Monitoring SAP HANA using Instana
Author : Chinmayi G Panicker
Co-author: Sunjit Tara
SAP HANA (High-Performance ANalytic Appliance) is an in-memory database and application development platform created by SAP. With SAP HANA businesses can process large amounts of data in real-time, providing instant insights and analytics. Its columnar storage architecture boosts query performance and data compression and supports advanced analytics, data virtualization, and integration of multiple data sources. Widely adopted for its scalability and speed, SAP HANA effectively manages both transactional and analytical workloads.
IBM Instana is an application performance management (APM) solution designed to provide real-time observability and monitoring for complex IT environments. It offers a variety of features that helps to monitor, manage, and optimize their applications and infrastructure. Instana enhances database performance by automatically detecting and addressing bottlenecks, such as costly or slow queries. Its real-time database observability enables the identification of problematic queries within your workflows and provides comprehensive trace data and analytics. This blog post outlines the process of configuring Instana to monitor SAP HANA Database.
SAP HANA and Instana
SAP HANA databases can be monitored using Instana’s SAP HANA sensor, which caters to both single-container and multi-container modes. In a single-container setup, SAP HANA operates as a standalone database unit, while in a multi-container configuration, multiple isolated databases are managed within a single SAP HANA system. One of Instana’s standout features is its auto-discovery capability. Instana supports both local and remote monitoring of SAP HANA databases, offering flexibility in how performance data is collected and analyzed.
Configuring the SAP HANA sensor
Configure the SAP HANA sensor for either local or remote monitoring in the Instana agent. Both local and remote monitoring deliver the same set of metrics. However, local monitoring offers a more comprehensive view, including the underlying infrastructure and related processes. After the Instana agent is installed, all configurations can be managed within the <agent_install_dir>/etc/instana/configuration.yaml configuration file.
Local monitoring
The architecture of SAP HANA local monitoring is covered in the following figure.
In local monitoring, the Instana agent runs on the same platform as the SAP HANA process it monitors, providing direct visibility into local database performance. The agent collects both host metrics and HANA database metrics, offering a comprehensive full-stack view of the data.
The configurations required for local monitoring are listed in the following example.
Instana will automatically discover the SAP HANA processes running on the host.
Local monitoring gives a view of the infrastructure, including the host and the process metrics. In local monitoring, SAP HANA processes (hdindexserver) within a single host are stacked together, presenting a comprehensive list of successfully monitored SAP HANA sensors as shown in the following figure.
A typical infrastructure view for a local monitoring dashboard, which associates the hdbindexserver process to the HANA sensor is shown in the following figure. The hdbindexserver process is associated with the HANA sensor to provide a complete end-to-end stack.
To view the metrics for the corresponding database, click on the database name and then click Open Dashboard.
The SAP HANA metrics dashboard is shown in the following figure.
Remote Monitoring
In remote monitoring mode, the Instana agent monitors SAP HANA databases deployed on separate hosts from where the agent is installed. The architecture of SAP HANA remote monitoring is illustrated in the diagram below, showing how the agent interacts with and monitors HANA instances.
For remote monitoring of the HANA database, you need to provide host, port, database name, user, and password information as shown in the following example.
The typical remote monitoring view of HANA sensor from the infrastructure perspective is shown in the following figure. HANA DB Sensor is capable of monitoring more than one databases. In the figure, an agent is configured to monitor three HANA databases.
A dedicated dashboard for the HANA database is also available. It shows the summary of all the instances that are associated with and monitored on Instana.
The SAP HANA database metrics dashboard is shown in the following figures. Important metrics that are collected by the SAP HANA sensor include CPU metrics, HANA Connections, Requests, Expensive Statements, SQL Plan Cache, Locks, and Table Size.
Conclusion
This blog covers the configuration of the SAP HANA sensor for both local and remote monitoring, detailing how metrics are collected and displayed in these configurations. The upcoming blogs will discuss more about the capabilities and features in detail.
Reference
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/instana-observability/current?topic=technologies-monitoring-sap-hana
