Month: March 2019

Starting at 2:00 p.m. PST today, members of the Xbox One Preview Alpha and Preview Beta Rings will begin receiving the latest 1904 Xbox One system update (19H1_RELEASE_XBOX_DEV_1904\18356.2000.190311-1920). Read on for more about the new features, fixes and known issues in the latest 1904 system update.   DETAILS: OS version released: 19H1_RELEASE_XBOX_DEV_1904\18356.2000.190311-1920 Available: 2:00PM PDT 3/13/19 Mandatory Date/Time: 3:00 AM PDT 3/14/19   New Features: A complete feature list for 1904 is published here https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2019/02/21/new-features-rolling-out-to-xbox-insiders-this-spring/   Fixes:  Audio We have fixed the issues of No Audio heard or stuttering audio from the system and games/apps. We have resolved the issue… Continue reading New Preview Alpha and Beta Ring 1904 Build 3/13/19→

First published on MSDN on Nov 04, 2018

Moving SAP software to Azure, you need to decide which Azure VM types you want to use. One of the major criteria for selecting a certain VM is the throughput requirement of the SAP workload. SAP … Continue reading SAPS ratings on Azure VMs – where to look and where you can get confused→

First published on MSDN on Nov 02, 2018

As Azure became a very popular secure and scalable platform to deploy mission critical workload like SAP application on it, Microsoft itself tries to lower the bar to move your application to Azu… Continue reading Moving SAP on SQL Server and Windows into Azure – what SQL Server and Windows release should I use→

First published on MSDN on Aug 23, 2018

This blog is a customer success story detailing how Cognizant and Orica have successfully deployed and gone live with a global S/4HANA transformation project on Azure. This blog contains many det… Continue reading Orica’s S/4HANA Foundational Architecture Design on Azure→

First published on MSDN on Jun 28, 2018

We are happy to share that SAP released support for SQL Server 2017 for some SAP NetWeaver based systems. In this blog we will talk about how you can update your existing installations on SQL Ser… Continue reading SAP Support for SQL Server 2017→

First published on MSDN on Jun 25, 2018

This short blog discusses how to avoid overloading an on-premises or Azure Proxy server with Backup to URL. Creating a typical .Net configuration file to disable a proxy server will allow BackupT… Continue reading SAP on SQL Server on Azure – How to Bypass Proxy Server During Backup to URL→

First published on MSDN on Jun 24, 2018


This short blog contains videos showing the end to end installation process to setup Oracle 12.2 ASM on Azure.

The videos and documentation in this blog are being used to get formal certification for Oracle 12.2 ASM on Azure. This process is still ongoing

It is important to follow the procedure documented in this blog and not to follow the existing generic Oracle ASM on Azure documentation

The generic Oracle ASM on Azure documentation will cause many errors during SWPM installation.

Oracle Linux Preparation, Grid Installation, Oracle 12.2 Installation and SAP Installation

These three videos show the process flow for installation of an SAP NetWeaver 7.5 on Oracle 12.2 ASM

The installation sequence is:

1. Oracle Linux 7.4 Preparation Steps
2. Install the ASCS

3. Install the DB Instance

   1. When prompted to install Oracle DBMS with RUNINSTALLER, first install the Grid Infrastructure
      
      https://docs.oracle.com/en/database/oracle/oracle-database/12.2/ladbi/installing-oracle-grid-infrastructure-for-a-standalone-server-with-a-new-database-installation.html#GUID-0B1CEE8C-C893-46AA-8A6A-7B5FAAEC72B3
      
   2. After installing Grid Infrastructure configure ASM disk groups as required
   3. Start RUNINSTALLER and install DBMS
   4. Continue SAPInst

4. Install PAS
5. Patch Grid Infrastructure and Oracle DB to latest released Oracle patch

The videos below illustrate the process

NOTE: Oracle Client 12.2 is not released yet, therefore the Oracle Client 12.1 should be used and configured. Be sure to specify DB ENGINE = 12.2 and DB CLIENT = 12.1 during setup. Do not attempt to follow Oracle ASM 11.x or ASM 12.1 documentation as there are large differences with ASM 12.2

1.ASCS-OracleASM-Install

[video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://msdnshared.blob.core.windows.net/media/2018/06/1.ASCS-OracleASM-Install.mp4"][/video]

2.DB-OracleASM-Install

[video width="1280" height="720" mp4="https://msdnshared.blob.core.windows.net/media/2018/06/2.DB-OracleASM-Install.mp4"][/video]

3.APP-OracleASM-Install

[video width="2048" height="1272" mp4="https://msdnshared.blob.core.windows.net/media/2018/06/3.APP-OracleASM-Install.mp4"][/video]

Patching Oracle 12.2 Grid Infrastructure and Oracle 12.2 DB Components

The process for patching the Grid Infrastructure (G.I) and DBMS components is illustrated below.

The latest Oracle patches supported for SAP applications is usually available here:

http://service.sap.com/oracle

509314 – Downloading Oracle Patches from the SAP Support Portal

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/509314

The sequence of patching is (1) Patch the Grid Infrastructure (2) After Grid Infrastructure patch the DBMS

Patching-Oracle-Grid-and-DBMS-12.2

Backup Solutions for Oracle 12.2 ASM on Azure

Three different backup solutions have been tested with Oracle ASM on Azure.

1. Native Oracle RMAN Backup
2. SAP BRTools (which is configured to call RMAN)
3. Azure CommVault Virtual Appliance

During testing backup times for RMAN and BRTools was around 11 minutes. CommVault was around 30 minutes

Oracle-ASM-Backup-Scenarios

CommVault-Oracle-ASM-Backup

Links & SAP Notes

Details of the VM setup & configuration

Note: 10 * P20 Premium Disks are allocated as follows: 1 x P20 for /oracle, 3 x P20 for DATA, 3 x P20 for ARCH, 3 x P20 for REDO

It is recommended to use Moba Xterm to do the GI and Oracle DB installation

https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/

2507228 – Database: Patches for 12.2.0.1

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0002507228

2470718 – Oracle Database Parameter (12.2)

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0002470718

2558521 – Grid Infrastructure: Patches for 12.2.0.1

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0002558521

2477472 – Oracle Database Upgrade with Grid Infrastructure (12.2)

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0002477472

105047 – Support for Oracle functions in the SAP environment

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0000105047

2039619 – SAP Applications on Microsoft Azure using the Oracle Database: Supported Products and Versions

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0002039619

1915301 – Database Software 12c Installation on Unix

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0001915301

1915317 – Migrating Software Owner to ‘oracle’

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0001915317

1905855 – Oracle database doesn´t start in ASM

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0001905855

1853538 – Oracle RAC controlfiles on ASM with multiple failure groups

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0001853538

1738053 – SAPinst for Oracle ASM installation

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0001738053

1550133 – Using Oracle Automatic Storage Management (ASM) with SAP NetWeaver based Products

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/1550133

2087004 – BR*Tools support for Oracle 12c

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0002087004

2007980 – SAP Installation with Oracle Single Instance on Oracle Exadata and Oracle Database Appliance

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0002007980

819829 – Oracle Instant Client Installation and Configuration on Unix or Linux

https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/0000819829

https://docs.oracle.com/en/database/oracle/oracle-database/12.2/index.html

https://www.sap.com/community/topic/oracle.html

Recommended yum packages:

sudo yum update

sudo yum install libaio.x86_64 -y

sudo yum install uuid* -y

sudo yum install nfs-utils -y

#sudo yum install ksh -y

sudo yum install libstdc++-devel.x86_64 -y

sudo yum install xorg-x11-xauth.x86_64 -y

sudo yum install libaio-devel.x86_64 -y

sudo yum install sysstat.x86_64 -y

sudo yum install smartmontools.x86_64 -y

sudo yum install tcsh.x86_64 -y

sudo yum install xorg-x11-utils.x86_64 -y

sudo yum install ksh.x86_64 -y

sudo yum install glibc-devel.x86_64 -y

sudo yum install compat-libcap1.x86_64 -y

sudo yum install xorg-x11-apps.x86_64 -y

Special Credit & Thanks to Ravi Alwani from Azure CAT GSI Team for creating these videos and lab testing.

Continue reading Installation and Setup of Oracle 12.2 ASM on Oracle Linux on Azure – Installation Videos & Backup Strategies→

First published on MSDN on Jun 18, 2018

In recent months we saw several customers with large investments into Hana technologies approach Microsoft for information about deploying large mission critical SAP applications on Azure with th… Continue reading Installation Procedure for Sybase 16. 3 Patch Level 3 Always-on + DR on Suse 12. 3 – Recent Customer Proof of Concept→