Azure Monitor for SAP Solutions
Configure Azure Monitor for SAP solutions with providers for HANA, NetWeaver, OS, SQL Server, and HA clusters. Set up alerts, dashboards, and use Azure Advisor and Network Watcher for SAP performance optimization.
Monitoring SAP in production
🔧 Aisha Okonkwo opens her monitoring dashboard. “The migration is done, HA and DR are configured. Now begins the real work — keeping SAP running day after day. At TradeCorp, I monitor 15 SAP systems. Without proper monitoring, issues sneak up and become outages before anyone notices.”
Carlos, her manager, leans in. “Aisha, the executive team expects a weekly health report. Can Azure tell us if SAP is healthy without logging into every system individually?”
🔧 Aisha grins. “That is exactly what Azure Monitor for SAP solutions does.”
Think of it like a fitness tracker for your SAP system.
A fitness tracker monitors your heart rate, steps, sleep, and blood oxygen — all in one app. Azure Monitor for SAP (AMS) monitors your HANA database health, application server performance, operating system metrics, and cluster status — all in one dashboard. If your heart rate spikes (CPU usage), the tracker alerts you. If your sleep quality drops (HANA memory pressure), you get a notification before it becomes a problem.
AMS providers
AMS uses a provider model — each provider connects to a specific SAP or infrastructure component:
| Provider | What it monitors | Data collected | Connection method |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAP HANA | HANA database health and performance | Memory usage, CPU, disk I/O, replication status, backup status, alerts | HANA SQL port (3xx15) |
| SAP NetWeaver | Application server health | Work process utilization, queue lengths, batch job status, response times | RFC/HTTP to SAP system |
| OS (Linux) | Operating system metrics | CPU, memory, disk, network, swap usage per VM | Node Exporter (Prometheus) |
| Microsoft SQL Server | SQL Server for non-HANA SAP systems | Database size, log space, backup status, wait statistics | SQL connection string |
| IBM Db2 | Db2 for SAP systems using Db2 as the database | Database health, log utilization, backup status | Db2 connection |
| HA (Pacemaker) cluster | Cluster health and failover events | Node status, resource status, fence events, constraint violations | Pacemaker API |
Setting up AMS
To configure AMS:
- Create an AMS resource in the Azure portal
- Add providers for each SAP component you want to monitor
- Provide connection details (HANA SQL credentials, SAP RFC user, etc.)
- AMS begins collecting data into a Log Analytics workspace
- Use built-in workbooks for dashboards or create custom ones
Exam tip: Know the provider types
The exam tests whether you know which provider monitors which component. Remember: HANA provider for database metrics, NetWeaver provider for application server health, OS provider for infrastructure metrics, SQL Server provider for non-HANA SQL databases, IBM Db2 provider for Db2-based SAP systems, HA cluster provider for Pacemaker status. AMS supports six provider types in total. If the question asks about monitoring enqueue lock contention, the answer is the NetWeaver provider. If it asks about HSR replication lag, the answer is the HANA provider.
Alerts and dashboards
AMS integrates with Azure Monitor for alerting:
- Metric alerts — trigger when a metric exceeds a threshold (e.g., HANA memory usage above 90 percent)
- Log alerts — trigger based on log query results (e.g., SAP work process dumps in the last hour)
- Action groups — define who gets notified and how (email, SMS, Teams, Azure Function, Logic App)
Built-in workbooks provide pre-configured dashboards:
- HANA overview (memory, CPU, disk, replication)
- NetWeaver overview (work processes, queues, response times)
- OS performance (all VMs at a glance)
- Cluster health (node status, recent fence events)
🔧 Aisha configures an alert. “I set up an alert for HANA memory usage above 85 percent. If it fires, Carlos and I both get a Teams notification. We can investigate before it hits 100 percent and causes an out-of-memory kill.”
Azure Advisor for SAP
Azure Advisor provides proactive recommendations for SAP workloads:
- Reliability — missing VM extensions, non-HA deployments
- Performance — undersized VMs, storage bottlenecks
- Cost — oversized VMs, unused disks, reservation opportunities
- Operational excellence — missing tags, non-compliant configurations
Combined with ACSS quality checks, Advisor gives a comprehensive view of SAP infrastructure health.
Network Watcher
Azure Network Watcher helps troubleshoot SAP network issues:
- Connection monitor — tracks connectivity between SAP tiers (app to DB latency)
- NSG flow logs — see which traffic is allowed or denied
- Packet capture — capture network traffic for deep analysis
- IP flow verify — test whether specific traffic is allowed by NSG rules
- Next hop — verify routing is correct for SAP traffic
Troubleshooting checklist
When SAP performance degrades, check in this order: (1) AMS dashboards for SAP-level issues (work processes, memory, replication), (2) OS provider for infrastructure bottlenecks (CPU, disk, network), (3) Azure Advisor for configuration issues, (4) Network Watcher for connectivity problems. This top-down approach finds the root cause faster than random troubleshooting.
Knowledge check
Aisha notices slow response times in SAP transaction SE16. Which AMS provider should she check first?
Carlos asks Aisha to set up an alert when HANA memory usage exceeds 90 percent. What Azure Monitor feature should she use?
Which AMS provider should Aisha configure to monitor HSR replication lag between the primary and secondary HANA nodes?
Summary
You now know how to monitor SAP on Azure: AMS with providers for HANA, NetWeaver, OS, SQL Server, IBM Db2, and HA clusters (six providers total); alerts and dashboards with Azure Monitor; proactive recommendations with Azure Advisor; and network troubleshooting with Network Watcher. Monitoring is the foundation of all Day-2 operations.
Next, we dive into backup — protecting SAP data with Azure Backup for HANA and VM-level backup strategies.
🎬 Video coming soon