Automic Workload Automation

Hi.

To start of with: I have absolutely not the slightest clue about SAP. I will try to stay clear of SAP terminology as much as possible in the question below, apologies if I get it wrong anyway :)

Our SAP folks ask me how (or if) the Automic UC4 SAP agent works with SAP installations that are spread across multiple application servers.

I googled the SAP part and could not find one definite method, but apparently it is standard practice in SAP circles to spread one SAP system among multiple physical servers in order to distribute system load. In such a scenario, there is one "master" server (possibly called "dispatcher"), and SAP jobs (i.e. jobs in SAP itself) are distributed among the available application servers. Apparently, even some "SAP installer" allows setting SAP up this way.

I assumed that because the SAP agent uses the RFC mechanism, the SAP job distribution would be transparent to the UC4 agent, too, but possibly that's not so: Automic already responded by saying that I need one agent per application server (which would, if so, eliminate any benefit of the SAP-built-in load balancing). And possibly contrary to that, there is a selection in the UC4 connection objects for SAP, where you can select between "Specific Application Server" and "Balanced/Group". However, our SAP people wouldn't conclusively know what to enter into the subsequent form fields, e.g. wondering whethet the UC4 connection objects "Group" is identical to a SAP "Login Group", or something else entirely.

Long story short: Anyone ever setup an UC4 SAP agent to work across multiple application servers, and if so, how?

Thanks,
Carsten

Hi Carsten_Schmitz_7883

It’s possible to use the SAP-built-in load balancing. The following can be found in the documentation:

“In Connection Parameter define whether the connection should be established to a specific application server or via a balanced or group selection.”

https://docs.automic.com/documentation/webhelp/english/AWA/12.0/DOCU/12.0/AWA%20Guides/help.htm#AWA/Objects/obj_Connection_overview.htm

I think it’s specified very similar to the settings made for the SAP GUI.

https://us.v-cdn.net/5019921/uploads/editor/yr/f6jtlgd9jndj.png" width="718">

In addition it’s possible to run specific R3 jobs on a specific SAP application sever, even load balancing is used. This can be achieved by specifying the “Target system” in the Jobs attributes:

https://us.v-cdn.net/5019921/uploads/editor/a3/k18izj4dgmwg.png" width="777"> 

KR, Josef

Hi Josef, all,

We suspected that "Balanced/Group Selection" had something to do with it, thanks for confirming that.

From your link (eventhough that's AWA), it is somewhat more clear (compared to the V10 documentation I looked at) that the "Group" text field can contain a "Login Group", so that is presumably an "SAP Login Group" indeed. Cheers for clearing that up!

Still, I sent your info to the SAP people and we looked through the documentation together (again), yet they say they still wish for more in-depth documentation, something like a How-To. They also ask which of these fields are mandatory, and especially whether an SAP Login Group is required, or the field can be left blank.

If anyone has screenshot(s) of these settings from a live, working installation, that would be much appreciated.

Best,
Carsten