Avantra 21 introduced the concept of Automation workflows. By Avantra 23, compatibility with Ansible was added. Along the way, Avantra became the tool SAP teams reached for when they wanted system copies, refreshes, and backup orchestration to just run — predictably, on a schedule, without a senior engineer babysitting them.
So, automation isn’t new to Avantra users. Avantra made automation for SAP practical to deploy, predictable in operation, and easier to maintain.
With Avantra 26, Avantra brings automation for SAP operations up another level, with better oversight, a new automation experience, and automation templates to accelerate the most common, and often most complicated, automation tasks.
Here’s what’s new.
Show Runner
The new Automation Runner provides a top-level view of automation across the SAP estate. Scheduled automation is categorized by workflow type, scheduled execution time and status. Controls for start, stop and retry are standard, and automation awaiting required human inputs or step approvals are automatically escalated to this top-level view.
The Automation Runner is a central first stop for all things automation in Avantra, providing oversight and automatically surfacing automation issues in a real-time dashboard. The Automation Runner is multi-tenant, too, and ideal for MSPs or large organizations with the need to segregate SAP operations between environments yet maintain a cross-landscape operational view.
Look Ma! No Manuals!
Creating automation for complex SAP tasks isn’t easy. In addition to the classic complexities of shell scripts and programming, there are multiple layers of SAP infrastructure and authorizations to contend with, from OS to Database, to Application layer and more. Avantra 26 makes this massively easier with a workflow wizard to step through the creation of sophisticated operations automation.
With Avantra 26, the configuration of complex automations with pre-and-post operations steps is simplified. Avantra automatically manages the unique nature of each SAP implementation, and supports SAP anywhere it runs, even automation for Cloud ERP. For example, SAP System Refresh is accelerated by limiting the requirements for SAP operations teams to simply identifying the source and target systems, providing the necessary credentials and answering operations questions about the environment. Avantra then architects the workflow automatically, bringing Avantra’s SAP operations expertise to the fingertips of any IT professional, and not just deep SAP experts.
Documentation and configuration guidance is in-line, too! So, everything required to populate and create working, maintainable operations automation is right where teams need it.
Template Temptations
Avantra comes with a great library of automation capabilities built in for the most common and complex SAP operations: system copy and refresh, backup orchestration, shutdown and restart orchestration, and many more. With Avantra 26, each of these benefits from the new automation interface and are planned for delivery using the new automation architecture.
The template functionality is extensible, too. This is ideal for the migration of existing automation scripts and tribal knowledge into a well-managed, maintainable environment. Reuse and upkeep are central elements of the design, moving parameters, passwords and other runtime information out of control files and into a system designed for the task, and enhancing operational security, too. The approach facilitates easy upkeep and promotes reuse of local operations knowledge across more than just a single landscape with great flexibility.
Automation Acumen
The enhancements to Automation are just part of the excitement and new capabilities of Avantra 26. If accelerating your SAP operations including migration project objectives, daily operations efficiencies, or supporting a hybrid SAP estate across on-premises and Cloud ERP deployments is your challenge, schedule a meeting with an Avantra expert to discuss your automation needs.