NFS high-availability installation setup

Two central NFS shares are essential for an SAP system:
  • /sapmnt/<SID>: Required to share binary files and configuration data for the application servers.
  • /usr/sap/trans: Must be shared in a logical transport landscape so that the source SAP system can write the transport files to the share and the target systems can pick them up from this location.
You have the following three options for an NFS high availability setup:
  1. Use System Automation for Multiplatforms for the NFS high-availability cluster.
  2. Use an existing NFS high-availability cluster.
  3. Use a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device with integrated high availability capabilities.
It is preferred to install the NFS server HA setup outside of the SAP HA cluster to reduce the complexity and prevent setup problems. Starting with version 4.1.0.1 you can run the NFS server on the same cluster nodes as the SAP HA solution if the following conditions apply:
  • If the NFS server is installed with an HA setup, it is required to use the NFS HA policy which is bundled with System Automation for Multiplatforms.
  • Configure the SAPCPE tool to copy all binary files required for local SAP instance monitoring (sapcontrol / sapstartsrv) to the local SAP instance directories. For more information, see SAP documentation.
  • The SAP setup and NFS setup must pass a manual failover test without System Automation for Multiplatforms policy being activated. This manual failover test includes:
    • Fail over all SAP Central Services resources without NFS server failover. For more information, see Verifying the initial installation.
    • Fail over all NFS server resources without SAP Central Services failover: shared disk, IP address, and all NFS server processes.
    • Use the SAP GUI to check whether the Central Services are working correct before and after the manual failover.

The start of SAP by System Automation for Multiplatforms is not successful if the NFS server is not up and running. In case the NFS server runs in a separate high-availability cluster, it is not possible to define a StartAfter relationship across two clusters with System Automation for Multiplatforms. Such a cross-cluster relationship can be implemented with the System Automation Application Manager.

Make sure to configure all nodes in the SAP high availability solution cluster as NFS clients. Use the automounter to configure the NFS clients. The SAP Central Services high availability policy does not keep the NFS mount points high available, therefore it is required to use the automounter for keeping the NFS mount points high available.

An NFS high availability policy is part of the SAP high availability solution that is provided by System Automation for Multiplatforms. For more information, see NFS high availability policy.