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SAP Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) with Microsoft Azure Blob Storage

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SAP Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) provides a broad range of capabilities for managing data volumes, Retention Management as well as the decommissioning of legacy systems, while balancing the total cost of ownership, risk, and legal compliance. SAP ILM Store (a component of ILM) would enable storing of these archive files and attachments from SAP system into Microsoft Azure Blob storage, thus enabling cloud storage.

Fig: Azure Blob Storage with ILM Store

How to

This document covers creation and configuration of Azure blob storage account to be used with SAP ILM. This account will be used to store archive data from S/4HANA System.

The steps to be followed to create a storage account are:

  1. Register a new application with your subscription.
  2. Create a Blob storage account.
  3. Create a new custom role or use an existing (build-In or custom) role.
  4. Assign the role to application to allow access to the storage account.

Note

Steps 2, 3 and 4 can either be done manually or by using the Microsoft Quickstart template.

QuickStart template approach:

This is an automated approach to create the Azure account. You can find the template in the Azure Quickstart Templates library.

Manual configuration approach:

Azure blob storage account can be configured manually. The steps to be followed are:

  1. Register a new application
    The details are available at Register an application with the Microsoft identity platform

    Note

    Make sure that Client secret is added as per the section Add Credentials – Add a Client Secret

  2. Create a Blob Storage account
    Refer steps in the page Create a storage account
    Ensure "Enable secure transfer" is set.
    It is recommended to set the following property values:

    • Enable blob public access = false
    • Minimum TLS Version = 1.2
    • Enable storage account key access = false

  3. Maintain IAM for the account
    In the Access Control (IAM) setting, go to "Role Assignments" and add "Role assignment" for the App created with the role of "Storage Blob Data Contributor". In the App dialog, choose "User, group or Service Principal" for "Assign Access to" field.

    Note

    Ensure no other user has access to this storage account apart from the registered application.

During the process of the account setup and configuration, it is recommended to refer to Security recommendations for Blob Storage With the completion of this setup, we are ready to use this blob storage account with SAP ILM to store archive files from S/4 HANA System.

Next steps