Hello and welcome to the SAP HANA Academy.
The topic of this video tutorial series is Getting Started with SAP HANA on the Google Cloud Platform
and in this video we will use the Cloud Launcher to deploy
SAP HANA, express edition to Google Compute Engine.
Hi, I am Denys van Kempen.
In the previous videos of this series, we briefly discussed the basics,
introduced the Google Cloud Platform and explained how to sign up, how to make use of the $300 credit
and also discussed the concept of a project in the context of GCP, the Google Cloud Platform.
With that tackled, we can now create an SAP HANA server in the cloud.
By far, the easiest way to do this is to use the Google Cloud Launcher.
You can use the URL cloud.google.com/launcher
and this will return a page with some information about Cloud Launcher.
The fastest way to get started on GCP …
offers ready-to-go development stacks, solutions, and services to accelerate development.
So you spend less time installing and more time developing.
Here we see a couple of the most popular solutions.
It is like a marketplace, the same you can find on AWS, or CAL (SAP’s own Cloud Appliance Library).
When you select View all, this will open Cloud Launcher in the GCP console.
SAP HANA, express edition (server + applications) is currently listed here in the Featured section
but if it’s not, you can use the search bar and just enter ‘hana’.
We now get 2 results, both named SAP HANA, express edition.
I will select server + applications.
What’s the difference?
XSA
The server + applications version includes SAP HANA extended services (XS) advanced model
- XSA in short - for native development using a built-in application server: Java, Node.js,
- same development environment as on the SAP Cloud Platform.
So, for native development you need the XSA solution.
server + applications also includes system management tools,
like SAP HANA cockpit, so you can create users, make a backup and so on.
The other solution does not have any of this, so you will have to install it later.
There is a separate tutorial video about the two Cloud Launcher solutions and the differences,
and I have also posted a blog about it, should you be interested.
There are many products and services on GCP, Compute Engine is one of them.
This is what typically would be labelled in cloud compute terminology as
IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) virtual machines hosted by a cloud provider.
The operating system is SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12.
Now, don’t we need a license for that?
Yes, we see the estimated costs here.
The exact amount will probably change a bit over time.
Please note that these estimated costs are based on 30-day, 24 hours per day usage.
So, that would be production.
It is about 30 cents an hour.
For development or training, say, even if you let the VM run for 8 hours a day that
would still be under $15 a week.
So, with the $300 credit from Google this would last you about 20 weeks and if you run
HANA not the entire day and maybe not every day - don’t forget to take your holidays
- you should be good for a whole year, or so.
Just spend it wisely.
OK.
Note that with a solution for Cloud Launcher, all costs are bundled.
HANA is for free but you pay a bit for SUSE Linux and for Google hosting.
Here is an overview of SAP HANA, express edition, should you need it, and below are links to
tutorials and documentation, including one pointing to a HANA Academy playlist on YouTube.
Let’s select Launch on Compute Engine.
Note the project in the toolbar.
If you have created multiple projects, you may want to check that the correct one is selected.
We discussed projects in the previous video.
On the deploy page, you can change the name.
The deployment name will also be the computer name with ‘-vm’ appended.
In the documentation, you can read about the restrictions.
Because it is the computer name it needs to comply with RFC 1035, for domain name naming.
You can change the zone.
Typically, when you are in development or learning mode,
you would select a zone close to you, to minimize latency.
In production, you would choose a zone close your customers, although in that case,
you would probably run the server in multiple zones.
Machine type: 4 virtual processors, vCPUs, and 26 gigabyte of RAM.
You could change this, of course.
Either pick a different machine type
n1-high-mem-4 is the default one selected
but note that for express, we are limited to 32 GB.
You can upgrade express in the SAP store but then it is no longer a free edition.
You can also customize the settings here but unless you really know what you are doing,
I would recommend to stick with the default machine type n1-high-mem-4
That’s 26 GB for both the in-memory HANA database and the built-in XSA application server
with all of its runtimes - we will look into memory usage in one of the follow up video’s.
Then we have our Boot Disk.
SSD Persistent, 70 GB.
You can always attach storage later, should you need it.
This is standard HANA sizing: 3 times the memory size.
Networking uses default settings.
Firewall has two entries: HANA and XSA port traffic.
To know which ports exactly are opened, you first have launch a deployment.
Of course, this does mean that your HANA system will be directly accessible from the internet.
Here we have an illustration from the HANA Deployment Guide where we can see that a bastion host is used.
From the internet, only the bastion host would be accessible and from the bastion host you
can then access the HANA server for administration.
For production purposes, this would be a recommended setup.
We will discuss this in a future video, as well.
For external IP, you can select Ephemeral or None.
If you already have a fixed IP created - and it is still available - it would be listed here
for you to select.
I will show you how to do this as a next step.
Source IP ranges for HANA and XSA traffic lists 0.0.0.0/0
making it accessible from everywhere.
Also note that IP forwarding is set to On.
This is a non-configurable setting.
Well that’s all there is too it.
Note that the only change I have made is the zone.
To deploy the virtual machine, click Deploy.
The Deployment Manager is launched.
We see Jinja, the template engine, running a python script to create the VM and the firewall rules.
Took about 30 seconds for me.
It is pretty quick, normally.
Our solution has been deployed, we can see in the left pane and on the right side,
suggested next steps are provided, with links to the documentation, the same links we have looked at before.
If you select the back arrow, you get the Deployment Manager console.
If you select your deployment and then click delete, the whole deployment will be deleted,
so VM and firewall rules.
Good to know if you want to do some housekeeping.
Select the deployment to get back to the results page.
If you sel ect the GCP menu (Products & services) and scroll down a bit under tools,
we have our Deployment Manager.
You can pin it, if you want, so it will stick to the top.
Using the Deployment Manager we can always get back to the next step suggestions and
the provided documentation for the SAP HANA, express edition solution.
And when you click the Deploy Cloud Launcher Solution here on the top, the launcher page
displays again which brings us back where we started.
So, let’s wrap up.
If you want to quickly deploy a SAP HANA, express edition virtual machine, take a look
at the GCP Cloud Launcher solution provided by SAP.
You will spend less time installing and more time developing.
In the next video, we will connect to HANA express, look around a bit, and perform the
suggested next steps.
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