Planning and Administering Microsoft Azure for SAP Workloads — knowledge map
The 34 core concepts of Planning and Administering Microsoft Azure for SAP Workloads and how they connect. Click a node in the map above to explore related terms and prerequisites; the list below indexes every concept with its definition and links to its prerequisites and related concepts.
Concepts (34)
Virtual network (VNet)
A private network in Azure; divided by subnets and connected to other VNets via peering.
Availability zone
A physically separated datacenter within a region (independent power/cooling/network); zone redundancy gives high availability.
Subscription (Azure)
The billing/usage boundary and a logical container for resources; often split by department or environment.
Availability set (fault/update domains)
Spreads VMs within one datacenter across fault domains (power/network/rack) and update domains (planned-maintenance units) to avoid simultaneous impact from unplanned failures and planned maintenance. Use availability zones for datacenter-level failures.
Prerequisites: Availability zone
Related: Availability zones vs sets (SAP HA)
Managed disks
Block storage for VM disks managed by Azure. Types include Ultra, Premium SSD v2, Premium SSD, Standard SSD, and Standard HDD, with snapshots and disk encryption (SSE/ADE).
Prerequisites: Encryption
Azure Center for SAP solutions (VIS)
A service that represents an SAP system as a Virtual Instance for SAP solutions (VIS) in Azure and handles deployment, start/stop, and integrated management Azure-initiated. Opposite direction from the LaMa connector (SAP-initiated).
Related: SAP Landscape Management (LaMa) connector for Azure
Proximity placement group (PPG)
An Azure placement feature that co-locates VMs physically to minimize app↔DB network latency, used to meet SAP latency requirements. Different purpose from availability zones (DC-failure tolerance).
Prerequisites: Availability zone、Availability zones vs sets (SAP HA)
RISE with SAP
An SAP offering where SAP operates the S/4HANA environment managed (SaaS-like); the customer owns integration and surrounding services. Connect the separate-subscription SAP environment to the customer VNet privately (VNet peering/private endpoints).
Prerequisites: Subscription (Azure)、Virtual network (VNet)、Private endpoint
SAPS (SAP sizing metric)
SAP Application Performance Standard, a unit of SAP processing capacity. Size Azure VMs from the existing system’s SAPS and HANA memory requirements; estimate greenfield builds with SAP Quick Sizer.
Related: SAP Quick Sizer
Encryption
Transforming data with a key so only authorized parties can decrypt; symmetric/asymmetric, at rest/in transit.
Private endpoint
A NIC with a private IP in the VNet that connects to PaaS (Storage/SQL) without the public path; each sub-resource needs its own endpoint and DNS zone.
Prerequisites: Virtual network (VNet)
ARM template
The foundational JSON format for declaratively describing Azure resource configuration as IaC. Deploying the same template repeatedly converges to the same state (idempotent), with parameter files swapping per-environment values. Deployments are incremental (default) or complete mode—complete mode deletes resources not present in the template, a common gotcha.
Management group
The top-level container grouping subscriptions; applies policy/access in bulk, inherited downward.
Prerequisites: Subscription (Azure)
Azure Monitor
The monitoring foundation collecting metrics and logs; feeds Log Analytics (KQL), Application Insights (app monitoring), and alerts.
Availability zones vs sets (SAP HA)
Availability zones place VMs in separate datacenters to tolerate zone (DC) failures; availability sets separate by fault/update domains within one DC. Choose by SAP HA requirements.
Prerequisites: Availability zone
Disk striping
Combining multiple managed disks to sum IOPS/throughput/capacity, used for SAP/HANA performance needs beyond a single disk’s limits. Distinct from a single simple volume.
Prerequisites: Managed disks
Azure Backup for SAP HANA
An Azure Backup capability that protects an SAP HANA database with DB-consistent streaming backup. Used for HANA because VM-only backup does not guarantee DB consistency.
Prerequisites: Azure Backup
HANA System Replication (HSR)
SAP HANA’s DB-native sync/async replication from primary to secondary, used for HA (same/near region) and DR (another region). HANA DR is recommended via HSR, not Azure Site Recovery.
Prerequisites: Azure Site Recovery (ASR)
Pacemaker
Cluster software that builds HA clusters for SAP HANA or SAP Central Services (SCS) on Linux, automatically managing resource failover. Combined with STONITH to prevent split-brain.
Prerequisites: STONITH / fencing (fence agent, SBD)
Related: SAP Central Services (SCS/ASCS)
SAP-certified VM
An Azure VM SKU certified by SAP for support. Choose it by sizing to SAPS/HANA memory requirements. Non-certified SKUs are unsupported, so always verify against the certification list and SAP Notes for production SAP.
Prerequisites: SAPS (SAP sizing metric)
SAP Deployment Automation Framework (SDAF)
A framework that builds an entire SAP system (VMs/OS/SAP-DB config) reproducibly with Terraform and Ansible. Its role differs from Azure Center for SAP solutions (build vs operate/manage).
Prerequisites: Azure Center for SAP solutions (VIS)
Azure NetApp Files
A managed NFS/SMB file storage offering high performance, low latency, and large scale. In Azure Virtual Desktop it is chosen for high-IOPS needs such as FSLogix profiles in large environments; for small–mid, cost-conscious scenarios choose Azure Files Premium.
Prerequisites: Azure Files (File storage)
Azure Backup
A managed service that periodically backs up VMs, file shares, SQL/SAP HANA, etc. into a Recovery Services vault. Its purpose is data restore from any recovery point on demand, with encryption, retention policies, and instant restore support.
Prerequisites: Encryption
Related: Azure Site Recovery (ASR)
Azure Files (File storage)
SMB/NFS file shares mountable from multiple machines simultaneously.
Azure Site Recovery (ASR)
A DR (disaster recovery) service that continuously replicates VMs to another region (or on-prem⇔Azure) and fails over to keep workloads running during a disaster. A test failover validates the procedure without disrupting production, and a Recovery Plan orchestrates startup order across multiple VMs.
Related: Azure Backup
Private DNS zone
A DNS zone valid only inside VNets; link it to a VNet to resolve internal or privatelink names to private IPs—key to operating private endpoints.
Prerequisites: Virtual network (VNet)、Private endpoint
VNet peering
Connects two VNets over the Microsoft backbone with low latency; non-transitive by default (A-B-C does not give A↔C), so hub transit needs UDRs or gateway transit.
Prerequisites: Virtual network (VNet)
SAP Landscape Management (LaMa) connector for Azure
A connector that operates Azure VMs/storage (start/stop, copy/refresh, etc.) from SAP LaMa. It controls Azure SAP-initiated—opposite direction from the Azure-initiated Azure Center for SAP solutions.
Related: Azure Center for SAP solutions (VIS)
SAP Quick Sizer
An SAP-provided sizing tool for new (greenfield) environments. It estimates resource needs for new SAP/HANA and feeds Azure certified-VM selection. Existing systems are estimated from measured SAPS.
Related: SAPS (SAP sizing metric)
SAP Central Services (SCS/ASCS)
A core SAP component hosting the message server and enqueue server. As a likely single point of failure, it is made highly available via Pacemaker clustering.
Related: Pacemaker
STONITH / fencing (fence agent, SBD)
STONITH reliably isolates (fences) a failed cluster node to prevent split-brain. On Azure it is implemented via the API-based Azure fence agent or a shared-block-device STONITH Block Device (SBD).
Azure Monitor for SAP solutions (AMS)
A dedicated solution that ingests SAP-specific internal metrics (SAP HANA, NetWeaver, OS, HA clusters) via providers into an Azure Monitor workspace for integrated monitoring/alerting. Distinct from generic Azure Monitor (infrastructure).
Prerequisites: Azure Monitor
Azure landing zone (CAF)
A standardized foundation blueprint based on the Cloud Adoption Framework enterprise-scale. It pre-configures network (hub-spoke), identity, policy, and management, deploying consistent governance along the management group hierarchy.
Prerequisites: Management group
Bicep
A DSL offering more concise syntax than ARM template JSON. Running az bicep build compiles it into an equivalent ARM template JSON, which is what actually gets deployed. Modules and loop syntax improve readability and reuse.
Prerequisites: ARM template