Developing Speech Interface for XSA Web Applications using Python

In this blog, I am going to talk about how to build conversational interfaces in XSA applications by integrating speech-to-text and text-to-speech APIs. I am also going to briefly cover how web sockets work in python for XSA applications. For those that are not familiar, web sockets are used for live bi-directional communication between clients and a server. Numerous clients can be connected to the same server through which they receive live updates as events. They do not need to make explicit HTTP calls to check for status updates. In addition, the Server can also initiate communication with the client and send updates as opposed to simple HTTP where a client must always initiate communication often leading to polling interfaces.

Deploy HANA Express database on Google Kubernetes cluster

This post will guide you through the creation and configuration of a Kubernetes cluster on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). You will then learn how to connect to SAP HANA, express edition running on the pods. The configurations provided here should also work on other Kubernetes orchestrators such as Azure Kubernetes Service or Amazon EKS.

Connect a SQL client to HANA Express on Google Kubernetes Engine

I showed how to setup a Kubernetes cluster with three HXE containers running in single pods. As I continue to explore different possibilities with my new favorite toy, I thought I could document some extra steps to connect from an external, local SQL client.

SAP HANA Cockpit 2.0 SP 04 What’s New – by the SAP HANA Academy

Introduction

Earlier this week (October 31, 2017), the latest support pack for SAP HANA cockpit 2.0 SP 04 was released-to-customer (RTC).

Support pack 04 introduces some nice new functionality to make administering SAP HANA systems easier, more secure, and more manageable for large scale deployments.

Configure Information Access in HANA Express to connect from Lumira or Analysis for Office

In this blog post, I’m documenting the steps I followed to enable Information Access in SAP HANA, express edition on my Google Cloud Platform machine.

Before we continue….

Get your SSH keys to HANA Express instance in Google Cloud Platform

You’ve been watching this SAP CodeTalk or following this tutorial on how to setup your SAP HANA, express edition, (or HXE) with the Google Cloud Launcher. Now you would like to connect to the instance from some SSH client, such as PuTTY or the console on your Mac or Linux computer.

You need the SSH keys, but where are they? If this is your first project and you have not generated your keys before, chances are that you won’t find them in your .ssh folder as this tutorial indicates:

SQL Clients and SAP HANA 2.0

So recently I’ve been playing around a lot with our “Server Only” version of the SAP HANA, express edition (HXE). Now with that server only version I am mainly focused on just using more of the Database features than anything else. Trying SQL and working with the PAL libraries.

With our activities and ability to quickly load HXE into the Google Cloud Platform I also thought how else could I speed of some of my time. I mean I am only working with SQL on some of these things so could I use the JDBC driver and find a tool that would do nicely for it?

I’ve now tried a good half a dozen or so and decided that the current one I will play with the next few weeks would be DBeaver.

How to configure transports of XS Classic native applications

I recently needed to configure the transports of Delivery Units between a SAP HANA, express edition, (HXE)  instance in Amazon Web Services and one of my tenant databases in another HXE instance in Google Cloud Platform.

My destination HXE instance (some kind of QA environment) was originally a server-only to which I added the XS classic tools as explained in this how-to guide . The source instance plays the Dev environment in this scenario.  I wanted to transport from Dev into QA without manually exporting and importing Delivery Units.

In order to configure the transports and access the ALM tools you will need the following roles in the source/Dev system:

• sap.hana.xs.lm.roles::Administrator
• hana.xs.admin.roles::HTTPDestAdministrator
• hana.xs.admin.roles::RuntimeConfAdministrator

Five stars to SAP HANA Express Edition on Google Cloud Platform

Ever since I installed my SAP HANA, express edition (HXE), instances on Google Cloud Platform I have been using them as my main platforms for development and different experiments. My experience has been so good that I feel it has to be shared so others do not miss on it.

What I like about Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is that it makes it extremely easy to get my SAP HANA instances up and running when and how I want them.

The web SSH client and GCloud console stand out as a star feature. Two clicks and you are logged in to the operating system, ready to cast some commands using the web interface.

After building some applications and adding data into them, GCP warned me that my instances were overutilized and suggested a more cost-effective and better configuration. The statistics in the monitoring were in agreement, showing that the instances were hungry for more resources. Feeding more RAM and CPU to them was easy as sliding a bar or entering the exact amount of RAM I want and turning the machines back on.

The only requirement to adding more resources is that the virtual machine is turned off.

This requirement also applies to taking a snapshot of your instance. Other than the traditional uses of HXE, I sometimes like to test different configurations or simply try what I would not dare do in a productive or even shared environment. A snapshot allows me to go back to the point where the virtual machine was up and running before, for example, locking myself out. The best part is that taking a snapshot and recovering it is almost as fast a CTRL+Z.

Now, what you (and your wallet) have been waiting for: The Price. The basic instance can run on as low as 0.20 USD/hour. Because I keep three flavors of HANA Express Edition (server only, Server only + XS Classic Tools and Full XS Advanced installation), I tend to turn them on and off as I need one or all of them. I was expecting a big reduction of the free initial credit that I was lucky to get from Google Cloud Platform when I signed up, but no: Unlike many other providers, Google Cloud Platform bills you by the minute after a minimum of 10 minutes. In other words, not only is it unbelievably cheap but it also takes off the pressure of taking into account what time it is before you turn the instance off. You can take a look at the billing principles and estimate your monthly costs in their comprehensive pricing site.

Google Cloud Platform also sends you weekly emails as well as the bill. Consequently, there are no surprises at the end of the month if, for example, you forgot to turn off one of your instances.

Do I need to remind you that SAP HANA, express edition, comes with a perpetual free license for productive use up to 32 GB RAM? In case this needs translation: You can have the transalytics, predictive, geospatial and real-time power of a world-class in-memory database licensed for free and a very low infrastructure cost.

Five stars to SAP HANA Express Edition on Google Cloud Platform

Ever since I installed my SAP HANA, express edition (HXE), instances on Google Cloud Platform I have been using them as my main platforms for development and different experiments. My experience has been so good that I feel it has to be shared so others do not miss on it.

What I like about Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is that it makes it extremely easy to get my SAP HANA instances up and running when and how I want them.

The web SSH client and GCloud console stand out as a star feature. Two clicks and you are logged in to the operating system, ready to cast some commands using the web interface.