Automic Automation Cloud Integration: SAP S/4 HANA Application Jobs Integration

You instantly inherit the advanced capabilities of your enterprise solution, enabling you to deliver your digital transformation more quickly and successfully. This video explains the Automic Automation SAP S/4 HANA Application Jobs agent integration and its benefits. It presents its components and demonstrates how to install, configure, and use it. 

Video Transcript

Automic Automation SAP S/4HANA Application Jobs Integration Solution

Welcome to this video on the Automic Automation SAP S/4HANA application jobs integration solution. We will explain the SAP application jobs cloud integration and what it brings to the Automic Automation user community.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud is an enterprise resource planning suite designed to support core business operations in real time. Managing application jobs in S/4HANA is essential to ensure data consistency, compliance, and operational efficiency across the enterprise.

Integration Overview

Integrating Automic Automation with SAP application jobs allows you to run SAP schedule application jobs in your workspace from Automic Automation. We'll provide technical insights:

• The integration components are clearly identified.
• The deployment sequence is understood.
• We'll focus on the configuration of the agent and the design of the two core object templates: connections and jobs.
• We'll run through a demo.

Automic Automation plays a central role in orchestrating operations across multiple environments, including the cloud. Automic Automation synchronizes these processes with other non-cloud operations by integrating SAP S/4HANA application jobs. We can configure process automation centrally in Automic Automation and then trigger, monitor, and supervise everything in one place.

The SAP application job processes can then be synchronized with all other environments routinely supported by Automic Automation. The SAP application jobs role is reduced to execute the jobs. All other functions, especially those pertaining to automation, are delegated to Automic Automation. This means that we don't have to log into the SAP application jobs environment and keep on refreshing it by ourselves. Automic Automation manages all the execution and monitoring aspects.

The Automic Automation integration provides a simplified view to SAP schedule application jobs. Automic Automation lets us build configurations with intuitive interfaces such as drag-and-drop workflows and supervised processes in simple dashboard tools designed natively for operations. Statuses are color-coded, and retrieving logs is done with a basic right-click.

From an operations perspective, Automic Automation highly simplifies the configuration and orchestration of SAP schedule application jobs. Externalizing operations to a tool with a high degree of third-party integration means we can synchronize all cloud with non-cloud workload using various agents and job object types. We can build sophisticated configurations involving:

• Multiple applications.
• Database packages.
• System processes, including backups and data consolidation.
• File transfers, web services, and other on-premise workload.

Architecture and Deployment

A conventional architecture involves two systems: the Automic Automation host and a dedicated system for the agent. The agent is configured with a simple INI file containing standard values: system agent name, connection, and TLS. When we start the agent, it connects to the engine and it adds two new objects to the repository:

1. A connection object to store the SAP application job endpoint and login data.
2. A job template design to trigger SAP schedule application jobs.

Let's assume we're automating for four instances of SAP application jobs. We create a connection object in Automic Automation for each instance by duplicating the 'con' template for each of these instances. Lastly, we create the SAP schedule application jobs in Automic Automation for each corresponding process in SAP application jobs. The Automic Automation jobs include the connection object based on the target system. When we execute the jobs in Automic Automation, it triggers the corresponding process in SAP S/4HANA application jobs. We're able to retrieve the successive statuses and generate a job report. In Automic Automation, this job can be incorporated in workflows and integrated with other non-cloud processes.

The procedure to deploy the SAP S/4HANA application jobs integration is as follows:

1. Download the integration package from marketplace. This package contains all the necessary elements.
2. Unzip this package, which produces a directory containing the agent, the INI configuration files, and several other items, including the start command.
3. Use the appropriate INI file for our specific platform.

SAP application jobs is a standard Automic agent. It requires at least four values to be updated:

• Agent name.
• Automic system.
• JCP connection and TLS port.
• TLS certificate.

When the agent is configured, we start it. New object templates are deployed. We create a connection to every SAP application jobs instance we need to support. For this, we use the template 'con' object which we duplicate as many times as we need. The 'con' object references the SAP application jobs endpoint. We use the SAP schedule application template jobs to create the jobs we need. We match these Automic Automation jobs to the SAP S/4HANA schedule application jobs, reference the connection object, and run them. We're able to supervise the jobs, generate logs, and retrieve the statuses. The jobs can then be incorporated into non-cloud workflows.

To deploy the SAP S/4HANA application jobs integration:

1. Install, configure, and start an agent.
2. The agent is included in the SAP application jobs package, which we download from marketplace.
3. Unzip the package which creates a file system: agents/SAP application jobs/bin that contains the agent files.
4. Based on the platform, rename the agent configuration file UCXJCX and set a minimum of four values:
   • The agent name.
   • The AE system name.
   • The host name and port connection to the automation engine's JCP.
   • The directory containing the TLS certificate.
5. Start the agent by invoking the JAR file via the Java command.

The agent connects to the AE and deploys the object templates needed to support the integration: the 'con' or connection object and the SAP schedule application job templates.

Demo Walkthrough

In our demo, we will create a connection object. Once we have established the connection to the SAP S/4HANA application jobs environment, we'll create an SAP schedule application job. We'll execute and supervise this job.

SAP S/4HANA Application Jobs Environment

You see the SAP S/4HANA application jobs environment where you can monitor and manage jobs. You can create new jobs and monitor running jobs. This section provides information about the run job and its details. Click to see the logs. This is the log information. The parameters passed in the payload are also visible.

Creating a Connection Object in Automic

We move on to the Automic system. We create a connection object with specific inputs to connect to SAP application jobs. First, we define the endpoint, which is the endpoint for SAP application jobs. We must specify an authentication type for the SAP application jobs connection. This agent integration supports two types: basic authentication and OAuth 2.

• Basic Authentication: You define the username, which is the name of the communication user you have in the SAP cloud tenant—the user with the privileges to access the SAP application jobs environment. The password is the password for the communication user. This is the authentication type we use in this demo.
• OAuth 2: You define the authentication endpoint, which is the URL of the token service against which the token retrieval is performed. You also define the client ID (used to retrieve the access token) and the client secret.

If you are using a proxy in your environment, you can specify the proxy host name, port, username, and password in the proxy section.

Creating an SAP Schedule Application Job

Once the connection object is defined, you can create SAP schedule application jobs. The connection drop-down list lets us select the appropriate connection object.

Next, we specify the SAP client which defines the SAP system where the job will run. A system can have multiple SAP clients.

Optionally, we can define the job filter field. It is used when searching or listing jobs and helps filter jobs based on criteria such as status, template name, and users. If you use a job filter, you don't need to specify the job template name as it will search automatically based on the filter. If you don't use a job filter, you must provide the job template name.

In the job template name field, you input the name of the job template. You can use a picker to search for the template name. In the job template text field, you can define a title or description. The job user field defines the SAP user ID under which the job will run.

Next, we specify the payload data. These are the payload parameters you want to pass on in JSON format. You can select between:

• None
• JSON
• JSON file path

We select 'None' here. Everything is configured now.

Executing and Monitoring the Job

We go to the attributes page of the job. You select the agent name that you configured in the INI file. Remember to save the configuration. After saving, you can execute the job.

To monitor the jobs in the SAP environment, click on the arrow buttons. You can see the schedule option and run details. For log information, you can click on the log information button. You can see all details.

Monitoring in Automic Automation

We switch back to the executions view in Automic Automation. It shows the list of executions. As you can see, this is the job we have created, and it ended successfully.

The details panel displays two object variables:

• job_name hash: Provides the name of the job.
• job_count hash: Shows the job's run number that the SAP S/4HANA application job system reported back to Automic Automation.

The report captures the final response we received. The agent log lists all the connection details followed by the job inputs and execution logs. We see that the job was completed successfully.

Thank you for watching this video.

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