Monitoring SAP HANA

Supported OS

Depending on the type of monitoring required, the Instana agent can be installed on different OS for monitoring SAP HANA databases.

• Local monitoring (Instana agent is installed on the same host as the SAP HANA database):

  • Linux (x86 and IBM PowerPC 64-bit LE)

• Remote monitoring (Instana agent is installed on a different host and connects remotely to the SAP HANA database):

  • AIX
  • Linux (x86 and IBM PowerPC 64-bit LE)
  • Windows
  • IBM i (OS/400 PASE)
  • Apple macOS (64 bit - Intel and Apple silicon)

Supported runtime

You can monitor the SAP HANA database only if the Instana agent uses Java 8 runtime.

Java 11 is not supported.

Configuring the static agent

When you use the static agent, you need to provide the com.sap.cloud.db.jdbc:ngdbc driver manually.

To monitor the SAP HANA database with the static agent, complete the following steps:

1. Download the ngdbc-2.22.12.jar driver from the Maven Central Repository.

2. Add the ngdbc-2.22.12.jar driver to the <agent-installation-dir>/system/com/sap/cloud/db/jdbc/ngdbc/2.22.12 directory.

3. To configure the agent to use the Java 8 runtime, complete the following steps:

   You need to perform the following steps only for Instana release 282 and later or if the agent was set up earlier by using Eclipse OpenJ9 11.

   1. Go to the <agent-installation-dir>/bin directory, and open the setenv file.

   2. Add the line export JAVA_HOME=<path-to-java-home> after UNSET JAVA_HOME as shown in the following example:

      unset JAVA_HOME
      export JAVA_HOME=<path-to-java-home>
      

   3. Save the changes and close the file.

   4. Restart the Instana agent.

Configuring the dynamic agent

To configure the agent to use the Java 8 runtime, complete the following steps:

You need to perform the following steps only for Instana release 282 and later or if the agent was set up earlier by using Eclipse OpenJ9 11.

1. Go to the <agent-installation-dir>/bin directory, and open the setenv file.

2. Add the line export JAVA_HOME=<path-to-java-home> after UNSET JAVA_HOME as shown in the following example:

   unset JAVA_HOME
   export JAVA_HOME=<path-to-java-home>
   

3. Save the changes and close the file.

4. Restart the Instana agent to apply the changes.

For more information about agent installation prerequisites and supported JDKs, see Installing host agents.

Local monitoring

In local monitoring, the sensor collects both host metrics and HANA database metrics, offering a comprehensive full-stack view of the data.

Depending on the mode in which SAP HANA is run (multiple containers or single container), you can set different username and password combinations in the agent configuration yaml file <instana-agent-dir>/etc/instana/configuration.yaml to connect to the database.

The configuration parameters for local monitoring are shown in the following example:

# SAP HANA
com.instana.plugin.saphana:
 local:
   singleContainer:
     user: ''
     password: ''
   multiContainer:
     HXE:
       user: ''
       password: ''
     my-test-db:
       user: ''
       password: ''

The default user is SYSTEM.

Remote monitoring

The remote monitoring functionality is available for only Instana 277 and later.

In remote monitoring, the Instana SAP HANA sensor monitors SAP HANA databases that are deployed on different hosts than the one hosting the Instana agent. The SAP HANA sensor can monitor more than one database.

The configuration parameters for remote monitoring are shown in the following example:

# SAP HANA
com.instana.plugin.saphana:
  remote: # multiple remote configurations are supported
    - host: 'remote.host-1.com'
      port: '' #sql port
      databaseName: ''
      user: ''
      password: ''
    - host: 'remote.host-2.com'
      port: '' #sql port
      databaseName: ''
      user: ''
      password: ''

For the single container mode, the database name is blank. For the multi-container mode, you must enter a value for the database name.

Using non-SYSTEM user

If you cannot use the SYSTEM user for local or remote monitoring, make sure that the user has the following privileges:

• CATALOG READ
• SELECT ON SCHEMA _SYS_REPO
• SELECT ON _SYS_STATISTICS.STATISTICS_CURRENT_ALERTS

Local monitoring

For local monitoring, add the following configuration:

com.instana.plugin.saphana:
  local:
   multiContainer:
     <DB Name>:
       user: ''
       password: ''
       trustStore: '<path to your truststore file location'
       trustStorePassword: '<Your truststore password>'

Remote monitoring

For remote monitoring, add the following configuration:

com.instana.plugin.saphana:
  remote:
    - host: 'remote.host-1.com'
      port: '' #sql port
      databaseName: ''
      user: ''
      password: ''
      trustStore: '<path to your truststore file location'
      trustStorePassword: '<Your truststore password>'

You can use the hostNameInCertificate property to specify the host name to be used in the certificate. This setting makes sure that the host name that is used by the Instana agent matches the host name that is specified in the certificate. This setting is relevant in local monitoring environments where the Instana agent uses the loop back address 127.0.0.1 while the certificate uses a fully qualified host name.

Tracked configuration

The SAP HANA sensor collects the following configuration data:

• System ID
• Database Name
• Instance Number
• Version
• Port
• Usage
• Maximum Number of Sessions
• Host Status

Metrics

The following table outlines the frequency of metric collection by the SAP HANA sensor:

To see SQL Plan Cache Statistics metrics, set the plan_cache_statistics_enabled field to true in the agent configuration file.

Health signatures

The SAP HANA sensor generates built-in events for various scenarios. For more information, see Built-in Events Reference.