Version 2: Configure Process Monitoring metrics collection

This guide shows you how to configure version 2 of Google Cloud's Agent for SAP to collect the Process Monitoring metrics from your SAP systems.

For information about this feature, see Process Monitoring using Google Cloud's Agent for SAP.

Before you begin

Validate your installation of Google Cloud's Agent for SAP. For instructions, see the installation guide for your scenario.
If you have installed the agent on a Bare Metal Solution server, then make sure that you have completed the required prerequisites and set up a service account. For instructions, see Configure Google Cloud's Agent for SAP on Linux.

Set IAM roles

To allow Google Cloud's Agent for SAP collect the Process Monitoring metrics, you must ensure that the service account being used by your Compute Engine instance or Bare Metal Solution server includes the following roles:

Compute Viewer (roles/compute.viewer)
Monitoring Metric Writer (roles/monitoring.metricWriter) roles.
Secret Manager Secret Accessor (roles/secretmanager.secretAccessor), if you use Secret Manager for storing SAP HANA database password.

To add these required roles to your service account, follow these steps:

In the Google Cloud console, go to the IAM page.

Go to IAM
Select your Google Cloud project.
Identify the service account to which you want to add a role.
- If the service account isn't already on the principals list, then it doesn't have any roles assigned to it. Click Add and enter the email address of the service account.
- If the service account is already on the principals list, then it has existing roles. Click the Edit button for the service account that you want to edit.
Select the required role from the list of available roles:
- Compute Viewer
- Monitoring > Monitoring Metric Writer
- Secret Manager > Secret Manager Secret Accessor
Click Add or Save to apply the roles to the service account.

Enable Process Monitoring metrics collection

To enable the collection of Process Monitoring metrics using Google Cloud's Agent for SAP, follow these steps:

Establish an SSH connection with your host Compute Engine instance.

Open the agent's configuration file:

/etc/google-cloud-sap-agent/configuration.json

In the collection_configuration section, perform the following:
- For the parameter collect_process_metrics, specify the value true.
- To enable the collection of process monitoring metrics related to your SAP HANA database instances, you need to configure additional parameters in the hana_metrics_config section. For information about these parameters, see Configuration parameters.
Optionally, under the cloud_properties section, you can update the parameter values that are set automatically. To do so, add the cloud_properties section to your configuration file, and then specify the required parameters and their values.
Save the configuration file.
Restart the agent for the new settings to take effect:
```
sudo systemctl restart google-cloud-sap-agent
```

Example configuration files

Compute Engine instance

The following example is a completed configuration file of Google Cloud's Agent for SAP, running on a Compute Engine instance, where the collection of Process Monitoring metrics is enabled:

{
  "provide_sap_host_agent_metrics": true,
  "bare_metal": false,
  "log_level": "INFO",
  "log_to_cloud": true,
  "collection_configuration": {
    "sap_system_discovery": true,
    "collect_workload_validation_metrics": true,
    "collect_process_metrics": true,
    "process_metrics_frequency": 5,
    "slow_process_metrics_frequency": 30,
    "hana_metrics_config": {
      "hana_db_user": "db_user_name",
      "sid": "DEH",
      "hana_db_password_secret_name": "db_pwd_secret_name"
    }
  },
  "hana_monitoring_configuration": {
    "enabled": false
  }
}

Bare Metal Solution server

The following example is a completed configuration file of Google Cloud's Agent for SAP, running on a Bare Metal Solution server, where the collection of Process Monitoring metrics is enabled:

{
  "provide_sap_host_agent_metrics": true,
  "bare_metal": true,
  "log_level": "INFO",
  "log_to_cloud": true,
  "collection_configuration": {
    "sap_system_discovery": true,
    "collect_workload_validation_metrics": true,
    "collect_process_metrics": true,
    "process_metrics_frequency": 5,
    "slow_process_metrics_frequency": 30,
    "hana_metrics_config": {
      "hana_db_user": "db_user_name",
      "sid": "DEH",
      "hana_db_password_secret_name": "db_pwd_secret_name"
    }
  },
  "cloud_properties": {
    "project_id": "my-project",
    "instance_name": "bms-machine-1",
    "region": "us-central1",
    "image": "rhel-8"
  },
  "hana_monitoring_configuration": {
    "enabled": false
  }
}

Configuration parameters

The following table explains the configuration parameters of Google Cloud's Agent for SAP that are specific to the collection of the Process Monitoring metrics.

Parameters
`provide_sap_host_agent_metrics`	`Boolean` To enable the collection of the metrics required by the SAP Host Agent, specify `true`. Default is `true`. Don't set `provide_sap_host_agent_metrics` to `false` unless you are directed by Cloud Customer Care or SAP Support.
`bare_metal`	`Boolean` When the agent is installed on a Bare Metal Solution server, specify `true`. Default is `false`.
`log_level`	`String` To set the logging level of the agent, set the required value. The available log levels are as follows: `DEBUG` `INFO` `WARNING` `ERROR` Default is `INFO`. Don't change the logging level unless you are directed by Cloud Customer Care.
`log_to_cloud`	`Boolean` To redirect the agent's logs to Cloud Logging, specify `true`. The default is `true`.
`sap_system_discovery`	`Boolean` To enable the SAP system discovery, specify `true`. Default is `true`.
`cloud_properties.project_id`	`String` If your SAP system is running on a Bare Metal Solution server, then specify the project ID of the Google Cloud project that you are using with Bare Metal Solution. When the agent runs on a Compute Engine instance, by default, the agent detects the project ID automatically.
`cloud_properties.instance_name`	`String` If your SAP system is running on a Compute Engine instance, then specify the name of that compute instance. The agent automatically detects the compute instance name upon installation. If your SAP system is running on a Bare Metal Solution server, then specify the name of that server. In agent version 2.5 or earlier, specify the Bare Metal Solution server name for the property `instance_id`.
`cloud_properties.region`	`String` If your SAP system is running on a Bare Metal Solution server, then specify the region of the Bare Metal Solution server. When the agent runs on a compute instance, by default, the agent uses the region where the compute instance is deployed.
`cloud_properties.zone`	`String` When the agent runs on a compute instance, by default, the agent uses the zone where the compute instance is deployed.
`cloud_properties.image`	`String` Specify the OS image name of the instance. When the agent runs on a compute instance, by default, the agent automatically detects the OS image used by the compute instance.
`cloud_properties.numeric_project_id`	`String` Specify the numeric ID of the Google Cloud project where the SAP system is running. When the agent runs on a compute instance, by default, the agent automatically detects project number.
`collection_configuration.collect_process_metrics`	`Boolean` To enable Process Monitoring metrics collection, specify `true`. Default is `false`. This parameter is applicable only for Linux. If you enable Process metrics collection for SAP HANA, then you need to set up additional parameters listed under `hana_metrics_config`.
`collection_configuration.process_metrics_frequency`	`Int` From version 2.6, this parameter determines the collection frequency of the fast-changing Process Monitoring metrics, in seconds. Fast-changing Process Monitoring metrics are: `sap/hana/availability`, `sap/hana/ha/availability`, and `sap/nw/availability`. The default value for this parameter is `5` seconds. We recommend that you use this default value. All other (slow-changing) Process Monitoring metrics are collected at a default frequency of 120 seconds. To change the collection frequency of the slow-changing Process Monitoring metrics, use the parameter `slow_process_metrics_frequency`.
`collection_configuration.slow_process_metrics_frequency`	`Int` Specify the collection frequency of the slow-changing Process Monitoring metrics, in seconds. The default value for this parameter is `120` seconds.
`collection_configuration.process_metrics_to_skip`	`Array` Specify the Process Monitoring metrics that you don't want the agent to collect. This parameter accepts a comma-separated value of Process Monitoring metric names. For example: `"process_metrics_to_skip": ["/sap/nw/abap/sessions", "/sap/nw/abap/rfc"]`.
`collection_configuration.hana_metrics_config.hana_db_user`	`String` Specify the database user account that the agent uses to query SAP HANA. Default is `SYSTEM`.
`collection_configuration.hana_metrics_config.hana_db_password`	`String` Specify the plain text password for the database user account that the agent uses to query SAP HANA. Instead of specifying a plain text password, we recommend that you use one of the following options: `hana_db_password_secret_name`, for which you specify a secret stored in Secret Manager.
`collection_configuration.hana_metrics_config.hana_db_password_secret_name`	`String` To securely provide the password for the database user account that the agent uses to query SAP HANA, specify the name of the secret that contains the security credentials for the database user account. Important: The secret and the host Compute Engine instance must exist in the same Google Cloud project. The agent collects the SAP HANA related metrics only when you specify either `hana_db_password_secret_name` or `hana_db_password`.
`collection_configuration.hana_metrics_config.sid`	`String` Specify the SID of your SAP HANA instance.

View the collected metrics

To visualize the Process Monitoring metrics that the agent collects, you can use the following custom dashboards that Google Cloud provides:

Agent for SAP - HANA Overview: This dashboard provides charts that display status overview for the following metrics: SAP HANA Availability, SAP HANA HA Availability, SAP HANA HA Replication, SAP HANA Service Status, HA Cluster - Node State, and HA Cluster - Resource State for SAP Instances.

The JSON file for this dashboard is sap-agent-status-overview.json.
Agent for SAP - HANA Raw Metrics: This dashboard provides charts that display raw metric values for the following metrics: SAP HANA Availability, SAP HANA HA Availability, SAP HANA HA Replication, SAP HANA Service Status, HA Cluster - Node State, and HA Cluster - Resource State for SAP Instances.

The JSON file for this dashboard is sap-agent-raw-metrics.json.

Install dashboards

To install a custom dashboard, complete the following steps:

Google Cloud console

In the Google Cloud console, go to the Monitoring page:

Go to Monitoring
In the Monitoring navigation panel, click Dashboards.
Click the Sample library tab.
To filter the agent-specific custom dashboards, in the Filter field, type Agent for SAP.
(Optional) To view details about a dashboard or to preview its contents, click Preview.
Select the dashboard that you want to install.
Click Import, and then click Confirm.

The dashboard is added to the available dashboards in your Google Cloud project. To see your dashboard, follow the instructions in View the installed dashboard.

Google Cloud CLI

Open the Cloud Shell:

Open Cloud Shell

In the Cloud Shell, clone or download the repository:

git clone https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/monitoring-dashboard-samples/

In the Cloud Shell, install the required dashboard using the corresponding JSON file:
```
gcloud monitoring dashboards create --config-from-file=CONFIG_FROM_FILE
```
Replace CONFIG_FROM_FILE with the path to the JSON file that contains the dashboard configuration. Dashboard configuration files can be located at path: monitoring-dashboard-samples/dashboards/google-cloud-agent-for-sap.

The dashboard is added to the available dashboards in your Google Cloud project. To see your dashboard, follow the instructions in View the installed dashboard.

View the installed dashboards

To view the installed dashboards, follow these steps:

In the Google Cloud console, go to the Monitoring page:

Go to Monitoring
In the Monitoring navigation panel, click Dashboards.
Click the dashboard name in the list.

If you have a lot of dashboards, then you can filter for custom dashboards or for the name of the new dashboard. For information on filtering this list, see View custom dashboards.

The following image is an example that shows a part of the custom dashboard for SAP HANA metrics in Monitoring.

Screen capture shows the custom dashboard for SAP HANA metrics
in Monitoring