HANA Service Test

SAP HANA database consists of the following services:

• Index Server: Contains the actual data and the engines for processing the data. It also coordinates and uses all the other servers.
• Name Server: Holds information about the SAP HANA database topology. This is used in a distributed system with instances of HANA database on different hosts. The name server knows where the components are running and which data is located on which server.
• Statistics Server: Collects information about Status, Performance and Resource Consumption from all the other server components. From the SAP HANA Studio we can access the Statistics Server to get status of various alert monitors.
• Preprocessor Server: Used for Analysing Text Data and extracting the information on which the text search capabilities are based.
• XS Engine: This is an optional component. Using XS Engine clients can connect to SAP HANA database to fetch data via HTTP.

If the SAP HANA database server is unable to perform any of the functions detailed above, it could be because the corresponding service is not running. Likewise, processing bottlenecks experienced by any of these critical services can consequently degrade the performance of the database server. It is hence imperative that administrators check on the status and processing ability of each of the critical services listed above now and then, so that failures and slowdowns can be proactively detected and promptly resolved, and the uninterrupted functioning of the database server ensured. The HANA Service test helps administrators achieve the same! This test auto-discovers each service of the SAP HANA database server and reports the current status, uptime, responsiveness, and the request processing ability of each service, thus shedding light on services that are not running or are under-performing. By identifying problematic services, focusing on their issues, and solving them, administrators can make sure that the database server operates at peak capacity at all times!

Target of the test : A SAP HANA Database Server

Agent deploying the test : A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for every service of the SAP HANA database server being monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test

Parameter	Description
Test period	How often should the test be executed
Host	The host for which the test is to be configured.
Port	The port number at which the specified Host listens to. By default, this will be 30015.
User	In order to monitor a SAP HANA database server, a special database user account with Monitoring privileges has to be created in every SAP HANA database instance that requires monitoring. The syntax of the script that is used for user creation is discussed in How to Monitor SAP HANA Database Server Using eG Enterprise?. The name of such a user has to be specified here.
Password	Enter the password of the specified User.
Confirm Password	Confirm the password by retyping it here.
IsPassive	If the value chosen for this parameter is Yes, then the SAP HANA database server under consideration is a passive server in a SAP HANA cluster. No alerts will be generated if the server is not running. Measures will be reported as “Not applicable” by the agent if the server is not up.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Active Status	Indicates whether/not this service is `currently active on the SAP HANA database server.		This measure reports the value Yes if this service is active and No, if otherwise. The values that this measure reports and their corresponding numeric values have been listed in the table below: Measure Value Numeric Value Yes 1 No 0 Note: By default, this measure reports one of the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate whether/not this service is active on the SAP HANA database server. In the graph of this measure however, the same will represented using the numeric equivalents only.
Uptime	Indicates the time duration for which this service has been up since the last time the server was started.	Mins	A low value is indicative of intermittent breaks in the availability of a service.
Request Rate	Indicates the rate at which the requests were issued to this service from the clients.	Requests/Sec
Average Response Time	Indicates the average time taken by this service to respond to requests from the clients.	MilliSec	A low value is desired for this measure. A high value or a consistent increase in the value is indicative of a processing bottleneck with the service.
Active Request Count	Indicates the number of active requests that are being processed by this service.	Number	This is a good indicator of the current load on a service.
Pending Request Count	Indicates the number of requests that are yet to be processed (i.e., pending in the queue) by this service.	Number	A low value is desired for this measure. A high value or a consistent increase in the value is indicative of a processing bottleneck with the service.
Active Thread Count	Indicates the number of threads that are actively servicing requests for this service.	Number	If the Pending Request Count measure is high and indicate an overload or a processing slowdown with a service, you may consider spawning additional threads for that service to enable it to handle the additional load and clear all pending requests.
Thread Count	Indicates the total number of threads for this service.	Number
Open File Count	Indicates the number of files that are currently open through this service in the SAP HANA database server.	Number	This indicates the load imposed by a service on the database server.
Has the HANA service been restarted?	Indicates wheterher/not the HANA service was restarted during the last measurement period.		If the service was restarted, this measure will report the value Yes. If it was not restarted, then this measure will report the value No. The numeric values that correspond to these measure values are as follows: Measure Value Numeric Value Yes 1 No 0 Note: By default, this measure reports the Measure Values in the table above to indicate whether/not the service rebooted. However, in the graph of this measure, the same is represented using the numeric equivalents only.