Planning for Implementing SAP Solutions on Azure (Part 2 of 5)

By Ashwin Venugopal -

 


To read part 1 please click here
To read part 3 please click here
To read part 4 please click here
To read part 5 please click here




Load Balancing

The load balancer uses probe ports to determine as well as route the traffic to an active DBMS node, but of there's any failover then the most common SAP application architecture can automatically reconnect against the private virtual IP address without the need for the SAP application to reconfigure it, while the load balancer redirect the traffic against the private virtual IP address without any need for the SAP application to reconfigure.

The loaf balancer also offers an option of DirectServerReturn which if configured, can help in directing the traffic from the DBMS VM to the SAP application layer directly to the application layer without routing through the load balancer. But, if it isn't configured, then the return traffic to the SAP application layer is routed through the load balancer.

You can also use Azure Load Balancer Standard to gain benefit from its integration with Accelerated Networking as its High Availability Ports feature can significantly simplify the configuration of the load balancing rules.

Cross-Premises Connectivity

There are following two basic high-level infrastructure designs:
  • Cross-Premises- a single or multiple Azure IaaS-hosted SAP workloads with the requirement of being fully integrated into the existing on-premises SAP environment.
  • Cloud-Only- the complete SAP landscape runs on Azure IaaS (typically with the customer's on-premises infrastructure extended into Azure).  

The following deployments are not supported in cross-premises scenarios:

  • Running different layers of SAP applications in different deployment methods- like running the DBMS layer on-premises, but the SAP application layer in VMs deployed as Azure VMS or vice-versa.
  • Some components of a SAP layer in Azure and some on-premises- like splitting Instances of SAP application layer between on-premises and Azure VMs.
  • Distribution of VMs running SAP instances of one system over multiple Azure regions is not supported.  

The requirement for a low latency high-performance network within one SAP system, especially between the application instances and the DBMS layer of a SAP system is the reason for all these restrictions.

Note- In cross-premises scenarios between Azure and on-premises customers' environments, SAP systems must reside entirely in  either one of the two environments.

SAP Router

A SAP router can enable the TCP/IP communication  between the participating systems if there is no direct IP connection providing the advantage that no end-to-end connection between the communication partners is necessary on network level.

It can be easily configured for remote SAP support and you can implement the following steps for it:

  • Maintain the private and static IP addresses of the VMs that host SAP systems in the SAP router configuration.
  • Configure the NSG of the subnet that hosts the SAP Azure VMs to allow traffic through TCP/IP port.

You can also install SAP router to a separate VM in the Management subnet if you don't have the SAP routers for the VMs with SAP systems and want to connect to Azure through the internet.







To read part 1 please click here
To read part 3 please click here
To read part 4 please click here
To read part 5 please click here











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