GlusterFS on Azure VMs on Red Hat Enterprise Linux for SAP NetWeaver

This article describes how to deploy the virtual machines, configure the virtual machines, and install a GlusterFS cluster that can be used to store the shared data of a highly available SAP system. This guide describes how to set up GlusterFS that is used by two SAP systems, NW1 and NW2. The names of the resources (for example virtual machines, virtual networks) in the example assume that you have used the SAP file server template with resource prefix glust.

Read the following SAP Notes and papers first

Overview

To achieve high availability, SAP NetWeaver requires shared storage. GlusterFS is configured in a separate cluster and can be used by multiple SAP systems.

SAP NetWeaver High Availability overview

Set up GlusterFS

You can either use an Azure Template from github to deploy all required Azure resources, including the virtual machines, availability set and network interfaces or you can deploy the resources manually.

Deploy Linux via Azure Template

The Azure Marketplace contains an image for Red Hat Enterprise Linux that you can use to deploy new virtual machines. You can use one of the quickstart templates on github to deploy all required resources. The template deploys the virtual machines, availability set etc. Follow these steps to deploy the template:

  1. Open the SAP file server template in the Azure portal
  2. Enter the following parameters
    1. Resource Prefix
      Enter the prefix you want to use. The value is used as a prefix for the resources that are deployed.
    2. SAP System Count Enter the number of SAP systems that will use this file server. This will deploy the required number of disks etc.
    3. Os Type
      Select one of the Linux distributions. For this example, select RHEL 7
    4. Admin Username, Admin Password or SSH key
      A new user is created that can be used to log on to the machine.
    5. Subnet ID
      If you want to deploy the VM into an existing VNet where you have a subnet defined the VM should be assigned to, name the ID of that specific subnet. The ID usually looks like /subscriptions/<subscription ID>/resourceGroups/<resource group name>/providers/Microsoft.Network/virtualNetworks/<virtual network name>/subnets/<subnet name>

Deploy Linux manually via Azure portal

You first need to create the virtual machines for this cluster. Afterwards, you create a load balancer and use the virtual machines in the backend pools. We recommend standard load balancer.

  1. Create a Resource Group
  2. Create a Virtual Network
  3. Create an Availability Set
    Set max update domain
  4. Create Virtual Machine 1
    Use at least RHEL 7, in this example the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 image https://portal.azure.com/#create/RedHat.RedHatEnterpriseLinux74-ARM
    Select Availability Set created earlier
  5. Create Virtual Machine 2
    Use at least RHEL 7, in this example the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4 image https://portal.azure.com/#create/RedHat.RedHatEnterpriseLinux74-ARM
    Select Availability Set created earlier
  6. Add one data disk for each SAP system to both virtual machines.

Configure GlusterFS

The following items are prefixed with either [A] - applicable to all nodes, [1] - only applicable to node 1, [2] - only applicable to node 2, [3] - only applicable to node 3.

  1. [A] Setup host name resolution

    You can either use a DNS server or modify the /etc/hosts on all nodes. This example shows how to use the /etc/hosts file. Replace the IP address and the hostname in the following commands

    sudo vi /etc/hosts

    Insert the following lines to /etc/hosts. Change the IP address and hostname to match your environment

    # IP addresses of the Gluster nodes
10.0.0.40 glust-0
10.0.0.41 glust-1
10.0.0.42 glust-2

  2. [A] Register

    Register your virtual machines and attach it to a pool that contains repositories for RHEL 7 and GlusterFS

    sudo subscription-manager register
sudo subscription-manager attach --pool=<pool id>

  3. [A] Enable GlusterFS repos

    In order to install the required packages, enable the following repositories.

    sudo subscription-manager repos --disable "*"
sudo subscription-manager repos --enable=rhel-7-server-rpms
sudo subscription-manager repos --enable=rh-gluster-3-for-rhel-7-server-rpms

  4. [A] Install GlusterFS packages

    Install these packages on all GlusterFS nodes

    sudo yum -y install redhat-storage-server

    Reboot the nodes after the installation.

  5. [A] Modify Firewall

    Add firewall rules to allow client traffic to the GlusterFS nodes.

    # list the available zones
firewall-cmd --get-active-zones

sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-service=glusterfs --permanent
sudo firewall-cmd --zone=public --add-service=glusterfs

  6. [A] Enable and start GlusterFS service

    Start the GlusterFS service on all nodes.

    sudo systemctl start glusterd
sudo systemctl enable glusterd

  7. [1] Create GluserFS

    Run the following commands to create the GlusterFS cluster

    sudo gluster peer probe glust-1
sudo gluster peer probe glust-2

# Check gluster peer status
sudo gluster peer status

# Number of Peers: 2
# 
# Hostname: glust-1
# Uuid: 10d43840-fee4-4120-bf5a-de9c393964cd
# State: Accepted peer request (Connected)
# 
# Hostname: glust-2
# Uuid: 9e340385-12fe-495e-ab0f-4f851b588cba
# State: Accepted peer request (Connected)

  8. [2] Test peer status

    Test the peer status on the second node

    sudo gluster peer status
# Number of Peers: 2
#
# Hostname: glust-0
# Uuid: 6bc6927b-7ee2-461b-ad04-da123124d6bd
# State: Peer in Cluster (Connected)
#
# Hostname: glust-2
# Uuid: 9e340385-12fe-495e-ab0f-4f851b588cba
# State: Peer in Cluster (Connected)

  9. [3] Test peer status

    Test the peer status on the third node

    sudo gluster peer status
# Number of Peers: 2
#
# Hostname: glust-0
# Uuid: 6bc6927b-7ee2-461b-ad04-da123124d6bd
# State: Peer in Cluster (Connected)
#
# Hostname: glust-1
# Uuid: 10d43840-fee4-4120-bf5a-de9c393964cd
# State: Peer in Cluster (Connected)

  10. [A] Create LVM

    In this example, the GlusterFS is used for two SAP systems, NW1 and NW2. Use the following commands to create LVM configurations for these SAP systems.

    Use these commands for NW1

    sudo pvcreate --dataalignment 1024K /dev/disk/azure/scsi1/lun0
sudo pvscan
sudo vgcreate --physicalextentsize 256K rhgs-NW1 /dev/disk/azure/scsi1/lun0
sudo vgscan
sudo lvcreate -l 50%FREE -n rhgs-NW1/sapmnt
sudo lvcreate -l 20%FREE -n rhgs-NW1/trans
sudo lvcreate -l 10%FREE -n rhgs-NW1/sys
sudo lvcreate -l 50%FREE -n rhgs-NW1/ascs
sudo lvcreate -l 100%FREE -n rhgs-NW1/aers
sudo lvscan

sudo mkfs.xfs -f -K -i size=512 -n size=8192 /dev/rhgs-NW1/sapmnt
sudo mkfs.xfs -f -K -i size=512 -n size=8192 /dev/rhgs-NW1/trans
sudo mkfs.xfs -f -K -i size=512 -n size=8192 /dev/rhgs-NW1/sys
sudo mkfs.xfs -f -K -i size=512 -n size=8192 /dev/rhgs-NW1/ascs
sudo mkfs.xfs -f -K -i size=512 -n size=8192 /dev/rhgs-NW1/aers

sudo mkdir -p /rhs/NW1/sapmnt
sudo mkdir -p /rhs/NW1/trans
sudo mkdir -p /rhs/NW1/sys
sudo mkdir -p /rhs/NW1/ascs
sudo mkdir -p /rhs/NW1/aers

sudo chattr +i /rhs/NW1/sapmnt
sudo chattr +i /rhs/NW1/trans
sudo chattr +i /rhs/NW1/sys
sudo chattr +i /rhs/NW1/ascs
sudo chattr +i /rhs/NW1/aers

echo -e "/dev/rhgs-NW1/sapmnt\t/rhs/NW1/sapmnt\txfs\tdefaults,inode64,nobarrier,noatime,nouuid 0 2" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
echo -e "/dev/rhgs-NW1/trans\t/rhs/NW1/trans\txfs\tdefaults,inode64,nobarrier,noatime,nouuid 0 2" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
echo -e "/dev/rhgs-NW1/sys\t/rhs/NW1/sys\txfs\tdefaults,inode64,nobarrier,noatime,nouuid 0 2" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
echo -e "/dev/rhgs-NW1/ascs\t/rhs/NW1/ascs\txfs\tdefaults,inode64,nobarrier,noatime,nouuid 0 2" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
echo -e "/dev/rhgs-NW1/aers\t/rhs/NW1/aers\txfs\tdefaults,inode64,nobarrier,noatime,nouuid 0 2" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
sudo mount -a

    Use these commands for NW2

    sudo pvcreate --dataalignment 1024K /dev/disk/azure/scsi1/lun1
sudo pvscan
sudo vgcreate --physicalextentsize 256K rhgs-NW2 /dev/disk/azure/scsi1/lun1
sudo vgscan
sudo lvcreate -l 50%FREE -n rhgs-NW2/sapmnt
sudo lvcreate -l 20%FREE -n rhgs-NW2/trans
sudo lvcreate -l 10%FREE -n rhgs-NW2/sys
sudo lvcreate -l 50%FREE -n rhgs-NW2/ascs
sudo lvcreate -l 100%FREE -n rhgs-NW2/aers

sudo mkfs.xfs -f -K -i size=512 -n size=8192 /dev/rhgs-NW2/sapmnt
sudo mkfs.xfs -f -K -i size=512 -n size=8192 /dev/rhgs-NW2/trans
sudo mkfs.xfs -f -K -i size=512 -n size=8192 /dev/rhgs-NW2/sys
sudo mkfs.xfs -f -K -i size=512 -n size=8192 /dev/rhgs-NW2/ascs
sudo mkfs.xfs -f -K -i size=512 -n size=8192 /dev/rhgs-NW2/aers

sudo mkdir -p /rhs/NW2/sapmnt
sudo mkdir -p /rhs/NW2/trans
sudo mkdir -p /rhs/NW2/sys
sudo mkdir -p /rhs/NW2/ascs
sudo mkdir -p /rhs/NW2/aers

sudo chattr +i /rhs/NW2/sapmnt
sudo chattr +i /rhs/NW2/trans
sudo chattr +i /rhs/NW2/sys
sudo chattr +i /rhs/NW2/ascs
sudo chattr +i /rhs/NW2/aers
sudo lvscan

echo -e "/dev/rhgs-NW2/sapmnt\t/rhs/NW2/sapmnt\txfs\tdefaults,inode64,nobarrier,noatime,nouuid 0 2" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
echo -e "/dev/rhgs-NW2/trans\t/rhs/NW2/trans\txfs\tdefaults,inode64,nobarrier,noatime,nouuid 0 2" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
echo -e "/dev/rhgs-NW2/sys\t/rhs/NW2/sys\txfs\tdefaults,inode64,nobarrier,noatime,nouuid 0 2" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
echo -e "/dev/rhgs-NW2/ascs\t/rhs/NW2/ascs\txfs\tdefaults,inode64,nobarrier,noatime,nouuid 0 2" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
echo -e "/dev/rhgs-NW2/aers\t/rhs/NW2/aers\txfs\tdefaults,inode64,nobarrier,noatime,nouuid 0 2" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
sudo mount -a

  11. [1] Create the distributed volume

    Use the following commands to create the GlusterFS volume for NW1 and start it.

    sudo gluster vol create NW1-sapmnt replica 3 glust-0:/rhs/NW1/sapmnt glust-1:/rhs/NW1/sapmnt glust-2:/rhs/NW1/sapmnt force
sudo gluster vol create NW1-trans replica 3 glust-0:/rhs/NW1/trans glust-1:/rhs/NW1/trans glust-2:/rhs/NW1/trans force
sudo gluster vol create NW1-sys replica 3 glust-0:/rhs/NW1/sys glust-1:/rhs/NW1/sys glust-2:/rhs/NW1/sys force
sudo gluster vol create NW1-ascs replica 3 glust-0:/rhs/NW1/ascs glust-1:/rhs/NW1/ascs glust-2:/rhs/NW1/ascs force
sudo gluster vol create NW1-aers replica 3 glust-0:/rhs/NW1/aers glust-1:/rhs/NW1/aers glust-2:/rhs/NW1/aers force

sudo gluster volume start NW1-sapmnt
sudo gluster volume start NW1-trans
sudo gluster volume start NW1-sys
sudo gluster volume start NW1-ascs
sudo gluster volume start NW1-aers

    Use the following commands to create the GlusterFS volume for NW2 and start it.

    sudo gluster vol create NW2-sapmnt replica 3 glust-0:/rhs/NW2/sapmnt glust-1:/rhs/NW2/sapmnt glust-2:/rhs/NW2/sapmnt force
sudo gluster vol create NW2-trans replica 3 glust-0:/rhs/NW2/trans glust-1:/rhs/NW2/trans glust-2:/rhs/NW2/trans force
sudo gluster vol create NW2-sys replica 3 glust-0:/rhs/NW2/sys glust-1:/rhs/NW2/sys glust-2:/rhs/NW2/sys force
sudo gluster vol create NW2-ascs replica 3 glust-0:/rhs/NW2/ascs glust-1:/rhs/NW2/ascs glust-2:/rhs/NW2/ascs force
sudo gluster vol create NW2-aers replica 3 glust-0:/rhs/NW2/aers glust-1:/rhs/NW2/aers glust-2:/rhs/NW2/aers force

sudo gluster volume start NW2-sapmnt
sudo gluster volume start NW2-trans
sudo gluster volume start NW2-sys
sudo gluster volume start NW2-ascs
sudo gluster volume start NW2-aers

Next steps