Preface

17

Objective of This Book

17

Target Audience

17

Structure of the Book

18

Acknowledgments

20

1 Introduction to Microsoft Azure

21

1.1 What Is Microsoft Azure?

21

1.2 Cloud Deployment Options

22

1.2.1 Public Cloud versus Private Cloud

22

1.2.2 Hybrid Cloud

22

1.3 Cloud Models: Comparing IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS

23

1.3.1 Infrastructure as a Service

25

1.3.2 Platform as a Service

25

1.3.3 Software as a Service

26

1.4 Cloud Adoption Framework

26

1.5 Service Availability and Preview Features

28

1.6 Understanding Microsoft Azure’s SLAs

29

1.6.1 Service Level Agreement Percentages

30

1.6.2 When Microsoft Can’t Meet the SLA

30

1.6.3 Composite SLA

31

1.7 Why Move to Microsoft Azure?

32

1.7.1 Benefits of Moving an Enterprise Infrastructure

32

1.7.2 Event-Based Triggers

33

1.8 Summary

34

2 SAP on Microsoft Azure

35

2.1 The Unique SAP Architecture on Microsoft Azure

35

2.2 SAP on Microsoft Azure Support Prerequisites

36

2.3 Supported SAP Products, Databases, and Operating Systems

37

2.3.1 Supported Operating Systems

38

2.3.2 Supported Databases

38

2.3.3 Supported SAP Products

38

2.3.4 SAP HANA-Certified Hardware Directory

39

2.4 SAP Technology Stacks and Architecture

40

2.4.1 Distributed versus Standard Systems

40

2.4.2 SAP Technology Stacks

40

2.5 SAP on Microsoft Azure Reference Architecture

42

2.6 Deployment Models

43

2.6.1 All SAP on Microsoft Azure

43

2.6.2 Hybrid

44

2.6.3 Multi-Cloud

44

2.7 Paths to Microsoft Azure

45

2.7.1 Cloud Rationalization and the Five Rs of Migration

45

2.7.2 SAP Migrations versus New Implementations

48

2.7.3 Third-Party Systems

49

2.8 SAP Cloud Appliance Library

49

2.9 Relevant SAP Notes

56

2.10 Summary

57

3 Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Offerings for SAP

59

3.1 Microsoft Azure Enterprise Enrollment Hierarchy

59

3.2 Connectivity to Microsoft Azure

60

3.2.1 ExpressRoute

61

3.2.2 Site-to-Site Virtual Private Network

62

3.2.3 Point-to-Site Virtual Private Network

62

3.3 Microsoft Azure Pricing Calculator and Total Cost of Ownership Calculator

62

3.4 Infrastructure Foundation Pillars

64

3.4.1 Compute

64

3.4.2 Storage

68

3.4.3 Network

70

3.5 Shared Storage

73

3.5.1 Microsoft Azure Shared Storage

73

3.5.2 Microsoft Azure Shared Disks

74

3.5.3 Microsoft Azure NetApp Files

74

3.6 Operating System Licenses in Microsoft Azure

75

3.7 Platform Maintenance and Notifications

77

3.8 Microsoft Azure Dedicated Host

78

3.8.1 Virtual Machine Provisioning and Tracking Capacity

78

3.8.2 Cost

80

3.9 SAP HANA on Azure (Large Instances)

80

3.9.1 SAP HANA on Azure (Large Instances) Revision 4

81

3.9.2 Deployment Timeline and Communication

81

3.10 Key Vault

82

3.11 Microsoft Azure Landing Zone

82

3.12 Summary

83

4 System Design Framework

85

4.1 Security

85

4.1.1 Identity

87

4.1.2 Network Security

89

4.1.3 Infrastructure Security

90

4.1.4 Application and Data Security

92

4.2 Performance

93

4.2.1 Compute

94

4.2.2 Storage

96

4.2.3 Network

98

4.2.4 Database and Application

100

4.2.5 Scalability

100

4.3 Resiliency

101

4.3.1 Platform Resiliency

101

4.3.2 Availability Set

102

4.3.3 Availability Zone

103

4.3.4 Region Resiliency

105

4.3.5 Microsoft Azure Site Recovery

105

4.3.6 Microsoft Azure Backup Service

107

4.3.7 Microsoft Azure Storage Resiliency

107

4.3.8 Microsoft Azure Load Balancer

108

4.4 Operational Efficiency

109

4.4.1 Operational Use Cases

110

4.4.2 Monitoring

111

4.4.3 Governance

111

4.4.4 Cost Optimization

112

4.4.5 Automation

112

4.5 Summary

113

5 Governance and Compliance

115

5.1 Policies

116

5.2 Management Groups

117

5.3 Resource Groups

118

5.4 Role-Based Access Control

119

5.4.1 How to Use Role-Based Access Control

119

5.4.2 Role-Based Access Control Scope

120

5.4.3 Role-Based Access Control versus Policy

120

5.5 Naming Conventions

121

5.6 Resource Locks

122

5.7 Tagging

123

5.8 Microsoft Azure Blueprint

124

5.9 Regulatory and Audit Compliance

125

5.9.1 Regulatory Compliance

126

5.9.2 Microsoft Azure Logs

126

5.9.3 Reporting

127

5.10 Summary

128

6 Infrastructure Architecture Guidance

129

6.1 Microsoft Azure Regions

129

6.2 Subscription Design

130

6.3 Connectivity and Network Design

131

6.3.1 Connectivity to Microsoft Azure

131

6.3.2 Network Design

131

6.3.3 Subnet Sizes for Gateway, Bastion, and Microsoft Azure NetApp Files

133

6.3.4 SAP HANA Network Zones

134

6.3.5 Database App Connectivity and Management Network

135

6.3.6 Perimeter Network

135

6.4 Compute

136

6.5 Storage

139

6.6 Summary

140

7 Resiliency

141

7.1 High Availability

141

7.1.1 Shared Storage Using Platform as a Service

143

7.1.2 SAP Application Server

143

7.1.3 SAP Central Services and Database

144

7.1.4 SAP Central Services on Windows Operating System

150

7.1.5 SQL Server Database on Windows Operating System

152

7.1.6 High Availability on the Linux Operating System

153

7.1.7 IBM DB2

158

7.1.8 Oracle Database

158

7.1.9 SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise Database

159

7.1.10 SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence

159

7.1.11 Standalone Enqueue Server 2

160

7.1.12 Multi-SAP System ID for SAP Central Services

161

7.2 Disaster Recovery

162

7.2.1 Recovery Time Objective and Recovery Point Object

163

7.2.2 Microsoft Azure Paired Regions

163

7.2.3 Disaster Recovery for SAP

164

7.2.4 Disaster Recovery of SAP Components

165

7.2.5 Application Disaster Recover

166

7.2.6 Shared Storage in the Secondary Region

169

7.2.7 Test and Drills

170

7.3 Reference Architecture

171

7.4 Summary

173

8 Backup Architecture and Mechanisms

175

8.1 Backup and Restore Overview

175

8.2 Backup Classifications

177

8.3 Microsoft Azure Backup and Recovery Vault

178

8.4 Virtual Machine Backup

178

8.5 Database Backup

180

8.5.1 Microsoft Azure Backup for SQL Server and SAP HANA

180

8.5.2 Virtual Machine Backup with and without Database File Systems

183

8.5.3 Disk-Based Database Backup

183

8.5.4 Storage Snapshot

184

8.6 Shared Disk Backup

185

8.7 Third-Party Tools

185

8.8 Backup and Retention Policy

186

8.9 Restore and Recovery

187

8.9.1 Virtual Machine Restore

187

8.9.2 SQL Server and SAP HANA

189

8.9.3 Testing for all Use Cases

189

8.10 Management and Reporting

190

8.11 Summary

191

9 Automation

193

9.1 Infrastructure as Code

194

9.2 Automation Use Cases

195

9.2.1 Infrastructure Deployment

195

9.2.2 Application Deployment

196

9.2.3 Infrastructure and Application Lifecycle

197

9.3 Automation Tools

197

9.3.1 Microsoft Azure Cloud Shell

197

9.3.2 Microsoft Azure Resource Manager Template

198

9.3.3 Terraform

200

9.3.4 Orchestration versus Configuration Management

201

9.3.5 SAP Landscape Management

202

9.4 DevOps Integration

203

9.5 Quickstart Templates

203

9.6 Disadvantages of Using Automation

204

9.7 Automation Recommend Practices

205

9.8 Summary

206

10 Encryption

207

10.1 Encryption at Rest

207

10.1.1 Storage Service Encryption

209

10.1.2 Microsoft Azure Disk Encryption

209

10.1.3 Database Encryption

209

10.1.4 Backup Encryption

210

10.1.5 Microsoft Azure NetApp Files

210

10.1.6 Third-Party Software

210

10.2 Encryption in Transit

211

10.3 Key Management

212

10.4 Summary

212

11 Migrating SAP to Microsoft Azure

213

11.1 Planning and Readiness

213

11.1.1 Readiness Evaluation

214

11.1.2 Archiving and Cleanup

215

11.2 Migration Paths and Methodologies

215

11.2.1 Database Migration Methodologies

217

11.2.2 Homogeneous Migration

218

11.2.3 Heterogenous Migration

220

11.2.4 Application Server and SAP Central Services Migration

224

11.2.5 Third-Party Solutions for Migration

225

11.2.6 Migration Options Trade-Offs

225

11.3 Large Databases and Migration Optimizations

226

11.3.1 Large Database Challenges

226

11.3.2 Downtime Optimization Techniques

227

11.4 SAP Landscape Migration Phases

231

11.4.1 Pilot

232

11.4.2 Nonproduction

233

11.4.3 Production Rehearsal

234

11.4.4 Production Cutover

234

11.4.5 Large Landscape Migration

235

11.5 Lessons Learned

236

11.6 Summary

238

12 Operations

239

12.1 Cloud Operating Model

239

12.2 Operational Efficiency

240

12.2.1 SAP Snoozing

240

12.2.2 Autoscaling

242

12.2.3 Operating System and SAP Patching

244

12.2.4 Rightsizing and Virtual Machine Resizing

249

12.2.5 System Clone, Copy, and Refresh

250

12.2.6 Microsoft Azure Backup

251

12.2.7 Microsoft Azure NetApp Files and Disks Snapshot

251

12.2.8 SAP Landscape Management Integration

251

12.2.9 SAP HANA on Azure (Large Instances) to Virtual Machine Migration

251

12.2.10 SAP Licensing and Hardware Key

253

12.2.11 Operational Learning

254

12.3 Monitoring

257

12.3.1 SAP Solution Manager

258

12.3.2 Microsoft Azure Monitor

259

12.3.3 Dashboards

262

12.3.4 Alerts

264

12.3.5 Microsoft Azure Monitor for SAP Solutions

265

12.4 Cost Management

268

12.4.1 Understand the Cost Structure

268

12.4.2 Plan with Focus on Cost

269

12.4.3 Optimize for Cost Regularly

269

12.4.4 Microsoft Azure Cost Management

269

12.4.5 Cost Projections

274

12.5 Summary

275

13 Case Study

277

13.1 New Implementation Planning

277

13.1.1 Milestone #1: Sizing and Total Cost of Ownership Calculation

277

13.1.2 Milestone #2: Architecture Components

278

13.1.3 Milestone #3: Infrastructure and SAP Deployment

281

13.2 Migration Planning

282

13.2.1 Shared Architecture on Microsoft Azure

283

13.2.2 Resiliency Design (High Availability/Disaster Recovery)

283

13.2.3 Migration Methodology and Sequence

284

13.2.4 Phased Go-Live and Hybrid System Maintenance

284

13.2.5 Data Center Exit and Future Optimizations

284

13.3 Summary

285

14 Outlook

287

14.1 Marching towards SAP S/4HANA

287

14.2 Integration to Cloud Native Tools

287

14.3 SAP Innovations

288

14.4 Evolution of Microsoft Azure

289

14.5 Containers for SAP?

290

14.6 Summary

291