AWS Cloud Operations Blog

Using AWS Launch Wizard, AWS Marketplace, and AWS Service Management Connector for ServiceNow to deploy SAP HANA based applications on AWS

More than 5,000 of our customers run SAP on AWS and more than half of them have deployed SAP HANA-based solutions on AWS. Since 2008, when SAP became an AWS customer, customers have been bringing their SAP landscapes to AWS and using it as their platform for innovation.

AWS Launch Wizard helps customers to deploy SAP applications on AWS by orchestrating the provisioning of underlying AWS resources using AWS CloudFormation and AWS Systems Manager. Customers can choose the deployment pattern that meets their SAP application’s requirements, including single node, multi-node, or high availability architecture.   Then, it provides a guided experience, suggesting right-sized AWS resources and settings for SAP HANA and HANA-based Netweaver workloads following AWS/SAP best practices.

In this blog post, I will show you how to use AWS Launch Wizard, AWS Service Catalog and ServiceNow Service Management Connector together to deploy SAP applications.

This solution uses the following AWS services. Most of the resources are set up for you with an AWS CloudFormation stack:

Terminology

Here are some of AWS Service Catalog concepts referenced in this post. For more information, see Overview of AWS Service Catalog.

  • A product is a blueprint for building the AWS resources you want to make available for deployment on AWS. It contains configuration information. You create a product by importing an AWS CloudFormation template, or, in the case of AWS Marketplace-based products, by copying the product to AWS Service Catalog. A product can belong to multiple portfolios.
  • A portfolio is a collection of products. You use portfolios to manage user access to products. You can grant portfolio access for an AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) user, group, or role.
  • A provisioned product is an AWS CloudFormation stack (that is, the AWS resources that are created). When an end user launches a product, AWS Service Catalog provisions the product from an AWS CloudFormation stack.
  • Constraints control the way users can deploy a product. With launch constraints, you can specify a role that the AWS Service Catalog must assume to launch a product.

Solution overview­

For each SAP application that you want to deploy using AWS Service Catalog or using ServiceNow if you have deployed the AWS Service Management Connector you must create a product. A DevOps or infrastructure administrator can create the product, which can be consumed by SAP administrators in a self-service manner.

The following diagram shows the solution architecture for creating an SAP HANA infrastructure-only product.

The administrator uses the AWS Launch Wizard to deploy a SAP HANA component. The Launch Wizard launches a CloudFormation template that creates AWS resources. After the deployment has been completed successfully, the administrator deploys a CloudFormation template that creates a simplified AWS Service Catalog product based on the template.

Figure 1: Solution architecture

Administrator process

  1. The administrator uses the AWS Launch Wizard to deploy an SAP HANA component. In this post, the administrator selects a HANA database for the application and enters appropriate settings. For HANA software install, the administrator chooses No.
  2. The administrator uses AWS Launch Wizard to launch a deployment. The Launch Wizard launches a CloudFormation template that creates the AWS resources (for example, an EC2 instance, an EBS volume, AWS Systems Manager, CloudWatch logs) and configures them according to SAP and AWS best practices. We will use the template in the next steps.
  3. After the deployment has been completed successfully, the administrator deploys a CloudFormation template that examines the CloudFormation template deployed by AWS Launch Wizard, creates a simplified CloudFormation template, and finally, creates an AWS Service Catalog product based on the template.

End user process

The end user accesses the AWS Service Catalog console or, if the AWS Service Management Connector for ServiceNow is enabled, the ServiceNow console, and then launches a Service Catalog product that deploys an SAP EC2 component.

Configure an environment

Step 1: Use AWS Launch Wizard to deploy an SAP HANA component

  1. Sign in to your AWS account. Make sure the AmazonLaunchWizard_Fullaccess IAM policy is attached to your account. You need this policy to create resources.
  2. In the AWS Launch Wizard, choose SAP.

The Configure application settings page provides an Application type section and a General settings section for the HANA system ID and HANA instance number

Figure 2: Configure application settings page

 

The Configure model deployment page provides options for single instance, multiple instance, and high availability deployments. It also provides two options for image type: AWS Marketplace or BYOI

Figure 3: Configure deployment model page

 

Step 2: Deploy the model and create a CloudFormation stack

  1. On Configure deployment model, under Deployment model, choose Single Instance deployment. Under Image type, choose AWS Marketplace Community image. Choose Next.
  2. On the Review page, choose Deploy.
  3. When the deployment is complete, open the AWS CloudFormation console, and choose Stacks.
  4. A CloudFormation stack with a name that starts with LaunchWizard should appear in the list. Copy the name of the stack.
  5. Wait for the CloudFormation stack status to change to CREATE_COMPLETE.

The Stacks page displays two stacks with names that start with LaunchWizard. The status for both stacks is CREATE_COMPLETE

Figure 4: Stacks page

Step 3: Create the AWS Service Catalog product that includes the SAP information

Get the AWS Service Catalog portfolio ID

  1. Sign in to your AWS account as an administrator with permissions to create AWS resources.
  2. Open the AWS Service Catalog Console in a new browser tab.
  3. Choose Portfolios.
  4. Under Portfolio ID, copy the portfolio ID of the AWS Service Catalog portfolio you want to add to the simplified SAP HANA database product.

Download content and use your own bucket.

  1. Download this this zip file, and extract its contents. It will create a folder named content.
  2. Create an S3 bucket and make a note of the bucket name.
  3. Upload the content folder to the bucket.
  4. Open the content/sc_lwiz_sap folder.
  5. Choose sc_portfolio_Lwiz_sap_SC_cfn.json.
  6. Right-click and copy the object URL.

Deploy the CloudFormation template

  1. Sign in to your AWS account as an administrator with permission to create resources.
  2. Choose Create Stack with new resources (standard).
  3. Choose Amazon S3 URL, paste the link you copied into Amazon S3 URL, and then choose Next.
  4. In Specify stack details, for Stack name, enter LwiztoSC001.
  5. Under Parameters, for HoldingBucket, enter the S3 bucket where the content is, for Portfolioid, enter the AWS Service Catalog portfolio ID. For TemplateName, enter the name of the CloudFormation template created by the AWS Launch Wizard. This is the template you copied in a previous step. (In this example, the template name is LaunchWizard-friday2.) Choose Next.The Specify stack details page provides fields for stack name and a Parameters section for the portfolio ID and template name.

    Figure 5: Specify stack details page

  6. On the Configure stack options page, choose Next.On the Review page, select the I acknowledge that AWS CloudFormation might create IAM resources check box, and then choose Create stack.
    Wait for the status to change to CREATE_COMPLETE

Deploy SAP components in an AWS Service Catalog product

Use the AWS Service Catalog console to deploy the SAP HANA database.

  1. Open the AWS Service Catalog console and choose Products.
  2. Choose SAP-Hana Infrastructure.
  3. Choose LAUNCH PRODUCT.
  4. In Provisioned product name, enter newsap001.
  5. In Parameters, use the default values for the following fields, enter an owner email address, and then choose Next.
    • HANASID:
    • HANA System No:
    • HANAHostname:
    • SAPInstanceNum:
    • ServerSize:
    • OwnerEmail:

      The SAP administrator uses the ServiceNow console to find the SAP HANA database instance. The console displays columns for name, object ID, class, state, CPUs, and memory

      Figure 6: Parameters section of the console page

  6. On the Tag Options page, choose Next.
  7. On the Notifications page, choose Next.
  8. On the Review page, choose Launch.

A new SAP HANA database will now be deployed.

Use ServiceNow to deploy the SAP HANA database.

  1. Sign in to the ServiceNow console Service Portal page as a user with permission to order AWS Service Catalog products.
  2. Choose the SAP-Hana Infrastructure product.The SAP HANA Easy Deploy page provides a name field and a Parameters section where the administrator can enter the SID, server size, host name, owner email, and instance number./

    Figure 7: Easy Deploy page

  3. For Name, enter newsap001.
  4. In Parameters, use the default values for the following fields, enter an owner email address, and then choose Next.
    • HANASID:
    • HANA System No:
    • HANAHostname:
    • SAPInstanceNum:
    • ServerSize:
    • OwnerEmail:

A new SAP HANA database will now be deployed.

View SAP-HANA configuration information through the AWS Service Management Connector for ServiceNow.

  1. In the search field in the ServiceNow console, enter AWS.
  2. Choose the SAP HANA database instance from the list.

The SAP administrator uses the ServiceNow console to find the SAP HANA database instance. The console displays columns for name, object ID, class, state, CPUs, and memory

Figure 8: ServiceNow page

 

A dependency mapping of the SAP HANA database instance is displayed.

Figure 9: Dependency mapping

 

Congratulations! You have successfully deployed an SAP HANA database using AWS Service Catalog and ServiceNow while using the configuration best practices offered by the AWS Launch Wizard.

Cleanup

To avoid ongoing charges, delete the resources you created.

AWS Service Catalog

Use the AWS Service Catalog console to delete the AWS Service Catalog product. Choose Provisioned products, and from Actions, choose Terminate.

ServiceNow

  1. Go to the ServiceNow portal page and choose the product you deployed.
  2. Choose Request Termination.

Figure 10: Details page with Request Termination button

Watch the Video (6:31)

In this video, you’ll see how to enable SAP admins to deploy applications supported by AWS Launch Wizard on AWS through AWS Service Catalog and ServiceNow.

Conclusion

In this post, I showed you an easy way to deploy an SAP HANA database using AWS Service Catalog, the AWS Service Management Connector for ServiceNow, and AWS Launch Wizard. When you use AWS Service Catalog to deploy resources to support business objectives, you also get an extra layer of governance and control.

About the author

Kenneth Walsh is a Solutions Architect whose area of expertise is AWS Marketplace. Kenneth is passionate about cloud computing and loves being a trusted advisor to his customers.