New Version of Azure VM extension for SAP solutions

Follow the steps described in the article Install the Azure PowerShell module

Check frequently for updates to the PowerShell cmdlets, which usually are updated monthly. Follow the steps described in this article. Unless stated otherwise in SAP Note 1928533 or SAP Note 2015553, we recommend that you work with the latest version of Azure PowerShell cmdlets.

To check the version of the Azure PowerShell cmdlets that are installed on your computer, run this PowerShell command:

(Get-Module Az.Compute).Version

Follow the steps described in the article Install the Azure CLI

Check frequently for updates to Azure CLI, which usually is updated monthly.

To check the version of Azure CLI that is installed on your computer, run this command:

az --version

The new VM Extension for SAP uses a managed identity that's assigned to the VM to access monitoring and configuration data of the VM. To install the new Azure Extension for SAP by using PowerShell, you first have to assign such an identity to the VM and grant that identity access to all resources that are in use by that VM, for example, disks and network interfaces.

1. Make sure to use SAP Host Agent 7.21 PL 47 or higher.

2. Make sure to uninstall the standard version of the VM Extension for SAP. It is not supported to install both versions of the VM Extension for SAP on the same virtual machine.

3. Make sure that you have installed the latest version of the Azure PowerShell cmdlet (at least 4.3.0).

4. Run the following PowerShell cmdlet. For a list of available environments, run cmdlet Get-AzEnvironment. If you want to use global Azure, your environment is AzureCloud. For Microsoft Azure operated by 21Vianet, select AzureChinaCloud.

   The VM Extension for SAP supports configuring a proxy that the extension should use to connect to external resources, for example the Azure Resource Manager API. Use parameter -ProxyURI to set the proxy.

   $env = Get-AzEnvironment -Name <name of the environment>
   Connect-AzAccount -Environment $env
   Set-AzContext -SubscriptionName <subscription name>
   
   Set-AzVMAEMExtension -ResourceGroupName <resource group name> -VMName <virtual machine name> -InstallNewExtension
   

5. Restart SAP Host Agent

   Log on to the virtual machine on which you enabled the VM Extension for SAP and restart the SAP Host Agent if it was already installed. SAP Host Agent does not use the VM Extension until it's been restarted. It currently can't detect that an extension was installed after it was started.

The new VM Extension for SAP uses a managed identity that is assigned to the VM to access monitoring and configuration data of the VM.

1. Ensure that you use SAP Host Agent 7.21 PL 47 or later.

2. Ensure that you uninstall the current version of the VM Extension for SAP. You can't install both versions of the VM Extension for SAP on the same VM.

3. Install the latest version of Azure CLI 2.0 (version 2.19.1 or later).

4. Sign in with your Azure account:

   az login
   

5. Install the Azure CLI AEM Extension. Ensure that you use version 0.2.2 or later.

   az extension add --name aem
   

6. Enable the new extension:

   The VM Extension for SAP supports configuring a proxy that the extension should use to connect to external resources, for example the Azure Resource Manager API. Use parameter --proxy-uri to set the proxy.

   az vm aem set -g <resource-group-name> -n <vm name> --install-new-extension
   

7. Restart SAP Host Agent

   Log on to the virtual machine on which you enabled the VM Extension for SAP and restart the SAP Host Agent if it was already installed. SAP Host Agent does not use the VM Extension until it's been restarted. It currently can't detect that an extension was installed after it was started.

The following code contains four examples. It shows how to deploy the extension on Windows and Linux, using a system or user assigned identity. Make sure to replace the name of the resource group, the location and VM name in the example.

# Windows VM - user assigned identity
Set-AzVMExtension -Publisher "Microsoft.AzureCAT.AzureEnhancedMonitoring" -ExtensionType "MonitorX64Windows" -ResourceGroupName "<rg name>" -VMName "<vm name>" `
   -Name "MonitorX64Windows" -TypeHandlerVersion "1.0" -Location "<location>" -SettingString '{"cfg":[{"key":"msi_res_id","value":"<user assigned resource id>"}]}'

# Windows VM - system assigned identity
Set-AzVMExtension -Publisher "Microsoft.AzureCAT.AzureEnhancedMonitoring" -ExtensionType "MonitorX64Windows" -ResourceGroupName "<rg name>" -VMName "<vm name>" `
   -Name "MonitorX64Windows" -TypeHandlerVersion "1.0" -Location "<location>" -SettingString '{"cfg":[]}'

# Linux VM - user assigned identity
Set-AzVMExtension -Publisher "Microsoft.AzureCAT.AzureEnhancedMonitoring" -ExtensionType "MonitorX64Linux" -ResourceGroupName "<rg name>" -VMName "<vm name>" `
   -Name "MonitorX64Linux" -TypeHandlerVersion "1.0" -Location "<location>" -SettingString '{"cfg":[{"key":"msi_res_id","value":"<user assigned resource id>"}]}'

# Linux VM - system assigned identity
Set-AzVMExtension -Publisher "Microsoft.AzureCAT.AzureEnhancedMonitoring" -ExtensionType "MonitorX64Linux" -ResourceGroupName "<rg name>" -VMName "<vm name>" `
   -Name "MonitorX64Linux" -TypeHandlerVersion "1.0" -Location "<location>" -SettingString '{"cfg":[]}'

The following code contains four examples. It shows how to deploy the extension on Windows and Linux, using a system or user assigned identity. Make sure to replace the name of the resource group, the location and VM name in the example.

# Windows VM - user assigned identity
az vm extension set --publisher "Microsoft.AzureCAT.AzureEnhancedMonitoring" --name "MonitorX64Windows" --resource-group "<rg name>" --vm-name "<vm name>" \
   --extension-instance-name "MonitorX64Windows" --settings '{"cfg":[{"key":"msi_res_id","value":"<user assigned resource id>"}]}'

# Windows VM - system assigned identity
az vm extension set --publisher "Microsoft.AzureCAT.AzureEnhancedMonitoring" --name "MonitorX64Windows" --resource-group "<rg name>" --vm-name "<vm name>" \
   --extension-instance-name "MonitorX64Windows" --settings '{"cfg":[]}'
   
# Linux VM - user assigned identity
az vm extension set --publisher "Microsoft.AzureCAT.AzureEnhancedMonitoring" --name "MonitorX64Linux" --resource-group "<rg name>" --vm-name "<vm name>" \
   --extension-instance-name "MonitorX64Linux" --settings '{"cfg":[{"key":"msi_res_id","value":"<user assigned resource id>"}]}'

# Linux VM - system assigned identity
az vm extension set --publisher "Microsoft.AzureCAT.AzureEnhancedMonitoring" --name "MonitorX64Linux" --resource-group "<rg name>" --vm-name "<vm name>" \
   --extension-instance-name "MonitorX64Linux" --settings '{"cfg":[]}'

The following manifest contains four examples. It shows how to deploy the extension on Windows and Linux, using a system or user assigned identity. Make sure to replace the ID of the VM and ID of the user assigned identity in the example.

# Windows VM - user assigned identity

resource "azurerm_virtual_machine_extension" "example" {
  name                 = "MonitorX64Windows"
  virtual_machine_id   = "<vm id>"
  publisher            = "Microsoft.AzureCAT.AzureEnhancedMonitoring"
  type                 = "MonitorX64Windows"
  type_handler_version = "1.0"
  auto_upgrade_minor_version = true

  settings = <<SETTINGS
{
    "cfg":[
        {
            "key":"msi_res_id",
            "value":"<user assigned resource id>"
        }
    ]
}
SETTINGS
}

# Windows VM - system assigned identity

resource "azurerm_virtual_machine_extension" "example" {
  name                 = "MonitorX64Windows"
  virtual_machine_id   = "<vm id>"
  publisher            = "Microsoft.AzureCAT.AzureEnhancedMonitoring"
  type                 = "MonitorX64Windows"
  type_handler_version = "1.0"
  auto_upgrade_minor_version = true

  settings = <<SETTINGS
{
    "cfg":[
    ]
}
SETTINGS
}

# Linux VM - user assigned identity

resource "azurerm_virtual_machine_extension" "example" {
  name                 = "MonitorX64Linux"
  virtual_machine_id   = "<vm id>"
  publisher            = "Microsoft.AzureCAT.AzureEnhancedMonitoring"
  type                 = "MonitorX64Linux"
  type_handler_version = "1.0"
  auto_upgrade_minor_version = true

  settings = <<SETTINGS
{
    "cfg":[
        {
            "key":"msi_res_id",
            "value":"<user assigned resource id>"
        }
    ]
}
SETTINGS
}

# Linux VM - system assigned identity

resource "azurerm_virtual_machine_extension" "example" {
  name                 = "MonitorX64Linux"
  virtual_machine_id   = "<vm id>"
  publisher            = "Microsoft.AzureCAT.AzureEnhancedMonitoring"
  type                 = "MonitorX64Linux"
  type_handler_version = "1.0"
  auto_upgrade_minor_version = true

  settings = <<SETTINGS
{
    "cfg":[
    ]
}
SETTINGS
}

# Windows
Get-AzVMExtensionImage -Location westeurope -PublisherName Microsoft.AzureCAT.AzureEnhancedMonitoring -Type MonitorX64Windows
# Linux
Get-AzVMExtensionImage -Location westeurope -PublisherName Microsoft.AzureCAT.AzureEnhancedMonitoring -Type MonitorX64Linux

# Windows
az vm extension image list --location westeurope --publisher Microsoft.AzureCAT.AzureEnhancedMonitoring --name MonitorX64Windows
# Linux
az vm extension image list --location westeurope --publisher Microsoft.AzureCAT.AzureEnhancedMonitoring --name MonitorX64Linux

1. Make sure that you have installed the latest version of the Azure PowerShell cmdlet (at least 4.3.0).

2. Run the following PowerShell cmdlet. For a list of available environments, run the cmdlet Get-AzEnvironment. To use global Azure, select the AzureCloud environment. For Microsoft Azure operated by 21Vianet, select AzureChinaCloud.

   $env = Get-AzEnvironment -Name <name of the environment>
   Connect-AzAccount -Environment $env
   Set-AzContext -SubscriptionName <subscription name>
   Test-AzVMAEMExtension -ResourceGroupName <resource group name> -VMName <virtual machine name>
   

3. The script tests the configuration of the virtual machine you selected.

Make sure that every health check result is OK. If some checks do not display OK, run the update cmdlet as described in Configure the Azure VM extension for SAP solutions. Repeat the checks described in Readiness check and this chapter. If the checks still indicate a problem with some or all counters, see Troubleshooting.

To run the health check for the Azure VM Extension for SAP by using Azure CLI:

1. Install Azure CLI 2.0. Ensure that you use at least version 2.19.1 or later (use the latest version).

2. Sign in with your Azure account:

   az login
   

3. Install the Azure CLI AEM Extension. Ensure that you use version 0.2.2 or later.

   az extension add --name aem
   

4. Verify the installation of the extension:

   az vm aem verify -g <resource-group-name> -n <vm name> 
   

The script tests the configuration of the virtual machine you select.

Make sure that every health check result is OK. If some checks do not display OK, run the update cmdlet as described in Configure the Azure VM extension for SAP solutions. Repeat the checks described in Readiness check and this chapter. If the checks still indicate a problem with some or all counters, see Troubleshooting.