Start/Stop Automation

IT-Conductor allows users to automate the Start/Stop process of SAP and non-SAP systems. It can be applied to a single system or multiple systems and can be manually executed or scheduled. This feature is highly adaptable to any customer environment and can be a crucial component of IT maintenance operations.

For instance, a single process definition can be created to initiate the Start/Stop activity of all the SAP and non-SAP systems at a specific time.

Prerequisites

• The system should be registered in IT-Conductor for monitoring.

Figure 1: SAP Systems in IT-Conductor Service Grid

• A Robot User should be created and associated with the application/DB/OS users with assigned roles/privileges to execute the local action on the system to be stopped/started.

Figure 2: Start/Stop Process Definitions

• The ownership of the process definition should be assigned to the Robot User.

• The customer must have an OS user capable of using SAPControl from the command line to start/stop SAP systems.

Start/Stop Automation in Action

To see the Start/Stop Automation in action, let's have an SAP system with a HANA database running on AWS as an example.

Start System Process Definition

The following process definition is the workflow developed to automate the start process of the HANA database.

Figure 3: SAP HANA DB Start Process Definition

Run/Schedule Start System

The process definition can be triggered to run immediately or scheduled to run at a later time.

Figure 4: Run/Schedule Start Process Definition

Note: The Robot User created as a pre-requisite requirement should be available as an option in the Owner attribute.

Figure 5: Process Created Message Box

Start Process Execution

Once the process is instantiated, the process starts the VM where the system is running.

Figure 6: VM in AWS

The "Start" activity should contain the work queue linked to the AWS Account.

Figure 7: Start Activity

Note: For this automation, an object for the work queue must have been previously created in order to link IT-Conductor to the AWS Account. This object allows IT-Conductor to start or stop the VM as part of the process definition.

The "Modify Start HANA System" activity starts the HANA Instance running on the VM. This activity executes an SSH Command on the VM via the SAP Hostagent.

Figure 8: Start HANA System Activity

In Figure 8, there is only one tenant in a multi-tenant HANA system. Thus, a single start of the HANA system will start the tenant.

Note: IT-Conductor also supports start/stop operations for a specific tenant in a multi-tenant system with support for SQL commands executed against the HANA SYSTEMDB database to control an individual tenant.

Once the HANA System is running, the process executes the "Start OZ3" activity to start the SAP System via SSH command.

Figure 9: Start OZ3 Activity

The status of each activity will be indicated by a change in activity color.

Figure 10: IT-Conductor Activity Status Color Codes

The Activity Log will be available for review after process definition completion.

Figure 11: Activity Log

Once the process has ended, all system components are discoverable again in IT-Conductor.

Figure 12: OZ3 Availability

Stop System Process Definition

The following process definition is the workflow developed to automate the stop process of the HANA database.

Figure 13: SAP HANA DB Stop Process Definition

Run/Schedule Stop System

Similar to the Start process definition, the Stop process definition can be triggered to run immediately or scheduled to run at a later time.

Figure 14: Run/Schedule Stop Process Definition

Stop Process Execution

Once the process is instantiated, the process stops the VM where the system is running.

The "Stop OZ3" activity stops the SAP System using SSH commands:

Figure 15: Stop OZ3 Activity

The "Stop HANA System" activity stops the HANA system. IT-Conductor also supports the stopping of a specific tenant via SQL command executed on the HANA SYSTEMDB database.

Figure 16: Stop HANA System Activity

The status of each activity will be indicated by a change in activity color similar to Figure 10.

Figure 17: Completed Stop Process Definition

SAP Start/Stop Automation Dashboard

A customized dashboard can be designed to showcase the Stop/Start Automation wizards, Execution Config, Process instances, and the health status of the Systems when they are up and running and when they are shut down.

Figure 18: Stop/Start Automation Dashboard

Video