OpenText Archive Center 16.2 Single File Vendor Interface (VI) using Microsoft Azure Storage Account as a storage device is now supported on Linux. Checkout this brief overview of its usage on one of our current projects. Thanks to Manish Shah (Microsoft) for his contribution and working with OpenText to achieve support on Linux, to Supriya Pande for her article on the Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer, to Oleh Khrypko (SAP) for his input to handling disaster recovery on OpenText Archive Center and Gary Jackson (Aliter Consulting) for the article.

1. OpenText Archive Center on Azure

2. • This presentation illustrates one possible implementation of
OpenText Archive Center 16.2 system on the Microsoft Azure
public cloud based on a recent customer requirement
• Key requirements from the customer included a highly available
solution operating in the primary Azure Region #1 (EU West in
this case) with a disaster recovery solution operating in the
paired Azure Region #2 (EU North in this case)
• Key documents used to prepare this solution were:
– OpenText Administration Guide
– Microsoft Azure Installation for OpenText
Introduction

3. Architecture Overview
Region #1 Region #2
DNSName of Azure Load Balancer
AsynchronousReplication
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Locally
Redundant
Storage
(LRS)
OpenText Single
FileVendor Interface
AzureStorageAccount
Type: V1
archive
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archive
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archive
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HANA
Database Server
Type: E16_V3
HANA2.0
OpenText
Application Server
Type: D4_V3
Tomcat
Disk
Buffer
OTDS
OTAC
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container
container
container
Locally
Redundant
Storage
(LRS)
OpenText Single
FileVendor Interface
AzureStorageAccount
Type: V1
archive
container
archive
container
archive
container
HANA
Database Server
Type: E16_V3
HANA2.0
OpenText
Application Server
Type: D4_V3
Tomcat
Disk
Buffer
OTDS
OTAC

4. • For the OpenText Archive Center application servers Azure VM
type D4_v3 with 4 CPUs and 16gb RAM
• For the SAP HANA database servers Azure VM type E-series
E16_v3 with 16 CPUs and 128gb RAM
• High Availability can be achieved in 2 ways:
– By deploying an Operating System cluster such WSFC on Windows or
Pacemaker on Linux
– By deploying a single VM with premium storage and relying on Azure VM
Restart which Microsoft now guarantee an SLA of 99.9% (the chosen
option for this customer)
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/support/legal/sla/virtual-machines/v1_8/
Architecture Summary

5. • Disaster Recovery can be achieved by deploying like-for-like
components in both Azure regions
• The architecture described here operates in an active/active
mode
• Archive replication synchronizes the OpenText logical archive
content created on the application server in Region #1 to the
application server in Region #2
• In each region, the following are deployed:
– 1 OpenText Archive Center application server
– 1 SAP HANA database server
– 1 Azure Storage Account with LRS
– 1 Azure Internal Load Balancer (ILB) listening on SSL port 443 and
forwarding onto Tomcat SSL port 8090
Architecture Summary

6. • In the event that Microsoft declares a disaster in Region #1, the
paired Region #2 becomes the primary location for the tenant
(customer)
• OpenText Application server in Region #2 becomes the active
OpenText Archive Center application with associated Tomcat
web application server
• SAP HANA database server in Region #2 becomes the active
OpenText database server
• The Storage Account in Region #2 becomes the active storage
media for read/write access to new archive repositories
• DNS for Azure Load Balancer is adjusted to reference the VM in
Region #2
In the Event of Disaster

7. OpenText Operation (Normal Mode)
SAP S/4HANA
Repository
A
(Active)
Repository
B
(Dormant)
SAP ArchiveLink / KPro
Read / Write
Archive Server #1
Repository
A
[Original Archive]
[Read Write]
Asynchronous Replication
Archive Server #2
Repository
A
[Replicated Archive]
[Read]
Repository
B
[Original Archive]
[Read Write]
Region #2Region #1
• SAP S/4HANA and Archive Server #1 active
in primary Region #1
• OpenText Archive Server #2 active in paired
Region #2
• Repository A active in Archive Server #1
and available for read / write operations in
S/4HANA
• Repository A replicated to Archive Server
#2 as replicated archive

8. OpenText Operation (Disaster Mode)
SAP S/4HANA
Repository
A
(Active)
Repository
B
(Active)
SAP ArchiveLink / KPro
Read Only
Archive Server #2
Repository
A
[Replicated Archive]
[Read]
Repository
B
[Original Archive]
[Read Write]
Region #2Region #1
• Region #1 unavailable
• SAP S/4HANA and Archive Server #2 active
in paired Region #2
• Repository A active in Archive Server #2
and available for read only operations in
S/4HANA
• Repository B active in Archive Server #1
and available for read / write operations in
S/4HANA
• Failback to the primary Region #1 once it
becomes available will require manual
intervention to transfer content created in
Repository B to Repository A in Archive
Server #1
Read / Write

9. • Local Redundant Storage (LRS)
– Provided through replication to storage scale unit within a data center
– Provides 3 local replicas of data
– Provides 11 nines availability over a given year
– Write request only confirmed after data is written to all replicas
– Useful for high availability scenario
For further details please see the following Azure article:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-redundancy-lrs
About Azure Storage Redundancy

10. • Zone Redundant Storage (ZRS)
– Provided through replication to storage clusters in a single region
– Provides 3 zone replicas of data
– Provides 12 nines availability over a given year
– Good choice for high availability scenario with Availability Zones
For further details please see the following Azure article:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-redundancy-zrs
About Azure Storage Redundancy

11. • Geo Redundant Storage (GRS)
– Provides replication of data to a second region
– Provides 3 local replicas of data in each region
– Provides 16 nines availability over a given year
– Excellent for regional disaster recovery
For further details please see the following Azure article:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-redundancy-grs
About Azure Storage Redundancy

12. • Provides an explorer-like GUI for working with Azure Storage
Accounts.
• Allows administration of data lakes, files, blobs, tables and
queues.
For details on how better to use Azure Storage Explorer, please see the following
excellent Red Gate article by Supriya Pande from our LinkedIn network:
https://www.red-gate.com/simple-talk/cloud/cloud-development/using-azure-storage-
explorer/
Azure Storage Explorer

13. • OpenText Knowledge Center (https://knowledge.opentext.com)
– Microsoft Azure Installation for OpenText
– OpenText Archive Centre Storage Platforms 16.2 Release Notes
• Microsoft Azure:
– Azure Storage Account Overview
– Azure Storage Documentation
• Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer
– Using Azure Storage Explorer
• Further details are available on request from Cloud Consultants
– mailto:info@aliterconsulting.co.uk
Reference Material

14. Thank You