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RHEL AND SAP UPGRADE WITH COMPATIBILITY CHECKS #ATR

AJAYTR_ATR66
Participant
‎02-21-2024 3:32 PM

#ATR(14)

Informative Note:

RHEL 7 / Centos 7/ Oracle Linux 7 versions will be out of support soon. Most of the long running production projects will have LINUX V7 versions since there won’t be any issues in running w.r.t productive purposes in old OS.

But, EOS is nearing now. This blog is created to provide more insights on below topics.

[ 2 in 1 COMBO ]

  1) How to do In-Place upgrade RHEL using Leapp rpm?

  2) What checks/updates needs to be done from SAP perspective to make system compatible with upgraded RHEL version?

  • Currently, I’m having SAP GRC System running under HANA DB on RHEL 7.6 OS. My Scenario is to upgrade RHEL from 7.6 to 8.8 and do SAP Checks/DB Upgrades to make system compatible with RHEL 8.8.

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Checks:

1) Supporting Operating System Check:

https://me.sap.com/notes/2235581 - 2235581 - SAP HANA: Supported Operating Systems

Current Version:

  • SAP_BASIS – 750
  • SAP Kernel – 753 PL 1200 64-BIT UNICODE
  • HANA DB Version – 2.00.050.00
  • RHEL – 7.6 Linux el7.x86_64

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  • I have chosen HANA DB 059.11 version which supports RHEL 8.8 as per above information.

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Note:

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  • In supported operating system list, it mentioned RHEL 8.1 supports newer versions as well.

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  • Hence, Mostly, there won’t be any issues in using Old RHEL OS. Consider higher version if you face any Memory Leakage, Performance issue, Compatibility issues only while running system.
  • I have crosschecked and chosen version explicitly from RHEL – SAP Solutions/HANA only even though I’m using RHEL Enterprise Linux x86_64 OS. Mostly, there won’t be any compatibility issues.

“Supported Operating Systems for SAP HANA 2.0 on Intel-Based Hardware Platforms”

  • Design and usage of RHEL – Enterprise Linux & RHEL – SAP Applications/HANA will be same. SAP packages will be installed automatically/can be installed easily via subscription if you have RHEL SAP/HANA Subscription. Else, you need to purchase and install accordingly.

2) Checking ABAP (NW 7.5) Compatibility with RHEL 8.8 and HANA 059.11

AJAYTR_ATR66_7-1708527656712.png

  • It’s compatible. SP >=040 will be supported for RHEL 8 Versions. Also, we have confirmed HANA SPS 059.11 supported with RHEL 8.8 explicitly via supported OS check.
  • No need to crosscheck Add on Components version.

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3) Kernel Compatibility check:

  • Kernel 753 64 BIT – Unicode supported for RHEL 8.8 – GRC
  • I have planned to keep current version itself since it’s already supported. You can also plan to have latest PL1300 based on your preference.

4) Library Compatibility check:

  • For all RHEL SAP Systems, we need to check compat-c++ rpm file which will be used for library purposes. All Basis users will install this rpm during ABAP/HANA DB installation and create libsync to libatomic rpm for both Application and DB SIDADM.
  • https://me.sap.com/notes/2886607 - 2886607 - Linux: Running SAP applications compiled with GCC 9.x
  • Compat-sap-c++9 will be supported for HANA 2.0 SPS05. We already have compat-sap-c++ 9 for RHEL 7 only. Not for RHEL 8 version.

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  • libatomic will be available in most of the RHEL systems by default after installation. You can also install manually using yum - libgcc,libatomic,etc.,.
  • You can download relevant compat-c++ from RHEL RPM package downloads.

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  • Checks completed.

 PLANNED UPGRADE

  • SAP GRC – HANA SPS 059 Rev 11 – Kernel 753 PL 1200 on RHEL 8.8 OS

 Upgrade Steps:

  • You can choose your preference accordingly.
  • Either you choose to update DB first then OS OR Choose to update OS first then DB.
  • I’m proceeding to update OS first then DB since updating DB might start services automatically post update and might result in OS compatibility issues.
  • Take VM/SAP backup. Stop Application and DB as well before doing upgrades.

OS upgrade:

Leap installation:

Total commands used to upgrade:

1) Check your Subscription (subscription-manager list –installed)
2) Installation of Leap packages (yum install leapp)
3) Minor version update RHEL from 7.6 to 7.9 version using yum update command.
4) Leapp Pre-Upgrade -- leapp preupgrade --target 8.8
5) Leapp Upgrade - leapp upgrade --target 8.8 --reboot

System will be automatically rebooted with RHEL 8.8 and upgrades steps will be done in boot menu automatically. Check whether Leap - END OF REPORT line has NIL error.

Some of the phases during leap upgrade           

  • configuration_phase       
  • FactsCollection
  • Target Transaction Checks                   
  • Transaction Check                       
  • Target Transaction Facts Collections      
  • Transaction Test                      
  • Reports
  • Downloads                                   
  • Interim Preparation                              

Operations done w.r.t rpms will be below four process.

  • Install New packages will be installed which will be necessary for RHEL 8.8
  • Upgrade – Upgrade current package to latest version compatible for RHEL 8.8
  • Remove – Remove packages which won’t compatible/not necessary to RHEL 8.8
  • Downgrade – Reduce installed packages to compatible version of RHEL 8.8

Step 1 -- Check your Subscription:

subscription-manager list –installed – Subscription must to do in-place upgrade.

AJAYTR_ATR66_13-1708527656741.png

Step 2 -- Download leapp packages via subscription only.

  • Leap packages will have multiple dependencies which will be very difficult to analyze and install manually.

AJAYTR_ATR66_14-1708527656742.png

  • Always prefer to download via yum/dnf based on your preference with subscription. It will download all prerequisites and install automatically without any issues.
  • Searching with YUM

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  • You can see Leapp packages was not listed/shown while searching with Yum.
  • Also, you can see Leap packages available under RHEL 7 server – Extra RPMs in portal.

AJAYTR_ATR66_16-1708527656749.png

  • Check RepoList

AJAYTR_ATR66_17-1708527656750.png

  • We have redhat repository file as expected.
  • Check whether RHEL – Extra RPMS repository is enabled or not.   [Config will be available inside this repo file]
  • Command: yum repolist

AJAYTR_ATR66_18-1708527656751.png

  • Only RHEL Server x86_64 is enabled. Additional – EPEL – Ignore.
  • Check whether Extra RPM is in disabled state.
  • Command -> yum repolist all -> check state

AJAYTR_ATR66_19-1708527656752.png

  • Enable Extra RPM with command “subscription-manager repos --enable rhel-7-server-extras-rpms”

AJAYTR_ATR66_20-1708527656753.png

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  • Now, you can see Leapp packages fetched while searching with Yum.

AJAYTR_ATR66_22-1708527656756.png

  • Install main leapp package using yum. Dependencies will be installed automatically.
  • Command -> yum install leapp

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  • Leap installation successful

AJAYTR_ATR66_26-1708527656769.png

Step 3 -- RHEL Minor Version update from 7.6 to 7.9

Note: Minimum requirement for RHEL In-Place upgrade should be latest 7.9 only.

AJAYTR_ATR66_27-1708527656771.png

  • None of the Application and DB process running now.

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  • Command to update from 7.6 to 7.9 (latest) – yum update

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  • RHEL 7.9 latest packages downloaded. You can also crosscheck whether yum detected latest kernel package of RHEL 7.9

AJAYTR_ATR66_32-1708527656779.png

AJAYTR_ATR66_33-1708527656779.png

  • Detected – Latest package - 3.10.0-1160.108.1.el7.

AJAYTR_ATR66_34-1708527656782.png

  • Minor version update completed
  • You can see boot and initramfs file generated for loading latest kernel - /boot dir.

AJAYTR_ATR66_35-1708527656797.png

  • Grub file didn’t have our latest kernel entry.

AJAYTR_ATR66_36-1708527656800.png

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  • Refresh grub file to detect and update latest kernel entry.
  • Command: sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/efi/EFI/redhat/grub.cfg
  • Command: sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg 
  • Ours is detecting via grub2 folder

AJAYTR_ATR66_38-1708527656803.png

  • Grub detected latest kernel and added as well in boot entry (grub2). Also, I have already deleted older kernels since it won’t be useful now and leapp preupgrade check would fail if old kernel detected.

AJAYTR_ATR66_39-1708527656804.png

  • I have also removed old kernel-devel since leap preupgrade would fail if multiple kernel devel exists.

AJAYTR_ATR66_40-1708527656805.png

Pre-upgrade Error snap:

AJAYTR_ATR66_41-1708527656809.png

  • OS booted with latest kernel 7.9 version.

AJAYTR_ATR66_42-1708527656813.png

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Step 4 -- Leapp Pre-Upgrade:

  • Before going pre-upgrade, make sure to install compact++9 el8 version. Also, create libsync as already mentioned in library check. Application and DB must be down.

AJAYTR_ATR66_45-1708527656821.png

  • Command -> leapp preupgrade --target 8.8

AJAYTR_ATR66_46-1708527656823.png

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  • You can view answer file and make “true/false” for some confirmations if required. It deals with removal of rpm/modules.
  • No errors detected in Pre-upgrade task.

 Step 5 -- Leapp upgrade:

  • Run leapp upgrade now.
  • Leapp upgrade --target 8.8 --reboot

AJAYTR_ATR66_48-1708527656827.png

  • I have downloaded session in txt since more than 500 lines occurred during upgrades.

AJAYTR_ATR66_49-1708527656831.png

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  • All packages updated and server automatically rebooted.
  • Leapp will continue to install/update packages in boot menu after reboot. Monitor your progress via Web Console/Remote Console.

Web Console:

AJAYTR_ATR66_51-1708527656838.png

  • Once completed, OS will be loaded with latest kernel 8.8.

AJAYTR_ATR66_52-1708527656842.png

  • You can also see additional information in leap-report.txt file.

AJAYTR_ATR66_53-1708527656859.png

OS check:

AJAYTR_ATR66_54-1708527656861.png

  • We have successfully upgraded to RHEL 8.8 using Leapp.

 SAP HANA DB Revision Update:

  • Now, we need to do update SAP HANA Database to run with RHEL 8.8. You can also prefer to update XS as well in single turn.
  • In my scenario, I’m not having XS - WEBIDE. Hence, planned to update HANA Database and HANA Client alone. Download and Unzip file.

AJAYTR_ATR66_55-1708527656864.png

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  • Run /hana/shared/DBSID/hdblcm -> ./hdblcm  as root user

AJAYTR_ATR66_57-1708527656868.png

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  • Current HANA DB 2.00.050 already have LCAPPS (Add on) installed and not compatible for updated version (059.11). Download LCAPPS for HANA 2.0 Rev 59.11 -> Unzip and place in same folder.

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  • Select all – 1 - Additional components – HANA Client, LCAPPS
  • Got “Signature Error”

AJAYTR_ATR66_64-1708527656881.png

  • Deleted “SAP HANA Database” Folder. Extract again with SAPCAR - Manifest command.

AJAYTR_ATR66_65-1708527656882.png

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  • Run hdblcm again and select “all” components. It’s working now.

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  • I’m not enabling System Size dependent Resources limit during installation/upgrade by hdblcm. You can choose based on your preference.
  • Since system already stopped, It showed “No Connection Available”. Make sure to provide correct SYSTEM user and password.

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  • Since SSL configured, System failed to start with “Cannot create SSL Engine” error. Disable SSL and start system. You can enable SSL again once update done and system started.

AJAYTR_ATR66_72-1708527656914.png

For configuring secure SSL, Please check my blog linked below.

MANUAL SAP SSL CONFIGURATION FOR S/4 HANA (ABAP AND HANA) SYSTEM from OS_LEVEL #ATR

  • SSL parameters – Global ini file -> SSL from on to off.
  • /usr/sap/DBSID/SYS/global/hdb/custom/config -> System based
  • /usr/sap/DBSID/SYS/global/hdb/custom/config/DB_SID -> DB based
  • /usr/sap/DBSID/HDBXX/HOSTNAME -> Host based
  • Once disabled SSL, we can continue HDBLCM steps. No need to start and import delivery units as mentioned in error. Rerunning hdblcm will continue from last step and complete update.

AJAYTR_ATR66_73-1708527656917.png

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  • System starting without any issues.

AJAYTR_ATR66_1-1708529413207.png

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  • Once HANA Database updated completed, hdblcm started updating hana client.

AJAYTR_ATR66_77-1708527656927.png

  • LCAPPS already updated in first attempt itself.

AJAYTR_ATR66_78-1708527656929.png

  • HANA Client location - /hana/shared/DBSID/hdbclient

AJAYTR_ATR66_79-1708527656930.png

  • Update completed successfully.
  • Start ABAP System and check status.

AJAYTR_ATR66_80-1708527656933.png

  • We have successfully upgraded OS from RHEL 7.6 to 8.8 (In-Place) as well as Updated HANA DB to be compatible for RHEL 8.8. System is running up and fine with RHEL 8.8 OS + Kernel 753 PL 1200 + HANA 2.0 SPS 059.11.

 Key Points:           

  • In-Place upgrade from (<RHEL 7) to (>RHEL8) can’t be possible if you have btrfs file type. FS type btrfs not supported in RHEL 8 and above. You need to rebuild entire partition for the upgrade. Always prefer xfs FS type format for SAP System OS.

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  • Known issue -> If you plan to update to >RHEL 9.0 then disable zonedrifting (https://access.redhat.com/solutions/6969130 -> Resolve Firewall ALLOW Drifting disable -- From RHEL 9 onwards). It will be highlighted in Leapp pre-upgrade check as well.
  • We have already installed compat-sap-c++-9 for RHEL 8.8 – HANA 2.0 SPS05. Hence, we won’t be facing library issues/system start issues. Make sure to create libsync for DBSIDADM as well.
  • For ABAPSIDADM - /usr/sap/lib directory -> create libsync
  • For DBSIDADM – DBEXE directory - /usr/sap/DBSID/SYS/exe/hdb –> create libsync

AJAYTR_ATR66_83-1708527656936.png

Thanks for Visiting !

Please do connect and follow my Linked In Profile --

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajaytr66/

AJAY TR - ATR - SAP BASIS ADMINISTRATOR

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