SAP ECC 6.0 EHP8 — User Guide

What is the ECC 6.0 EHP8 Cockpit?

The SAP ECC 6.0 EHP8 Management Cockpit is a web-based dashboard for monitoring and operating the SAP ECC IDES demonstration environment hosted on sapidesecc8.fivetran-internal-sales.com. This system runs on an Oracle 19c database, unlike the S/4HANA environment which uses HANA.

From a single page you can:

• View server details, Oracle database version, OPatch and MOPatch versions
• Monitor disk space with visual progress bars
• Check the live status of the SAP Application Server and Oracle Database
• Trigger on-demand Oracle backups via brbackup to disk and Google Cloud Storage
• Start and stop SAP and Oracle services with safety controls
• Access links to GCP console, DNS settings, and technical documentation
• Retrieve SSH credentials automatically from the encrypted vault

Server Details

The Server Details card displays static and dynamic information about the SAP server:

Click the Refresh button at the top right of the section to re-query the database version, OPatch/MOPatch versions, CPUs, and memory from the live server.

Disk Space

The Disk Space card appears alongside Server Details and shows all mounted filesystems with visual progress bars. Data is retrieved via the /sap_skills/api/ecc_disk_space endpoint which runs df -h on the server.

Each filesystem row shows: mount point, usage percentage bar, total size, and available space. Click Refresh to update the data.

Understanding the Status Section

The Status section contains two cards that show the real-time state of the system components. Click Check Status to query both at once.

SAP Application Server Card

The SAP card monitors the ABAP application server and displays:

• Status — Active (green) or Inactive (red), determined via sapcontrol -nr 00
• Process Count — number of running SAP processes
• Kernel Version — SAP kernel version retrieved via disp+work -v
• Start / Stop buttons to control the application server

Oracle Database Card

The Oracle card monitors the database instance and displays:

• Status — Active (green) or Inactive (red), determined via sqlplus connectivity check
• Last Backup — date and time of the last successful brbackup, shown in both AMS (Amsterdam) and LA (Los Angeles) timezones. Parsed from /oracle/ABA/sapbackup/backABA.log.
• Next Backup — next scheduled backup time (Sunday 07:00), also shown in both AMS and LA timezones
• Countdown — a live countdown timer to the next scheduled backup
• Start / Stop / Backup buttons to control the database and trigger manual backups

Status Indicators

Each card displays a colored dot and status text:

ECC Backup Architecture

The ECC system uses SAP BR*Tools (brbackup / brarchive) for Oracle database backups — NOT HANA Backint. The process is two-phase: local disk backup first, then copy to Google Cloud Storage.

Crontab Schedule (sapidesecc8)

Three scheduled jobs run automatically via cron on sapidesecc8:

Backup Scripts

brbackup_aba.sh

Performs an offline force backup locally, then copies the output to the GCS bucket:

Key flags: -t offline_force forces an offline backup (SAP is stopped), -d disk backs up to local disk, -m all includes all datafiles, -n 6 keeps 6 backup generations.

brarchive_aba.sh

Archives Oracle redo logs to disk using the archive log profile:

Backup Process Flow

1. Sunday 06:00 — brarchive runs: archives Oracle redo logs to disk using profile initABA_archlog.sap.
2. Sunday 07:00 — brbackup runs: offline_force full backup to /media/oraclebackup, then gsutil copies output to gs://sap-hana-backint/SAP_ON_ORACLE_BACKUP/.
3. SAP ECC is STOPPED during the offline_force backup (typically 60–90 minutes).
4. Backup logs are written to /oracle/ABA/sapbackup/backABA.log.
5. Local backup files are stored in /media/oraclebackup.
6. The -n 6 flag ensures only the last 6 backups are kept locally.

GCS Bucket Structure

Manual Backup via Cockpit

The Oracle Database card includes a Backup Now button to trigger an immediate backup.

Manual Backup Workflow

1. Click Backup Now on the Oracle Database card.
2. A confirmation dialog appears. Click OK to proceed.
3. You will be prompted for the master password (required for all manual backup operations).
4. The button changes to "Running..." and a live timer starts counting.
5. The backup runs in the background on the server. You can navigate away — the timer is purely local.
6. Click Refresh to check progress. When the backup completes, the last backup date updates.

The brbackup command executed on the server is the same as the cron script:

Claude Code Skill

Download the saporaclebackup skill for full reference: BR*Tools commands, initABA.sap / initABA_archlog.sap profile templates, gcsfuse mount unit, cron schedule, and troubleshooting for ORA-01102 / ORA-28001 / ORA-01017.

Starting Services

Each status card has a green Start button:

A confirmation dialog asks you to confirm before starting. If the service is already running, you will see an informational message instead of starting it again.

Stopping Services

Each status card has a red Stop button. Stopping is a two-step authorization process:

1. Warning dialog — a confirmation message explains the impact (e.g., "All connected users will be disconnected" or "Stop SAP before stopping the database").
2. Master password — you must enter the vault master password. If the password is wrong, the operation is rejected.

Recommended Shutdown Sequence

1. Stop SAP — Click "Stop SAP", confirm the warning, enter the master password.
2. Check Status — Click "Check Status" and wait until SAP shows Inactive.
3. Stop Oracle — Click "Stop DB" on the Oracle Database card, confirm, enter master password.

Recommended Startup Sequence

1. Start Oracle — Click "Start DB" on the Oracle Database card. Wait until status shows Active.
2. Start SAP — Click "Start SAP". The ABAP stack requires the Oracle database to be running first.

Filesystem Monitor

The Disk Space card shows all mounted filesystems with visual progress bars. Data is fetched from the /sap_skills/api/ecc_disk_space endpoint which runs df -h on the server.

Key Filesystems to Watch

Available Links

The Links section provides quick access to external tools and documentation:

Automatic Credential Retrieval

The Server Details card includes an SSH button next to the hostname. Clicking this button:

1. Calls the /sap_skills/api/ecc_ssh_credential endpoint to retrieve the root password from the encrypted vault.
2. Automatically copies the password to your clipboard.
3. Displays a confirmation message that the password has been copied.

You can then open your terminal and connect:

Credential Management

The cockpit follows a strict no-hardcoded-passwords policy. All credentials are stored in the encrypted vault on the server and retrieved at runtime.

SMTP Configuration

This server is configured to send email via smtp2go relay using Postfix.

Send a test email:

echo "Test" | mailx -s "Test from sapidesecc8" -r "sapidesecc8@fivetran-internal-sales.com" recipient@email.com

Common Issues

System Architecture

The cockpit page is a static HTML file served by the Python HTTPS server on sapidesecc8 (port 443). All dynamic data comes from API endpoints running locally on the same server. Unlike the S/4HANA cockpit, there is no SSH hop to a remote server — all commands (sapcontrol, sqlplus, brbackup) execute directly on sapidesecc8.

API Endpoints

Overview

The Oracle SQL Console provides an interactive query interface directly from the cockpit. Queries are executed on the Oracle 19c database via sqlplus on sapidesecc8 (local execution, no SSH).

Available Users

Features

• User selector — / as sysdba, SYSTEM, or SAPSR3
• Optional schema — sets ALTER SESSION SET CURRENT_SCHEMA
• Ctrl+Enter — keyboard shortcut to execute
• Results table — parsed from pipe-delimited sqlplus output with row count and elapsed time
• Copy button — copies results as tab-separated text
• Error display — ORA- and SP2- error messages shown in red box

Example Queries

-- Instance status
SELECT INSTANCE_NAME, STATUS, HOST_NAME FROM V$INSTANCE

-- Database size
SELECT TABLESPACE_NAME, ROUND(SUM(BYTES)/1024/1024/1024, 2) AS SIZE_GB
FROM DBA_DATA_FILES GROUP BY TABLESPACE_NAME ORDER BY SIZE_GB DESC

-- SAP client list (connect as SAPSR3)
SELECT MANDT, MTEXT FROM T000 ORDER BY MANDT

-- Active sessions
SELECT SID, SERIAL#, USERNAME, STATUS, PROGRAM
FROM V$SESSION WHERE USERNAME IS NOT NULL

-- Top 10 largest SAP tables (connect as SAPSR3)
SELECT TABLE_NAME, NUM_ROWS, ROUND(NUM_ROWS * AVG_ROW_LEN / 1024 / 1024, 2) AS SIZE_MB
FROM USER_TABLES ORDER BY NUM_ROWS DESC NULLS LAST
FETCH FIRST 10 ROWS ONLY