SAP host agent

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SAP requires an SAP host agent to be installed and running on each z/OS® LPAR on which SAP components can run. This does not only include LPARs on which SAP Central Services are installed, but also LPARs on which just a Db2® subsystem for SAP is installed. This information describes installation and automation considerations for an SAP host agent.

Whenever an SAP component - for example an SAP central services instance - is installed, the SAP installation tool either:

  • Installs an SAP host agent, if no installation is found on the LPAR
  • Updates an existing SAP host agent, if a newer version is available.

The stand-alone installation procedure is described in the SAP host agent documentation. See SAP Note 1031096: Installing Package SAPHOSTAGENT.

The installation procedure places the SAP host agent into the SAP system independent path /usr/sap/hostctrl. This directory must be created in an zFS file system, which is local to the host LPAR, as described in SAP host agent file system.

When the SAP host agent is started on an LPAR under z/OS UNIX, you see its two main processes sapstartsrv and saphostexec. These processes are modeled as resources SAPHOST_CTL and SAPHOST_EXE in the *SAPSRV add-on policy.

With the default setup, the SAP host agent automatically starts a saposcol process when it starts on an LPAR. The saposcol process is controlled (started and stopped) by the SAP host agent. Therefore, saposcol is not modeled as a separate resource in the *SAPSRV add-on policy.

In new versions of the SAP host agent, the CIM-based monitoring agent sapcimb is delivered. It can be used as an alternative to saposcol. Currently, both saposcol and sapcimb are supported by SAP. For a description of sapcimb on z/OS UNIX System Services, see SAP Note 2047924: DB2-z/OS:CCMS:HAG: CIM-Provider Enablement for z/OS.

Similar to saposcol, the sapcimb process is started and stopped by the SAP host agent, therefore sapcimb is not modeled as a separate resource in the *SAPSRV add-on policy either.

If you define a dynamic VIPA for the RMF DDS (see Configuring Sysplex performance monitoring highly available with the RMF Distributed Data Server (RMF DDS)), then you must ensure that the environment variables SAP_IBMZMON_DDS_HOST and SAP_IBMZMON_DDS_PORT are set in the environment of the saproot user to the dynamic VIPA host name and the DDS port when starting the SAP host agent. Since the SA z/OS policy uses the CSH shell to start the SAP host agent, you must ensure that these environment settings are also made in the csh environment, for example by setting these variables in the .cshrc file of the saproot user.