Creating single-tier VPC for SAP on IBM Cloud® VPC with Terraform

Terraform on IBM Cloud® enables predictable and consistent provisioning of IBM Cloud VPC infrastructure resources so that you can rapidly build complex, cloud environments. IBM Cloud VPC infrastructure consists of SAP certified hardware using Intel® Xeon CPUs and additional Intel® technologies.

For more information about Terraform on IBM Cloud®, see Terraform on IBM Cloud getting started tutorial.

To create resources with Terraform, you use Terraform configuration files that describe the IBM Cloud resources that you need and how you want to configure them. Based on your configuration, Terraform creates an execution plan and describes the actions that need to be run to create the resources. You can review the execution plan, change it, or run the plan. When you change your configuration, Terraform on IBM Cloud can determine what changed and create incremental execution plans that you can apply to your existing IBM Cloud resources.

Script files

The configuration and script files are provided on the GitHub repository https://github.com/IBM-Cloud/sap-infra-anydb-single/tree/main/cli.

For single-tier virtual private cloud on SAP, you modify the:

terraform.tfvars file to add your IBM Cloud API-key
input.auto.tfvars file to customize the resources for your solution. You specify zones, resource names, and SSH keys.

All of the other configuration files are provided and do not need to be modified.

The IBM Cloud Provider plug-in for Terraform on IBM Cloud uses these configuration files to provision a VPC in your IBM Cloud account.

What is created

A VPC is a private space in IBM Cloud where you can run an isolated environment with custom network policies. The variables that you define are used by the scripts to provision the following virtual private cloud infrastructure resources for you:

1 VPC where you provision your virtual server instance
1 security group and rules for this security group to allow DNS and SSH connections to your virtual server instance and all outbound traffic
1 subnet to enable networking in your VPC
1 virtual server instance
2 storage volumes, 1 for swap and 1 for data
1 floating IP address that you use to access your VPC virtual server instance over the public network

Support

There are no warranties of any kind, and there is no service or technical support available for these materials from IBM®. As a recommended practice, review carefully any materials that you download from this site before using them on a live system.

Though the materials provided herein are not supported by the IBM Service organization, your comments are welcomed by the developers, who reserve the right to revise, re-adapt or remove the materials at any time. To report a problem, or provide suggestions or comments, open a GitHub issue.

Before you begin

Create or retrieve an IBM Cloud API key. The API key is used to authenticate with the IBM Cloud platform and to determine your permissions for IBM Cloud services.

Create or retrieve your SSH key ID. You need the 40-digit UUID for the SSH key, not the SSH key name.

Procedure

Use these steps to configure the IBM Cloud Provider Plug-in and use Terraform to create a VPC for SAP.

If you do not have Terraform installed, Install the Terraform CLI and the IBM Cloud Provider plug-in.

If you are using Terraform 0.13 and higher, you do not need to install the IBM Cloud Provider Plug-in. You modify the configuration files provided on the 1-Tier VPC for SAP GitHub repository to specify the plug-in version to use.

If you are using Terraform 1.12.x and earlier, follow these IBM Cloud Provider Plug-in installation instructions. Do not configure the plug-in.

Do not do any IBM Cloud Provider Plug-in configuration because those files are provided for you.
Create a project folder in the Terraform installation folder, and change directory to your project folder.

mkdir myproject && cd myproject
Copy the files from https://github.com/IBM-Cloud/sap-infra-anydb-single/tree/main/cli to the project folder that you created in the Terraform installation directory.
Edit the terraform.tfvars variable file and enter the IBM Cloud API key that you retrieved.

ibmcloud_api_key = "<ibmcloud_apikey>"

Variables that are defined in the terraform.tfvars file are automatically loaded by Terraform when the IBM Cloud Provider plug-in is initialized and you can reference them in every Terraform configuration file that you use.

Because the terraform.tfvars file contains confidential information, do not push this file to a version control system. Keep this file on your local system only.
Edit the input.auto.tfvars file to customize your solution. Modify the file to specify your zone, VPC component names, profile, and image. You need your 40-digit SSH key ID for this file. The second SSH key is optional. For more options for profile, see Instance Profiles. For more options for image, see Images.
```
ZONE			= "eu-de-1"
VPC			    = "test-vpc"
SECURITYGROUP	= "test-securitygroup"
SUBNET			= "test-subnet"
HOSTNAME		= "test-vsi"
PROFILE		    = "bx2-4x16"
IMAGE			= "ibm-redhat-7-6-amd64-sap-applications-1"
SSH_KEYS		= [ "<SSH Key ID 1>" , "<SSH Key ID 2>" ]
SWAP			= "16"
VOL1			= "10"
```
Initialize the Terraform CLI.
```
terraform init
```
Create a Terraform execution plan. The Terraform execution plan summarizes all the actions that are done to create the VPC instance in your account.
```
terraform plan
```
Verify that the plan shows all of the resources that you want to create and that the names and values are correct. If the plan needs to be adjusted, edit the input.auto.tfvars file to correct resources and run terraform plan again.
Create the VPC for SAP instance and IAM access policy in IBM Cloud.
```
terraform apply
```
The VPC and components are created and you see output similar to the terraform plan output.

This automation is offered at no cost; however, the provisioned infrastructure comes at cost.

Next steps

If you need to rename your resources after they are created, modify the input.auto.tfvars file to change the names and run terraform plan and terraform apply again. Do not use the IBM Cloud Dashboard and user interface to modify your VPC after it is created. The Terraform scripts create a complete solution and selectively modifying resources with the user interface might cause unexpected results.

If you need to remove your VPC, go to your project folder and run terraform destroy.