SAP HANA System Monitoring

SAP High-performance Analytic Appliance (HANA) is an advanced, multi-model database that uses in-memory storage for high-speed data processing and complex analytics within a single platform. By leveraging its column-oriented architecture, SAP HANA can handle large data volumes with minimal latency.

Monitoring an SAP HANA system on IT-Conductor is crucial for ensuring optimal performance, availability, and reliability of your database environment. Effective monitoring involves setting up user roles and authorizations and enabling specific monitoring permissions. IT-Conductor provides real-time performance insights, proactive alerts, and automated health checks, allowing for swift issue resolution and improved operational efficiency.

Prerequisites

Before configuring an SAP HANA system for monitoring in IT-Conductor, follow the instructions below.

SAP HANA Authorizations Requirements

Create a monitoring user in each HANA database, including SYSTEMDB, that you intend to monitor by executing the following SQL script.

CREATE USER <Monitoring user> PASSWORD <Monitoring User Password> no force_first_password_change;
ALTER USER <Monitoring user> DISABLE PASSWORD LIFETIME;
GRANT MONITORING to <Monitoring user>

Note:

The "no force_first_password_change" option states that the password does not need to be changed when logging in for the first time.
The "DISABLE PASSWORD LIFETIME" command exempts the user from changing the password according to the "maximum_password_lifetime" parameter.

To verify the user has a lifetime password, run the following script. The result should show an empty 'PASSWORD_CHANGE_TIME' value, as shown in the image below.

SELECT USER_NAME, PASSWORD_CHANGE_TIME FROM USERS WHERE USER_NAME = '<user>';

Note: For MDC (multi-tenant database containers), create the monitoring user in the SYSTEMDB database and ensure each tenant database is individually registered in IT-Conductor.

Execute the following script to list SQL port numbers for SYSTEMDB and Tenant DBs used in registering.

 SELECT * FROM sys_databases.m_services
 WHERE sql_port <> 0;

Configure SAP HANA System for Monitoring in IT-Conductor

To configure an SAP HANA System for monitoring in IT-Conductor, follow the instructions below.

Add New SAP HANA System

Visit service.itconductor.com and enter your login credentials.
Navigate to Dashboards → Administrator to access the Administrator's Dashboard.
Locate the HANA Systems actions panel and click the title to access the complete list.

Click the New HANA System button to start adding a new system for monitoring.

Fill out all the necessary information in the New HANA System wizard. Once completed, click to add the system.

Description - refers to any relevant information about the system being added.
Organization - refers to an administrative structure that defines objects with a common goal or purpose. If you previously created an organization, please select it.
Role - refers to the environment where the system will be used.
Site - refers to a logical object that describes a particular area or location, depending on the context in which it is used.
Gateway - allows communication between the customer's site network and the IT-Conductor cloud platform. Select the previously configured gateway from the dropdown menu. See Gateway Setup for more details.

DB Connection Properties

SID - refers to a unique identifier for an SAP HANA system used in configuration and monitoring.
System Number - refers to a specific identifier for a SAP HANA instance used to distinguish it within the system.
Host - refers to the host of the system being added.
Port - refers to the port number used to access the system being added. By default, the port is set to 315. You must override it if it is different, especially in a multi-tenant database container.
Tenant Database - refers to the HANA Tenant SID for the HANA System. If connecting to the SYSTEMDB, enter "SYSTEMDB" in this field.
SSL/TLS - refers to the protocols that encrypt data between the SAP HANA system and clients to secure communications.
Compress - when checked, it reduces to reduce the size of data being transmitted
Reconnect - when checked, it attempts to re-establish a lost connection to the SAP HANA system automatically.
Read Only - when checked, it activates a mode that allows monitoring operations without modifying any data or configuration in the SAP HANA system.
Ignore Topology - refers to the option to disregard the physical or logical layout of the HANA system in monitoring operations.
Site Type - refers to classifying the system's role within a landscape, such as production or development.

Provide the account information in the New Account screen and click to complete the configuration.

Description - refers to any relevant information about the user account being added.
Application - refers to the name given to the system being added.
Person - refers to the name of the user who is adding the system.
User Name - refers to the user created aligned with the Account Requirements.
Password - refers to the password of the previously created user.
Retype Password - refers to the same password provided in the Password field.

Verify if the system was added to the HANA Systems actions panel and check its status.

Note: The status will remain on Ready for a few minutes. Refresh the panel if needed. If there are configuration issues, such as incorrect connection parameters or an invalid account, the status will remain Ready. Click to display the logs and troubleshoot. If everything is configured correctly, the status will change to In Progress.

Navigate to the service grid and verify if the system was added under the HANA Systems node.

Note: The system will appear in the service grid within 5-15 minutes.

Monitoring a SAP HANA System in IT-Conductor

Important features such as availability, alerts, and services are integrated into IT-Conductor for detailed monitoring.

HANA System Key Metrics

Availability - refers to the operational state and accessibility of the HANA System.
Connection Failures - refer to the events where attempts to establish a connection are unsuccessful.
Heartbeat - refers to the periodic signal sent to the system, enabling real-time detection of system downtime.
Missing Account - refers to the absence of a required user account or resource within the HANA system.
Retriever Failures - refer to the errors or issues encountered during the retrieval process of essential data or information within the SAP HANA system.

Note: All metrics will not show data when a system is unavailable.

To access a historical view of each of these metrics, click and a pop-up chart will be displayed. You can also click to show more information about the SAP HANA system.

SAP HANA Scale-Out Monitoring

SAP HANA Scale-out means combining multiple independent nodes in one system. The remotely configured SAP HANA systems in IT-Conductor are monitored by distributing the tenant databases across multiple nodes.

IT-Conductor monitors multiple databases, such as system databases and tenant databases. They are observed as separate elements, but each tenant is monitored like other primary tenant databases. Furthermore, IT-Conductor offers a drill-down feature for further analysis, correlated alerts, operational status, and performance metrics across applications/DB/OS. The platform also provides time-correlated information about how the monitored system functions and performs.

Alerts

Performing regular checks on the status, performance, and resource usage is part of the continuous internal monitoring of a system. When configurable threshold values are exceeded, it issues alerts. Alerts can be monitored in individual tenant databases. When the alerts are triggered, they can potentially impact the system’s overall health. You can access them by clicking .

Backup

Refers to a saved copy of the database's data and logs that can be used to restore the system in case of failure or data loss. Through IT-Conductor, you can monitor the age of the complete data backup and the log backup to ensure they are up-to-date for recovery purposes by clicking .

Jobs

Jobs refer to scheduled tasks or processes such as backups, data loads, or system updates. Using IT-Conductor, you can monitor the runtime of these jobs to ensure they are completed successfully and within expected time frames.

Hosts

Hosts refer to physical or virtual machines that host SAP HANA instances and related services. IT-Conductor enables monitoring of host metrics such as memory usage, CPU utilization, disk performance, and status of HANA instances to ensure optimal performance and availability of the SAP HANA system.

IT-Conductor also supports Linux monitoring. Providing the SSH parameters will add the nodes to the monitoring platform. IT-Conductor automatically discovers Linux servers to monitor File Systems (if any) and important system metrics such as the CPU and memory utilization to know how much memory is used. See Unix/Linux Monitoring Documentation for more details.

Licensing

The permissions and usage rights granted to operate the SAP HANA software under specific terms. With IT-Conductor, you can monitor the system for license validity and detect any license-related lockdowns to ensure continuous and compliant system operation.

Savepoints

Savepoints are periodic snapshots of the database that capture changes and ensure data persistence. IT-Conductor allows you to monitor the duration of these savepoints to verify that they are completed efficiently and without performance impact.

Services

Monitor all available services that SAP provides, including memory consumption. Services are mapped automatically after configuration, and IT-Conductor tracks the status in real-time.

SQL Statements

In addition to the performance metrics overview, IT-Conductor can also give comprehensive information about SQL statements with just a click on the graph. SQL statements give a high-level overview of the database’s workload.

SAP HANA Overview Dashboard

The HANA System Overview Dashboard is a pre-configured dashboard for your HANA systems that you may access from the Service Grid.

It displays vital system information such as database availability, alerts summary, memory, disk consumption, CPU utilization, the most recent successful backup, savepoint duration, indexserver threads, and I/O ratio.

The charts are dynamic, giving you a detailed view of each performance metric when you click them. This allows you to visually correlate data for troubleshooting or analysis while seeing multiple comprehensive metrics on a single dashboard.

HANA Overview dashboards will allow quick recovery actions to prevent and reduce maintenance windows that may cause interruptions or bottlenecks in your daily operations.

Overview Dashboard Key Metrics

System Availability - indicates the operational status and uptime of the SAP HANA system.
Memory - tracks the usage of system memory, including used, free, and allocated memory.
Alerts Summary - provides an overview of all system alerts, showing their count, type, and severity.
Savepoint Duration - measures the time to complete periodic savepoints for data persistence.
IndexServer Threads - monitors the active and idle threads in the IndexServer, reflecting processing load and efficiency.
Backups - displays the status, frequency, and age of database and log backups.
CPU - shows the CPU utilization, indicating how much processing power is used.
Disks - measures disk usage, including available space and performance metrics.
I/O - tracks input/output operations, reflecting the data read/write performance of the system.