saptune 3.1 on the Horizon

In a few weeks saptune 3.1 will reach the public repositories of SLES for SAP Applications. Time to talk about the changes and new features.

As always saptune 3.1 will be released for all Service Packs still in support, namely:

• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP5
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP1
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP2
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP3
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4
• SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5

Machine-readable Output

This might be the biggest new feature: optional JSON output

With --format json the first set of commands

• saptune [daemon|service] status
• saptune note list|verify|enabled|applied
• saptune solution list|verify|enabled|applied
• saptune status
• saptune version

will print the output as a JSON string. Further commands will follow.

This does not only paves the way for the upcoming Trento integration, but also simplifies the usage in scripts or configuration management solutions.

Output of: saptune –format json note applied | jq

Do not use --format json blindly! A command that does not support JSON output yet, will fail if called with the option, even if it would work otherwise!

New Commands, Deprecated Commands

As requested by a customer, we added a new command: saptune solution change

With only one solution allowed at a time, switching to another was a two step process. First reverting the current solution and afterwards applying the new one. Now this is possible with a single command.

This is not only more convenient, but also minimizes the time when the system is not tuned, since revert and apply are done internally much faster.

With the change being simply a revert followed by an apply, the order is not preserved in case you have additional Notes applied to a Solution.

Output of: saptune solution change HANA

Refurbished Status Command

The command saptune status got a face-lift and some new additions.

The Solution shows now the list of contained Notes. In all cases Note lists are ordered in the way they are applied.

Newly added are the type of virtualization and, I believe the most welcomed addition, the state of the tuning!
You don’t have to run an additional `saptune verify` anymore, to check if the tuning is in order. This is displayed by the status command already.
For those who don’t want that, the old behavior can be restored by using --non-compliance-check.

Output of : saptune status

New Solutions and SAP Notes

The MAXDB solution has not been just de-deprecated, we also introduced a new Solution `NETWEAVER+MAXDB` for running both SAP application servers and MAXDB on the same host.

SAP Note “1868829 – Startup Issues Because Number of Active I/O Requests to Queue Exceeds aio-max-nr Limit” is now available and part of the solutions:

• • HANA
  • NETWEAVER+HANA
  • S4HANA-APP+DB
  • S4HANA-DBSERVER

Zebras are here!

The tables of saptune verify can become very long. The one for the SAP HANA Solution contain over 50 parameters, depending on the environment. Spotting non-compliant entries can be cumbersome.

With 3.1 you now can either limit the table to non-compliant parameters only:

Output of: saptune note verify –show-non-compliant

or colorize the output:

Output of: saptune note verify –colorscheme full-red-noncmpl

That’s where the zebras come into the play. You can choose between different color styles:

• cmpl-blue-zebra
• full-blue-zebra
• full-red-noncmpl
• red-noncmpl
• cmpl-green-zebra
• full-green-zebra
• full-yellow-noncmpl
• yellow-noncmpl

Play around and choose which zebra you like best!

About sysctl

Since 3.0 saptune reports possible conflicts with sysctl files. One file almost always caused a debate: /boot/sysctl.conf-*. Amongst others it sets the defaults of kernel.shmmax and kernel.shmall for SLES and therefore always got reported by saptune as possible conflict.

The feedback told us, that part of the users liked it, but a slight majority didn’t.

With 3.1 saptune will no longer report both files per default. But those of you who still want it, can simply change the variable SKIP_SYSCTL_FILE in /etc/sysconfig/saptune.

Anything Else?

Without being complete, we also have reworked the version definition in the configuration files, which will be interesting for those who use custom Notes and Solutions. We went from the (still supported, but deprecated) comment format to a more clear section format:


[version]
VERSION=28
DATE=29.07.2021
DESCRIPTION=VMware vSphere configuration guidelines
REFERENCES=https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2161991


Also it is now possible to use inline comments throughout the Note and Solution files and finally we deprecated the custom Note format from saptune v1, which should not be around anymore.

I think, that covers most of the changes.

Enjoy!