Introduction

This is part 4 of the technical guidance series, “watsonx.ai Integration with S/4HANA® on PowerVS.”

This blog is based on the IBM Cloud general tutorial Integrate watsonx services with workloads hosted on Power Virtual Server which describes how to connect watsonx via satellite connector to a MySQL server.

For SAP workloads, the OData protocol access is best practice. Accessing data on SAP application server level considers the SAP application logic and structure. It is compliant with the standard SAP HANA runtime license and does not require purchasing SAP HANA full-use licenses. 

Part 3 of this blog series: watsonx.ai integration with S/4HANA® on PowerVS (3/6): OData Demo Scenario Setup described how to create the OData service. This service will be used and configured now for the watsonx Satellite Connections.

Provision Power Virtual Server(s) for the Agent

The watsonx satellite connector agent solution described is delivered as a container. This container is executed on a LPAR separated from the SAP system LPARs to avoid potential confusion during SAP support calls. Between agent container and SAP application server OData calls and responses are exchanged, if both are on the same network segment that should be generally OK. 

For a productive or high available setup, create multiple LPARs and deploy an agent on each, these LPARs should be close to the SAP application server node.

Please follow the steps to deploy a Power Virtual Server as described in Step 1: Provision Power Virtual Server environment in IBM Cloud

Follow the enumeration from step 1 to step 11. When completed, a Power Virtual Server is running, Proxy and no_proxy settings are done, and the nameserver is tested.

Provision Satellite Connector service in IBM Cloud

Satellite Connector can be created on IBM Cloud Console or via ibmcloud CLI. IBM Cloud Docs has instructions on how to create and config Satellite Connector with UI or CLI.

To create Satellite Connector on the IBM Cloud UI, click on Satellite -> Connectors, and then ‘Create connector’ button. Provide name, tag, Resource Group, IBM Cloud region, and create connector.

Once it is created, note down the ID.

SATELLITE_CONNECTOR_ID=MY_CONNECTOR_ID

Deploy Satellite Connector agent on Power Virtual Server

Login to the Power Virtual Server instance, and install podman.

dnf install podman -y

Ensure the NO_PROXY variables are set, this will disable proxy usage for watsonx internal cloud communication.

Then follow the steps described in Step 4: Deploy Satellite Connector agent on Power Virtual Server.

These steps are exactly the same.
When done successfully, the new deployed agent shows up in the Active Agents tab as described in this article.

Config Satellite Connector endpoint in Satellite Connector

The satellite connector agent is running and connected. Next step is to define the endpoint, the SAP application server target system.
An endpoint is a system providing the service e. g. OData services.

From the OData service setup you will need these settings to define the endpoint:

• SAP S/4HANA application server hostname or IP address
• Port number used by the OData services

To configure the satellite endpoint in IBM Cloud:

1. click  IBM Cloud => Satellite => Connectors
2. click your Connector to view details
3. switch to User endpoints tab
4. press Create endpoint + button
5. Accept the default setting Agent location as the agent runs in the same network and press Next
6. Fill in the Endpoint name e.g. sc-odata,
   the IP address of the SAP S/4HANA server e. g. 10.50.0.129 and
   the OData port e. g. 8080
   
   
7. Press Next button
8. On next screen leave Source protocol to TCP and press Next
9. If the endpoint (OData service) responds, press Next
10. Define access permissions via ACLs if required, press Next
11. Modify Inactivity Timout if required, press Create endpoint

The User endpoint tab of your connector contains the new entry.

Click this User Endpoint to open details page and note the Endpoint address.

User endpoint addresses typically look like 
xyz.satellite.cloud.ibm.com:12345

Memorize this address for the next blog, it will be required there.

Next Steps

Next blog article in this series: 
watsonx.ai Integration with S/4HANA® on PowerVS (5/6): Automate OData Queries in watsonx Notebooks with AI