This document is aimed at SAP system administrators who have previously carried out SAP system copies manually and would like to automate this activity with Avantra. The intended goal of combining NetApp Snapshot and FlexClone technology—orchestrated by NetApp SnapCenter—with Avantra workflows is to speed up SAP system copies by fully automating them.

The term SAP system copy is often used as an umbrella term for three different processes: SAP system clone, SAP system copy, and SAP system refresh. It is important to distinguish between the different operations, because the workflows and use cases differ.

Even though we have three different use cases, the data management process stays the same. All three uses cases are leveraging the same underlying data management technology: NetApp Snapshot and FlexClone.

The overall solution consists of these main components:

The following image shows the Avantra server, the NetApp SnapCenter Server, the NetApp storage system, the SAP source and SAP target systems, and how everything integrates. The goal was to make the integration as flexible as possible by using the SnapCenter REST API for maximum reuse of configuration work that has already been done inside existing components.

There are several scenarios in which data from a source system must be made available to a target system for testing or training purposes. These test and training systems must be updated regularly with data from the source system to make sure that testing and training are performed with the current dataset. These system refresh operations consist of multiple tasks on the infrastructure, database, and application layers, and they can take several days, depending on the level of automation.

To shorten time, automate operational tasks, and eliminate human error at the infrastructure, database, and application level, you can use Avantra workflows. Instead of restoring a backup from the source system to the target system—which is time consuming and involves high resource consumption—this integration uses NetApp Snapshot and FlexClone technology. All the tasks required to spin up a database are completed in minutes instead of hours. The time required for the cloning process does not depend on the size of the database; therefore, even very large systems can be created in just a few minutes. Avantra further reduces run time by automating tasks at the operating system and database level as well as on the SAP postprocessing side.

The following image shows possible operational efficiency improvements when you use automation.

The actual integration of SnapCenter in an Avantra workflow consists of using JavaScript to access the NetApp SnapCenter REST API. This REST API–based integration creates a Snapshot copy of the SAP source system, creates a FlexClone volume, and mounts it onto the SAP target system.

Storage and SAP administrators have invested time and know-how to develop scripts that are triggered by SnapCenter and executed by the SnapCenter agent to automate reoccurring daily operation tasks. This loosely coupled architecture—which uses JavaScript to trigger SnapCenter tasks—enables them to reuse their existing automation procedures to achieve the desired results faster using Avantra as a workflow engine for end-to-end automation.