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Chapter 3. Installing SAP application server instances

Virtual IPs for the virtual instance hostnames are mandatory for highly available SAP application server setups. You must configure the virtual IP per instance in a non-persistent way to make it available at instance installation time. Ensure that the IP configuration is only temporary, because the cluster manages the same addresses as part of the instance resource groups.

Prerequisites

  • You have reserved IP addresses for the virtual hostname of each instance that you plan to configure in the cluster.

Procedure

  • Temporarily configure each IP on its initial target node, for example, add the IP for the ASCS instance on node1 and add the IP for the ERS instance on node2: 

    [root]# ip address add <ip>/<netmask> dev <nic>
    • Replace <ip> with the virtual IP of the instance, for example, 192.18.200.101.
    • Replace <netmask> with the netmask of the subnet, for example, 32.
    • Replace <nic> with the network device name on which the IP should run, for example, eth0.

Verification

  • Check on each node that the virtual IP is up, for example: 

    [root]# ip address show dev eth0
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 9001 qdisc mq state UP group default qlen 1000
…
    inet 192.168.200.101/32 scope global eth0
…

3.2. Configuring the virtual instance hostnames
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In an SAP environment you must configure virtual hostnames for the instances that you make highly available. See Using Virtual Host Names in the SAP documentation.

Prerequisites

  • You have reserved IP addresses for the virtual hostname of each instance that you plan to configure in the cluster.

Procedure

  • Add the virtual hostnames of the instances to all cluster nodes: 

    [root]# cat /etc/hosts
...
192.168.200.101 s4hascs.example.com s4hascs
192.168.200.102 s4hers.example.com s4hers

    Also add the PAS or AAS virtual hostnames if you configure the application server instances on the same systems.

Verification

  • Check that you can ping the virtual hosts, when you have also configured the virtual IPs. This step is optional and an example only for a basic verification. The system resolves entries in /etc/hosts when you use the ping command: 

    [root]# ping s4hascs
PING s4hascs.example.com (192.168.200.101) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from s4hascs.example.com (192.168.200.101): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.017 ms
…

3.3. Configuring the shared SAP filesystems
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You must configure the shared filesystems on all systems that you plan to run SAP application server instances on as part of the HA cluster.

Prerequisites

  • You have prepared the shared NFS-based filesystems, and all cluster nodes are able to access them. The NFS shares must be external and not exported on one of the cluster nodes.

Procedure

  1. Create the directories for the shared filesystems: 

    [root]# mkdir -p /sapmnt/ /usr/sap/trans/ /usr/sap/<SID>
    • Replace <SID> with the SID of your planned instances.

  2. Add the shared NFS filesystems to /etc/fstab to mount them automatically on system start: 

    [root]# vi /etc/fstab
…
<nfs_server>:/usr/sap/<SID> /usr/sap/<SID> nfs4 defaults 0 0
<nfs_server>:/usr/sap/trans /usr/sap/trans nfs4 defaults 0 0
<nfs_server>:/sapmnt /sapmnt nfs4 defaults 0 0
    • Replace <SID> with the SID of your planned instances.
    • Replace <nfs_server> with the NFS server DNS name or the IP address of each share, for example, nfs01-datacenter1a.example.com.

  3. Reload the systemctl daemon to make the new /etc/fstab entries known to systemd: 

    [root]# systemctl daemon-reload

  4. Mount any new filesystems that you configured in the /etc/fstab: 

    [root]# mount -a
  5. Repeat the configuration steps on each cluster node.

Verification

  1. Check that the filesystems are mounted: 

    [root]# df -hP | grep sap
nfs01-datacenter1a.example.com:/sapmnt         8.0E  1.3G  8.0E   1% /sapmnt
nfs01-datacenter1a.example.com:/usr/sap/trans  8.0E  1.3G  8.0E   1% /usr/sap/trans
nfs01-datacenter1a.example.com:/usr/sap/S4H    8.0E  1.3G  8.0E   1% /usr/sap/S4H

  2. Check that the systemd mount targets exist for the filesystems configured in the /etc/fstab: 

    [root]# systemctl list-units --all | grep -e '.*sap.*mount' | column -t
sapmnt.mount         loaded  active  mounted  /sapmnt
usr-sap-S4H.mount    loaded  active  mounted  /usr/sap/S4H
usr-sap-trans.mount  loaded  active  mounted  /usr/sap/trans
  3. Repeat the verification steps on each cluster node. The results must be identical.

In a high-availability environment where the application can move between different systems, you must configure the application user and groups with identical numerical values for their user ID (UID) and group ID (GID). Different IDs for the same application users or groups cause access conflicts and prevent you from switching the application between the cluster nodes.

Prepare the following operating system group:

  • sapsys

Prepare the following operating system users:

  • sapadm
  • <sid>adm, using your target SID

Prerequisites

  • You have reserved identical user and group IDs for the required groups and users, for example, in your central identity management system for application users.

Procedure

  1. Create the sapsys group. Use the prepared group ID, for example, ID 10001: 

    [root]# groupadd -g 10001 sapsys

  2. Create the sapadm user as a member of the sapsys group. The user does not need a login shell. Use the prepared user ID, for example, ID 10200: 

    [root]# useradd -u 10200 -g sapsys sapadm \
-c 'SAP Local Administrator' -s /sbin/nologin

  3. Create the <sid>adm user as a member of the sapsys group. Use the prepared user ID, for example, ID 10201 for user s4hadm: 

    [root]# useradd -u 10201 -g sapsys s4hadm \
-c 'SAP System Administrator' -s /bin/sh

    As the user shell, we recommend that you either use /bin/sh or /bin/csh. SAP installations provide user profiles and useful shell aliases in these shells.

  4. Repeat the steps on all nodes.

Verification

  1. Check that the users sapadm and <sid>adm exist and have the correct groups and IDs configured, for example: 

    [root]# id sapadm s4hadm
uid=10200(sapadm) gid=10001(sapsys) groups=10001(sapsys)
uid=10201(s4hadm) gid=10001(sapsys) groups=10001(sapsys)

  2. Check that the users have the correct description, home directory and shell defined: 

    [root]# grep -E 'sapadm|s4hadm' /etc/passwd
sapadm:x:10200:10001:SAP Local Administrator:/home/sapadm:/sbin/nologin
s4hadm:x:10201:10001:SAP System Administrator:/home/s4hadm:/bin/sh
  3. Repeat the check on all nodes and verify that the names and IDs are identical.

3.5. Installing the ASCS instance
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Install the SAP application server instance according to the SAP documentation. See Running Software Provisioning Manager for more details about the SAP software installation.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed and configured the HA cluster nodes according to the recommendations from SAP and Red Hat for running SAP application server instances on RHEL 9. See Operating system requirements.
  • You have configured the virtual IP address for the ASCS instance on node1.

  • You have mounted the following filesystems on the HA cluster node where you install the ASCS instance, for example, node1:

    • /sapmnt
    • /usr/sap/trans
    • /usr/sap/<SID>
  • The virtual hostname for the ASCS instance resolves to the reserved virtual IP of the ASCS instance on all nodes. You have tested with the command getent hosts <virtual_hostname>, for example, getent hosts s4hascs, and it must return the correct IP address.
  • You have the installation media available on the system.

Procedure

  1. On the node where you install the ASCS instance, go to the directory where you have extracted the installation media: 

    [root]# cd <software_path>
    • Replace <software_path> with the path to your unpacked media, for example, /sapmedia/SWPM20_SP19/.

  2. Run the installer command and specify the virtual hostname of your ASCS instance, for example, s4hascs: 

    [root]# ./sapinst SAPINST_USE_HOSTNAME=s4hascs
  3. Open the web installer UI using the link provided in the terminal.
  4. Open the SAP product you want to install and enter the installation option. Expand the High-Availability System option and select ASCS Instance for the installation of the ASCS instance. Click Next.

  5. Provide the requested installation information on each page and click Next to move forward.

    Some steps, like extracting SAP packages, can take a while. Keep an eye on the terminal in which you started the installer for details of the ongoing process that are not displayed in the web UI.

Verification

  1. Switch to the <sid>adm user: 

    [root]# su - s4hadm

  2. Check the instance status. Ensure that the service status is GREEN for all service components: 

    s4hadm $ sapcontrol -nr 20 -function GetProcessList

    1. The following example shows a minimal setup with ENSA1: 

      name, description, dispstatus, textstatus, starttime, elapsedtime, pid
msg_server, MessageServer, GREEN, Running, YYYY MM DD 15:34:05, 0:05:38, 45041
enserver, EnqueueServer, GREEN, Running, YYYY MM DD 15:34:05, 0:05:38, 45042

    2. The following example shows a minimal setup with ENSA2: 

      name, description, dispstatus, textstatus, starttime, elapsedtime, pid
msg_server, MessageServer, GREEN, Running, YYYY MM DD 15:43:49, 0:01:51, 5460
enq_server, Enqueue Server 2, GREEN, Running, YYYY MM DD 15:43:49, 0:01:51, 5461

3.6. Installing the ERS instance
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Install the SAP application server instance according to the SAP documentation. See Running Software Provisioning Manager for more details about the SAP software installation.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed and configured the ASCS instance on the first node, for example, node1.
  • You have configured the virtual IP address for the ERS instance on the second node, for example, node2.

  • You have mounted the following filesystems on node2:

    • /sapmnt
    • /usr/sap/trans
    • /usr/sap/<SID>
  • The virtual hostname for the ERS instance resolves to the reserved virtual IP of the ERS instance on all nodes. You have tested with the command getent hosts <virtual_hostname>, for example, getent hosts s4hers, and it must return the correct IP address.
  • You have the installation media available on the system.

Procedure

  1. On the node where you install the ERS instance, go to the directory where you have extracted the installation media: 

    [root]# cd <software_path>
    • Replace <software_path> with the path to your unpacked media, for example, /sapmedia/SWPM20_SP19/.

  2. Run the installer command and specify the virtual hostname of your ERS instance, for example, s4hers: 

    [root]# ./sapinst SAPINST_USE_HOSTNAME=s4hers
  3. Open the web installer UI using the link provided in the terminal.
  4. Open the SAP product you want to install and enter the installation option. Expand the High-Availability System option and select ERS Instance for the installation of the ERS instance. Click Next.

  5. Provide the requested installation information on each page and click Next to move forward.

    Some steps, like extracting SAP packages, can take a while. Keep an eye on the terminal in which you started the installer for details of the ongoing process that are not displayed in the web UI.

Verification

  1. Switch to the <sid>adm user: 

    [root]# su - s4hadm

  2. Check the instance status. Ensure that the service status is GREEN for all service components: 

    s4hadm $ sapcontrol -nr 29 -function GetProcessList

    1. The following example, shows a minimal setup with ENSA1: 

      name, description, dispstatus, textstatus, starttime, elapsedtime, pid
enrepserver, EnqueueReplicator, GREEN, Running, YYYY MM DD 16:34:05, 0:00:26, 11484

    2. The following example, shows a minimal setup with ENSA2: 

      name, description, dispstatus, textstatus, starttime, elapsedtime, pid
enq_replicator, Enqueue Replicator 2, GREEN, Running, YYYY MM DD 11:47:34, 0:33:14, 15623

3.7. Installing PAS or AAS instances
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You can install a Primary Application Server (PAS) or an Additional Application Server (AAS) instance on the same systems and also configure them in the same cluster as your ASCS/ERS HA setup.

Install the SAP application server instance according to the SAP documentation. See Running Software Provisioning Manager for more details about the SAP software installation.

Skip the PAS or AAS setup if you do not need it.

Prerequisites

  • You have installed and configured a database instance and you can connect to the database instance from the application server system.
  • You have installed and started the ASCS and ERS instances.
  • You have installed the DB client on the application nodes.
  • You have configured the virtual IP address for the application server instance on the installation node.

  • You have mounted the following filesystems on the installation node:

    • /sapmnt
    • /usr/sap/trans
    • /usr/sap/<SID>
    • The virtual hostname for the application server instance resolves to the reserved virtual IP of the respective instance on all nodes. You have tested with the command getent hosts <virtual_hostname>, for example, getent hosts s4hpas, and it must return the correct IP address.
  • You have the installation media available on the system.

Procedure

  1. On the node where you install the application server instance, go to the directory where you have extracted the installation media: 

    [root]# cd <software_path>
    • Replace <software_path> with the path to your unpacked media, for example, /sapmedia/SWPM20_SP19/.

  2. Run the installer command and specify the virtual hostname of your application server instance, for example, s4hpas: 

    [root]# ./sapinst SAPINST_USE_HOSTNAME=s4hpas
  3. Open the web installer UI using the link provided in the terminal.
  4. Open the SAP product you want to install and enter the installation option. Expand the High-Availability System option and select Primary Application Server Instance for the installation of the PAS instance, or select Additional Application Server Instance for the installation of an AAS instance. Click Next.

  5. Provide the requested installation information on each page and click Next to move forward.

    Some steps, like extracting SAP packages, can take a while. Keep an eye on the terminal in which you started the installer for details of the ongoing process that are not displayed in the web UI.

Verification

  1. Switch to the <sid>adm user: 

    [root]# su - s4hadm

  2. Check the instance status. Ensure that the service status is GREEN for all service components: 

    s4hadm $ sapcontrol -nr 21 -function GetProcessList
name, description, dispstatus, textstatus, starttime, elapsedtime, pid
disp+work, Dispatcher, GREEN, Running, YYYY MM DD 16:40:47, 68:02:08, 17973
igswd_mt, IGS Watchdog, GREEN, Running, YYYY MM DD 16:40:47, 68:02:08, 17974
gwrd, Gateway, GREEN, Running, YYYY MM DD 16:40:50, 68:02:05, 18326
icman, ICM, GREEN, Running, YYYY MM DD 16:40:50, 68:02:05, 18327

3.8. Verifying the SAP Host Agent installation
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The SAP Host Agent is typically installed as part of the application server installation. It must have the same version and meet the minimum version requirements for the intended setup.

Check that the /usr/sap/hostctrl/ path is present and that the version is the same on each cluster node: 

[root]# /usr/sap/hostctrl/exe/saphostexec -version

If you configure spare cluster nodes where you do not run the software installation of an instance, you must install the SAP Host Agent separately.

Also, update the SAP Host Agent if the versions do not match between the cluster nodes.

Refer to SAP Note 1031096 - Installing Package SAPHOSTAGENT for information and instructions.

3.9. Verifying the /etc/services file
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The SAP software installation for application servers appends various standard ports for SAP applications to the /etc/services file on the host on which you run the installation.

Procedure

  1. Check that all nodes have the SAP ports in the services file. For example, count the entries that contain SAP System in their port description and compare the result on all nodes: 

    [root]# grep -i "SAP System" /etc/services | wc -l
401
  2. Update the /etc/services file on any node that is missing entries.
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