Take Action Following a SAP HANA Cloud Database Alert with SAP Automation Pilot

The following steps demonstrate how to subscribe to the SAP Automation Pilot service and explore some basic concepts such as commands, inputs, and executions.

1. In the SAP BTP Cockpit, at the subaccount level, in one of the supported regions, select Service Marketplace, then from the Automation Pilot tile select Create to create a subscription to the SAP Automation Pilot service.

   Note: For trial accounts, SAP Automation Pilot is automatically available from the Service Marketplace, so you can proceed directly to creating a subscription.

   

   If the Automation Pilot service does not appear, it may be that the entitlement needs to be added to the subaccount. To do so, navigate to the subaccount, select Entitlements, Configure Entitlements, Add Service Plans, select Automation Pilot, and add a plan such as free or standard. Do not forget to save the changes made to Entitlements,

   

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   The SAP Automation Pilot subscription can be located in a different global account or subaccount from the SAP Alert Notification service and the SAP HANA Cloud database.

   

2. Under Users, select your user and assign the role collection AutomationPilot_Admin.

   

   Then assign the following Role Collections:

   

   For additional details, see Permissions and Roles.

3. Once the SAP Automation Pilot service has been created, open its application.

   

   If you receive a permission error, you may need to log out and log in again for the role assigned in the previous step to take effect.

4. Notice the two sections for catalogs (My Catalogs and Provided Catalogs) containing provided commands and inputs including ones for Cloud Foundry and database lifecycle management.

   Provided Catalogs are groups of commands and inputs that are provided by the SAP Automation Pilot. Those in My Catalogs are catalogs that are user-created and contain created commands and inputs. Catalogs provide a way to group a collection of related commands and inputs.

   

   Commands can also be scheduled. One example may be to schedule the starting and stopping of a database instance.

5. It is possible to create executors in a command using BASH, Node.js, Python or Perl. A provided example command is included for each type as shown below.

   

6. Each example inherits from the base ExecuteScript.

   

   Notice that there are a set of input keys and output keys.

7. Under Inputs, open the input WelcomeScriptInput.

   

   Examine the description of the input keys and their types.

8. Open the command PythonScriptCommandExample in Commands.

   Scroll down to the Configuration section, select input and notice that it has as an additional value WelcomeScriptInput shown in the previous step with an alias of scriptInput.

   

9. Select welcomeScriptExecutor.

   

   Notice that it contains the below script and that the parameters, environment, and stdin have their values set from the input WelcomeScriptInput using its alias name of scriptInput.

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   #!/usr/bin/env python3
   
   import sys, os
   
   stdin = sys.stdin.readline()
   env = os.environ.get("GREETING")
   (arg1, arg2) = sys.argv[1:3]
   
   print(f"{env}{arg1} {stdin}{arg2}")
   

10. Trigger the command.

    

11. Executed commands can be viewed under the Executions tab. Options to filter Executions include ID, Owner, Status, and Start periods.

    

12. Under Output Values, click Show to view the output of the successfully run command.

    

    The output will appear in a pop-up.

    

    This value is coming from the output of the welcomeScriptExecutor whose base command ExecuteScript has a parameter named output.

    

At this point, you should now have a subscription to the SAP Automation Pilot service and be familiar with some basic concepts of the service such as commands, inputs, and executions.

This step will create a catalog that contains a command and an input. The input will have a user name and password for the SAP Business Technology Platform, and the command when completed, will retrieve the details of a SAP HANA Cloud instance that sent a database alert such a HDBDiskUsage alert.

1. Create a new catalog.

   
   

   Specify the values below.

   Label	Value
   Name	rsHCDB
   Display name	Resize SAP HANA Cloud Database

   If the error [400] Violation in field 'catalog': size must be between 0 and 20 is encountered, please ensure that the catalog ID is between 0 and 20 characters.

2. Create an input named BTPTechnicalUser in the just created catalog.

   
   

3. Add two keys to the input.

   Key Name	Type	Sensitive	Value
   User	String	no	BTP user that is a member of the space where the SAP HANA Cloud database instance exists
   Password	String	yes	password of the BTP user

   

   Note these credentials will be used by a Cloud Foundry command to return the details of a SAP HANA database service. Ensure the user can log in successfully to a site such as SAP Community and not have two-factor authentication enabled. The user should appear under the members list at the space level in the BTP Cockpit and have the role space developer.

   

4. Create a command named ResizeHANACloudStorage in the previously created catalog, Resize SAP HANA Cloud Database, and add the following input keys to the command under the section Contract.

   Key Name	Type	Sensitive
   alertJSON	object	no
   Password	String	yes
   User	String	no

   

   The values for these keys will be set in step 3 when a trigger from an alert is created for this command.

5. In the command ResizeHANACloudStorage, add an output key under the section Contract.

   Key Name	Type	Sensitive
   storageSize	object	no

   

6. Under Configuration, add an executor.

   

   Select Here.

   Specify the values below.

   Label	Value
   Alias	getHANACloudDBDetails
   Command	GetCfServiceInstance
   Automap Parameters	true

   

   :1 indicates that this is version 1 of the command.

7. Select the newly created executor.

   Notice that it has a set of input parameters that will need to be set. These values will come from the JSON data of the alert and the previously created input named BTPTechnicalUser. As automap parameters was enabled, the values for user and password have been set from the command’s input keys.

   Edit the parameters of getHANACloudDBDetails.

   Specify the following values.

   Parameter Name	Value
   org	$(.execution.input.alertJSON.resource.tags.organizationId)
   region	$(.execution.input.alertJSON.region)
   serviceInstance	$(.execution.input.alertJSON.resource.tags.resourceId)
   space	$(.execution.input.alertJSON.resource.tags.spaceId)
   includeParameters	true

   

   For additional details on the use of the $(…) used above, see Dynamic Expression.

8. Select the output, then select Edit.

   

   Specify the output key named storageSize to be $(.getHANACloudDBDetails.output.parameters)

9. Trigger the execution.

   

   In the trigger command dialog, under Inputs, enter BTPTechnicalUser.

   

   Notice that the execution fails as the input parameters to specify which SAP HANA database instance we wish to get details about are missing. These values will be provided in the next step.

   

This step will configure the SAP Alert Notification service to invoke the previously created command when a database alert is received.

1. Create a new service account named AutoPi with Execute permission and Basic Authentication.
   

   
   
   
   

   Save the username and password as they will be required in sub-step 3.

   This username and password can be used by another service such as the SAP Alert Notification service to trigger an execution of a command.

2. Under Executions, select Build Event Trigger.

   

   Specify the following values.

   Tab Name	Label	Value
   General	Trigger Type	Alert Notification
   General	Command	ResizeHANACloudStorage
   General	Input References	BTPTechnicalUser
   Mapping	Map Event to Command Input Key	alertJSON

   Before pressing the Close button, copy and save the Event Trigger URL as this value is not available once closed.

   

3. Open the SAP Alert Notification service UI and create a new action to call the previously created trigger.

   

   Provide the following values.

   Label	Value
   Action Type	SAP Automation Pilot
   Name	Auto_Pilot_Resize_Command
   Automation Pilot URL	value from sub-step 2
   Username	value from sub-step 1
   Password	value from sub-step 1

4. Create three new conditions that will be used to match a create event of a high test alert.

   

   Provide the following values.

   Label	Value
   Name	HANA-Test-Alert
   Condition	eventType Is Equal To HDBTestAlert

   Label	Value
   Name	Severity-ERROR
   Condition	severity Is Equal To ERROR

   Label	Value
   Name	ANS-Status-CREATE
   Condition	tags.ans:status Is Equal To CREATE

   

5. Update the conditions and action of an Alert Notification service subscription, such as the one created in step 5 of the Alerts in SAP HANA Database and Data Lake tutorial to use the newly created conditions and action.

   

   For the purpose of this example, the condition matches HDBTestAlert rather than HDBDiskUsage to make it easy to trigger. More details can be found at HDB Test Alert.

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   Note that multiple alerts will be triggered. For example, alerts are sent with a status of CREATE, UPDATE, or CLOSE. Some alerts have different thresholds or severity values such as ERROR, WARNING, or NOTICE. See also Alerts in SAP HANA Cloud.

6. In the SAP HANA database explorer, trigger the test alert.

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   CALL _SYS_STATISTICS.Trigger_Test_Alert(?, 4, 'High test alert');  
   

   An alert will appear in the SAP HANA Cockpit and a notification will be sent to the SAP Alert Notification service. In the SAP Alert Notification service, the previously edited subscription will trigger the command in the SAP Automation Pilot.

7. Open Executions in the SAP Automation Pilot. Notice that this time, the execution succeeded. Select the just run execution.

   

   Examine the input and output values and notice that the input contains the JSON payload from the alert.

   

   As subset of input is shown below.

   JSON

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   {
       "eventType": "HDBTestAlert",
       "severity": "ERROR",
       "category": "ALERT",
       "subject": "Statistics server test alert",
       "body": "Test alert for testing statistics server alert handling. This alert can only be triggered by calling the procedure _SYS_STATISTICS.Trigger_Test_Alert.\nHigh test alert",
       "region": "cf-us10",
       "regionType": "sap-cp",
       "resource": {
           "resourceName": "HC_HDB_Trial",
           "resourceType": "hana-cloud-hdb",
           "tags": {
               "organizationId": "f3894582-...",
               "resourceId": "296ff33c-...",
               "spaceId": "d1e245ad-...",
           }
       }
   }
   

   The output contains the details of the SAP HANA Cloud database in which the alert came from including the current storage size of the database instance.

   A subset of the output is shown below.

   JSON

   Copy

   {
   "data": {
       "edition": "cloud",
       "enabledservices": {
           "scriptserver": false
       },
       "extensionservices": [
           {
               "enabled": false,
               "name": "ConnectivityProxy",
               "whitelistIPs": [
                   "0.0.0.0/0"
               ]
           }
       ],
       "memory": 30,
       "storage": 120,
       "updateStrategy": "withRestart",
       "vcpu": 3,
       "whitelistIPs": [
           "0.0.0.0/0"
       ] },
   }
   

This step will add an executor to calculate a new storage size for the SAP HANA instance based on its current size and will then use a provided command to request the SAP HANA Cloud database to increase its storage size.

Note that a trial or free-tier instance does not provide an option of changing the storage size of the provisioned SAP HANA Cloud database.

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This example is for demonstration purposes only. Consult the SAP HANA Cloud Capacity Unit Estimator for further details on how the storage size affects capacity units. It is not possible to decrease the storage size. For additional details see Managing SAP HANA Database Instances.

1. In the SAP Automation Pilot, open the command ResizeHANACloudStorage and add an executor.

   Select the Here before the output and specify the values below.

   Label	Value
   Alias	calculateNewStorageSize
   Command	ExecuteScript (Version: 2)
   Automap Parameters	true

2. Select the newly created executor and choose to edit its parameters.

   

   Specify the following for the script.

   Python

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   #!/usr/bin/env python3
   
   import json
   import sys
   
   input = sys.stdin.read()
   parameters = json.loads(input)
   #If you wish to test this without actually doing the resize, change +40 to -1
   storageParameter = {'data': {'storage': parameters['data']['storage'] + 40}}
   
   print(json.dumps(storageParameter))
   

   Under STDIN, specify $(.getHANACloudDBDetails.output.parameters).

   

   With the above changes, the command will take (as its input through STDIN) the JSON data passed from the alert containing the current storage size of the SAP HANA database instance. It will also write out a JSON string that indicates a new size.

3. Select output, click on Edit, and then set it’s value to $(.calculateNewStorageSize.output.output[0]).

4. Optionally, in the SAP HANA database explorer, trigger the test alert.

   SQL

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   CALL _SYS_STATISTICS.Trigger_Test_Alert(?, 4, 'High test alert');  
   

   When the execution completes, the output should contain the JSON input for the new storage size.

   

   For additional examples of updates that can be made see Using the Cloud Foundry CLI with SAP HANA Cloud.

5. Open the command ResizeHANACloudStorage and add an executor.

   Select Here before the output and specify the values below.

   Label	Value
   Command	cf-sapcp:UpdateCfServiceInstance:1
   Alias	resizeHANADBStorageSize
   Automap Parameters	true

6. Select the newly created executor and choose to edit its parameters.

   Specify the following values.

   Parameter Name	Value
   org	$(.execution.input.alertJSON.resource.tags.organizationId)
   region	$(.execution.input.alertJSON.region)
   serviceInstance	$(.execution.input.alertJSON.resource.tags.resourceId)
   space	$(.execution.input.alertJSON.resource.tags.spaceId)
   deadline	30
   parameters	$(.calculateNewStorageSize.output.output[0])

7. In the SAP HANA database explorer, trigger the test alert.

   SQL

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   CALL _SYS_STATISTICS.Trigger_Test_Alert(?, 4, 'High test alert');  
   

8. Examine the completed execution. Click Show to view the output value.

   

   The new storage size is displayed.

   

9. The updated storage size will also be visible in SAP HANA Cloud Central.

   

   Note that there may be restrictions on how often an instance can have its storage resized within a period of time. There may be downtime required. For additional details see Change the Size of a SAP HANA Database Instance Using the CLI.

10. Now that the test of this command was successful using the HDBTestAlert, disable the action in the subscription in the SAP Alert Notification service or change the condition in the subscription to use HDBDiskUsage.
    Additional details on this alert can be found at HDB Disk Usage. By default, the disk usage alert will create an alert with severity ERROR on 98 % disk usage, which then triggers a storage increase of 40 GB.

    

Congratulations! You have now created a command in SAP Automation Pilot that can be used to take action to resolve the alert that triggered the execution of the command.