variable disks_configuration for this role supports 2 data structures. Only then terraform-wrapper.yml will convert the terraform data structure in example A to normal data structure in example B below.

Example A.Terraform Data structure for disks_configuration variable value example:

disks_configuration: 
{
counts: [2,2,1], 
names: [data,log,shared], 
paths: [/hana/data,/hana/log,/hana/shared], 
wwns: [600507681082018bc8000000000057e4,600507681082018bc8000000000057e8,600507681082018bc8000000000057e5,600507681082018bc8000000000057e6,600507681082018bc8000000000057e7]}
}

Example B. Data structure for disks_configuration variable value example:

disks_configuration: [
{
name: data, 
path: /hana/data, 
wwns: 600507681082018bc8000000000057e4,600507681082018bc8000000000057e8
},
{
name: log, 
path: /hana/log, 
wwns: 600507681082018bc8000000000057d9,600507681082018bc8000000000057ed7
},
{
name: shared, 
path: /hana/shared, 
wwns: 600507681082018bc8000000000057f1
}
.
.
.
]

3. Configuring SWAP spaces

This module configures swap space on LPAR, and is same for both RHEL and SLES.

3.1 powervs_swap_creation

This role performs the following tasks:

• Removes previous swap device configured
• Creates a new swap device on disk provided with swap_disk_wwn variable.

Note:

For RHEL, swap disk of size >= 24GB is required for community role sap-netweaver-preconfigure to succeed.

4. Installation Guide

Install git repo from Ansible Galaxy using below command

ansible-galaxy install sahityajain123.powervsconfig

After git repo is available on LPAR, requirements.yml file present in repo, need to be used to get other roles which are not part of this git repository, but are needed for complete SAP solution. Below command should be used.

ansible-galaxy install -r requirements.yml

These community roles are needed, as they configure RHEL LPAR as required for SAP HANA or Netweaver for Power Systems according to SAP Note 2772999.

Execution Details

Sample Ansible Playbook Execution

Local Host Execution

ansible-playbook --connection=local -i "localhost," playbook-sles.yml -e "<Variable>"

Target Host Execution

ansible-playbook -i "<target-host>" playbook-sles.yml -e "<Variable>"

Execution examples

1. To run only powervs_prepare_sles_sap role without SuSE subscription variable,

ansible-playbook --connection=local -i "localhost," playbook-sles.yml -e '{sap_solution: "HANA", host_ip: "192.168.1.1" }'

2. To run only powervs_prepare_rhel_sap role with RHEL Subscription variable,

ansible-playbook --connection=local -i "localhost," playbook-rhel.yml -e '{sap_solution: "NETWEAVER", sap_domain: xyz.com, rhel_subscription: { username: "XYZ",password: "ABC", release: "8.2"}, host_ip: "192.168.1.1"}}'

3. To run only powervs_fs_creation role to create filesystems using data structure example A above for disks_configuration:

ansible-playbook --connection=local -i "localhost," playbook-sles.yml -e '{ disks_configuration: {counts:[8,8,1,1], names:[data,log,shared,usrsap], paths:[/hana/data,/hana/log,/hana/shared,/usr/sap], wwns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}

4. To run only powervs_fs_creation role to create filesystems using data structure example B above for disks_configuration:

ansible-playbook --connection=local -i "localhost," playbook-sles.yml -e '{disks_configuration: [{ name: log, path: /hana/log, wwns: 6005076810810261F800000000004098,6005076810810261F80000000000409E,6005076810810261F80000000000409B,6005076810810261F80000000000409F,6005076810810261F8000000000040A2,6005076810810261F8000000000040A1,6005076810810261F800000000004095,6005076810810261F800000000004093},{ name: shared, path: /hana/shared, wwns: 6005076810810261F80000000000409C},{ name: usrsap, path: /usr/sap, wwns: 6005076810810261F800000000004099}]}'

5. To run only powervs_swap_creation role:

ansible-playbook --connection=local -i "localhost," playbook-sles.yml -e '{swap_disk_wwn: 6005076810810261F80000000000409H}'

6. To run all roles for RHEL( powervs_prepare_rhel_sap, powervs_fs_creation and powervs_swap_creation) using data structure example A above for disks_configuration:

ansible-playbook --connection=local -i "localhost," playbook-rhel.yml -e '{sap_solution: "NETWEAVER", sap_domain: xyz.com, rhel_subscription: { username: "XYZ",password: "ABC", release: "8.2"}, host_ip: "192.168.1.1", disks_configuration: {counts:[8,8,1,1], names:[data,log,shared,usrsap], paths:[/hana/data,/hana/log,/hana/shared,/usr/sap], wwns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swap_disk_wwn: 6005076810810261F80000000000409H}'

7. To run all roles for SLES( powervs_prepare_sles_sap, powervs_fs_creation and powervs_swap_creation) using data structure example B above for disks_configuration:

ansible-playbook --connection=local -i "localhost," playbook-sles.yml -e '{ sap_solution: "NETWEAVER", host_ip: "192.168.1.1", suse_subscription: { username: "XYZ", key: "ABC", release: "15"},  disks_configuration: [{ name: log, path: /hana/log, wwns:   6005076810810261F800000000004098,6005076810810261F80000000000409E,6005076810810261F80000000000409B,6005076810810261F80000000000409F,6005076810810261F8000000000040A2,6005076810810261F8000000000040A1,6005076810810261F800000000004095,6005076810810261F800000000004093},{ name: shared, path: /hana/shared, wwns: 6005076810810261F80000000000409C},{ name: usrsap, path: /usr/sap, wwns: 6005076810810261F800000000004099}], swap_disk_wwn: 6005076810810261F80000000000409H }'

Similarly, only RHEL modules can be executed by changing playbook name to playbook-rhel.yml, which is part of this collection.

Requirements, Dependencies and Testing

Operating System requirements

Designed for Linux operating systems, RHEL and SLES.

This role has not been tested and amended for SAP NetWeaver Application Server instantiations on IBM AIX or Windows Server.

Assumptions for executing this role include:

• Registered OS license and OS package repositories are available (from the relevant content delivery network of the OS vendor)

Python requirements

Python 3 from the execution/controller host.

Testing on execution/controller host

Tests with Ansible Core release versions:

• Ansible Core 2.9.19 community edition

Tests with Python release versions:

• Python 3.6.8

Testing on target/remote host

Tests with Operating System release versions:

• RHEL 8.2 for SAP
• SLES 15 for SAP
• SLES 12 for SAP

License

• Apache 2.0

Contributors

Contributors to the Ansible Roles within this Ansible Collection, are shown within /docs/contributors.