Leveraging VCE Vblock® Systems for SAP HANA tailored data center integration (TDI)

Version 1.0 October 2014

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THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS." VCE MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PUBLICATION, AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

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VCE believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.

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Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 5 Key features and benefits ....................................................................................................................... 5 Purpose .................................................................................................................................................. 6 Audience ................................................................................................................................................. 6 Feedback ................................................................................................................................................ 6

SAP HANA deployment options ................................................................................................................ 7 SAP HANA certified appliance ............................................................................................................... 7 SAP HANA tailored data center integration ............................................................................................ 8 Comparing the SAP HANA certified appliance and SAP HANA TDI ..................................................... 9 Virtualized SAP HANA .......................................................................................................................... 11 Choosing between physical and virtual SAP HANA deployment ......................................................... 11

Tailored data center integration-ready Vblock Systems ....................................................................... 13 Support model ...................................................................................................................................... 13 VCE Professional Services ................................................................................................................... 14 Mixed workloads in SAP HANA TDI environments .............................................................................. 15 Data center replication for disaster tolerance ....................................................................................... 16

Design considerations .............................................................................................................................. 17 SAP HANA TDI hardware and software requirements ......................................................................... 17

Server ............................................................................................................................................. 17 Storage ........................................................................................................................................... 17 Software ......................................................................................................................................... 18 Hardware ........................................................................................................................................ 18

Registration considerations .................................................................................................................. 18 Sizing considerations ............................................................................................................................ 19

Server sizing .................................................................................................................................. 19 Network sizing ................................................................................................................................ 19 Storage sizing ................................................................................................................................ 20 Virtual SAP HANA sizing................................................................................................................ 20

Implementation considerations ............................................................................................................. 21 Setting up the SAP HANA landscape ............................................................................................ 21 Validating the landscape ................................................................................................................ 23 Installing SAP HANA ...................................................................................................................... 23 Post-production maintenance and support .................................................................................... 23

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 24 Additional information ........................................................................................................................... 25

Cisco .............................................................................................................................................. 25 EMC ............................................................................................................................................... 25

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SAP ................................................................................................................................................ 25 VMware .......................................................................................................................................... 25

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Introduction

Increasingly, organizations need to be able to handle complex business processes in real-time, whether they are complex transactional workloads, business analytics, or the new generation of data mining applications. To support this trend, SAP launched the SAP HANA platform, which is designed to help organizations cope with the increasing rates of change and innovation by enabling them to respond in real-time. While recognizing information as an asset to use to make better decisions, the ability to capitalize on data remains one of the highest priorities for regulated industries.

Converged infrastructure delivers on that need by providing the speed and ability to power SAP HANA while remaining cost effective. Vblock® Systems seamlessly integrate leading compute, network, and storage technologies to provide an optimized converged infrastructure solution that ensures secure and predictable performance through pre-engineered, modular infrastructure. Vblock Systems provide the highest levels of virtualization and application performance.

Organizations can choose between procuring SAP certified appliance hardware for SAP HANA or leveraging SAP HANA tailored data center integration (TDI) to capitalize on existing infrastructure investments. Many operations teams have achieved their goal of getting their SAP HANA deployment up and running using the certified appliance model. However, these appliances might not integrate well with existing data center standards or management and operational processes, adding cost and complexity to data center operations. SAP HANA TDI offers the ability to deploy SAP HANA software on standard Vblock Systems to leverage the benefits of VCE’s converged infrastructure solutions.

This paper examines how organizations can stay ahead in the ever-changing SAP HANA landscape. SAP HANA tailored data center integration – enabled by VCE – is designed for rapid technology expansion and scaling of the Vblock System compute, network, and storage resources. It provides the benefits of the VCE Experience – built, delivered, and supported by VCE.

Key features and benefits

Organizations can choose to deploy SAP HANA on:

SAP certified appliances, such as the VCE Vblock® Specialized System for SAP HANA® software (VSS SAP HANA)

SAP HANA certified hardware components, using SAP HANA TDI

The SAP HANA certified appliance model, while stable and predictable, has some limitations including server and storage flexibility and the ability to use existing data center infrastructure and processes.

The SAP HANA TDI model removes the limitations of the SAP HANA certified appliance model by allowing flexibility in hardware choice, as it allows use of existing hardware and operational processes. Vblock Systems offer a range of storage options that are certified for SAP HANA TDI.

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SAP HANA TDI-ready Vblock Systems are standard Vblock Systems delivered with SAP HANA certified blades and storage. SAP HANA TDI can be used with either EMC VMAX or EMC VNX storage. Organizations can integrate SAP HANA TDI on Vblock Systems into an existing, well-established data center infrastructure. This provides multiple benefits, including:

Risk mitigation and optimized time-to-value by using existing IT processes

Increased ROI, through the use of new or existing Vblock Systems investment

Flexible mixed-workloads to run alongside the SAP HANA deployment

Options to use storage replication for disaster tolerance

Seamless support model

Purpose

This paper looks at the deployment options available for organizations using SAP HANA with Vblock Systems and compares the different options. It describes the benefits available using SAP HANA TDI-ready Vblock Systems. It also includes design considerations and best practice recommendations for deploying SAP HANA TDI in a Vblock System environment.

This document is neither a solution architecture nor a detailed solutions guide. It is not intended to replace existing best practices documents. Customer-specific use cases, workflows, workloads, and other variables might affect the recommendations made in this document.

Audience

The audience for this document consists of organizations who are planning to deploy SAP HANA using their existing or planned IT infrastructure, and looking to include VCE Vblock Systems. Specifically, the audience consists of:

• C-level executives chartered with their company’s overall technology direction and looking at the benefits of converged infrastructure

• IT directors and managers responding to their SAP users’ HANA requirements and looking to leverage existing or planned Vblock Systems, EMC storage, Cisco UCS servers or fabrics

• SAP application architects looking at SAP HANA as the key technology platform for future SAP analytics and business process application deployments

SAP business users looking to exploit the power of SAP HANA for their applications

Feedback

To suggest documentation changes and provide feedback on this paper, send email to docfeedback@vce.com. Include the title of this paper, the name of the topic to which your comment applies, and your feedback.

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SAP HANA deployment options

SAP HANA is a software solution that integrates a number of SAP components including the SAP HANA in-memory database system, SAP HANA studio, SAP HANA client, and SAP HANA Extended Application Services. These components help improve operational efficiency, agility, and flexibility.

SAP HANA software requires the use of SAP certified platforms to ensure that performance meets SAP criteria and can provide enterprise-level business continuity with high availability and disaster tolerance. Organizations considering using SAP HANA for their high-performance in-memory database and data analysis needs should also consider their ongoing business IT operations and processes.

When choosing SAP HANA deployment, organizations need to consider whether they want to deploy SAP HANA on a dedicated infrastructure (appliance) or use their current infrastructure landscape.

SAP HANA certified appliance

Traditionally, SAP HANA has been delivered and installed as an appliance.

The appliance is a fully integrated hardware and software solution in which all the hardware is dedicated to running SAP HANA software. It comes with all the necessary components pre-configured and provided by certified SAP HANA hardware partners. VCE’s SAP HANA certified appliance is the Vblock Specialized System for SAP HANA. Optimized for SAP HANA software, the system represents best-of-breed compute, network, and storage components from Cisco and EMC.

Appliance delivery of SAP HANA is standardized and highly optimized. Memory requirements drive the system size and number of nodes. The appliance is easy to use with preconfigured hardware and preinstalled software, and is fully supported by SAP. It provides stability and predictability; however, it might introduce some limitations regarding hardware flexibility and might require changes to established IT operation processes. As this is a preconfigured system, the SAP HANA certified appliance does not allow for change or additional use. The appliance supports only a single SAP HANA database instance in production. Multiple production SAP HANA database instances require multiple separate appliances.

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SAP HANA tailored data center integration

SAP HANA TDI lets an organization run SAP HANA as part of a certified server, network, and storage solution. SAP HANA users can leverage existing hardware and infrastructure components for their SAP HANA environment.

Instead of using the fixed components delivered with an SAP HANA certified appliance, SAP HANA TDI enables the reuse of certain hardware and infrastructure components already existing in an organization’s landscape. Best-of-breed certified storage, certified servers and networking components can be combined–even using their own existing components to support their SAP HANA TDI installation. Organizations with an existing Vblock System or considering implementing a new Vblock System can deploy SAP HANA through TDI on a standard Vblock System, provided that certified SAP HANA TDI compute and storage components are included.

SAP HANA TDI offers a more open, flexible approach to integrating SAP HANA in the data center. Reusing an existing Vblock System or EMC storage can reduce hardware and operation costs. Enabling SAP HANA software to leverage existing IT management processes for SAP HANA software implementation mitigates risks and optimizes time-to-value. Using SAP HANA TDI helps organizations stay within IT budget, shortens implementation cycles, and allows better consumption of hardware innovations to drive the adaptation of SAP HANA.

Using an SAP HANA TDI-ready Vblock System removes concerns about configuration complexity due to too many choices from multiple vendors. With TDI, SAP HANA software is deployed on Vblock Systems following a strict set of rules defined by SAP. These rules define what servers can be used and how the storage must be configured to ensure that the hardware delivers the required performance. The SAP HANA software can be self-installed, installed by VCE, or installed through any SAP services partner with certified staff. The resulting solution is supported by SAP and VCE.

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Comparing the SAP HANA certified appliance and SAP HANA TDI

The following diagram illustrates the difference between the SAP HANA certified appliance and SAP HANA TDI deployment options.

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The following table compares key benefits for both approaches.

Key benefit SAP HANA certified appliance

SAP HANA TDI

Pre-integrated and pre-validated Vblock System infrastructure Yes No

Uses existing infrastructure No Yes

Factory pre-installation and configuration of the SAP HANA certified appliance hardware, operating system, and SAP HANA Platform Edition software with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server operating system pre-installed

Yes No

Customer or chosen partner installs SAP HANA software No Yes

Virtualization layer (optional) No Yes

Single-purpose environment with all server resources dedicated to the SAP HANA certified appliance

Yes No

Supports SAP HANA database scale out and scale up No Yes

Provides openness and freedom of choice to configure the hardware for SAP HANA depending on existing data center standard

No Yes

Reduce hardware and operational costs by reusing existing Vblock System hardware components and operation processes

No Yes

Mitigate risks and optimize time to value by enabling existing IT management processes for SAP HANA software implementations

No Yes

Helps stay within IT budget, shortens implementation cycles, and allows better consumption of hardware innovations to drive the adoption of SAP HANA

No Yes

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Virtualized SAP HANA

Virtual SAP HANA is SAP HANA running on a VMware vSphere virtual machine. VMware-based virtualization of SAP HANA enables the easy deployment and maintenance of production and non-production SAP HANA workloads, subject to the limitations of the SAP HANA TDI certification process.

The following are the prerequisites and conditions for installing virtual SAP HANA:

SAP HANA 1.0 SPS 05 and later is supported on VMware vSphere 5.1 for non-production use

SAP HANA 1.0 SPS 07 and later is supported on VMware vSphere 5.5 for production and non-production use

Each SAP HANA instance deployed on a virtual machine should be sized the same as SAP HANA deployed on bare metal physical SAP HANA certified appliances

Only single node (scale up) SAP HANA deployments are supported; multi-node scale out deployments are not supported

Over-provisioning of RAM or CPU is not allowed for SAP HANA

For more information on SAP HANA on VMware on non-production systems (development, test, QA, training), see SAP Note 1788665 – SAP HANA Support for VMware Virtualized Environments.

For more information on SAP HANA on VMware on production systems see SAP Note 1995460 - Single SAP HANA VM on VMware vSphere in production.

Choosing between physical and virtual SAP HANA deployment With SAP HANA TDI, organizations can choose between additional flexibility by running virtual SAP HANA, maximum performance by running SAP HANA on bare-metal physical hardware, or a combination. Deciding which solution is the best fit is largely a question of business processes and organizational strategy and expertise. For example, if your data center uses a Vblock System 720 with EMC VMAX storage and EMC SRDF replication for disaster tolerance, you could integrate SAP HANA into that environment by deploying SAP HANA on a TDI-ready Vblock 720. If your data center policy is to consolidate and virtualize all workloads and manage them with VMware vCloud Suite, virtualizing SAP HANA is a good solution.

For fast performance, using physical servers avoids the overhead of a hypervisor. For continuous operations without downtime, virtualized SAP HANA allows SAP HANA to migrate from one server to another while keeping it running, thus freeing the hardware for maintenance or updating. In addition, disaster tolerance is possible with VMware Site Recovery Manager. The performance overhead of virtual SAP HANA varies but is typically less than 12%. If the SAP HANA database system makes a process run 100 times faster on physical hardware, it might run only 90 times faster on virtual; however, for most use cases that is more than sufficient.

For training systems, VMware snapshot functionality is a key feature that enables the SAP HANA server state to be saved and restored at any time. This allows a return to the original state at the end of a training session. Do not confuse VMware snapshots with SAP HANA snapshots (an SAP HANA functionality).

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On test and development systems, cost savings can be achieved by deploying several SAP HANA virtual machines on a single host.

The following table compares the advantages of SAP HANA on virtual and physical hardware.

Feature Virtual SAP HANA Physical hardware

Virtualization across all layers Yes No

SAP HANA TDI Yes Yes

Highest performance No Yes

VMware vCenter Operations Manager Yes No

VMware vSphere vMotion Yes No

VMware Snapshots Yes No

SAP HANA Snapshots Yes Yes

VMware vSphere High Availability Yes No

VMware vCenter Site Recovery Manager Yes No

VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler Yes No

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Tailored data center integration-ready Vblock Systems

The Vblock System is essentially one hardware component – pre-engineered, pre-validated, and pre-tested to work together. SAP HANA can be installed with a virtualization layer or without one using an SAP HANA TDI-ready bare-metal physical Vblock System. Using a TDI-ready Vblock System frees organizations from worrying about whether their infrastructure will pass the SAP HANA hardware configuration check tool. With SAP HANA TDI, the SAP HANA database becomes just another resource to consolidate onto a shared infrastructure. It is treated like any other SAP supported database, run on shared hardware alongside those databases, the SAP application tier, and other supporting third party applications.

SAP HANA TDI-ready Vblock Systems are standard Vblock Systems with SAP HANA certified servers and storage. The Vblock System 300 family comes with EMC VNX storage and the Vblock System 700 family features EMC VMAX storage. They are factory built in the same way as the Vblock Specialized System for SAP HANA, following a set of SAP HANA TDI configuration rules. The difference is that an SAP HANA TDI-ready Vblock System can have additional servers and storage to support other workloads, such as non-SAP HANA databases, SAP application servers, and other non-SAP workloads.

SAP HANA TDI allows use of either a new or an existing Vblock System for SAP HANA. Organizations can leverage existing or new EMC VMAX or EMC VNX storage arrays for more flexible storage deployment. Storage can be used for SAP HANA and other non-HANA persistence, for disaster tolerance, or for other production and non-production use cases.

When using an existing Vblock System, organizations can add SAP HANA-certified Cisco certified servers along with additional disk storage, following EMC guidelines to deliver the required infrastructure for SAP HANA. New or existing Cisco UCS fabrics can be deployed in a number of flexible topologies. Only SAP HANA-certified Cisco certified blades can be used.

Choosing VCE Vblock Systems provides access to a solution that assists with system management through support or extended support offerings.

Support model

Organizations can rely upon SAP and VCE to jointly provide support for the SAP HANA TDI-ready Vblock System and corresponding SAP HANA platform. SAP provides standard support focused upon both HANA platform components and the dependent operating system configurations. VCE provides standard support focused on the Vblock System and all components, according to the corresponding Release Certification Matrix. Our support staff is expertly trained in all aspects of Vblock Systems, and we are committed to helping protect your investment

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VCE Professional Services

All VCE™ Professional Services leverage the combined expertise of ecosystem technology experts in networking, compute, information management, virtualization, and cloud computing.

Since SAP HANA TDI uses a standard Vblock System, the standard VCE deployment and implementation services for the platform are required. These include Vframework, where applicable, or hardware expansion services if the hardware for SAP HANA TDI is added as an expansion to an existing Vblock System. This provides the logical and physical configuration of the hardware so it is ready for installation of the Linux and SAP HANA software.

In addition, VCE Professional Services can help with:

SUSE or Red Hat Linux installation

VMware vSphere installation, if the nodes are to be virtualized

Running the SAP hardware configuration check tool (hwcct)

SAP HANA software installation

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The cost of this service depends on:

Number of blade servers used for SAP HANA

Number of blade servers to be virtualized and number to remain physical

Number of disk arrays to be used, VNX or VMAX

Number of SAP HANA database instances that need to be created

Whether disaster tolerance is required, and whether it uses system replication or storage replication

If disaster tolerance is required, whether the secondary Vblock System is used to run other SAP HANA instances (for example, non-production HANA instances)

Mixed workloads in SAP HANA TDI environments

A key benefit of SAP HANA TDI on Vblock Systems is that it allows flexible mixed-workloads to run alongside the SAP HANA deployment.

When deploying SAP HANA software on a Vblock System using TDI there are potentially three types of workload within the Vblock System:

Production SAP HANA databases

Non-production SAP HANA databases (test, development, sandbox, and so forth)

Other SAP and non-SAP workloads (SAP application servers, other SAP databases, other non-SAP workloads)

To ensure maximum isolation of workloads, VCE recommends the following:

Use a separate Cisco UCS 5108 chassis for SAP HANA production, SAP HANA non-production, and other workloads

For EMC VNX storage, only half the maximum number of production SAP HANA nodes can be supported in a mixed workload environment

For EMC VMAX storage, use separate VMAX engines for SAP HANA production, SAP HANA non-production and other workloads

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Data center replication for disaster tolerance

Data center replication allows maintaining operations despite a disaster that leads to the loss of a data center. SAP support two types of data center replication:

SAP HANA System Replication – this is a function of the SAP HANA software and supports synchronous and asynchronous replication with an active or passive standby

SAP HANA Storage Replication – this uses underlying storage replication methods, such as SRDF

There are no specific hardware requirements or certifications needed for SAP HANA System Replication. If the data tolerance system is also used for non-production (DEV, QAS, and so forth), add additional storage following the same rules as for primary storage.

For SAP HANA Storage Replication, EMC has tested both SRDF and RecoverPoint with VMAX storage and published the following documents:

Business Continuity Best Practices for SAP HANA Tailored Data Center Integration with EMC Symmetrix VMAX

SAP HANA TDI with VMAX and RecoverPoint

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Design considerations

A typical SAP HANA TDI project lifecycle involves:

Determining hardware and software requirements

Registration

Sizing

Implementation

SAP HANA TDI hardware and software requirements

Server

Only servers that are validated or certified are supported. The SAP Product Availability Matrix lists the SAP HANA validated appliances up to Westmere processors. Starting with Ivybridge processors, the SAP Certified Appliance Hardware for SAP HANA lists the SAP HANA certified appliances.

When connecting a certified appliance server to shared enterprise storage in an SAP HANA TDI configuration, keep the following in mind:

There is no requirement to include any local disks or flash cards that were used as part of the certification.

Additional Fibre Channel adapters can be added for a boot from a storage-area network.

Storage

All storage devices must have successfully passed the hardware certification for SAP HANA. For more information, see the SAP Certified Enterprise Storage Hardware for SAP HANA.

Note: Vblock Systems that use EMC VNX5300, VNX5500, VNX5700, or VNX7500 storage arrays are not eligible for SAP HANA TDI.

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Software

The following combination of software has been tested and verified as working with SAP HANA TDI:

Cisco UCS Manager 2.1

VMware ESXi 5.5

VMware vCenter Server 5.5

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP3 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5

SAP HANA 1.0 SPS07 or later for SUSE Linux; SAP HANA 1.0 SPS08 or later for Red Hat Enterprise Linux

VCE strongly advises that you do not use earlier releases of these products.

Later releases are useable as long as the combinations are reflected in the Cisco UCS HW and SW Interoperability Matrix and the VMware Compatibility Guide.

Hardware

SAP defines the main parameters for an SAP HANA solution as follows:

Intel Xeon processor E7-4870 CPU and up to 128 GB per CPU socket maximum, or Intel Xeon processor E7-4890 v2 CPU and up to 256 GB per CPU socket maximum

– The SAP HANA installer checks the CPU model and stops installation if the wrong CPU is installed

10 Gigabit Ethernet or 8-Gbps Fibre Channel redundant storage connectivity

10 Gigabit Ethernet redundant connectivity between SAP HANA nodes

1 and 10 Gigabit Ethernet redundant uplink to applications and users

Registration considerations

Registration with SAP is required to use the network switches inside a Vblock System for SAP HANA network traffic as well as other application traffic. Contact SAP to request permission and register. Registration is not required if using shared storage only.

Additionally, SAP permission is required to run more than one virtual machine per host on production with SAP HANA. Open an SAP support message to initiate this request.

For additional information, refer to SAP HANA Tailored Data Center Integration (TDI).

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Sizing considerations

SAP provides a range of tools and guidelines for sizing SAP HANA databases. Sizing considerations are the same for both tailored data center integration and the certified appliance hardware. Sizing helps determine:

Total memory required for the database and to provide runtime space

Whether the database can scale out or must scale up

The number of blades needed in a scale out solution, depending on the memory per blade

RAM needed for the blades

Required storage capacity

Sizing influences the choice of Vblock System. The Vblock System 300 family with EMC VNX storage offers a lower-entry cost but offers less scalability, while the Vblock System 700 family has a higher entry cost but offers increased scalability as additional storage engines can be added to handle more SAP HANA server nodes. For example, an EMC VNX 5400 can cater up to 10 SAP HANA hosts while an EMC VMAX can cater up to 12 hosts per engine.

Sizing is a complex topic. VCE maintains a staff of SAP sizing experts who can assist organizations with this process.

Server sizing

If installing virtual SAP HANA, do not over-commit resources when creating virtual machines on VMware ESX hosts. This means that all virtual machines on a single host must not be configured with more virtual memory, RAM, or CPUs than what physical memory and CPUs exist. Also, be sure to consider that the hypervisor consumes a certain small amount of RAM.

Network sizing

For SAP HANA TDI, the standard networking within Vblock Systems is sufficient:

Unified or segregated networking

Cisco UCS 2204XP or 2208XP Fabric Extender each with 4 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet interfaces to the Fabric Interconnect

Cisco UCS 6248UP or 6296UP Fabric Interconnect

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Storage sizing

Each SAP HANA node has a database log volume, database data volume, root volume, local SAP volume, and shared SAP volume. The storage needs to deliver enough performance for SAP HANA. This is why certain rules apply to the choice of disk drives and RAID configuration cabling and a certain amount of disks are needed. This might result in more storage capacity than needed, even if the disk space is not needed. The number of drives is important to ensure adequate storage performance.

For more information on these rules, refer to the following documents:

Vblock System 700 family rules in the EMC VMAX Configuration Recommendations for SAP HANA TDI white paper

Vblock System 300 family rules in the EMC VNX Configuration Recommendations for SAP HANA TDI white paper

Virtual SAP HANA sizing

SAP HANA virtualized with VMware vSphere is sized the same as non-virtualized SAP, with the following exceptions:

Maximum virtual machine size

– VMware supports SAP HANA databases in scale up mode, up to the maximum size of a virtual machine. For example, on VMware vSphere 5.5, this is 64 virtual CPUs and 1 TB virtual memory.

– VMware states that the virtualization overhead for SAP HANA is less than 12% (SAP HANA on VMware vSphere 5.5 for Production Environments).

Virtual CPU to physical CPU mappings

– Intel processors use hyper threading, which increases performance.

– VMware recommends enabling hyper threading when running virtual SAP HANA. This doubles the effective number of physical CPUs, meaning more virtual CPUs can be allocated to use all available resources.

Memory overhead

– Virtual machines have full access to and use the amount of memory assigned to a virtual machine when created. Memory is used by the VMware ESXi hypervisor and virtual machine memory overhead. The host must have an amount of unassigned memory for the hypervisor RAM.

– For 512 GB RAM, the dynamic memory overhead is typically around 2 GB. For more information, refer to SAP HANA TDI on Cisco UCS and VMware vSphere.

SAP HANA databases are sized the same way for physical and virtual environments.

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Implementation considerations The following diagram provides an overview of the implementation steps:

This section provides Vblock System-specific implementation information.

Setting up the SAP HANA landscape

Storage considerations

The storage on SAP HANA TDI systems and TDI-ready Vblock Systems must meet specific requirements. The storage used must be listed in one of the following documents:

SAP Product Availability Matrix (PAM), which lists all validated appliances

SAP Certified Appliance Hardware for SAP HANA, which lists all certified appliances

Listing of certified SAP HANA TDI storage, located at SAP Certified Enterprise Storage Hardware for SAP HANA.

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Special configuration requirements for EMC VNX storage are listed in the EMC VNX Configuration Recommendations for SAP HANA TDI white paper. Special configuration requirements for EMC VMAX storage are listed in the EMC VMAX Configuration Recommendations for SAP HANA TDI white paper.

Once storage is set up, check its performance. The same test tool is used to validate both SAP HANA TDI and the SAP HANA certified appliance, with slightly different KPIs. SAP Note 1943937 provides documentation on how to download the latest version of the test tool and run the tests.

Compute considerations

The BIOS settings are the same for both virtual and physical installations of SAP HANA. For more information, refer to SAP HANA TDI on Cisco UCS and VMware vSphere.

Networking considerations

An SAP HANA data center deployment can range from a database running on a single host to a complex distributed system with multiple hosts located at a primary site and one or more secondary sites and supporting a distributed multi-terabyte database with full high availability and disaster recovery.

SAP HANA has different types of network communication channels to support the various SAP HANA scenarios and setups, including client zone, internal zone, and storage zone.

Before installing SAP HANA, use the hwcct tool to check the networking component to ensure the hardware and the configuration are operating properly. In order to get the required performance, all network communication must allow for jumbo frames (network packets with a size of 9000 bytes).

Fully redundant switches and routers are recommended and are included as standard in Vblock Systems.

Virtualization considerations

SAP HANA can be installed as an SAP HANA TDI project on VMware for test and production use. However, many restrictions apply when running SAP HANA on VMware for production use (see SAP Note 1788665 – SAP HANA Support for VMware Virtualized Environments for non-production use and SAP Note 1995460 - Single SAP HANA VM on VMware vSphere in production for production use of SAP HANA on VMware).

The VMware ESXi host provides the platform on which virtual machines run. The Cisco service profile contains the hardware configuration in a Cisco UCS environment. Use service profile templates or VMware vSphere auto deploy to ease the VMware ESXi deployment process. For more information, refer to Implementing VMware vSphere 5 Auto Deploy on the Cisco Unified Computing System.

For each vSwitch, it is recommended that two uplink interfaces with MTU 9000 as the trunk be configured. The VLAN assignment takes place in the port group configuration of the vSwitch.

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Validating the landscape

The SAP hwcct tool is used to verify that all is set up correctly and delivering the required performance. This tool is described in SAP Note 1943937 - Hardware Configuration Check Tool - Central Note. It is available independently of SAP HANA and contains tests for the SAP HANA landscape, file system, and network.

Installing the hwcct tool takes about one hour. Running the long test in a 3+1 landscape (three workers and one standby) takes five to ten hours. In a larger environment, it is best to schedule it to run over a weekend.

Installing SAP HANA

Once the landscape is validated, SAP HANA can be installed. An SAP-certified SAP HANA Installation Technology Specialist must supervise the installation. VCE Professional Services can help with this process.

The SAP HANA Server Installation and Update Guide describes the SAP HANA database server installation. When following it, be aware that VCE has tested all SAP HANA failover mechanisms using the Storage Connector API.

Post-production maintenance and support

Supporting an SAP HANA environment requires management of the following components:

Firmware patches

Operating system patches

SAP HANA platform component patches

Peripheral component patches

Choosing Vblock Systems for an SAP HANA TDI solution provides access to the VCE Release Certification Matrix and VCE seamless support. The Release Certification Matrix (RCM) provides a fully tested firmware and software stack including VMware vSphere for virtualized servers and up to the firmware for physical servers. The RCM is regularly updated and provides an upgrade guide to help with the upgrade or VCE can perform the upgrade as a chargeable service.

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Conclusion

SAP HANA software can be deployed on SAP certified appliance hardware or installed through SAP HANA TDI. Organizations can choose between procuring a dedicated SAP HANA certified appliance and tailoring the SAP HANA installation to their data center. While the SAP HANA certified appliance provides stability and predictability, SAP HANA TDI offers more flexibility as it allows a selection of hardware that integrates it into existing processes, instead of having to adapt processes to fit with the appliance hardware.

Both VNX-based Vblock 300 family and VMAX-based Vblock 700 family systems provide a pre-engineered, pre-validated, and pre-tested platform on which to run SAP HANA. This platform comprises the storage, networking, compute, and optionally, the virtualization layer. It is supported as a single product, meaning there is no need to worry if the support issue was caused by a networking, storage or compute component. The platform provides a stable and reliable base for an SAP HANA installation. With SAP HANA TDI, organizations can consolidate SAP HANA workloads alongside both SAP and non-SAP workloads on the Vblock Systems shared infrastructure.

Virtual SAP HANA adds to the benefits of SAP HANA TDI, making it easier to upgrade or maintain hardware, and allowing the use of monitoring software.

For fastest performance, choose bare-metal physical hardware. For continuous operations without any downtime, virtualized SAP HANA allows SAP HANA to migrate from one server to another while keeping it running, thus freeing the hardware for maintenance or updating.

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Additional information

Cisco

Cisco UCS HW and SW Interoperability Matrix

Implementing VMware vSphere 5 Auto Deploy on the Cisco Unified Computing System

EMC

Business Continuity Best Practices for SAP HANA Tailored Data Center Integration with EMC Symmetrix VMAX

SAP HANA TDI with VMAX and RecoverPoint

EMC VMAX Configuration Recommendations for SAP HANA TDI white paper

EMC VNX Configuration Recommendations for SAP HANA TDI white paper

SAP

SAP Product Availability Matrix

SAP Certified Appliance Hardware for SAP HANA

SAP Certified Enterprise Storage Hardware for SAP HANA

SAP HANA Tailored Data Center Integration (TDI)

SAP HANA TDI on Cisco UCS and VMware vSphere

SAP HANA Server Installation and Update Guide

SAP help portal

References requiring a SAP login and password

SAP Note 1788665 – SAP HANA Support for VMware Virtualized Environments

SAP Note 1995460 - Single SAP HANA VM on VMware vSphere in production

SAP Note 1943937 - Hardware Configuration Check Tool - Central Note

VMware

VMware Compatibility Guide

SAP HANA on VMware vSphere 5.5 for Production Environments

www.vce.com

About VCE

VCE, formed by Cisco and EMC with investments from VMware and Intel, accelerates the adoption of converged infrastructure and cloud-based computing models that dramatically reduce the cost of IT while improving time to market for our customers. VCE, through Vblock Systems, delivers the industry's only fully integrated and fully virtualized cloud infrastructure system. VCE solutions are available through an extensive partner network, and cover horizontal applications, vertical industry offerings, and application development environments, allowing customers to focus on business innovation instead of integrating, validating, and managing IT infrastructure.

For more information, go to www.vce.com.

© 2014 VCE Company, LLC. All rights reserved. VCE, Vblock, VCE Vision, and the VCE logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of VCE Company, LLC. and/or its affiliates in the United States or other countries. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.