Merge pull request #307324 from devanshjainms/staf-doc

STAF documentation

Author: v-ccolin

articles/sap/automation/media/testing-framework/testing-framework-architecture.png

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+---
+title: SAP Testing Automation Framework Architecture
+description: Learn about the architecture and components of the SAP Testing Automation Framework
+author: devanshjain
+ms.author: devanshjain
+ms.reviewer: depadia
+ms.date: 10/27/2025
+ms.service: sap-on-azure
+ms.subservice: sap-automation
+ms.topic: conceptual
+---
+
+# SAP Testing Automation Framework architecture
+
+The SAP Testing Automation Framework uses a distributed architecture with centralized management to orchestrate testing operations across multiple SAP systems.
+
+## Key components
+
+The SAP Testing Automation Framework is built on several core components that work together to provide comprehensive testing capabilities:
+
+- **Management server**: Central orchestration engine and control plane for test operations across all managed SAP systems. The management server coordinates test execution and provides a unified interface for monitoring testing activities.
+
+- **Ansible playbooks**: Automated test execution and system validation orchestration. These playbooks contain the logic for executing different types of tests, including configuration validation, functional tests, and high availability scenarios. The playbooks are integrated with Python modules that provide extended functionality for SAP-specific operations, system monitoring, and data processing. These python modules are designed to be modular and reusable across different framework components.
+
+- **Test scripts**: Helper utilities for test case management and execution. These scripts handle specific testing operations such as critical service failure simulation, network partitioning, and database failover. They're written to be environment and operating system agnostic and can be customized for specific testing requirements.
+
+- **Workspaces**: System-specific configuration and credentials management component. Each workspace contains the necessary configuration files, connection parameters, and authentication details for a specific SAP system or environment. This structure enables the framework to manage multiple systems concurrently while maintaining isolation between environments.
+
+- **Reporting engine**: Generates detailed HTML test reports with comprehensive results, logs, and diagnostic information. The reporting engine provides structured output. It includes test execution summaries, pass/fail status for individual test cases, performance metrics, and detailed error logs for troubleshooting purposes.
+
+## Architecture
+
+### High-level framework structure
+
+The SAP Testing Automation Framework uses a centralized management server architecture that orchestrates all testing scenarios across multiple SAP systems. This orchestrator architecture provides centralized control and efficient resource utilization while maintaining the flexibility to support multiple deployment scenarios.
+
+:::image type="content" source="./media/testing-framework/testing-framework-architecture.png" alt-text="Diagram that shows the SAP Testing Automation Framework architecture.":::
+
+The framework operates on a hub-and-spoke model where the management server acts as the central hub. It coordinates with multiple SAP systems (spokes) to execute tests, collect results, and generate comprehensive reports. Key functions include:
+
+**Test orchestration**: The management server coordinates test suite execution, and ensures proper sequencing of tests across multiple SAP environments.
+
+**Configuration management**: The system maintains directories of configuration templates, system inventories, and customization parameters. These configurations can be applied across environments to ensure uniformity and minimize configuration drift.
+
+**Communication hub**: The server handles secure connections, authentication, and data exchange with target SAP systems, providing a unified interface for all testing operations.
+
+## Next steps
+
+To learn more about specific aspects of the framework:
+
+- For SAP Testing Automation Framework support matrix, see [Understand supported platforms](testing-framework-supportability.md).
+- To get started on SAP Testing Automation Framework setup, follow the guide [Setup Guide for SAP Testing Automation Framework](https://github.com/Azure/sap-automation-qa/blob/main/docs/SETUP.MD).
+- For running the high availability testing, see [Get started with High Availability testing](testing-framework-high-availability.md).
+- For running the configuration checks, see [Get started with configuration validation](https://github.com/Azure/sap-automation-qa/tree/main/docs/CONFIGURATION_CHECKS.md).

articles/sap/automation/testing-framework-architecture.md

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+---
+title: SAP Testing Automation Framework Configuration Checks
+description: Learn about configuration validation checks in the SAP Testing Automation Framework
+author: devanshjain
+ms.author: devanshjain
+ms.reviewer: depadia
+ms.topic: reference
+ms.service: sap-on-azure
+ms.subservice: sap-automation
+ms.date: 10/27/2025
+ms.custom: devx-track-azurecli, devx-track-azurepowershell, linux-related-content
+---
+
+# SAP Testing Automation Framework: Configuration checks (Preview)
+
+The SAP Testing Automation Framework includes comprehensive configuration validation capabilities to ensure SAP systems comply with best practices and guidelines for deployments on Microsoft Azure. These configuration checks help identify potential issues that can affect system performance, reliability, and compliance.
+
+## Overview
+
+Configuration validation is a critical component of the testing framework that performs nonintrusive checks to validate system configurations against SAP on Azure best practices. These checks help identify configuration issues before they affect production systems. The framework validates various aspects of the SAP system, including infrastructure settings, operating system parameters, storage configurations, and cluster resource settings.
+
+These checks are nonintrusive, meaning they don't modify the system or require downtime. Instead, they analyze existing configurations and provide detailed reports highlighting any deviations from recommended practices.
+
+> [!NOTE]
+> The configuration checks in SAP Testing Automation Framework is currently in public preview.
+
+### Configuration validation checks
+
+The configuration validation checks within the SAP Testing Automation Framework are systematically organized into distinct logical groupings that provide flexibility in execution. Each group can be executed independently on a standalone basis, or alternatively, all groups can be executed together in a comprehensive validation run. 
+
+The primary categories of configuration validation checks include the following. Examples of checks in each category are provided below to illustrate the nature and scope of validations performed:
+
+> [!TIP]
+> For the complete and up-to-date list of all configuration checks, refer to the [Configuration Checks documentation](https://github.com/Azure/sap-automation-qa/blob/main/docs/CONFIGURATION_CHECKS.md) on GitHub.
+
+#### Infrastructure
+
+- While not a separate execution category, infrastructure checks are integrated as an essential component within the other categories.
+- **Azure Compute**: Validation of Virtual Machine SKU, Accelerated Networking enablement, Availability Set/Zone configuration, and Proximity Placement Group settings.
+- **Storage**: Verification of Premium SSD/Ultra Disk usage, Write Accelerator configuration, disk caching policies, and redundancy settings.
+
+#### Database
+
+- Validates SAP HANA or IBM DB2 specific settings.
+- **SAP HANA**: Checks for memory allocation, system replication parameters, and Pacemaker cluster configurations (resource agents, fencing mechanisms, and constraints).
+- **IBM DB2**: Verification of hardware requirements, system language settings, and operating system tuning parameters.
+
+#### Central services
+
+- Validates the configuration of ASCS (ABAP SAP Central Services) and ERS (Enqueue Replication Server) instances.
+- Checks for virtual hostname configuration, file system mount options, and service startup ordering.
+
+#### Application servers
+
+- Validates the configuration of the application server instances.
+
+> [!NOTE]
+> High Availability (HA) configuration checks and functional tests are currently supported only for SAP HANA databases. For IBM DB2 databases, only non-HA configuration checks are available.
+
+## Next steps
+
+- To get started on SAP Testing Automation Framework setup, follow the guide [Setup Guide for SAP Testing Automation Framework](https://github.com/Azure/sap-automation-qa/blob/main/docs/SETUP.MD).
+- For running the configuration checks, see [Get started with configuration validation](https://github.com/Azure/sap-automation-qa/tree/main/docs/CONFIGURATION_CHECKS.md).
+- To understand the architecture of SAP Testing Automation Framework, see [Review the framework architecture](testing-framework-architecture.md).
+- For SAP Testing Automation Framework support matrix, see [Understand supported platforms](testing-framework-supportability.md).